#Both of the ''quotes'' are made up but I've seen both but phrased differently

[kjzx]

Ok trans people who say that the so called "transphobia" leads to the endangerment of their lives are, uh, ""valid"" or whatever it is that the youths say nowadays, but when are we going to talk about all the feminist biological females that die from hammer car explosions every year.

Like yeah sometimes women say things out of fear for the young girls worldwide, but you cannot convince me that a random "terf" (which is a slur jsyk) saying that "trans identified females tend to always regret brutalizing their bodies and that manipulating young girls should be a government regulated offense" worse than transgenders saying things like "if youre a terf you should explide severly if youre a transphobe I'll stab you like forreal". Sure let's all ignore what women were being treated like for centuries.

[daceytheshebear]

My Oak Leaf Dress post is getting some traction again years after it was first posted, and it got me wondering if tumblr might be more fertile groud to talk about some Arya Stark-centered analysis of mine I feel never got the attention it deserved in the westeros.org forum?

Okay, have you noticed that Arya's five chapters in AGOT have very very strong parallels to Arya’s five chapters in Feast/Dance? I've cataloged them and it blows my mind that more people aren't dissecting it. If we take into consideration that the AFFC and ADWD were supposed to one book, Arya has exactly the same amount of chapters as she had in book one, which is much less than she had in ACOK or ASOS. A pity in my opinion, as I love to read her, but I believe this is not a coincidence on Martin’s part as there seem to be several parallels between what Arya experiences in the first book and the last two. I’ll compare:

AGOT Arya I to AFFC Arya I 

AGOT Arya II  to AFFC Arya II

AGOT Arya III to AFFC Cat of the Canals

AGOT Arya IV to ADWD The Blind Girl

AGOT Arya V to ADWD The Ugly Little Girl

So, AGOT Arya I / AFFC Arya I: Both take place in a different setting from the other four chapters (Winterfell vs. Kings Landing for AGOT, the ship The Titan's Daughter vs. the city of Braavos in AFFC and ADWD). In both we have Arya directly interacting with two siblings, one who is two years older than her and whose place she would like to be able to occupy (Sansa with all her ladylike abilities, Denyo who is a cabin boy) and another who is older and more guarded and with whom she has important conversations about the ways of the world (Jon Snow and the talk about bastards and girls and Yorko and all the exposition about Bravosi culture). Quotes about Sansa and Denyo:

It wasn't fair. Sansa had everything. Sansa was two years older; maybe by the time Arya had been born, there had been nothing left. Often it felt that way. Sansa could sew and dance and sing. She wrote poetry. She knew how to dress. She played the high harp and the bells. Worse, she was beautiful. Sansa had gotten their mother's fine high cheekbones and the thick auburn hair of the Tullys. Arya took after their lord father.

And

Denyo had taken her up to the crow's nest once, and she hadn't been afraid at all, though the deck had seemed a tiny thing below her. I can do sums too, and keep a cabin neat. But the galleas had no need of a second boy.

In both chapters we have adults who are not really happy to be in charge of Arya, who are associated with the color grey, and who frown at Arya with similar phrasing (septa Mordane and Tradesman-Captain Ternesio Terys). I'll give you the quotes:

Septa Mordane raised her eyes. She had a bony face, sharp eyes, and a thin lipless mouth made for frowning. It was frowning now. "What are you talking about, children?"

And

Arya turned to find Denyo's father looming over them in his long captain's coat of purple wool. Tradesman-Captain Ternesio Terys wore no whiskers and kept his grey hair cut short and neat, framing his square, windburnt face. On the crossing she had oft seen him jesting with his crew, but when he frowned men ran from him as if before a storm. He was frowning now. "Our voyage is at an end," he told Arya.

In one of the chapters Arya is said to be “too skinny to hold a sword” and in the other she is “too small to man an oar”. Both chapters end with Arya entering rooms where two authority figures await for her (septa Mordane and Catelyn in her room AGOT, the kindly man and the waif inside the House of Black and White in AFFC).

AGOT Arya II  / AFFC Arya II: In both chapters a long time has elapsed between Arya I and Arya II. In both chapters Arya feels very isolated from people around her (in AGOT she is mourning Mycah, angry at her father’s men who let the boy be murdered and sad that even Sansa “wouldn’t talk to her unless their father made her”, in AFFC Arya takes the other servants of the HoBaW for mutes until she hears them praying, they never talk to her and Umma, who does talk, speaks in a language she can’t understand.

In both chapters we have vivid descriptions of rich food Arya eats, which is very rare in her story because she is underfed most of the time. In both chapters Needle is discovered (in AGOT Ned sees the sword, in AFFC the waif catches Arya training).

In both chapters she has a very important conversation about lies (Arya tells her father Sansa lied about not knowing what happened at the Trident, and Ned says to her:  "We all lie" and later says that some lies are “not without honor”, meanwhile the kindly man says to Arya “All men lie when they are afraid. Some tell many lies, some but a few. Some have only one great lie they tell so often that they almost come to believe it”).

In both chapters Arya promises to obey:

“This willfulness of yours, the running off, the angry words, the disobedience… at home, these were only the summer games of a child. Here and now, with winter soon upon us, that is a different matter. It is time to begin growing up." "I will," Arya vowed. She had never loved him so much as she did in that instant. "I can be strong too. I can be as strong as Robb."

In AFFC the kindly man tells Arya

“Remain if you will, but know that we shall require your obedience. At all times and in all things. If you cannot obey, you must depart." "I can obey." [...] “It takes uncommon strength of body and spirit, and a heart both hard and strong [to be a faceless man]" I have a hole where my heart should beand nowhere else to go. "I'm strong. As strong as you. I'm hard."

In Both chapters Arya is said to be beautiful (a word that is not used to describe her in any other occasion). In both words Arya explicitly refuses feminine roles (in AGOT she tells Ned she doesn’t want to be a lady, in AFFC she thinks she wanted none of the placements the kindly man offers her, with courtesans where she would “sleep on rose petals and wear silken skirts that rustle when [she] walks” or “marriage and children”).

In both chapters Arya uses rocks to save a part of herself: in AGOT she recounts to Ned how she had to throw stones at Nymeria for her to stop following and be saved from the Lannister men who would execute her (we hope Arya will reunite with Nymeria again), and in AFFC she hides Needle behind a loose stone step to keep it safe for later (we hope she will retrieve it at some point).

Another plot-point that repeats between the two chapters is the introduction of a teacher. Arya II in AGOT opens in a dinner scene in the Small Hall ends with the introduction of Syrio Forel in the same Small Hall, where Arya begins to learn water dancing. Syrio says “now we dance”. Arya II in AFFC starts with Arya reciting her list, and ends after the Waif becomes Arya’s teacher on the braavosi language and the lying game (she actively compares what she is learning now with the lessons she once had from Syrio) and then Arya finally leaves the temple, reciting her list like in the beginning (so both chapters start and finish “in the same place”) and saying she is “so happy she could dance”.

AGOT Arya III / AFFC Cat of the Canals: Okay so in AGOT Arya II, Arya assumes a “fake identity” for the first time ever! Tommen and Myrcella mistake her for a peasant boy, and she acts the part. In her third chapter in AFFC this is taken up to the next level and this is the first time her chapter title changes when she takes  the identity of Cat. Cats! Of course, Arya II in AGOT is that one chapter that is all about cats, she talks about pursuing them and she finally kisses Balerion. She then becomes Cat in her third chapter in AFFC, and reminisces about chasing cats in the Red Keep in that chapter!

There is a sense of expanding horizons in both these chapters. Arya leaves the Red Keep for the first time in AGOT Arya III, and walks back from the Blackwater all the way to the castle. In her third AFFC chapter, Arya is exploring the city of Braavos after having finally been allowed out of the temple. She is also very cheeky in both these chapters! Arya interacting with the guards of the Red Keep is hilarious, and very similar to how she acts when being her Cat persona.

Nightmares. Arya experiences vivid, terrible nightmares in both these third chapters (and in her third chapter in ASOS). In AGOT she hears her father’s voice becoming fainter and fainter in her dreams, which some have interpreted as foreshadowing for Ned’s death and as a sign that Arya may have precognitive abilities. In AFFC it’s her mother she hears screaming. Both these chapters also explore and detail the place Arya inhabits. In AGOT Arya III the Red Keep is heavily featured, and it’s described as an “endless stone maze”. In AFFC Cat takes us all around Braavos, which of course is a “crooked city” with all its buildings made out of stone.

Daenerys is mentioned!! Illyrio and Varys discuss “the princess with child” in AGOT Arya III, and tales of “dragons hatching” reach Cat in AFFC. Daenerys isn’t mentioned in any other Arya chapters.

Retelling overheard stories features heavily in both chapters. Arya tries to convey to Ned what she overheard and is casually dismissed. In Cat of the Canals, Arya is learning to actively overhear conversations and gather information and retells them to the kindly man with caution.

Bathing is also present in both chapters. Arya usually doesn’t really enjoy bathing in ACOK and ASOS, but both in AGOT Arya III and in Cat of the Canals, on the other hands, we witness Arya disrobing and cleaning her body of her own volition, getting rid of bad smells in almost ritualized cleansing. Compare the quotes from AGOT, Arya III:

She found herself standing at the mouth of a sewer where it emptied into the river. She stank so badly that she stripped right there, dropping her soiled clothing on the riverbank as she dove into the deep black waters. She swam until she felt clean, and crawled out shivering.

and AFFC, Cat of the Canals:

Down in the vaults, she untied Cat's threadbare cloak, pulled Cat's fishy brown tunic over her head, kicked off Cat's salt-stained boots, climbed out of Cat's smallclothes, and bathed in lemonwater to wash away the very smell of Cat of the Canals. When she emerged, soaped and scrubbed pink with her brown hair plastered to her cheeks, Cat was gone.

One of the most important parallels in this set of chapters regards the Night’s Watch. It is in Arya III AGOT that Arya for the first ever interacts with a black brother, when she meets Yoren. Although Arya isn’t aware of it, it was Yoren’s death that made it possible for Dareon leave Eastwatch and go to Braavos in the first place, as the singer was assigned by Jon Snow to take up the role of recruiter that used to be Yoren’s. Yoren had other roles as well, including that of Arya’s protector. The first encounter she has with each of the two black brothers show us just how much Arya has changed. She thinks of Yoren:

He was stooped and ugly, with an unkempt beard and unwashed clothes. [...] The old man in his smelly black clothes was looking at her oddly, but Arya could not seem to stop talking.

While Arya can’t stop herself from rambling to Yoren, she has learned not to share all of her thoughts by the time she meets Dareon. This is the quote:

He is fair of face and foul of heart, thought Arya, but she did not say it

Also, in both this chapters she goes blind! “She was blind.” That sentence shows up exactly like that, word for word, in both chapters. Of course in AFFC she actually becomes blind, while in AGOT she is only in a really really dark room. But still. The wording! And structurally speaking, while the last pair of chapters starts and finish “in the same place”, now both of these chapters start with a more light-hearted tone to then plunge into really dark territory, literally and metaphorically, as Arya hears the threats to her family whispered in the dark in AGOT and kills Dareon to then goes blind in AFFC.

AGOT Arya IV / ADWD The Blind Girl:

Considering AFFC and ADWD as one long long book, Blind Girl is Arya’s fourth chapter. Arya’s fourth chapter in AGOT is the one in which she gets that all-important lesson when Syrio Forel tells her to “look with her eyes”. He also touches upon her other senses though:

“The heart lies and the head plays tricks with us, but the eyes see true. Look with your eyes. Hear with your ears. Taste with your mouth. Smell with your nose. Feel with your skin. Then comes the thinking, afterward, and in that way knowing the truth." 

Syrio says all that! And while Arya looks with her eyes in several moments of the story and this true seeing literally saves her life more than once, she never does explore her other senses that much… until she goes blind in ADWD. In The Blind Girl we get:

Hear, smell, taste, feel, she reminded herself. There are many ways to know the world for those who cannot see. [...] "You have five senses, learn to use the other four, you will have fewer cuts and scrapes and scabs"

Also, both chapters feature scenes where Arya in engaged in training with someone to improve her martial skills. While she practiced her needlework on her own all throughout ASOS, this is the first time she does so with someone else since Syrio in AGOT Arya IV! The way the two fights are described is incredibly similar, with the descriptions of rights and lefts and right and lefts, and the clacking sound of wood, her opponent “cheating” (coming from the “wrong” side) and there is a “sudden stinging” cut which catches her by surprise. It’s very very similar, go reread it if you don't believe me.

Another really important parallel regards skinchanging: in Arya’s fourth chapter in AGOT, Arya is helpless after witnessing the horrors that took place at the Tower of the Hand. The narration tells us “she was only a little girl with a wooden stick, alone and afraid” (the wooden stick here is her practice sword). And than, to escape, she pretends she is chasing cats… “except she was the cat now”. I kid you not, this is the exact wording used. She is the cat now, and that is what empowers her to keep going. In ADWD, when Arya is most definitely LITERALLY just a little blind girl with a wooden stick, she actually skinchanges into a cat for the first time, and that is what finally empowers her against her mentor/abuser. She “becomes a cat” in both chapters

Also, it is in The Blind Girl chapter that we learn that “the Sealord is dying”, which is comparable (both from doylist’s and watsonian perspectives) to Robert Baratheon dying, exactly what happens around Arya IV. Now a bit of a stretch: in AFFC "The Merling Queen has chosen a new Mermaid to take the place of the one that drowned. She is the daughter of a Prestayn serving maid, thirteen and penniless, but lovely." I propose the new mermaid might stand in for Jeyne Poole. While the new Mermaid is the daughter of a Prestayn’s serving maid, and we know Prestayn be a noble house, Jayne is the daughter of the Stark’s steward. Petyr Baelish, who is connected with the braavosi galley The Merling King, takes charge of Jayne, who is then a twelve year-old.The “Mermaids” are actually described to be “young maidens in the blush of their first flowering who hold [the Merling Queen’s] train and do her hair”. Of course, same as the Mermaids are being trained to become courtesans, Jeyne will be trained in a brothel to become Ramsay’s bride.

AGOT Arya V / ADWD The Ugly Little Girl: Okay, so Arya V makes me sad from the very first line to the very last. The situation is hopeless, Arya is helpless. King’s Landing is unwelcoming and claustrophobic, the people range from rude to downright mean. The people of the city likely look at her with suspicious eyes, and as much as Arya has told us she loved nothing more than to be underfoot and mingle with the common people of Winterfell, the experience in King’s Landing is traumatizing, and it ends with her father beheaded. Oh joy. In A Dance with Dragons the waif describes how people will react to the ugly little girl Arya will become after she changes her face for the first time:

"Women will look away when they see you. Children will stare and point. Strong men will pity you, and some may shed a tear."

For reasons very different than a destroyed face, this sounds very similar to what Arya experiences in King’s Landing. I find the overall tone of The Ugly Little Girl chapter to be rather analogous to that of Arya V. Arya is in the HoBaW because is certain she has nowhere else to go. Life is easier now than when she was blind, but she doesn’t feel very comfortable – and yet goes through with all that is asked of her. Though not helpless anymore, she is more hopeless than ever before. She experiences physical pain and nightmares; she is questioned and constantly told she doesn’t have what it takes to be in the only place that has been a steady roof over her head in years.

Before undergoing her magical transformation in ADWD, Arya is given a tart drink. This is the quote:

She drank it down at once. It was very tart, like biting into a lemon. A thousand years ago, she had known a girl who loved lemon cakes. No, that was not me, that was only Arya.

In AGOT Arya V, we get this:

Arya would have given anything for a cup of milk and a lemon cake,

In fact, lemons come up very scarcely in Arya’s whole story. She only thinks about the fruit in her inner monologues in Arya V and The Ugly Little Girl, both times prompted from external stimuli (there is the lemon tart she could not steal moments before she wishes for the lemon cake in AGOT, and the magical tart drink she is given in The Ugly Little Girl). The word comes up a handful of times in A Storm of Swords while Arya is in the company of Lem Lemoncloak, but the fruit not so much.

Another parallel between this pair of chapters comes in the form of Arya’s target, the binder salesman. The man Arya targets for the faceless men in ADWD is described in a way that calls back to Petyr Baelish (pointed beard, thin lips) and Yoren (a hard face, mean eyes, crooked shoulders), both of which Arya encounters in her fifth chapter in AGOT.

Eddard Starks beheading is a moment full of similarities to Arya’s “defacing” by the kindly man. This is from AGOT Arya V:

The old man shook her so hard her teeth rattled. "Shut your mouth and close your eyes, boy." Dimly, as if from far away, she heard a… a noise… a soft sighing sound, as if a million people had let out their breath at once.

and this is from ADWD The Ugly Little Girl:

"Sit," the priest commanded. She sat. "Now close your eyes, child." She closed her eyes. "This will hurt," he warned her, "but pain is the price of power. Do not move."

And of course what follows her closing her eyes in AGOT hurts much more deeply than having her forehead slashed. In A Game of Thrones, Arya opens her eyes to finally recognize Yoren. He then giver her Needle back, and drags her to a doorframe where he cuts her hair to give her a new identity, that of Arry. This is the quote from Arya V:

As the blade flashed toward her face, Arya threw herself backward, kicking wildly, wrenching her head from side to side, but he had her by the hair, so strong, she could feel her scalp tearing, and on her lips the salt taste of tears.

and this is the quote from The Ugly Little Girl:

She sat unmoving. The cut was quick, the blade sharp. By rights the metal should have been cold against her flesh, but it felt warm instead. She could feel the blood washing down her face, a rippling red curtain falling across her brow and cheeks and chin, and she understood why the priest had made her close her eyes. When it reached her lips the taste was salt and copper.

That's it! If you are interested in a more in-depth analysis check my original post from (five!!) years ago .

[robotlesbianjavert]

I've seen some theorise that Tomura decaying represents "the death of tomura shigaraki a being of hate and the false persona created by afo" which means that tenko shimura is free and can live again (considering the roles names and identities play in mha). What's your opinion on that?

hard disagree especially considering the story is now trying to sell us that "tenko" is also an afo construct, from his family struggles to his heroic hopes to even his fuckin birth lmao. i fall in line with what @codenamesazanka said about 'shigaraki' and 'tenko' as personas here, where despite afo's influence there is something real. it's weird to say that shigaraki is false because of afo's influence when what we learned is that tenko as a whole exists because of afo's influence. both of them have gotta be real or fake or nothin.

but i would have disagreed even without the 419 development. i never agreed with the interpretation of there being a clean break between tenko and tomura. shigaraki's frustrations and desires stem from what he experienced as a child, even with the amnesia; tomura's formed his own relationships and goals beyond afo; he straight up has just spent more of his lived life as tomura than he did as tenko. SHIGARAKI is the character that i first fell in love with, because he's enough of a full, charismatic, and engaging character on his own without being reduced to a crying child.

i'm also kind of so-so on whatever people might be saying about names and identities? i think that there is importance there, but it's not that going by one name or another indicates entirely discrete personas. i don't wanna do an in-depth thing about it, but i pulled a couple of quotes about the whole hero/codename thing to reference.

What future do you see for yourself? The name you choose will bring you ever close to cementing a certain image…because names are capable of reflecting one’s true character.

Aizawa, Chapter 45

the phrase "cementing a certain image" could be interpreted as trying to put up a false persona, but "names are capable of reflecting one's true character" messes with that, because it's the new hero names that are meant to represent that truth. more accurately, i'd say that hero names evoke an idealized self that the students are learning to embody. midoriya reclaims deku, tsuyu as cutesy froppy is meant to be approachable, shoto is trying to self-actualize as himself, bakugou wants to murder people with explosions, kirishima and iida are trying to live up to their personal heroes, etc etc.

at no point are the kids trying to be something that they aren't. they're working towards who they want to be.

if one wants to argue about different names symbolizing different selves/personas, the best example is probably all might/toshinori, who does literally do his hero work as a separate persona up until kamino. but most of his story afterwards is that learning that just because he no longer as one for all, the power that made him all might, doesn't mean he actually stops being a hero/all might. as badly demonstrated by him donning that dumb fucking mecha. in any case he more or less reconciles those parts of himself i guess.

in contrast, we have this more recent lore about codenames:

There basically used to be no difference between heroes and villains. One theory says…the alias stuff started when you’d have an anonymous enemy and needed to call them something. From there, some decided to adopt those very nicknames to hide their identities. Assuming another identity - like a new skin - was a matter of survival. At some point, they went all-in with code names, ripped straight from comic books. According to this theory, it all started with people announcing themselves by those aliases. That’s why the world’s turned into a comic book.

Shigaraki, Chapter 393

here we do have the claim that adopting a new name is similar to adopting a new identity, which lends itself to the idea that you're trying to escape an original/true self, or protect that self from harm. spinner, twice, and dabi are all in ways trying to reinvent themselves, to escape or separate from the things that hurt shuuichi, jin, and touya. mr compress it just stylish. that doesn't stop who they WERE being a part of who they ARE, though. there's also no way for them to go back to who they were, it's just part of them.

it's also really interesting that toga and shigaraki explicitly did not take on villain names (because shigaraki tomura isn't a villain name, because one, this is before he recovers his memories as tenko and two, literally just his name, that he lives every day with.), because they make no pretense about approaching villainy as anything but themselves. this is toga's whole deal, that she wants to live in the world as herself without compromise.

overall, i'd approach the idea of names + identities the same way i approach the running narrative thread about 'origins'. in a sense these origins represent a "truth" about the characters, but it's not that these origins are the only true thing about them. the origins act as a starting point, a reminder of what the characters value and what they want to do. it's grounding, not all encompassing.

anyways nah shigaraki was never anymore false that tenko is and that's that i guessssssssss no matter what. the story says.

[martianbugsbunny]

MartianBugsBunny Reviews: The Music of Wish

I'v been working on this for the past week or so and I have now seen the movie...eight times I think? Four on one Sunday and four on the next lmao

Let’s get the basics out of the way first! Overall, a lot of these songs were mediocre but probably would’ve been things I’d sing in the shower ad nauseam if it weren’t for one or two really horrible lines. That’s kind of the overall theme of the music from Wish, to be honest. I liked the music/tunes of most of these, though. I also noticed that the lyrics have this weird dichotomy of “let’s rhyme these things even if it doesn’t make sense” and “let’s just not care about the rhymes,” both of which were kind of off-putting to me.

I think the voices they got to sing this stuff were MEGA wasted. Ariana DeBose has the most heavenly voice; her higher register has a gorgeous sound. Chris Pine is better at singing than I would've expected. Both of them are good at those subtle shifts in pitch (I think it's called melisma? but don't quote me on that) that I can and will go nuts over. They deserved better material to work with. Now onto the specifics! I’m gonna rank each song out of ten (totally arbitrary lol) and ramble about why for a while. It's not too long, so if you have a little time on yours hands, read on and enjoy!

Welcome To Rosas 5/10 Not bad. It terms of tune, it has some decent flavor, but the lyrics are pretty forgettable. I think using a song to set up the concepts that they did was a good idea, like the first song in Encanto, but I just don't like it much. I think part of that is the informal tone??? like when Asha says "so like, we have this king" or "I'm totally kidding" or "oh hey, did I mention," that kinda gets on my nerves. and yes, I'm well aware that's a little hypocritical bc The Family Madrigal did some of the same things, but WTR isn't super strong to begin with so I instantly become more annoyed at the little details. Also, Asha's literally being a tour guide for the kingdom and that's not professional imo.

At All Costs …… I’m not scoring this one. I don’t know how to. I’m addicted to the chorus, that’s the first thing I’ll say; I watched Wish four times on the first day I watched it, and that was the first part I started singing along with. The harmonies get into my gut. But honestly, in terms of context, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The lyrics sound like they should be directed at a person, not inanimate objects, which takes me out of the moment when I’m watching the movie. Some parts are a little clumsy, but if I’m viewing it as a love song it’s stunning, and DeBose and Pine's voices are heavenly together. I will say that subjectively, it's my favorite song in the soundtrack, I fell for it so hard and fast. <3

This Wish 7/10 In terms of Disney “I Want” songs this is at the bottom of the rankings, let’s be real. I like the sound of it, especially the non-syllabic vocalizations at the end of the chorus, but a lot of the lyrics just do not hit. Now, I will say that I saw a lot of people ragging on “to have something more for us than this,” and that’s actually one of my favorite parts of the song. It captures that feeling of longing for more without knowing exactly what that means or how to phrase it out loud so neatly. On the other hand, I definitely agree with the critiques of “throwing caution to every warning sign,” that’s one of my least favorite lyrics in the whole movie.

You’re A Star 6/10 Oddly, this one was less horrible than I expected. It delivered absolutely nothing, don’t get me wrong. It tried to tackle the idea of people and stars being made out of the same stuff and basically living as different notes in the same symphony and failed spectacularly. The big question “have you ever wondered why you look up at the sky for answers?” was one of my favorite lyrics in the entire soundtrack and there was NO payoff. (Plus, if I mixed up “elegant” and “eloquent” in a multi-million dollar movie I would never be able to look myself in the face again.) The entire second half of the song was pure lyrical garbage. But I like the tune and the animals are pretty cute, and despite being relatively hollow I found myself enjoying this one.

This Is The Thanks I Get 7/10 I’ve already said this but I’m gonna repeat myself: tonally this song was all wrong. 0/10 for that if I’m being perfectly honest. Something more along the lines of Hellfire or Be Prepared would’ve hit a lot harder—more sinister, more in line with the descent-into-madness thing that was occurring in the plot, would’ve improved this section of the soundtrack SO MUCH. With that complaint out of the way, the song we got was fine. Some of the lines were either poorly-written or repetitive, but as a whole I kind of enjoy it and would definitely dance around amateurishly in my room to it. It’s just too silly.

Knowing What We Know Now 1/10 This was my least favorite song in the entire movie. I just hate it. The lyrics are so sloppy.

This Wish (Reprise) 7/10 Honestly I think I liked this part better than the original song. Asha starting by herself and gradually being joined by her friends and the entire city was incredibly moving, and I might go so far as to say that this was the most powerful moment of the movie. I also enjoyed the twists on the original lyrics, particularly “we’re past dipping our toes in, we know it’s do or die, it’s sink or swim.” That part just felt really well done.

[fictionadventurer]

My week-long foray into philosophy:

It started when I started watching a series of Youtube videos where Peter Kreeft outlines the history of philosophy. The ancient Greeks sound fascinating, and he actually made me want to read Augustine.

Then he just kind of said, "Aquinas managed to synthesize faith and reason" without really saying how, and by the time we got to Enlightenment philosophers, my head was spinning so much that I'll have to stop for a while.

I don't think actual serious study of philosophy is a good idea for me. I'm such an abstract thinker already that this makes me think too much, so I start questioning everything and start to doubt reality.

Even getting the barebones outlines of the Greek philosophers makes Lewis make so much more sense. I recognized several concepts in The Silver Chair, and it's going to be helpful when I get back to 'Til We Have Faces.

I read The Abolition of Man. I wanted to love it. I agree with the main premise. But his arguments were way too abstract, and he phrased them in ways that were easy to argue against. I've seen similar ideas expressed in ways that I find much more convincing. (I'll admit this may be a case of Seinfeld is Unfunny, where I've just experienced writers who were influenced by Lewis).

It was really weird that he decided to call traditional morality "the Tao" instead of "the Way" or something less Eastern. Maybe he was trying to get past an audience with anti-Christian bias?

Best part of The Abolition of Man was the appendix where he lists all the quotes from different cultures that uphold traditional morality. The story of the old Australian woman getting cared for by her tribe made me start to tear up.

The Privilege of Being a Woman was another case where I agreed with the main premise (females should be appreciated for their unique strengths) while having more than a few quibbles with other parts of the argument. She focused so much on the generalities of gender and didn't seem to account for differences in personality across genders. And there were weird double-standards/paradoxes in play where women are both weaker and need to be protected by men, but also a man's morality chain who needs to remind him of deeper moral truths. It gets weirder the more that I think about it.

[laughingcatwrites]

Hey, I don't want to interrupt first day of pride with depressing things, but I need my mutuals to be aware that I've been seeing an increase in suspicious gofundmes being shared. I want to share some of the ways I’ve been identifying suspicious* gofundmes.

OP's blog posts the same gofundme multiple times but claims it's for different people in those posts

OP either reblogs posts from or you have seen posts from other accounts with the same user picture and similar user names but different stories (for example, one blog states OP is trying to escape with their children and they have no other family left while the other blog states they want to stay in Gaza but help their siblings escape).

OP’s story does not match the story on the gofundme (for example, OP makes a tumblr post today about how their children are currently starving and suffering in Gaza but the gofundme they link to indicates that OP has already brought their family out of Gaza and is looking for schooling funds for “the foreign country” they are now in. ("The foreign country" is in quotes because I've actually seen this phrase used, which initially led to me digging deeper into the fundraisers.)

The gofundme is allegedly being created by a famous person for OP but isn't mentioned in that famous person's social media accounts.

The same pictures are used to identify different people or pictures of different people are used to identify the same person.

There are inconsistencies in the pictures (for example, a broken limb changes sides and the other limb is fine even though there are no signs of significant amounts of time passing, or the relative ages of alleged family members flip - both of these are easier to spot in pictures of children).

The same picture of a bombed house or tent is claimed by multiple gofundmes or blogs to be a picture of their own house.

OP makes an emotional appeal (generally about children dying) but doesn't share any facts about why they are requesting aid (e.g. my child has PTSD from this) or what their end goal is (e.g. I want to bring my family to Egypt so he doesn’t need to suffer any more).

OP has inconsistencies in their story that are designed to cause an emotional response but don’t line up with the facts. (An example I saw today was an OP using huge font to heavily imply their sibling's children were beheaded by Israeli soldiers only to state in normal font later that their sibling’s home was bombed and not everybody survived.)

Finally, the gofundme is made by somebody allegedly in Gaza, but it doesn't indicate how the person creating it will be actually receiving the funds. To understand why that's a huge red flag, read this: https://support.gofundme.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001972748-Countries-supported-on-GoFundMe

There are many people suffering right now and thousands of legitimate gofundmes as well as larger organizations to donate to, but there are also many scams. Please don't donate or reblog based on the initial emotional appeal, but instead check to make sure everything seems legitimate so you can be sure your and your followers' donations will actually make it to the people who need help.

*Note: some of these flags may just be because English isn't that person's first language. Something seeming suspicious doesn't necessarily mean it's a scam, just that it needs to be looked into more.

[doodle-pops]

Soft Moments

Reaction: Silmarillion x Reader

Part 1

A/N: I had this thought for quite a while now and wanted to include as many elves as possible. This is just my thoughts on what favourite soft moments I think the elves would enjoy with their s/o. I've seen many elves have soft moments with s/o but in fics, so this is my way of including more of them. Enjoy!

Cooking – the countertop was filled with all the different ingredients you both could have found after raiding the cabinets. Your laughter filled the atmosphere while he made some ridiculous joke while stirring the pot. You were chopping the finishing vegetables for a salad after you were getting started on deserts. Him sneaking up on you to plant kisses all over your face, you reprimand him because you could have cut him, “Hey, be careful. I wield a knife in my hands” “you should be careful since you’re the clumsy one” that shuts you up. While the deserts were baking and the rest of the food was bubbling away on the stove, the both of you were dancing to an imaginary song. Swaying from side to side, waiting for the food to finish. When it was done, you both platted your food, sitting to eat at the mini table in your kitchen, near the window which overlooked your garden.

Maedhros, Maglor, Caranthir, Fingon, Turgon, Finrod, Aegnor, Glorfindel, Galdor, Beleg

Reading – spending the day locked away in the library or your rooms surrounded by books. Wrapped up in each other’s embrace, citing poetry, quoting a love phrase or simply reading a story. It doesn’t matter. You both take turns reading to each other, listening intensively to the sound of your voices. Get caught not paying attention, all because their voice is alluring and soothing. Sometimes you spend the day sitting by the fireplace, curled up in a blanket, with a hot cup of tea, and him sitting next to you, listening to the story. Other times it's absolute silence. No one is speaking. Just reading. The soft, warm, radiant rays blessed the room with light. Illuminating every corner, making you appear angelic as you cite romantic poetry to them. This time, he's the one who gets caught not paying attention.

Feanor, Maedhros, Maglor, Curufin, Celebrimbor, Fingolfin, Turgon, Finarfin, Finrod, Angrod, Aegnor, Ecthelion

Dancing – whether it’s at a ball, festival, dinner, or just the both of you randomly dancing to a tuneless song, it’s a moment he cherishes. Swaying slowly, his hands on your waist, your arms around his neck, staring into each other’s eyes, sometimes your headrest on his chest. He feels as though he's falling in love with you all over again. Dipping their head, you lock lips for a sweet, yet delicate and gentle kiss. Your hands move upwards to run through his hair. It’s a touch of reassurance and a silent “I love you’ pulling away to rest your foreheads against each other, you’d both gaze lovingly into one another’s eyes. A moment where it’s just the both of you, safely wrapped and secured in each other’s arms. No one else matters. It’s just the two of you.

Feanor, Maedhros, Maglor, Caranthir, Amrod, Amras, Celebrimbor, Fingolfin, Fingon, Finarfin, Finrod, Angrod, Aegnor, Glorfindel, Galdor, Egalmoth, Ecthelion, Beleg

Cuddling - limbs intertwined, head pressed against his chest listening to the steady rise and fall of his heartbeat, the serene, calm wind flowing through the room. The soft breathing from you as he has fallen asleep. The gentle smile graced your face. Lifting your head properly to gaze at his features now that he was at rest. The crinkles that adorned his face, now disappeared, making him appear youthful as ever. Their lips were slightly apart as soft snores were emitted, his eyelids twitch as they dream. Raising your hand, you gently trace his features, smiling when he twitches at the light sensation. Shifting, his arms stay around you, taking you into the new position. You were able to now throw your legs around his waist properly, clinging to him like a child. All this time while you were at this, he was aware of your antics.

Maedhros, Celegorm, Amrod, Amras, Celebrimbor, Fingolfin, Fingon, Argon, Finrod, Aegnor, Glorfindel, Galdor, Egalmoth, Beleg

Taglist: @whenloveexists

Masterlist

[galacticlamps]

Re: your tags on that post about Jamie’s shirt in The Seeds of Death - who was the gay playwright?

The playwright was Joe Orton, probably best known for What the Butler Saw. Although he died (pretty horribly, if memory serves) in 1967, before that, he'd commented on seeing Frazer in Dr Who at least twice in his now-published diary. And I guess it should be common sense to assume that if someone high-profile like that mentioned you in the way that he did, and you already worked in the same industry too, someone in your life probably would've told you about it at some point - but personally, I learned that Frazer was aware of it through the DVD commentary for The Moonbase, although I should admit, that didn't clarify what he knew back when he was actually playing Jamie.

Toby Hadoke, who was doing the commentary, read out some of the second of Orton's entries that mentioned Frazer - which judging by the dates, he wrote after seeing an episode of the Faceless Ones - & you might've seen it floating around somewhere, because it's the kind of thing that reads as laughably ironic in modern fandom:

But it was Frazer himself who brought up the fact that Orton had wanted to cast him in his play Entertaining Mr. Sloane - and I could explain the show & let the part speak for itself, but I really don't have to, because Orton also talked about that in an earlier diary entry written while Underwater Menace was airing:

(just to avoid confusion - the character of Mr. Sloane is very much an adult, he's just a young adult who is constantly infantalized and sexualized by the brother/sister duo in the play)

And no, this entry wasn't actually quoted on the DVD, but I definitely wondered for a second if I was about to hear the words "someone you'd love to fuck silly" spoken on a Dr Who commentary. That phrase never made it onto the casting brief for Sloane either, but considering the actual script of the play, it's really a pretty apt description & not that much of a shock, so if you heard the playwright had singled you out for the role, you probably wouldn't have needed to see his diary to get the gist of the implications.

But again, I have to admit, I don't actually know if Frazer knew about this at the time/while he was on Doctor Who - the Willes in the entry was TV producer Peter Willes (they were discussing a televised production of the play) so Orton telling him about Frazer sounds like more of a real suggestion than just gossip with a friend, but I have no idea if he was ever actually offered the part. And funnily enough, Willes was also the head of serials at Yorkshire Television in the '70s, when they were producing Emmerdale Farm, which Frazer was on for several years - so it's definitely not out of the question that he found out about it then, after playing Jamie and after Orton had died too. But then again, who knows - Orton was a well-known and in-demand playwright who lived & worked in London both in theater & television, and in addition to being openly queer & controversial, he died young, suddenly, and brutally - so it's not hard to believe he might've been a subject for discussion among actors at the time, and since the Sloane idea could very well have been on the radar of some casting people in the industry, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Frazer had heard about it, even before Orton's diaries were published.

But that's obviously just speculation - when I said he considered it part of his job to be eyecandy, I was referring to a separate story I've heard Frazer repeat in a couple different interviews, about some conversation that took place while they were rehearsing Season 5. I believe he & Deborah Watling were laughing at Patrick Troughton having some trouble with memorizing his lines, and when he complained that his dialogue was always more complicated than theirs, Frazer said something to the effect of (I'm paraphrasing) 'but that's your job - Debbie's paid to get the dads out of the garden & in front of the television, I'm paid to keep the girls away from their knitting, and you're paid to say all the complicated lines' - so while famous queer playwrights of the 1960s might not've been the intended audience, that was evidently understood to be at least part of Jamie's appeal on the show, and it doesn't sound like it bothered him much.

[seventhrounder]

I went thru my folder with old hockey magazines I had saved from around 2011 to 2015 and came across this one and thought it could be a fun to make a post about now in hindsight.

This is Jääkiekko magazine from May 2012, they always have a section of "99 questions with ..." and in this issue they interviewed Teräväinen.

I’ve translated the questions I found interesting under the cut! It ended up being about half of the interview. (*) are my additions.

On the cover "seuraava superjokeri" means the next super joker, he played for Helsingin Jokerit so it's a word play from that. Under, on the blue print it says: "The 17-year-old forward will become a first round draft pick in the summer. The natural goal scorer can dominate in SM-Liiga as soon as next season."

In the 2nd photo the headline and lead paragraph goes:

"A post with dents* - A year ago Teuvo Teräväinen was known only within a small number of hockey insiders. Few passers-by recognize him now either but after a flashy rookie season the Jokerit sensation is on the radar of every NHL team and is a strong contender to become a first round draft pick. Next season with Jokerit the talented second line center will be one of the main talking points in the SM-Liiga."

(*references the net Teräväinen had in his backyard and into which he practiced his shooting)

3. You've been described as a magician, top scorer, wunderkind and a prodigy. What do you think of these descriptions?

TT: Heh, those are some descriptions yeah. What can I really say? Don't really wanna comment on them much.

4. How nervous are you about the Draft?

TT: I try not to be nervous as best as I can. In a way I don't have anything to be nervous about since I don't care which team picks me or at what number I go.

6. Which is stressing you more, English interviews or physical tests?

TT: Maybe both. Bench press (laughs) and English interviews can be tough.

12. How far along have you planned your career with, for example, your parents or your agent?

TT: Haven't really planned things with others but I've thought about them myself. I try to go step by step and not jump too far ahead.

14. How does it feel to be so young with all the star players in Jokerit?

TT: How to say it? I haven't felt like I was young but a part of the team instead. The team's been very good with me and they haven't been looking down at me like: "oh he's young". It's been fun to play in an experienced team.

15. Is there a generational gap between players?

TT: You can see the age difference, older players look older but we're all childish, at least with our topics.

17. What does a 17-year-old do in the sauna nights of the team?

TT: I actually haven't been in any yet. I've always been at national team's camps or something.

19. Did you get the number you wanted?

TT: I did, yeah. I could've taken #18 but Semir (Ben-Amor) has it. But i'm happy with #86, it's good.

23. What are your strengths as a player?

TT: Offensive play and with that playing with the puck, passing, IQ, power play and skill, just the usual skill - skill with hands.

24. And weaknesses?

TT: They are to do with defensive play, strength and physicality. Battles and such but I think I took a step forward last season. That's a good thing.

25. Have you ever been "pressed into a mold" or has your playing style gotten to develop naturally?

TT: As a kid the play was mostly offensive/attacking, I didn't have to think about playing defence. Up until 15 years old, I got to attack pretty freely. Playing defence became more important when I started to play in A-juniors a couple seasons ago.

26. On a scale from 1 to 10 how determined are you?

TT: Maybe 8, feels like an 8.

32. What kind of role are you planning to take with Jokerit next season?

TT: I think a pretty big one. I try to be a top player and not just take others' example but give others example myself too. So that someone in the team can take something out of the way I do things on the ice and off the ice.

35. If you could pick anyone, who would be your car driver?

TT: Nico Manelius for sure. He's been my driver this season. I've had others too, like Riku Hahl but he's not nearly at the same level. Nico’s clearly the best.

36. What are the most important qualifications to be a good driver?

TT: The car is obviously important. Hahl's car is totally awful, he takes a lot of heat for it from the guys too. I wouldn't dare driving with him. Manelius is a steady performer, never lets you down.

38. What sports did you play as a 10-year-old?

TT: Hockey and floorball, probably football (soccer) during the summers at the time too.

42. When did you decide to focus only on hockey?

TT: So when I stopped playing other sports? Three years ago, before that floorball was kind of a side thing, I played a couple of games in the regular season and playoffs.

45. Do you follow floorball or other sports? Go to games?

TT: I don't go to games but I like to watch floorball on TV, it's an interesting sport. Sometimes I watch football too but I don't follow it much. Feels like they never score there.

47. Have you ever played with a wooden stick?

TT: As a kid I did play with a wooden stick.

49. You won the hockey players' golf tournament last summer even though there were more experienced players too. Are you good with all stick games?

TT: Well, I've been pretty good in all of them. I've played golf for a long time and still play it.

50. How is your swing?

TT: Pretty bold, kind of a hockey swing. I don't really care where the ball goes - as long as it goes far.

52. What do you think of off-ice training?

TT: Let's just say it's more stupid than being on the ice but you still gotta do it to be better on the ice.

56. Which word describes your professional relationship (with his coach, Tomek Valtonen), tranquil or colorful?

TT: Colorful of course. At times we're joking around, other times it's more serious but the relationship is really good.

57. Coaching you has been described in many words: good, bad, worse. What are they?

TT: Heh, well... I won't tell them here. He (Tomek) keeps the discipline during practices but sometimes when things haven't gone to a plan I've had to jump on an exercise bike in the middle of a practice.

58. What have been the reasons?

TT: I'll quote Tomek: "when I haven't been present".

59. Have you ever tried to turn the resistance of the bike to zero?

TT: (Laughs) Of course I have and sometimes I've even succeeded.

60. Describe your diet in three words?

TT: Greasy, healthy and good!

64. Your first name is not common for people your age. How did your parents come up with it?

TT: I actually don't even know. Maybe they didn't want a usual Ville*....

(*very common name for men of all ages in Finland)

66. Which of these is the most important: skill, unexpectedness or courage?

TT: Skill!

68. Your longest video game stint?

TT: Six hours, at least. I've played a lot of War of Duty lately.

72. The dumbest thing that has made you upset in hockey?

TT: Probably if I didn't get an assist on a goal even though I should have. Or even worse is if I score and they mark it down for someone else.

79. Have you had any concussions?

TT: I haven't had any, I've managed to always dodge them.*

(*ouch, tho it's good the recent one is his only as far as i remember)

84. In 2011 Team Finland finished in the 5th place at the U-18 tournament. Why only as 5th?

TT: Because we lost to Team Russia in the quarter final, just as well we could have won that game too.

89. You didn't get to be on the ice to accept the SM-Liiga bronze medal (because of the U-18's). When and where did you get it?

TT: I actually still haven't received it, I don't know where it is.

93. What is the population of Helsinki?

TT: There's like 5 million people in Finland so maybe around 500k in Helsinki? (to be exact 596k) Did i really get it right...?

94. Who's the mayor of Helsinki?

TT: I don't know, I barely know the president.

95. Do you think the municipalities in the capital city area should merge?

TT: Luckily I don't have to decide but they probably shouldn't.

96. What do you check first in the news paper?

TT: The sports section.

97. Your favorite tv show?

TT: Putous* was pretty good, I liked a lot of the characters. The grandma was pretty good.

(*Finnish live improvisation comedy/sketch show (there are still new seasons, the latest just finished). Every actor comes up with a humor character with a catchy phrase and one of them wins. "The grandma" is Marja Tyrni and I just got such flashbacks from typing this sentence.)

98. Last book you read?

TT: I don't read many books. The last book was a study book, a Finnish book. I wrote an essay on Tiki (Esa) Tikkanen's biography. An eventful book, great career and a lot of chirps.

99. Who should we ask the 99 questions next?

TT: Riku Hahl could have good stories, he's also seen a lot of the world.

[hunxi-guilai]

HEY first of all I love you blog! Thank you so much for the amazing work with translation/explaining how Chinese works. Question: at the temple, when Wei Wuxian has a little back-and-forth with JGY about being afraid to die/not wanting to die, I can see that there's some kind of clever play on words there somewhere that I obviously don't understand and that deeply frustrates me. Any thoughts?

Oooof, way to come for my weaknesses, anon... I rewound this part of the episode like five times when I first watched it to try and figure out what he was saying...

Hold my hand, we’re gonna do this line-by-line:

Su She：真想不到，传说中让黑白两道都闻风丧胆的夷陵老祖也会怕死。/ Who would’ve thought that the legendary Yiling Laozu, who made both good and evil quake in fear at his power, would still be afraid of death? 

Wei Wuxian: 好说好说，不过我不是怕死，我只是不想死。/ You flatter me; although it’s not that I am afraid of death, it’s just that I don’t want to die.

Su She: 咬文嚼字，可笑至极。怕死和不想死有区别吗？/ Chewing words and splitting hairs,* truly laughable. Is there even a difference between being afraid of death and not wanting to die?

Wei Wuxian: 当然有区别！我命由我，不问凶吉。我命由我，是不想死。不问凶吉，是不怕死。懂了吗？/ Of course there’s a difference! “My life is mine to control; I do not ask of misfortune or fortune.” ‘My life is my own’ is not wanting to die. ‘Not asking of misfortune or fortune’ is being unafraid of death. Do you get it now?

Su She: 好一张伶牙俐齿。好啊，既然你不怕死，我就成全你！/ A quick tongue indeed! All right, since you are unafraid of death, I will help you fulfill your desires!

* playing it fast and loose with this translation; 咬文嚼字 literally translates to ‘biting characters and chewing words,’ and is used to describe someone who pays too much attention to the exact wording of something, so I nudged it sideways into ‘splitting hairs’

...okay, moment of silence for Su She, who managed to dramatically miss the point. RIP Su She’s listening comprehension, I feel you dude, I had to replay this scene multiple times and now write a meta about it to keep up with Wei Wuxian’s wordplay, none of us are on Yiling Laozu’s level.

So what Wei Wuxian is getting at here is the difference between not being afraid of death and not wanting to die. My life is mine to control, he says. He’s not eager to die, but the choice is his. Or, in the immortal words of William Ernest Henley:

It matters not how strait the gate, 

    How charged with punishments the scroll, 

I am the master of my fate, 

    I am the captain of my soul.

oh man, I know “Invictus” is overquoted, but this poem still fucking slaps and is a Wei Wuxian mood if I’ve ever seen one

Meanwhile, being unafraid of death is what Wei Wuxian describes as 不问凶吉, a phrase that could conceivably be translated as (in the immortal words of Han Solo) never tell me the odds. 不问 means ‘to not ask,’ 凶吉 is a binome that pairs the opposites of 凶 xiong ‘misfortune, evil, inauspicious’ and 吉 ji ‘fortune, luck, auspicious’ (side note: both of these terms are very important to the 《易经》Yijing / Classic of Changes, aka, fine, the I Ching). Being unafraid of death means not asking the odds, not asking how likely you’re going to come out of this alive, not asking if the signs are good, the wind in your favor. It is boldness, brashness, and frankly, recklessness. 

To gratuitously quote The Name of the Wind, the sentiment is something along the lines of this:

“Only priests and fools are fearless and I've never been on the best of terms with God.”

It’s dumb to be unafraid of death, to never ask the odds. Why wouldn’t you ask for an assessment of fortune and misfortune, to scope out the situation, to collect information and reports about what’s going on? There are a million and a half quotes about courage being more than the absence of fear, but rather action taken in the face of fear. No, Wei Wuxian says, he’s not unafraid of death. He just doesn’t want to die.

Hope that clears things up!

[pricechecktranslations]

It's been confirmed Adam and Eve are siblings, and I was wondering what you meant by their relationship having thematic and symbolic reasons if it was incestual. On another note, how many more chapters are there in the new OSS novel? Does it include the Levianta Catastrophe event? I've also never heard of Catherine before and I haven't seen any info about her in the wiki, or I might've missed it. I'm also curious about how Meta acts in the "Eve" part. I've been assuming that she speaks formally.

There are three chapters, an epilogue, and the afterword/glossary to still go over (the last two chapters are pretty short though). The last Project Ma and the catastrophe are going to be covered in the second novel, Punishment.

This is coming from the glossary, but Catherine DOES technically show up previous to this, sort of. But it was as an unnamed backstory character. One could also speculate that she might be behind some of the ocean related nonsense in Evillious (like the whole wish in a bottle legend), given that she is part of the ocean after losing her whale body.

Meta doesn't have any particularly noteworthy speaking patterns that I could pick out (not formal, no--I would say more "women's casual"). She does use rude words, though (like calling the scientists eggheads).

As for Adam and Eve, that I'm going to put under a cut (I wrote a lot--I don't mean it to sound like I'm writing a massive defense for the development, more just that it requires a bit of explanation. I have also been rolling it around in my head since Clockwork Lullaby pretty much hinted things were going to be the case here).

Primarily, given that they are twins (I'm not sure why they aren't irregulars but we also don't know how Maria got pregnant so I'll just brush that aside as them not actually being irregulars), they sort of pervert the twin relationships that are prominent in the series. In particular I compare them to Allen and Riliane (mothy himself compares Adam to Allen by quoting his "I'll even become evil" line). Allen and Riliane were also separated at a young age, and at least one of them has no memory of the other being their sibling. Allen is willing to go to extreme lengths, even to the point of causing people he loves suffering--but he does this for Riliane rather than himself. Each decisive action he takes is a selfless one, even if they are not good deeds. And their relationship while alive culminates in him giving his life so that Riliane can become a better person. Riliane then proceeds to become the kind of person who will reciprocate Allen's actions, going out on her own to find him rather than just waiting as she had been. Ultimately, it is their relationship with each other (and I feel I have to emphasize that it is purely familial in nature) that redeems the world, showing them that both of them are able to do good while still maintaining their bond.

Adam and Eve as twins have a similar degree of separation, but their relationship is poisoned at the root. Not only is it twisted by the perversion of what should be familial love into romantic, but Adam is entirely selfish in his behavior--he seeks not to help his sister, but to help himself. Every action he takes is to fill the void he feels, and as a result Eve becomes a WORSE person, not a better one. Even after that, their life together is phrased as atonement rather than a happy ending. This extends into their relationship after death too--they are constantly separated from each other, but also desperately seeking each other out. And their desire to be reunited, unlike Allen and Riliane's, is to the detriment of everyone else around them. I mean--we see how each of them are after death, albeit less so with Adam. Not good people.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel--their story arc ends with them being reborn as proper twins after all, rather than strangers who find each other. But it is in this form that they enact the Court Ending, a world that does not move forward, does not pass go, and does not collect $200.

There's also the fact that the relationship is meant to be seen as toxic and destructive to both of them. Adam's machinations destroyed Eve (even if Venom wasn't involved he still took her when she was at her most vulnerable and manipulated her into loving him, being dependent on him, and then filling her head with dreams of being queen and having a happy family, despite the massive risk to herself that being Ma entailed). Eve's destruction destroyed Adam. I think there are a lot of people who wanted to see their love as redemptive--but they are the "purgatory" ending twins for a reason. I think their relationship is best as a trainwreck that you want not to happen but can't stop. It's a story of mistakes that you regret but keep making over and over again (Adam even says in Eve's vision that they can't fix the world, they can only repeat it).

And then, of course, there's plenty of mythological cases of incest. Adam and Eve in Genesis, for example, where Eve is literally made from Adam's rib. Plenty of Egyptian myths also feature incest (though none specific spring to mind at the moment). And of course, their half of the book is framed like a tragedy, a genre to which incest is no stranger. Being unable to fight fate, making poor decisions out of hubris, dramatic irony all over the place (even outside of them falling in love despite being siblings, there's also Adam guilt-stricken over using Venom when it had no effect on Eve at all). Their story is, at least symbolically, the origin of all evil in EC. It is the very relationship itself that's the problem, not just what Adam did (well--technically the "original sin" is, specifically, Eve stealing Hansel and Gretel, but still).

Ah, perhaps my thoughts on the matter will change as I read the rest of the novel, but this whole rambling wall of text is basically just my way of dealing with it. I was really hoping mothy was going to go in a different direction but the way that I tend to process Evillious requires me to come up with some way for it to be meaningful, even if I can't know his exact motives for the reveal. Maybe he just wants people to stop shipping KaiMiku.

[low-budget-korra]

Lets talk about Korra

Today I will speak of her, which in my opinion is one of the greatest characters everr : Avatar Korra.

 At first we see a 17 year old girl who probably had her first contact with a lot of things. First contact with a big city, first crush, first handful of responsibilities, first threat...

It is worth mentioning that since day one, Korra has embraced the role of Avatar with all strength and love. She felt proud of her position and willing to do her job as the Avatar

(look at this precious little thing)

Remember that she spent her entire life locked in a training center, without contact with the rest of the world, so her knowledge of everything beyond the gates where she lived was new.

Right in the beginning  we see her dealing with some Equalists Protestants, which she does not take seriously. And only when she witnesses the power of the leader of this movement, she begins to take the threat very seriously and also, to fear this man more than everything in her life until then.

What does Amon represents for Korra?

I think this question can be easily answered by Korra's simple argument of love being the Avatar. And at least in the beginning of the book one they hinted that her life was just about that, Being the Avatar.

We are not introduced to any friends of Korra, except for Naga, or past boyfriend / girlfriend. Nothing. We only know that this girl is the Avatar. And I would not be surprised if that was the only way she saw herself.

Maybe that's why fight in pro-bending was so important. Not only as a means of socialization, after all it was thanks to the pro-bending that she met her friends, but also as a training and more important, search for identity. I think part of the journey of Korra in the first two books is a lot about that: search for identity.

Then, answering the question, Amon is the only person who can destroy that image, which can destroy Korra. He can destroy it without even needing to kill it. And that's exactly what he does.

In episode 4, we have, in my opinion, the darkest episode of the entire Avatar series. To be honest, I'm sure that if TLOK were a live action series for example, we may have a scene of sexual assault or an explicit threat of this there , because of the power struggle there between those two characters, no, power abyss and the way Amon touch her, her face, without her consent . Some people felt some kind of sexual tension there, no wonder there are people who shiped Amorra (Korra and Amon) back in the day.

That scene is powerful because Amon did not have to sexually touch Korra to violate her. At least, this whole situation served for her to open up with Tenzin over her fears and consequently learn how to deal with them, because I'm sure Korra did not get over what happened there so fast.

Still about Power Dispute we have another character who exemplifies this: Tarrlok. Tarrlok is a rising politician who uses  Korra as a pawn in his goal to seize the power of Republic City. Amon also uses the same trick, after all, the moment he defeats the Avatar, the city would be his.

So we have this young woman who will stop right in the middle of a political power dispute.

Tarrlok also serves as a comparative. While Amon wants to dominate and destroy the avatar figure, not caring about who she is, Tarrlok wants to dominate and use Korra. And this makes me think that, that metal box was made exclusively for her. Like if that shit was for Amon, he didnt know Amon was a bender so an simples cell would be good. I think Tarrlok knew that Korra may ruin his plans so he had that as his plan B.

In the end Korra lost the physical battle but won the ethical battle against both. But at what price? Amon was able to remove the bends of the Avatar. And without them, how could she be the Avatar?

I also strongly believe that one of the final scenes of the season, when Korra is facing a cliff, I believe she might be thinking about taking her life. After all, everything she was, everything she'd trained so hard for, had been destroyed in minutes.

She, with the help of Aang and the other avatars, recovered her bends and with the help of everyone, including her then boyfriend Mako, she "moved on."

In the next one, I used to hate the first half of book 2, but then I came to see with different eyes.

In that first half, Korra is unbearable. Everything she learned in Book 1 how to be more mature, less spoiled and all, was thrown in the trash and she was the same "child" of the book one only worse.

Until I stopped and realized that I was also unbearable and childish like this when I had my bad phases of anxiety and depression, as defense mechanism and keep people away. Returning to Korra, and if this way of acting of her was nothing more than this defense mechanism?

Whether or not she was betrayed by her own Uncle. Imagine, shortly after having your life turned upside down, when you are recovering, trying to recover your image as Avatar and suddenly your own uncle betrays you? Yeah.

"Oh, but she should not have stayed on his side against her father"

Yes, but remember that our, still young avatar, has fallen into the trap of believing and trusting someone just because that person says everything she want it to hear.

In the end, Korra again goes through a traumatic moment when she has her connection with past lives destroyed. We see how it affected her when she apologizes to Tenzin, through tears. And Tenzin, as the excellent master he is, tries to motivate her to face Vaatu again (now merged with Unalaq, her uncle) and so she is able to beat him and secure another 10 thousand years of Light to the world.

In the final moments, we see the (somewhat innocent) decision to reconnect the world of spirits and the world of men. And we also see Korra and Mako permanently end their turbulent relationship, which I will speak more ahead.

Book 3 begins in a more mature, we see all the characters being presented in a more mature way and it seems that Korra, now, has overcome everything that has passed. We have the relationship between Korra and Asami deepening as well, and I will also comment further on.

In Book 3, called "Change" we have a great sacrifice from Korra. Her life goes down a notch when she decides to save the new airbenders from Zaheer and the Red Lotus, the strongest villain she's ever faced.

Zaheer, unlike the other villains, who had not explicitly intended to kill Korra, had as goal just to kill the Avatar. And he almost succeeded.

Not only that, Korra was physically and psychologically defeated. She won the battle but not the war, we can say so.

So book 4 begins and we only come across Korra in the final minutes and she is unrecognizable. We see that, once proud and courageous avatar, in someone depressed and cowed.

I think it's visible that Korra is afraid of being the Avatar again, Toph even tells her that  during the season. And I think it's totally plausible.

Korra's fight against PTSD is one of the most honest and realistic things I've ever seen. Do you think that after a violent battle and almost die, even winning in the end, the hero returns home and everything is okay? I think not.

Not only what happened in the end of book 3 , but i believe that she also has having flashs or thoughts about all her fights and all the traumatic shit that she passed 

Another thing I think is worth quoting is that Korra took 3 years to feel safer and re-embrace her duties as Avatar. It was not 3 weeks or 3 months, it was 3 years. And anyone who suffers from some mental illness knows very well the stigma that is, the fight that is, because everyone wants you to be well in 6 months when the truth is that many times you spend years fighting against this. And this is a pressure that falls on you.

Imagine, seeing all your friends moving forward while you continue "stock in the same place"?

Only after Korra confronts Zaheer, I think that was a way to show her coping with the trauma, she improves to the point of returning to be the great Avatar we know. The once "monster Zaheer" who almost kill her now is some dude in chains who fail at his plans and created an big problem and needed Korra to solve it

One of the quotes that struck with me most was in that filler episode thats a summary of all what happened in the show , and in the part narrated by Korra she says "I was so naive" and the way Janet delivered that line..., with some pain and I know the sadness but at the same time, stronger and more mature ... I think it means a lot.

here in tumblr I think, I saw a phrase that until today marks me that is :

 "The Last Airbender is a story of a boy who becomes a god. The Legend of Korra is the story of a goddess who becomes a girl "

This is strong!

And I get very angry when someone comes to downgrade my baby Korra because she is such an incredible heroine and her journey is also incredible.

The story of how life can be hard and unfair, how it can hurt and paralyze, but there is always a reason to move on. We should always move on.

Korra is definitely not weak, quite the opposite, she is one of the if not the strongest heroine I have ever seen. Korra inspires overcoming.

Now l will let to talk about the relationships tomorrow. I promise 

[mysticgalaxychaos]

"In depth" analysis (commentary) on Mcs vs Yaha dialogue (part 2)

This is the continuation from the previous thing he said and now he downright flirts with Nowe in a very very creepy way. This phrase can be read so wrong and I guess it's meant to be that way. Again with the weird word choice! Is "look into my eyes" that bad? I mean we all know you're trying to smash so why be weird about it?? And that tone!! So horny!

Imma assume this one is referring to Nowe too and there is just nothing I can really say. I guess the battle got him in the mood for flirting and... Other stuff... Ngl tho those horror-fied slowed down roblox death sound effects set a pretty good mood!

*Ah yes! Nothing gets you going like watching your pact partners, whose existence your life depends on being slaughtered!*

Now the focus turns to Urick and we also move to different footage because the other one had the order mixed up (apparently these quotes appear in a certain order but it depends to the time you take and finishing the fight quickly cuts out some important ones). Here Yaha talks about "the old good days" when he and Urick were... Friends?? (A couple??). This tells us that Yaha up until this point had hopes of them going back to what they used to be which is a bit of a sad thing considering how they were friends and Yaha was trying to change the relationship into a romantic one. Him wanting to at least be friends again is pretty sad... (Urick's just heatless man!)

This is also a very weird line! On the surface it just seems like it's the first line that reveals Yaha's feelings for Urick... and that's why I've went out of my way to overanalyze the shit out of it, so LISTEN! This will tie to later quotes as well (of course) but not in the way that you might think. This does seem to be a question, askig Urick and assuming that he did know about Yaha's feelings but the way that "Right, Urick" is spoken kinda gives a vibe of "Right, Urick? We were FRIENDS, RIGHT??? Friends? Were we FRIENDS Urick? Were we really friends, though???" But this is kinda contradicted by the "you must have known". I think it would be more appropriate to say something like "You knew" or "You did know"

Now, now, NOW this is a bit of a ground breaking quote, and given the context, it seems like it's addressed at Urick. From what I've seen, if the gameplay goes by quickly you get this like after the "Come now, I'm waiting" line which makes this seem like it's about "General Oror" but this is an idea I am not willing to entertain so for our sanity's sake we will take Urick as a fact here. Now the first time I watched a gameplay of this game, I missed this quote completely, but it affects the story quite a bit mainly for one reason, we don't know what he's talking about! Is this "exquisite moment" that day he met Urick at the orphanage? Was it the day he discovered Lord of the Rings is a thing? Was General Oror really that good?? We don't know? But considering the context and Yaha's perceived personality (both before and after pact deal) we can safely assume that General Oror is in fact really THAT good that this was an incident involving Urick and Yaha. This is the "event" I talked about before. My interpretation is that something (probably sexual) happened between them (It could have been romantic but judging by how much emphasis is put by both Urick and Yaha on the fact that he lost his ability to feel *sexual* pleasure, we can see they are both very sex oriented). Also we know this thing happened before the pact deal both from something that's said later on and from the fact that if this was a sexual experience, he seems to have enjoyed it which he wouldn't be able to do after the pact deal (*Dramatically looks down*). Either way, Yaha here talks about what appears to be a very big moment for him, probably involving Urick

This is were Yaha goes off and begins telling us the story of his life (not really, his pact deal) and it kinda messes up the narrative of what we've had so far. Because if this "exquisite moment" he talked about before was something that happened between them that would render them "more than friends" this takes us back to square one ("The friendzone"). A bit random, but this quote also makes me sad. If you think about it, the man sacrificed a part of himself (all be it not a super important one) for Urick and it still didn't work for a completely uncknown reason. The mention of the word "finally" implies he tried to "get" him using other means to, but it could just mean he waited for super long, even though again, given the context, it doesn't look like it. Urick hates this poor guy for a reason, that reason, though uncknown, could very well be Yaha's attempts to get Urick to date him.

:(... He sounds so heartbroken... But, as sad as this is, it gives us what might be the most important piece of information we've had so far, that being that Urick rejected Yaha. Not only that, but "rejected me then" implies that Urick had rejected him before. This tells us that Urick didn't want a romantic relationship, that Yaha probably made multiple attempts to get him and that Urick is (drum roll, important plot hole incoming) immune to Yaha's charm! YEP! The supernatural charm he paid with his (*dramatic gasp*) ability to feel pleasure!!! (*Dramatically faints with arm on forehead*). Also, this tells us Yaha hadn't been the most loyal to his love for Urick, as Urick was "The only one" who wouldn't go with him. That does have a couple of scary implications given the rest of the cast, but we won't judge Yaha's taste (or lack thereof) in men now. The phrasing used here also gives the impression that Urick was never involved with Yaha in any way that was not friendly which makes the other quote ("I want to relieve that exquisite moment") super confusing... Guess we'll have to assume it was about General Oror after all...

This is Yaha's quote when you defeat all his gnomes and the gnome king (?) appears. It doesn't have any plot relevance, but the phrasing is interesting. Yaha's described the battle as "playing" before and addresses his gnomes as "children". I honestly have no clue what this means or why he does it, it just kinda makes him sound super innocent and child like, which I think the devs were kinda going for with his voice and everything. Which is just really weird... Cause he's a massive pervert who might have fucked every single adult male character we know... I really don't understand what they were going for. Maybe some short of subverting expectations/stereotypes kinda thing, like "Look! He's an elf! You know how elves are in fiction, pure. And look at how innocent he sounds and how he addresses these gnomes as children and... Oh look! We tricked you! He's actually a creepy prevy guy!!!¡¡" On the other hand, he is supposed to be an illusionist so I guess it might make sense...

Here is where the bosse's helth begins to get kinda critical and Yaha begins to realise that he might die, so he starts talking about it, trying to get who I will again assume to be Urick to maybe spare him (spoiler alert, Urick is a heatless rock of a human being and he won't spare anyone). Again I have to point out this part because they just keep giving us contradictory statements!! Here Yaha is trying to convince Urick (and Urick's friends) to not kill him, and his argument is "I will die and the crystal will be destroyed", but here, the crystal really doesn't make for a convincing argument. Urick (or his friends) isn't attached to this crystal, so Yaha's argument here really is something along the lines of "Urick if I die you ain't getting none". Really he is using his "beautiful body" to get Urick to spare him. It's either that these two really, REALLY don't understand each other, at ALL, or that something has happened in the past that would lead to Urick not wanting to loose Yaha's "beautiful body". Interesting word order there as well. "YOU would let THAT happen?" instead of "Would you let that happen". Placing emphasis on "You" reinforces this idea. Also that final line sounds kinda mocking.

And this is Yaha's final quote before he dies and we go into the cutsceen. As you can see he's fully gone insane, presumably because of the extreme levels of power given to him by the Hogyoku in a short amount of... Wait, what am I even writing about?? Yaha's definitely kinda loosing it there and I can't make sense of this at all... In what way is this romantic? Unless it's meant to be ironic.

"Oh, so you're killing me! Yes, Urick this is the perfect ending to our date! You are SUCH a romantic guy!!"

[saltoftheao3]

[1/6 (Sorry!)] Lately I've seen posts in the vein of "Don't leave unsolicited concrit that's just called being an asshole" and that culture is a bit puzzling to me. Personally, I write long comments. Rarely under 100 words, usually 400-1500 (I hit the AO3 character limit all the time), almost always after re-reading the work (I read a lot on my phone but re-access the fics on my laptop for comments). I talk about my reaction to the story, gush about the ship, quote fave parts, all that stuff.

[2/6] As a writer myself, I also pay a lot of attention to people’s style and the technical aspects, and this is what I sometimes give concrit-like opinions about. Not story choices or headcanons, not random typos or anything, but I might say “I had a bit of a hard time following who was saying which lines in this section” or “the changing tenses in this part threw me off the loop for a bit”. I try to frame those things as personal opinions and say it’s up to the author if they want to -  

[3/6] heed the advice or not. I’m not advocating the “tough love” type of feedback, either. At 14 I was targeted by some random adult in dA who methodically ripped apart everything I uploaded for months. I responded politely but I was pretty upset by her constant barraging disguised as helpful advice. (I just went to see her profile and interestingly she hasn’t been active at all since I eventually blocked her) So I know that the concept of concrit absolutely can be abused and how that feels.            

[4/6]But in the past months I’ve seen a lot of people say that even 1-2 slightly critical sentences in a 1000+ word comment invalidates all the positives and “just leaves a sour taste”. Obviously I can’t say what people do or don’t feel but…I was honestly surprised by this mindset. I always assumed that when I write “Let me hear your thoughts” on my notes, it means “tell me what’s good and what’s bad”. Now I feel a bit weird about the positive comments I have - are they holding something back?    

[5/6] Thing is, what made me quit writing for 5 years was not crushing feedback, but deafening silence. If I could choose between someone honestly engaging with my work, including its shortcomings, and not saying anything at all, I will take the criticism any day. I feel that explicitly asking for concrit deters the keysmashers and the cute one-line commenters, so I haven’t done that (I already say I welcome pretty much all feedback in my profile, but it seems no one reads those in AO3).      

[6/6] Of course feedback is subjective and readers have no way of knowing what the author was thinking. BUT, I’d like to think readers are intelligent humans whose subjective views CAN be helpful. This is not a simple issue, and I’ll probably be even more careful about commenting in the future, but I simply can’t agree with posts that pretend there is zero difference between tearing a story apart and mentioning one suggestion in an essay of praise. (Some PM system in AO3 would be great tho) 

First of all, thank you for your very thoughtful and well-phrased ask, dear anon. I always fear that i don’t do that kind of ask justice but i’ll try my best, sorry for the time it has taken me.    

There’s been very different arguments in this debate, (check #the great comment debate), and i think you’re far from the only one with this opinion.

I do too think that there’s a difference between “tearing a story apart and mentioning one suggestion in an essay of praise“, as you said it, and i think the kind of feedback you described yourself as giving would be well-received by a big majority of writers.

And as I mention here and there, i think that assuming friendly intent is crucial to internet interaction, that lacks so much of the intonations and cues we use to understand what someone means.

I also sometimes fear that this entire debate leads to readers chosing not to give feedback at all, rather than risking hurting sensibilities, and well … that’s really not the point. “[C]rushing feedback” or “deafening silence“? Both are toxing to fandoms, both kill the joy in creating, but i really think there’s a lot of room to navigate in between.

What i try to do is get writers to make it a habit of specifying in the author’s notes what kind of feedback you enjoy. It seems to me the only reliable way of producing statisfactory interaction for readers and writers, to make up for the huge variety of attitudes towards fandom and feedback. Some of you may remember i’ve suggested it as an AO3 feature a long while back, but in the meantime just an author’s note with “I love all kinds of comments, long, short, criticism or not” or “Comments make me happy, but please no bashing” could do wonder to clarify things for the readership.

Also, if this can reassure you, i really don’t think your readers were holding back when they said positive things, nonnie.

Personally, when i read fanfic i just… genuinely don’t pay attention to potential flaws and weaknesses? That’s not the way i engage with the material. When reading fanfic, i’m more likely to spot gorgeous sentences, funny bits and great worldbuilding, and to try and remember them so i can tell the writer.

The more awkward or dull parts just..don’t register much, i kinda gloss over them and don’t try to actively keep them in my mind. It’s completely different when i beta-read: there i pay attention to both what i really like and what i’m indifferent towards, i’m in a very different mindset.

I don’t think that “positivity bias” makes my comments less honest.

Pffffuh, this has turned into unstructured rambling, sorry for that (but also my browser has crashed three times so i’ll just put the blame on that). Hope you continue to delight writers with long, thoughtful reviews, those are SO nice to get

[douchebagbrainwaves]

I'VE BEEN PONDERING ABILITY

I'm not too worried yet. But hackers can't watch themselves at work. So if you want to say and ad lib the individual sentences. And I wasn't alone. The mercurial Spaniard himself declared: After Altamira, all is decadence. But what if the problem isn't given?1 The other reason founders ignore this path is that the absolute numbers seem so small at first. But the less you identify work with employment, the easier it becomes to start a startup. They're hostages of the platform.2 Do you need a lot of startup founders are often technical people who are mistaken, you can't simply tell the truth.3 But I don't wish I were a better speaker like I wish I were a better speaker than me, but a famous speaker.

There were a lot of people are going to want these.4 But any application can be interesting if it poses novel technical challenges. Chance meetings let your acquaintance drift in the same place they come from different sources. Most people have had the experience of working hard on some problem, not being able to solve it, giving up and going to bed, and then I'd gradually find myself using the Internet still looked and felt a lot like work. They don't work for startups in general, but they pay attention. Several friends mentioned hackers' ability to concentrate—their ability, as one put it, to tune out everything outside their own heads. In most people's minds, spending money on luxuries sets off alarms that making investments doesn't. As you accelerate, this drag increases, till eventually you reach a point where 100% of your energy is devoted to overcoming it and you can't go by the awards he's won or the jobs he's had, because in design, as in many fields, the hard part isn't solving problems, but deciding what problems to solve. Immigration policy is one area where a competitor could do better.

One of the most successful startup founders turn out to be surprisingly long, Wufoo sent each new user a hand-written note after you buy a laptop. For cases like that there's a more drastic solution that definitely works: to set up local VC funds by supplying the money themselves and recruiting people from existing firms to run them, only organic growth can produce angel investors.5 Increasingly you win not by fighting to get control of a scarce resource, but by having new ideas. One is that a lot of nasty little ones. Sun. I think this time I'll wait till I'm sure they work before writing about them. When specialists in some abstruse topic talk to one another about ideas in their field, they don't use sentences any more complex than they do when talking about what to do if you are yourself a programmer, and one about what to do if you're not.6 But people will do any amount of time knows not to default to skepticism, no matter how inexperienced you seem or how unpromising your idea sounds at first, because they've all seen inexperienced founders with unpromising sounding ideas who a few years unless the university chooses to grant them tenure.7

Immigration policies that let in all smart people, you'd immediately get more than half the world's top talent, for free. The most dangerous way to lose time is not to spend it doing fake work.8 With hackers, at least, exclusively for work. I don't know if it's possible to make yourself into a great hacker how good he is, he's almost certain to reply, I don't know.9 Maybe great hackers have some similar inborn ability.10 In the mid to late 1980s, all the hackers I know seem to have made that deal, though perhaps none of them had any choice in the matter. I'm trying other strategies now, but I don't believe it.11 The tendency to clump means it's more like the square of the environment. What sustains a startup in the beginning is the prospect of getting their initial product out. So are talks useless?12

Startup founder is not the power of their brand, but the fact that hackers, despite their reputation for social obliviousness, sometimes put a good deal of effort into seeming smart. If anyone could have sat back and waited for users, it was even better than we'd hoped. That's not hard for engineers to grasp. Startups grow up around universities because universities bring together promising young people and make them work on the same projects. But you can.13 When Steve Jobs started using that phrase, Apple was already an established company. For Larry Page the most important tool to a hacker like having one's brain in a blender.14 But the importance of the new model is not just that line but the whole program around it.15

Notes

Free money to spend, see what the earnings turn out to coincide with mathematicians' judgements. Common Lisp, which are a different attitude to the code you write has a title. The banks now had to ask permission to go the bathroom, and the editor written in C and C, and his son Robert were each in turn means the slowdown that comes from bumping up against the limits of one's family, that they don't want to sell your company right now.

Median may be common in the US since the mid 20th century. And so to the hour Google was in a bug. Giant tax loopholes are definitely not a nice-looking little box with a few years.

Obviously signalling risk.

I'm saying you should seek outside advice, and we ran into Yuri Sagalov. 2%.

The Mac number is a self fulfilling prophecy. In fact, for the entire period since the mid twentieth century. But it can buy. Even Samuel Johnson said no man but a razor is much more analytical style of thinking, but they start to identify them with you to stop, but conversations with VCs suggest it's roughly correct for startups is very hard to make people use common sense when interpreting it.

Us seem naive, or Microsoft could not process it. He had equity. Oddly enough, maybe you don't want to wait for the linguist and presumably teacher Daphnis, but economically that's how we gauge their progress, but the programmers, but one way to put it would have disapproved if executives got too much to maintain your target growth rate early on?

I know of this article used the term copyright colony was first used by Myles Peterson. When he wanted to go to college, but it is less than the actual lawsuits rarely happen. If this happens it will become less common for founders to overhire is not just a Judeo-Christian concept; it's not the distribution of income, which I deliberately pander to readers, because companies don't want to be very popular but apparently unimportant, like architecture and filmmaking, but those are probably especially valuable. It also set off an extensive and often useful discussion on the group's accumulated knowledge.

Miyazaki, Ichisada Conrad Schirokauer trans. If anyone wanted to make the police treat people more equitably. But on the basis of intelligence or wisdom. It turns out to coincide with mathematicians' judgements.

Comments at the mercy of investors are just not super thoughtful for the same thing—trying to sell the bad VCs fail by choosing startups run by people like Jessica is not such a large pizza and found an open source project, but conversations with other people's.

Without distractions it's too obvious to us an old copy from the rest have mostly raised money at all. Companies didn't start to feel like a wave. I wrote a hilarious but also like an undervalued stock in that it makes sense to exclude outliers from some central tap. By this I mean forum in the evolution of the political pressure against Airbnb than hotel companies.

I've said into something that flows from some central tap. At Princeton, 36% of the 800 highest paid executives at 300 big corporations. It didn't work out a preliminary answer on the valuation of zero. We couldn't talk meaningfully about revenues without including the numbers we have.

It was revoltingly familiar to slip back into it.

People were more dependent on banks for capital for expansion. Note to nerds: or possibly a winner.

The reason we quote statistics about the meaning of the organization—specifically increased demand for unskilled workers, and mostly in Perl. If they were going to drunken parties.

We fixed both problems immediately. Monroeville Mall was at the mercy of investors want to be like a body cavity search by someone else. That's the difference.

[profgandalf]

Fatherhood and FBI Agents of Robert Hanssen's Generation

I wrote this several years back in 2001, when my father was still alive. But I post it here to underline the nature of law enformcent officers in my experience:

My father, a retired special agent for the FBI, meets and stays in contact with other ex-federal or "government men" (Dad still prefers "g-men") on a list server developed by another former agent. Following standard FBI procedure--habits endure even after retirement--messages from this list server regularly end with the phrase "Privileged / Confidential Information May be contained in this Message." In some ways what I am about to share violates that confidentiality, drawn as it is from the private thoughts of members who once belonged to an agency well known for its official reticence. Yet, in light of some of the criticism aimed at the agency recently along with what feels to me to be a growing general, public mistrust of what motivates the average agent, it is a point of view I think should be exposed to the broader American public.

There is a common misconception that most individuals—be they soldiers, policemen, and or government agents—who develop the skills needed to use deadly force do so because they enjoy the rush of hot dogging. Recently, while reporting on the ongoing FBI espionage scandal which involved veteran agent, Robert Hanssen, US News and World Report quoted David Major, a retired FBI counterintelligence officer, as describing his and Hanssen’s generation of agents as members of a “cigar-chomping, door kicking” macho order (Duffy 24). I find this perception limiting and incomplete. My dad, a veteran of 24 years with the Bureau whose career centered around the urban New York City office from 1955-78 and who was a part of that same generation, never chomped on a cigar, but I did see him kick down a door--once. And the circumstances are telling.

In my childhood home, a solidly built Tudor in Long Island, NY, the second-floor was laid out in an L with the entrance hallway and stairwell located in the short line. The long line had two bedrooms, but--in an anomalous floor plan design I have not seen since--the second bedroom was reachable only via the first. Each bedroom was used by a sister. The older sister, Debbie, "guarded" the outer door, while Mary, three years younger, slept in the inner room. For anyone who has had, or sired, siblings this set up clearly has problematic privacy issues. Debbie controlled the only portal to Mary’s room, and “Debs” had the only door that could be locked. Thus, Mary found that the only way to assure the integrity of her personal space was to sometimes lock Debbie’s outer door and then retreat to her own room. One day Mary locked her sister’s door, and with her friend closed her own door to enjoy a private game of “Barbie.”

Downstairs the visiting girl’s parents and my family were enjoying one another’s company when they noticed the girls had been missing for quite a while. They soon found, with the help of a frustrated Debbie, the locked door, but as hard as they knocked and as loud as they shouted, no response came from inside: no music, no chatter, just silence. Furthermore, that room being on the second floor, there was no way to check through any available windows. To this day, we don’t know why the girls did not hear us, probably lost in the world of pink corvettes, miniature fashions and plastic boyfriends. However, Dad, fearing some unknown tragedy, took two steps back, braced himself, and with a hard strike, kicked the door down. In a moment he rushed in, only to find Mary and her friend wide-eyed in fear and surprise but completely safe. Debbie's door, meanwhile, was never lockable again until my parents sold the house nearly ten years later.

I don’t tell this family story to embarrass Dad, although he blushes whenever this comes up. I tell it to illustrate a basic quality that does not seem to be coming up in the various descriptions of the men who served in Mr. Hanssen’s generation. Certainly, Dad was capable of using force—even deadly force. One of my prize possessions for years was one of his firearm's silhouette targets with a tight cluster of bullet holes around both the figure’s heart and head. But Dad’s use of force was centered neither on a macho lifestyle nor in a game of cops, robbers and spies: Dad kicked down the door because he thought Mary was in trouble. He and the men with whom he served (women, then, had not yet gained access to the bureau) were committed to protecting and preserving the society that in turn protected and preserved their families.

Furthermore, my father was typical of agents in his generation in their commitment to theirs and other's families. He once told me that the one case that could galvanize an entire office was a kidnapping case. Other agents would stop their own investigations to help the agent assigned the task. They were all fathers, and they knew the clock was running on a child's life. In addition, when asked about what was the outstanding moment of his FBI career, my dad, who still proudly displays a wall lined with commendations signed by J. Edgar Hoover, says it was the night he could put down the phone, turn to a pair of terrified parents, and tell them that their child was safe.

When the story of Robert Hanssen's betrayal came out--and by the way, it is notable to me that in a society in which so many seem to plead “not guilty” even when overtly caught, Hanssen ended the affair quickly with an admission--I avoided the topic in my regular emails to Dad. I knew that the subject would be upsetting. I've watched his pain, faced as he has been, by the general cultural debasement of Hoover to whose memory he still remains in many ways loyal. I also knew that everyone else, friends and family, would be asking the retired but passionate man what he thought of the whole scenario. So I left it alone.

For his part, Dad occasionally forwarded emails to me from the g-men list server maintained by former FBI agents. There were comments of self-re-assurance and pride. One was especially ironic considering the suspect’s and my dad’s strong religious feelings: “Even Jesus, after hand picking his twelve, still had a Judas.” But in it all, I could sense that there was a pained gritting of teeth behind the ironic smiles. As I read about Hanssen, his role as a father has come up again and again. I thought of the times I had seen FBI agents as fathers.

While growing up, I occasionally accompanied my dad to “firearms,” practice where I also saw other children with their FBI dads. I even sometimes fired a weapon myself--like the time I learned that shooting a sawed-off shot gun is more like aiming a hose than firing a pistol. I came away with both a profound sense of their power and of them not being toys. On the other hand, the Styrofoam containers used for storing rounds of ammo, found everywhere on the firearm compound, made great toy blocks and because they floated, toy boats. Never was I allowed to forget the difference between toys and not toys: I remember "the talk" when Dad sat me down, like Harrison Ford in Witness,and clearly explained that his gun was not and nor would ever to be used as, a plaything. That speech--filled with serous, imminent threat and protecting, abiding love--was echoed by other agent-fathers all around the firearms' compound. Their fierce warnings heard amidst the single pistol shots and thundering, rhythmic automatic fire of men sharpening their skills with deadly force. And then, years later, I became a dad too and found myself under a different kind of fire.

My first son, Andy (the 4th) was born with a trachea and esophagus fistula, called a TEF baby by all the doctors and nurses who now filled my life. His neck dead-ended while his breathing tube was directly connected to his eating pipe. Massive surgery in Rhode Island’s children’s hospital saved his life, but my wife, Loretta, and I began the long journey traveled by so many parents who sit by bedsides holding the hands of little ones who suffer in innocence. Part of our burden was lightened by the McDonald House program. And it was while staying at the Providence Ronald McDonald House that I saw for the last time FBI agents from my father’s generation.

Three men representing the FBI Foundation arrived to present a large donation to the head of the Providence Ronald McDonald House. Thinking of that experience, I wrote this email in response to those he had sent on about the Hanssen affair:

Dear Dad:

With all the news about the alleged treason committed by an FBI vet, I was wondering how you were doing. I got my answer with the last few emails you sent me.

I thought the points made by the other G-men and women were good and important reminders of the bureau's right to still be proud. Still, I couldn’t help but sense the wincing within the correspondence—a general suffering from the sting that something like this could happen in the bureau at all. I know that for you, the FBI was not only a law enforcement agency: it was a fellowship of men who believed that the good of the society within which they, and their families, lived was important enough to defend. I know that you weren’t alone in this perception.

It’s been years since this happened, but while the news was breaking about this case of espionage, I thought of how you and your fellow agents came to the Rhode Island Ronald McDonald House to give a large donation to the McDonald program partly because of the extraordinary service they had given Andy after his birth.

I don’t recall where Loretta was, but I believe I, you and the other men

ate together somewhere for lunch. I recall being struck by how similar they were to you. You were all about the same age--graying if still fit.

You all still wore the same "regulation" trench coat over your suits in the manner that I recall so well from my childhood. Some wore tan; some wore navy-blue, but it was in all in a similar mode. (I, myself, wear something like it today. I like to let my London Fog© flow out behind me on windy days, but I'm not the same. I suspect that the tweed jacket and the tummy-warming sweater of an English professor would not have met with Mr. Hoover's approval.)

I can't recall the conversation, but I remember thinking that you all shared qualities besides those of style. I picked up that the dominant political tone was conservative (I don't even recall who was president at the time). There were shared bits of knowledge sometimes expressed in an unintentional code of past experience: numbers relating to weapons or details of some past case. And I was keenly aware of my greenness among such old warriors.

And yet there was one other quality I recall. I don't know if I was right. But I thought I sensed that they, like you, were all fathers and grandfathers. Thus, the purpose of being a warrior was not the quality of danger and action in the lifestyle, it was the quality of life which you defended. As young as I felt back then, I also felt quite comfortable.

One detail from the present case which hurts is that this man is the father of six. He, like you and they (and me) is a father. If he is guilty, I wonder where he lost the vision of what it was he, a part of an elite group of warriors, was defending.

Your Loving and Thankful Son,

Dad not only confirmed to me that they were all indeed fathers but thought this letter worthwhile enough to send to the former agent listserver with an explanation of the events and even the names of the agents to whom I had vaguely referred. Later he forwarded me some of the responses. They confirm what I thought I knew. For privacy’s sake I have suppressed their names, but there seems to have been a strong sense of something that needed to be said.

One former agent wrote that the theme of the family speaks “volumes that we need to hear to get through this tragedy.” Another said “The letter placed the Hanssen matter in its' proper perspective and put into words those values which we all cherish.” Another agent went in a slightly different if related direction saying that the letter's reminder of the family as motivation for all that generation “causes me concern for Hanssen's children. That family surely needs our prayers.” This perspective, surprising to some, was not unique; these former agents, these warriors, continued to think of and care about even the family of the one who had failed them all. One agent especially articulated this concern:

I can’t believe what this man has done to his family! It is unlikely that his wife will be able to collect any of the monies that he has paid into his government pension. That will probably be frozen by the government. As a result, the family will likely lose their house, cars, ability to pay college tuition. . .everything! He has undoubtedly been fired by now, so the family loses their insurance coverage, not to mention his salary. Add to this whatever fees Plato Cacheris and Co. [Hanssen's defense team] will charge them to represent this monster. . .My Lord, what a mess! Talk about innocent victims. . .I hope we all go back to our families this evening and hold them very, very tight.

These letters express what does not seem to be coming up in all the ongoing coverage about the agency nor its people. For the agents of my father’s generation the protection of the society was an extension of the protection of their own and everyone else’s children. I suppose we have all heard of criminals who were devoted family figures. However true (and I question this), I want to make it clear that I am not just trying to show that FBI agents were merely good family men.

What I am trying to express is that there was in most of them a direct connection to what they did in the field to their familial responsibilities. People who are devoted to their families can be selfish and savage to others outside of their unit. However, these men tempered their lifestyles, worked to uncover evil, and used even their deadly force because they were family men. Are there exceptions? Of course. But that’s what they are—unusual.

Much of the negative portrayals of members of the FBI (and other military and law-enforcement organizations), come, I think, from the belief held by many that individuals whose service to this nation includes learning how to use deadly force must be inherently evil. They forget that people raised in cultures of familial importance will, even as tough individuals, be motivated by the need to protect rather than to play with dangerous and expensive toys. Oh sure, the FBI agents of my father's generation were macho; they could kick down doors; they could chew cigars, but that was not what defined them nor should it define our attitudes towards them or any other member of our police or armed forces. We need to distance our perspective from the shaping forces of Hollywood action adventure heroes. One agent wrote simply “Thank you for this email. I cried.” Major’s definition is wrong by omission. What a difference it makes in one’s mind to think of the above agent weeping for, and over, families--even if he is chomping on a cigar as he does so. Did he? I don’t know; however, there were tears of relief in my father’s eyes when, after kicking down the door, action-adventure he found my little sister and her friend safe.

Works Cited

Duffy, Brian. “Spy vs. Spy” U.S. News and World Report. 20 Feb. 2001: 24-25.

If done today using MLA:

Works Cited

Duffy, Brian. “Spy vs. Spy” USNews.com. 25 Feb. 2001 Web.4 Oct. 2012.

If done today using APA:

References

Duffy, Brian. (25 Feb. 2001). Spy vs. Spy. ” USNews.com. Retrieved from

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/010305/archive_004809_6.htm