#I don't have a conclusion.

[fantasy-costco]

My final paper for my history degree is centering around a Black newspaper from the 1870s and it's such an amazing and kind of haunting read. Seeing a long dead writer drag lost cause idealogy through the mud with actual data and calls to action and knowing that the battle he's starting (desegregation of schools) won't be resolved for another century and arguably still isn't resolved today....

[somehowmags]

i’ve seen a lot of posts talking about nimona’s queer messages which is great! but ive not seen as many posts talking analyzing how both ballister and ambrosius were changed to be asian, which is a shame because i genuinely think its one of the most important parts of the film! a huge part of it is a deconstruction of the model minority myth and respectability politics, both of which are big issues in the asian american community. both of them represent each side of the spectrum, with ambrosius expected to be superhuman with very little support and ballister being seen as less than human, no matter how hard he tries- a monster.

ambrosius (who is now east asian, like his voice actor eugene lee yang, who is korean with chinese and japanese ancestry), despite being in a seemingly powerful position as head of the knights and a descendant of gloreth, he isn’t really given the kind of support that this position needs- he’s constantly undermined and belittled by todd, the face of the other knights, and when asked about his emotional state by the director, represses his emotions rather than talk to her about his true feelings. this is very similar to how asian american students in schools aren’t given the support they need academically by teachers and administration, as the model minority myth leads to them being perceived as more intelligent and competent than their fellow students and therefore not needing support. he’s also held to a higher standard than any of the other knights, being immediately placed into a position of power despite just being knighted, again a reflection of the model minority myth, since asian americans are held to higher standards unfairly. despite being technically better off than ballister, he has no support, no friends, no way to seek help for his problems, and, just like ballister, is immediately thrown away the moment the director thinks he’s served his use.

ballister is now pakistani, like his voice actor riz ahmed (no, not like pedro pascal. where did this come from lol), and i’d go as far as to say that he is also, if not explicitly muslim, heavily muslim coded as well. he’s framed as a terrorist by the white, christian institution, and from then on, it doesn’t matter how good he tries to be- everyone else sees him as a monster. he’s also from a lower socioeconomic class than ambrosius and the rest of the knights- while this is initially used to frame him as a success story, after he’s framed, it’s used to cast suspicion on him. almost immediately he’s othered, with posters casting him as a foreign invader sent to destabilize the city, much in the same way that muslim immigrants are seen in real life. even when he tries to be peaceful and good, it’s always twisted so that he’s the monster of the story. while ambrosius is held to too high of a standard, ballister will never be enough for the institution to accept.

which is why both of their arcs culminate in them breaking out of the system, learning to accept what they’d been taught was monstrous, and leaving behind respectability. it’s a genuinely great commentary, and i can definitely see why riz ahmed and eugene lee yang were chosen for this, as they’ve both done activist work for their communities.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Lan Wangji might be an unstoppable force, but Xie Lian has 800+ years of practice of being an immovable object.

(poll results here for context)

[purpleelephantsocks]

Oh god, oh fuck, oh no; the parallels between Jean at the beginning of tsc panicking and telling Wymack "I want to go home" and Jean at the end of tsc falling apart after finding out his baby sister has died, telling Neil the same thing.

"I want to go home."

He is only nineteen

[dieinct]

groupchat was talking about that antipsych institution in japan (bethel house) going around yesterday, specifically about how good the "funniest delusion" contest was, and pip offhandedly mentioned a hallucination it had as a teenager of a man's voice saying "riboflavin"

and i lost my mind

because i, also, hallucinate a man's voice saying riboflavin,

and have since i was a teenager, and still do, on a regular basis (whenever i am trying to swallow my riboflavin, usually, because someone smash bro style announcing RIBOFLAVIN directly behind you is the most helpful thing in the world when you're trying to swallow many horse pills at once)

which is absolutely the most specific overlapping hallucination i have ever heard.

anyway i am mostly posting this because 1. death to the hat man it's riboflavin man time 2. HOW COMMON IS THIS????

[egophiliac]

Have you heard of the "Crowley is Malleus' dad" theory going around? Where Prince Levan (or whatever his name is) didn't actually die and just went out to get some milk and is now known as Dire Crowley, the silly man? The implications of that theory is absolutely hilarious when you think about it

hold on, we can figure this out, we just need LISTS

PROS THAT CROWLEY IS SECRETLY REVAAN/LEVAN/LAVERNE/WHATEVER:

unspecified fae of some kind, with similar coloring to Mal

the animal masks are apparently a Briar Valley thing

has some kind of big blackmailable secret that was alluded to in episode 4, and then as far as I know never brought up again

(unless this was just Azul bullshitting, which is extremely possible)

based on Diablo, which...maybe means something?

has canonically worn Dad Shorts

CONS:

(gestures to Crowley's entire personality)

NO LISTEN Revaan was the guy they sent off on diplomatic missions and to take care of delicate political situations, and...look, I love this dweeb, but would you trust Crowley to be in charge of negotiating your war treaties

despite my brain insisting on reading his name as "Raven", Revaan's title does imply that he was also a dragon (or super into longan berries, I'm not ruling that out)

currently unclear why Lilia "my closest friend Revaan...he is no longer with us...I used to make fun of him for being kind of a priss about eating jerky..." Vanrouge has somehow not noticed or said anything

Malleus' Aloof Anime ~Aristocrat~ vibe had to come from somewhere, and by all accounts it was NOT his mom's side of the family

???:

turns into a bird in the opening, I don't know if that means anything but it's kinda cool, I guess

all that aside, if Malleus and Yuu are any indication, then the Draconias have...questionable taste in their social choices. so anything is possible!

[catalinemorosetheblog]

No, but like seriously, the animated short is wild. Aventurine being a cake-cat dad not only makes perfect sense, but the only logical explanation is that he had to have gotten them from Ratio because...

Ruan Mei made the cake cats.

Nothing suggests Aventurine has either been to Herta Space Station or knows Ruan Mei.

Aventurine knows Ratio.

Ratio knows Ruan Mei (or at least of her)

Ratio has been to Herta Space Station

Ratio worries for Aventurine (in a Ratio way)

Aventurine does seem like the person who has a lot of strong bonds (lets face it, he probably has trust issues).

Aventurine trusts Ratio, Ratio trusts Aventurine (in their own ways).

Conclusion: Ratio is the cat cake stepfather.

[kotoal1011]

btw if you're married to your f/o you def should get a ring that reminds you of them and put it on your ring finger, just like a marriage ring. and don't forget to imagine them wearing the same ring every time you think about them, aight?

[lunarin64art]

That feeling when he can't stand to see you that way, no matter what you do, no matter what you say😩😭💔

[front-facing-pokemon]

[yuujiheart]

GUYS HEAR ME OUT!!!!!!!

WHAT IF YUUJI CURSED SUKUNA TO LIVE/NOT BE ALONE...

We can see here how yuji is trying very hard to convince sukuna to accept the deal. He first forced / threatened sukuna into accepting the deal. Which is different from what he did for Gumi, he allowed Gumi to decide for himself and didn't coerce him at all..

This is similar to what happened to yuta and rika. Yuta absolutely refused to let rika die here. He did it unintentionally since you know he was just a child..

Yuji is trying to do for sukuna what his grandpa did for him. I mean sukuna had no one to save him so Yuji wanted to be that person for him. And in my opinion sukuna was more scared of living than dying in that particular moment ig..

[thefirstknife]

We're told that at the beginning of the Golden Age "human lifespans tripled" - my impression is that this continues to be a case and that the humans we know are often well over 100 years old. In my head at least, Eva is in her mid 200s. Am I wrong, or is this supported by canon?

I believe it is still the case, though finding evidence is really difficult, mostly because we simply don't have a timeline. I think it would make sense for this to still be in effect because nothing else from the Traveler's terraforming and gifts was removed post-Collapse.

However, the question is also how much of the extended lifespan was due to the paracausality of the Traveler and its gifts and how much was just advancement in technology. Or a combination of both? If the majority of the lifespan extension was just due to technology, then this would've been lost post-Collapse. But possibly some of it could have been regained in the recent years, affecting the lifespans again.

One of the most obvious questions is Eris and the status of Lightless Guardians and aging. She lost her Light in the Great Disaster which was quite a while ago, but how long ago exactly? Long enough for this to affect her? Long enough to be noticeable or not? It doesn't seem to be very noticeable, so either it wasn't too long ago, or Guardians don't age even after losing their Light, or the lifespan is still extended so Eris is just old and it's not a big deal.

Eva is also a curious case, as we know very little about her life. She's very clearly an older woman, but we have no idea about when she was born. There's not a single mention of anything from her youth that would help us place it somewhere in the timeline. Has she been around for a normal amount of time or extended? She made one comment to Osiris (at the time Savathun, but Eva didn't know that):

"Eva. It's been too long. You look as bright as ever." Osiris melted out of the shadows near her doorway. The ex-outfitter snorted. "That's faint praise coming from someone who's been fifty for several centuries."

More under:

This can be read in several ways. it might just be a phrase because Guardians are known to not age. She knows Osiris must be the same as he was when he was rezed and she knows that he's been around for a while, given that he's a well-known Guardian. Or maybe she's also been around for a while and has seen him before; while she aged normally over the centuries, he didn't.

But that also becomes a problem with his exile because that would mean she would have to have seen him for a while before his exile and then years would've passed during the exile and she's still around now, which would make her quite significantly old (and would also prove extended lifespans). But we have no real proof of this.

Speaking of Osiris and his exile, there is one other specific piece of evidence, but it also depends A LOT on how well we can estimate when certain events happened.

Sister Faora! She led the Cult of Osiris at the time of Osiris' exile (and for ?? years after). We know this because she got to meet Osiris merely weeks after his exile:

The weeks since his departure from the Last City have worn on him.

The last time she appeared in the setting (in-game wise) was around House of Wolves; after that, she was no longer mentioned. I honestly thought she died of old age and that this wasn't important enough to mention because she's a fairly niche character.

But she didn't die. She appeared in the City during Season of the Deep. And it's not a story of something from the past, it's her being in the City in the present time because she meets with Shayura who is mourning Reed-7's death (which occured at the start of Lightfall). This now gives us a unique insight because she's a normal Lightless human, and we have two specific points of reference: Osiris' exile and the Witness' attack on Earth in Lightfall. We would just have to figure out how long it's been between these two events, which is where the problems start and assumptions must be made.

My first assumption is that Faora must've already been old-ish when she was the leader of the Cult back during Osiris' exile. I think it's reasonable to assume this, given her position as a leader. I always thought she would've been at least 40 or older at the time of speaking to Osiris after his exile.

The first problem is the timeline of Osiris' exile. We know he was exiled around Twilight Gap which brings us to problem 2: when was that? This leads to assumption 2: Twilight Gap happened at least a century ago. There's some evidence to this, namely Osiris saying the following:

They were young, and nearly a century of navigation through the Infinite Forest had honed Osiris's ability to remain unseen.

But does this refer to the time passing in general or the time dilation in the Forest? So the problems continue. It's basically impossible to tell what's the time span between these events; both the Great Disaster (for the question of Eris' age) and Twilight Gap are notoriously hard to place, even in relation to each other. This has been an ongoing debate for years.

If Twilight Gap is not that long ago - maybe a few decades - then Faora's age could probably be within normal limits, though depending on her age at the time of Osiris' exile, she could be pushing 100 or more. So even if Twilight Gap was less than 50 years ago, Faora could still be too old for non-extended lifespans.

She would have to have been in her 20s and Twilight Gap would have to be at max 50 years ago for her to be within a reasonable current age if the lifespan is not extended. Both of these estimates feel too low to me, especially Faora's age as an established leader of the Cult with a lot of authority. As I said, I imagined her being at least 40-50 at the time of speaking to Osiris.

And Twilight Gap has to be at least several decades away. I find it hard to believe that the Gap happened like 20 years ago; it's always talked about like Guardian history and its relation to Osiris' exile is fairly significant as well, so I'd give it at least a century, which also matches with Osiris' statement. If Twilight Gap happened at least a century ago and Faora was at least 40 at that time, she would have to be 140 right now which I think would suggest extended lifespan. However, depending on how we do the estimates, she could easily also be around 60-70.

But the truth is, we don't know. Much like the timeline, I think this is also very deliberately vague. I think it's very possible that the lifespans are still extended, or perhaps that there is some middle ground. The original Golden Age lifespans are still out of reach but the technological advancements in the current age combined with everything the Traveler has done to the system in the Golden Age allow for humans to push past what we have today. So maybe they can't get to the projected Golden Age 300 years, but possibly being 150 or 200 isn't out of reach.

Unfortunately, we don't really know for sure. We could probably go into analysis of every normal mortal human character mentioned and try to figure things out, but there will be confusing and contradicting evidence all over the place, keeping this fairly vague. And there would also be the issue of individual outliers; either those that live longer or die younger for reasons unrelated to aging.

Personally, I think lifespans are at the very least at least somewhat extended.

[flying-cat]

I feel like people just can't read because how do you take "I hardly saw my friends after graduation since our days off don't coincide" as "they abandoned me" and not "adult life makes it difficult to meet with one another."

[bobafett]

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Persuasion, published in 1817, is Jane Austen's last completed novel. It follows Anne Elliot, the only sensible daughter of a vain and foolish baronet, as she is given a second chance at love with the naval officer Captain Frederick Wentworth after spurning him and breaking their engagement seven years before.

Another set of fraternal twin binds! One of these is a gift, the other is for my own shelf. I'd say the biggest takeaway from this particular bind was, "Just because you can cut something on your vinyl cutter doesn't mean that you should." The covers almost killed me. BUT I LIVED.

About the Bind

This edition was typeset in Affinity Publisher in Cardo with titles in Glamora and drop caps in Art Nouveau Caps. In keeping with the art nouveau theme, the decorative ornaments are all drawn from contemporary advertisements published in 1903 to 1904. It was printed on 24/60 lb off white short grain paper.

These books are both rounded hardcovers with full bookcloth cases. The cover decorations were applied with custom vinyl stencils and acrylic paint. Both of them were supposed to have ribbon bookmarks, but I forgot to add one to my personal copy and didn't remember until the entire spine was finished. Oh well.

It doesn't come through in the pictures, but pulling these books together was.... a battle. Stencil issues, scuffed paint, glue strike through on the bookcloth, crooked case in: you name it, it happened. Overall, I'm mostly pleased with the results (and the second copy definitely turned out better than the first!), but I was unbelievably happy to close out this particular project.

The text of this edition was drawn from Project Gutenberg. I've made a copy of this typeset available on the Renegade Bindery discord, but if anyone else wants a copy to bind for themselves, feel free to send me a message!

Excerpts from the typeset below the cut.

[kerosene-in-a-blender]

It's interesting that the member of Bells Hells most vocally sympathetic to Liliana last episode wasn't Imogen, but Laudna. Imogen of course loves her mother and wants to believe the best of her, but her repeat experiences of reaching out to her and getting nothing but cult rhetoric and vague reassurances have left her jaded to the idea that her mother could ever truly change even if she helps them

But Laudna extends sympathy to Liliana, saying she understands what it's like to be a person designed by a force outside oneself and at the mercy of their designs and whims. And I do think Laudna understands what that feels like! It's a pretty apt description of her relationship with Delilah as she perceives it. But I'm doubtful of how accurately it describes Liliana and the other Ruidusborn's relationship with Predathos, especially since we know from Imogen's role in the story that they can resist, they can fight back, and they can choose not to follow the siren's song of Ruidus. But I think Laudna sees enough of her own story in Liliana, and is lacking enough in emotional maturity, that she's drawing a one-to-one comparison where it doesn't really exist

What makes this especially interesting/odd is that there are characters in all this that do have a fairly equivalent experience to Laudna: Derrig and Will. The people killed for convenience as part of a larger plot that they were in no way involved in; murdered as a simple means to an end. But it's a woman that's part of the group that perpetrated that violence that Laudna chooses to relate to

[kindahoping4forever]

AshtonIrwin: Have you ever woke up from a bad dream? The one where it feels like ya just can’t get anywhere?