#Longest Common Subsequence

[g1rld1ary]

tell me when you're sober ; sirius black x gn!gryffindor!reader

➻ yayay my first sirius fic !!

➻ word count: 2042

➻ synopsis: drunk at a house party, sirius calls the reader and confesses something he shouldn't have

➻ warnings: mentions of alcohol & being drunk, swearing, a little angst (maybe??), happy ending, kissing, gn pronouns (lmk if I've missed any!)

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You were lying on your bed at home, content with your cozy night in. The newest Ella Fitzgerald record playing softly from the corner; a candle burning on your nightstand. You’d completed an extensive self care routine, feeling fresh, healthy and calm as you settled into your newest novel — a romance that had you dreaming of one of your closest friends.

Sirius Black was one of your best friends in the whole world. Both being Gryffindors, you had pretty much grown up together, and somewhere along the way you’d developed feelings for him against your will. But how could you not? He was beautiful, charming, and always managed to make you laugh; even the longest nights studying in the common room weren’t quite as tedious when he was hanging around — as much as you’d complain about him ‘bothering’ you. Whilst you knew he wouldn’t ever reciprocate your feelings and you would remain just friends, you were mostly content with that fact. You were filled with the type of love for him that was somewhat satisfied as long as you could express it, regardless of if it was under the guise of platonic affection. Still, that resignation didn’t stop you from imagining Sirius as the love interest in the novels you read; reciting poetry and executing grand gestures in your head.

The phone ringing down the hall brought you from your daze, and you tried to focus on the words written on the page until your mother knocked on your bedroom door, saying the call was for you. Curiously, you crawled out of bed, straightening your pyjamas as you hurried to the phone attached to the wall just outside of the kitchen.

“Hello?” You didn’t know what to expect, but your face softened to a smile when you heard the reply.

“My gorgeous y/n!” Sirius sang, consonants slightly slurred. You knew your friends were at a house party tonight, one that you’d politely declined despite Sirius’ insistence in you being there. It wasn’t your scene, and the group had organised a quieter games night at James’ place the night after, so you weren’t worried about missing too much.

“What are you doing, Black? Shouldn’t you be dancing on a table somewhere?” You teased, laughing lightly at the memory of one party you did attend, and the absolute fool Sirius had made of himself to Bennie and the Jets. He hummed in agreement.

“I was. But I wanted to talk to my favourite person — ‘ve missed you.”

“You’re seeing me tomorrow, Sirius. I’m sure you can hold on sixteen more hours?” You could practically see Sirius shaking his head no, childish pout on his lips. That was how you knew he was pretty drunk, he always got whiny and overly affectionate.

“But that’s with everyone, I miss you,” You both loved and hated when he flirted with you like this; you knew it was a joke but it still made you weak in the knees. “Tell me about your day.” You sighed, knowing that it was chatting to him or worrying about the dumb inebriated decisions he would no doubt make, so you started.

You gave him a run through of your day, sliding down the wall to be in a seated position as you realised it would probably be a long call. You told him about the summer deep clean you’d powered through and the subsequent self care night you had definitely earned. He listened intently, and you could occasionally hear him hum into the phone or interject with a one word response, just so you knew he was paying attention. You’d launched into a recap of your novel so far when you realised he hadn’t spoken in several minutes. Worrying he’d passed out or lost interest in your ramblings you tapered off.

“Sirius? You there?” He hummed an affirmation. “Oh. Is everything ok?”

“Yeah, ‘course. It’s just…” He trailed off and you frowned, holding the silence so he’d continue. “I love you.”

You sighed in relief. You two, and the rest of the friendship group, said ‘I love you’ all the time, it was never something to be apprehensive about.

“You know I love you too, Black. I’m still on the phone aren’t I?” You laughed, twirling the yellow cord around your freshly painted (but almost definitely dry) fingers. You heard him groan over the phone and faltered again.

“No, y/n. I’m fucking in love with you.”

You almost dropped the phone you were so surprised. You felt your heart beating against your chest, both in excitement and panic. He didn’t mean it, he couldn’t. Maybe Remus had broken his promise and told Sirius about your crush on him and this was all some kind of sick joke. Sirius Black was not in love with you — you had seen him grinding and making out with Marissa from the year above at the end of year party, and that was only a few weeks ago. All the possible joy that had crept into the edges of your heart was extinguished, and instead anger bloomed, spreading to the tips of your fingers, which brought the receiver back up to your face.

“Hang up and tell me when you’re sober.” With that you slammed the phone back on the wall, hot tears building behind your eyes, threatening to fall. You stumbled blindly back into your bedroom, both red hot rage and crushing sadness obscuring your vision.

Safely in bed, you let the tears fall. How dare he? You were the one who had pined after him for years, made peace with the fact that you would never hear those words out of his mouth for you, and for what? For him to rip out your heart because he was drunk and bored? Did he think it was funny? Did he even know what he was doing to you? You sobbed into the stuffed dog Sirius had given you for your last birthday, before the anger resurfaced and you launched it across the room, slamming your head into the pillow as the toy made a dull thud against the wall.

You almost didn’t go to James’ game night the next evening. You reasoned it would just be too humiliating, Sirius would crow about the girl he had hooked up with after you’d ended the call — or even worse make fun of you about the supposed confession. No, you were more than ready to call in sick and spend the night pitying yourself over a fat bowl of ice cream. However, when James called around midday begging you to bring your ‘world famous’ white chocolate brownies “And your sweet face, of course,” how could you refuse? And so you got dressed in your confidence outfit; pulling your hair into your favourite style. You needed all the help you could get today.

Standing in front of James’ door you sucked in a breath. Trying to put an easy smile on your face, it faltered when Sirius was the one to welcome you inside. He grinned when he saw you, which made the flicker of anger spark once more. How could he act like he didn’t just say he was in love with you?

“Hey everyone, y/n’s here!” He called, and you could the hear the stampede of footsteps as your friends all came out to greet you. Your smile returned involuntarily as Remus pulled you into a strong hug, which was copied by each of the girls. James, conversely, dropped to the floor in a position of worship as you presented the tray of brownies.

You all sat around the fire, chatting easily as James painstakingly set up the game of Monopoly in front of you.

“Man, I don’t remember a thing from last night,” Sirius said, reclining back in an armchair. Everyone laughed but you, and you fought with your brain to keep your features relaxed as you stared at him.

“Be grateful for that,” Lily laughed, counting out game money in piles. “You made an utter tool of yourself.”

“Yeah, rambling about Merlin knows what all bloody night; you were nonsensical,” Marlene teased and you cast your eyes down to study your fingers, picking at the already chipping polish. That’s why Sirius had acted like nothing was wrong, he didn’t even remember he’d said it. Only you were left with your whole world changed, and the bastard didn’t even have to suffer the memories of it. Suddenly you were overcome with the urge to take the beer Peter was offering you, downing half the bottle in two gulps.

“What’s got you all riled up, love?” Remus asked and you stuttered, unable of course to tell him the truth. Eyeing James’ finished set up you created a lie.

“Getting ready to dominate you all in Monopoly, duh.”

After that night, you couldn’t face Sirius. You weren’t avoiding him, per se, you could never do that. But you weren’t making any effort to see him, and you were proud of that self restraint. At dinners you’d sit next to your other friends, not looking at him unless he addressed you directly. Between classes you’d take off without waiting for him, claiming you were already stressed about the workload. Your friends could tell something was wrong, but no one could figure out what — seemingly not even Sirius.

Until one Friday night. It was unusually quiet, no parties planned or adventures to be had, and so you and your friends had taken over the Gryffindor common room, laughing and talking over the radio and the crackling of the fireplace.

“Firewhiskey, Pads?” James offered, but Sirius shook his head.

“Not tonight.” He smiled, sparing a casual glance to you. You weren’t looking at him, pretending to be engrossed in Lily’s conversation, but you couldn’t help but be slightly concerned. When did Sirius ever turn down a drink? Especially on a Friday night. You shook your head slightly, it wasn’t your problem anymore, you were still mad at him.

Eventually the night wound down, everyone heading back up to their respective dorm room one by one, tired out by the week. When you look up from the novel you’d been engrossed in for the past half hour, you were shocked by the fact that it was just you and Sirius left. Stranger than that was that Sirius wasn’t even doing anything, just staring blankly at the fire as his leg bounced aggressively.

You got up quickly, collecting your things in the attempt of a smooth escape. No such luck. Sirius stood to stop you and you stepped back carefully.

“What are you doing, Sirius?” You asked, forcefully avoiding his steely gaze.

“I’m in love with you.” You faltered, meeting his eyes to search for hidden meaning. You found none.

“What?”

“I’m in love with you, stupid. And I’m sure as hell sober right now, you can ask anyone.”

You felt your cheeks grow hot as you realised what all this meant. He had told the truth on that phone call and you had not only hung up on him, but also got mad and avoided him. Despite his feelings being more than reciprocated. The burning anger that had made a home in your stomach recently dissolved into butterflies, and a smile grew. Sirius relaxed as he saw your body language change, and chanced a tentative step towards you.

“You have no idea how long I’ve waited to hear you say that,” Your eyes shone in the firelight and Sirius couldn’t help but pull you closer towards him, arms wrapped around your waist.

“I thought, I mean I was worried—” You cut him off by holding his cheeks in your palms, pressing a soft kiss on his lips, one which he hungrily chased. You laughed and indulged him, the two of you holding each other carefully, lips moving slowly, exploring the other.

“Just so we’re clear,” You teased, “I’m pretty in love with you too, Black.”

[downtofragglerock]

So Godzilla, being film franchise that dates back to the 20th century, understandably lacks a large female cast, I wanted to see how many female kaiju the series actually has, but while thinking this over an interesting thought occurred

Japanese, as a language, has some differences regarding pronouns compared to English, and a lot of Kaiju get referred to in much more gender neutral language in original Japanese than they do in English, this has resulted in some interesting fan interpretations over the years regarding the genders of kaiju, and you bet I'm going to catalogue the ones I've encountered

Starting off, the explicitly canon female kaiju of the Godzilla cast:

Mothra

Biollante

Zilla (I think the movie tried to deny it, but the cartoon confirmed it, although final wars zilla is another question)

Megaguirus

Monsterverse actually brings a number of explicitly female kaiju into the fold including:

The female Muto from 2k14

Barb, the other female Muto

Scylla

Tiamat

Na Kika (formerly Kraken)

Shimo

Phosphera

Some of the other unseen titans from King of the Monsters might also be ladies, but given as they are still unseen, that's just blind speculation

Now we get to the interesting part, the fan interpretations

Manda, Kumonga, and Destoroyah all being female is a pretty common and old fan interpretation, I know from firsthand experience that it at least dates back to the 2000s, but it could even be older

Baragon by comparison is far more recent, and I know for a fact this interpretation can be sourced primarily to the fact that in GMK, Baragon's performer was Rie Ota, and a behind the scenes clip of her doing the roars in the suit made waves around the fandom and even outside it in the 2010s

Hedorah is another more recent one, but interestingly enough I've also seen enby, bigender, and genderfluid interpretations of Hedorah as well. I guess there's something about the smog monster that screams gender to fans

Titanosaurus is again a newer interpretation, but fascinatingly a even newer idea has popped up in the past couple years that Titanosaurus is the kaiju equivalent of a femboy twink

Rodan being female is a very interesting case, both in origin and mainly due to the fact it only really applies to the Showa continuity and various fan continuities that desire. Basically the origin of this is that in the original 1956 film Rodan, there are two Rodans, a mating pair. At the end they both fall into Mt. Aso. When Rodan reemerges from Mt. Aso in Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster, there's only one. There's been speculation for years as to the origin of this Rodan, but for the longest time it was either assumed to be the male or somehow the child of the pair from the original movie. But in 2010s a new idea rose to greater prominence: What if the Rodan that survived and subsequently appeared in the rest of the Showa films was the female of the pair?

Battra is an uncommon interpretation, but I have observed it

@lydiathespiderqueen did some fanart of a female version of Toho's Frankenstein, as well as the Gargantuas, and it's really good

and @thesilkenlair did a compelling analysis of Spacegodzilla being female due to possessing physical characteristics of Biollante, as well as their behavior in the movie lining up disturbingly well with a phenomenon in nature where an animal will kill or try to kill the extant children of a prospective mate so undivided attention can be given to it and any potential offspring it may have

And that's all I've encountered, please do tell if I've missed some

[rthwrms]

hey could you link to the world building checklist you used please 🥺🥺

no! i made it so specifically for my world, so i cannot link what i've used. but i'll tell you the important bits, the usable ones, right now!!!!

so after many years of random ideation i have decided to take a top down & bottom up approach to worldbuilding.

top down -> start with the creation of the world and work backwards

bottom up -> create characters and tell their specific stories

first i created characters (nezahira and cyrus), which is another story for another time. For the top-down approach, I needed a basic concept which is, for my worldbuilding: What would happen if a world tree got sick?

from there i figured out my general world timeline:

1. creation

2. the beginning

3. sickness sets in

4. cataclysmic event (the "Rending" of one of the branches from the World Tree)

5. post apocalypse (Post-Rending)

then i established a few other things:

1. What does the pantheon look like, if there is one? ex: there are five "major divinities" in the cosmic pool, of which infinite personifications of their complex and specific interactions between each of the five's elemental natures can become "minor divinities"

a. What are the biggest domain distinctions? ex. the five elements: water, wind, heat, stone, and soil

b. how does divinity interact with the natural world? ex. natural events are viewed as personifications of a divinities' mood and temper, so where seas are harsher, the divinity of sea travel is going to be more tempermental, prone to lashing out, etc, than the same divinity in calmer waters

2. Are there any "laws of nature" that apply to your world? ex. the universal binary is between pushing (the life giving Teter) and pulling (the blending Ehiri) thus something that is pushed must also be pulled in the same direction. These will guide ur worldbuilding, so be sure to establish them now, though they can be flexible still, it's helpful to have at least some idea in mind.

3. what is your magic system, if there is one? ex. i like onomancy (true name magic), language, and music, so my magic system is based on making a specific resonance. here's where i flesh out those rules (what it does, what it cant do, what it takes, and what it feels like to perform, etc.)

4. How big of a space are you working with? ex. in the cosmic pool, there's the two polarities (Teter and Ehiri), two sides of the mirror planes (yuwen and the shadowlands), four exoplanets (ebos, iccaro, anvilia, trion), and two "belts" or "bowls" around the edges of the universe (sigil and runus) and their subsequent overlapping or the absence of either (signus and runil). this is too much to do all at once, so I chose the "material plane" or Yuwen to start with.

a. how long would it take to travel across on foot? ex. i decided how long it would take (roughly) to cross the longest part of Yuwen on foot (~50 days), so it's roughly the size of new zealand, with the shape of australia. this gives me a general idea of how much i can pack into the space i've given myself to work with.

5. Where are the natural resources? ex. self explanatory lol

a. Most fertile farmland? ex. the south eastern plains

b. Most mineral resources? ex. gotta be the Spinal Column Mtns, along the eastern coast.

6. What is the calendar like? How do the people make sense of time? ex. for me this looked like making a physical calendar

7. How do different species, if there are more than one that can, communicate with each other? ex. Yuwen had a common language in the beginning called First Words, which gradually fell out of favor as the sickness got worse

From there I wrote the creation of the cosmic pool as if it were a real myth, and entered into the story the major divinities, and the five divinely-made species. there are more species, but those are the five made specifically by the gods.

each primary member of one of the five species goes with the god that created them to a specific place, based on the elements associated.

thus starts the timeline.

we begin at the first era, the Beginning, right after the myth ends, and everyone goes home for the first time.

for each era of time, i ask myself:

what is it like to live during this time?

what changes during this time?

How does the theme of this era affect the events that occur?

For each territory, within in each era of time, i ask myself:

who are the major players?

who is in charge?

what is the government style?

what is the relationship to other territories?

how is the quality of life for the average person?

what are the major Historic events?

what cultural values are currently held?

what advancements are made?

how is education handled?

how diverse are the people and ideas?

what is the economy like?

and i go around the territories in order of location based on where i started (dont be afraid to let someone else (or a randomizer) chose where you begin) answering each question as i can in the moment, and recording any story ideas that come up from this ideation.

TLDR:

concept

general timeline broken into distinct eras

establish rules a. natural laws b. magic system

establish pantheon a. what are the domains? b. how do they interact?

establish the size of location a. how long would it take to walk across?

establish general resources a. most fertile farmland? b. most abundant minerals?

establish how time passes a. is there a calendar? b. how do the people conceptualize time?

establish communication ability

establish beginning of world/initial moment of creation a. who is introduced? b. what concepts are driving forces behind the world? c. what would a myth of this moment look like?

start the clock a. what happens next?

[smashy-headcanons]

any headcanons for world of light?

There were a lot of brief half-squabbles over where to go and where to direct their attention, especially as more fighters were freed. Everyone knew that the goal was to rescue every fighter and spirit (and figure out what exactly happened to the Hands), but everyone had friends and loved ones that they wanted to prioritize finding first and foremost, and the more their journey dragged on without finding whoever they were looking for, the more antsy everyone got.

Ridley only resented Galeem and Dharkon because they captured him personally, and would have been perfectly fine with their actions had they ignored him. Other antagonists such Wolf, Dark Samus, and even Ganondorf had the common sense to realize that even if they hadn't gotten captured themselves, that Galeem and Dharkon's reign still disadvantaged them.

While Dharkon is much more methodical and calculated than Galeem, filling each sub-area of the Dark Realm to the brim with puzzles, the video game knowledge utilized in the Sacred Land and especially the Mysterious Realm doesn't come from him. It instead scraped Crazy Hand's mind for information.

Unlike Crazy Hand, who was simply a bit dazed after recovering from Dharkon's control, Master Hand had a brief panic moment after recovering from Galeem's control due to his previous experiences with loss of control and/or consciousness (SSE and the unleashing of Master Core), hence him immediately going into high alert mode when he came to.

After Master Hand took care of the army of fighter clones, Galeem and Dharkon were on high alert and prepared to thrash anyone who got in their way. Falco, Jigglypuff, and Villager served the role of distraction (with Falco lasting the longest out of the three), and all subsequently got wiped out. Fortunately, it was enough to pave the way for the other fighters, but not enough for them to make it over without a few more casualties.

[professor-doc-emeritus]

possible readings of the admech:

1 - admech rituals don't work and aren't necessary. imperium tech largely works based on a combination of dumb luck, ork-esque psychic gestalt fields generated by humanity's collective belief in it, and the efforts of the handful of heretic priests who worked all this out and now do all the imperium's actual IT/maintenance work in secret. The majority of the imperium, and the adeptus mechanics itself, still believe in the rituals wholeheartedly.

2 - admech rituals do work and are (mostly) necessary, but only because they are obfuscations of actual technical work, e.g. the application of sacred oils and incense is just an elaborately ritualized method of getting rusty old machines lubricated regularly, binaric prayers work because they actually contain bundles of voice commands to activate onboard error handling programs in most Dark Age of Technology artifacts, and "machine spirits" are just ancient and ornery onboard AIs that take pity on the occasional tech priest asking for help. This status quo is an unintentional side effect of millenia of collective trial and error; virtually all members of the admech genuinely believe in the cult mechanicus & are unaware there's any material benefit to their rituals.

3 - same as the above, except the admech are (or at least used to be) in on the ruse. The rituals do work, for the above stated reasons, but are deliberately designed to be as mysterious, impenetrable, and terrifying as possible. The people who made them didn't believe in the omnissiah, and sufficiently well-informed members of the admech don't either, often foregoing their rituals entirely when in private or in a pinch. The median admech member understands the basic principles of technology FAR better than they let on, and the cult mechanicus in general exists as part of a massive conspiracy meant to keep humanity at large ignorant, and the control of technology exclusively in admech hands, which they use to their own nefarious ends. This fact used to be common knowledge within the faction itself, however the heresy era split, the subsequent millenia of conflict, and their own overzealous propaganda have all eroded their collective memory. The truth is now only known to its highest ranking and longest-lived members, and is doled out on a need-to-know basis to a select few. This is why most tech priests that feature in the books and video games unironically believe in the omnissiah: they haven't yet been told the truth.

4 - admech rituals do work and are necessary, and the spiritual aspect of it is at least partially true, but this is only because the omnissiah is actually a manifestation of Mag’ladroth the Void Dragon, C'tan god of technology and Aeldari god of oblivion, a shard of which was defeated and imprisoned beneath the surface of mars by the emperor. This shard, either intentionally or unintentionally, influenced and warped the collective psyche of the mechanicum of mars until they became the admech we know today. Their apparent control over technology is the result of some combination of their proximity to the shard giving them aspects of its power, intentional siphoning of the shards power by the mechanicum, the shard itself lending them power as part of a long-term plan to corrupt & use the imperium as a means of revenge against the necrons that shattered it, and the Emperor's defeat of the shard granting him its domain over technology. It's this domain the Emperor won that allowed humanity to expand out and conquer the stars without their tech getting corrupted by the warp, and why technology made by other species and the machines-making-machines-that-make-machines (i.e. the men of iron) fall to the warp faster and more often than human technology

5 - the admech are just batting a thousand and are right about pretty much everything.

[dandelion-drawing]

Angela!!

I love her so much I want her to be happy forever........

I think Angela has a secret gf and that's probably who she's talking to in the fence picture. Also I shade every TMRoHM character with a unique color, and Angela gets yellow! I felt like it was fitting as yellow is a very common yet vibrant color in nature, and Angela is very, very connected with nature! (Especially considering she was, CANONICALLY, supposed to turn into a tree). In my lore the change isn't exactly permanent. Lore below :3

Also old signature is on these, it's on a lot of stuff. Please don't mind it :/

In the beginning of her time in the Magical Realm, Angela rather quickly turns to gardening as a hobby that is very special to her. One day, she found a tree's sapling dropped in the desert, presumably dropped by someone carrying several. Angela took the sapling and planted it at a forest's edge, where she raised it like a child. The tree grew enough to bear fruit, even though it was small, after just a couple years. The tree was very important to Angela. It was her child, her art...

Unfortunately, Horse Man, careless as he is, took the tree's fruit as snacks for some party. (He wasn't entirely aware of the tree's importance until afterward, but still.) Angela was devastated. Her tree was barren. And in her grief, she literally became a tree herself, growing tall over rocks and land, carrying the dying sapling as a piece of her.

She also sprouted flowers that grew into tiny, mobile Angelas. The Angela Flowers were numerous and typically short lived (The longest living only getting to around 6 months old). They represented tiny aspects of Angela, such as a single emotion or a specific personality trait. The flowers were peaceful, and Angela could see through them at times.

The area she grows in is kind of a ways off from civilization. A few people still visit her though. Her gf who I have yet to make, Dennis (they are friends :D ), and Horse Man sometimes (he becomes increasingly nervous around her after the transformation). Despite this, though, she's alone more often than not, sitting in a secret room within the soul of the tree. Her branches can move like arms, but she almost never moves besides to make her face.

(Side note, the story of Angela having an important tree and its fruit being taken by Horse Man and Angela subsequently becoming a tree herself and growing flowers of herself is written in the proposed episode synopses for TMRoHM available on Filmcow's Patreon! The details of why the tree was important, what the Angela flowers represent, what the tree looks like, the tree's location, who still visits Angela, her room- basically all the details not stated previously were made up by me :3)

And that is all I will say for now!

[rosemaidenvixen]

Between Daylight and Darkness

Chapter 14

<Previous Next>

Ao3

"We're here!"

Blinky turned to see AAARRRGGHH leading the other two humans in Master Jim's party into the library. Master Jim along with the stout human and the dark skinned one--

Toby Grandson of Nana and Darci Daughter of Louis and Amaryllis

Perking up at the sight.

"Welcome to my humble library," Blinky stepped up towards the newcomers, herding them in towards the table where their companions waited "I apologize, but in the chaos of our initial and subsequent meetings I neglected to receive your names,"

"No problem," the one with the longest hair, hanging halfway down to their waist, spoke up "I'm Mary,"

"And I'm Claire,"

Blinky twiddled both sets of thumbs, gaze darting between the two of them "And your...parentage?"

The two new humans shared a look that Blinky, unfamiliar as he was with humans and their mannerisms, wasn't able to place.

"He wants to know who your parents are," Master Jim called out from behind them "Son of, daughter of, that thing,"

Mary and Claire's eyes widened, each letting out a soft 'Ohh'.

"Well I'm Mary, daughter of Amy and Julie,"

Blinky gave her a nod of acknowledgement.

Mary, the human with the longest hair is named Mary, daughter of Amy and Julie

"I'm Claire, daughter of Ophelia and Javier,"

Blinky turned and nodded in her direction as well.

Claire, daughter of Ophelia and Javier, a streak of blue in her hair.

"Come then, young Claire and Mary, your companions have been awaiting your arrival,"

"Hey guys," Darci shut volume 23 of A Brief Recapitulation of Troll Lore and got to her feet "We were just having language lessons,"

"Common trollish is wild stuff," Toby stood as well "A lot of pronouncing things from the diaphragm,"

Blinky felt the corners of his mouth twitch upwards at that. Watching Toby and Darci attempt to recreate the deep guttural syllables of trollish in their sharp human voices had been equal parts admirable and endearing.

AAARRGGHH hummed in agreement "Speak from nose, but getting better,"

Master Jim remained seated but pivoted in his chair to face them better "Blinky's actually been working on a Trollish to English dictionary, we can't take it home with us, but I got some great pictures," he pulled out his small cellular device, the others all gathering in close to observe as he tapped at the tiny, delicate device with surprising ease--

Perhaps not so surprising, Master Jim was human himself after all

The thought gave him pause. Of course Blinky was completely aware that Master Jim was just as human as his companions, only adopting the form of the troll at specific times. Master Jim had told them himself, and Vendel had relayed much of the details surrounding his transformation that Bah buh rah herself had told him.

Still, when he saw Jim crouched over tomes in his library, grinning up at him with blunted tusks, face alight with youthful enthusiasm, he couldn't help but imagine him as any one of Trollmarket's striplings.

What would his life had been like had he been discovered earlier, would Bah buh rah have permitted him to be raised in Trollmarket? Would he have grown to maturity wandering these halls and learning trollish from Blinky's tomes?

Blinky shook his head to dispel the fantasy, he couldn't let his biases color his mentorship. Jim had been raised as a human, not a troll, and Blinky needed to remember as such. Furthermore the other humans weren't just his companions, they were his compatriots, his comrades in arms. Furthermore while that hadn't explicitly claimed as such, Blinky would bet his entire supply of barter metal that they were nestmates as well.

Therefore Blinky needed to ensure all five of them shared in the same education of all things trollish, else he could not claim to be any respectable mentor at all.

"I will go over the linguistic differences between our languages in depth later," Blinky shooed them with all four limbs, gesturing for them to retake their seats "Now that all of you are present, we can go over the three rules,"

Toby raised one of the tufts of hair over his eyes.

A common human expression of surprise or disbelief

"Three rules?"

"Three," AAARRRGGHH nodded, expression solemn, holding up three fingers "Very important,"

"My mountainous companion is correct. The Trollhunter lives and dies, by three basic rules. Rule number one!"

Blinky leaned over towards his students, willing all six of his eyes to focus on each of them in turn "Always be afraid,"

Claire blinked up at him "Always be afraid? That seems counterproductive,"

"On the contrary, fear is good! Keeps us alert, Keeps us on guard. Makes us vigilant!" he shifted half of his eyes to look at Jim directly, raising a finger to point at him while keeping his three other limbs folded behind his back "A hero is not he who is fearless, but he who is not stopped by it,"

Master Jim nodded briskly "Got it, be afraid, I think I can manage that,"

Toby snorted "Yeah, somehow,"

Jim shot a look at Toby Blinky couldn't interpret, but nevertheless, he pressed on.

"Two, always finish the fight, an opponent must be given no mercy," he smacked his fist against his open palm using his topmost arms.

Darci bit her lip and let out a sharp hum "Seems a little...harsh,"

"Ours is an unforgiving world," Blinky kept his tone firm "With no space for mercy for your foes, hence the third rule," he raised three fingers "When in doubt, always kick them in the gronknuks,"

"Ok I know I'm probably going to regret asking this," Master Jim shifted in his seat "But what are gronknuks?"

Blinky grabbed A Brief Recapitulation of Troll Lore Volume 39 off the shelf, opened it to the illustration of Maddrux's heroic defeat of Orlagk at Glastonbury Tor, and placed it on the table before his pupils.

As one they all leaned in with curious glances, then recoiled back with hisses and winces.

AAARRRGGHH shuddered "The horror..."

"Yeah, harsh," Toby said with a grimace.

"Wait," Mary turned towards Blinky, eyes wide "You're telling me that one third of being the trolls' super magical girl is kicking people in the balls?"

"This is kind of making me doubt all three rules as a whole," Master Jim mumbled.

"These rules have saved many a Trollhunter's very lives," Blinky placed his topmost hands on the edge of the table and fixed each of the five of them with a stern gaze in turn, doing his best to mimic Vendel's stately authority "Remember them, embody them, for you are now part of a sacred lineage stretching millennium across countless-- Mary why are you elevating your arm?"

Mary dropped her appendage back down "I'm sure this is all very important and sacred and great power comes with great responsibility and all that, buuuuut can we go check out the market?"

Blinky stared back at her "'Check out' the market?"

"I mean this whole place is called Trollmarket right? That means there's market here, with people buying and selling stuff. I was wondering if we could go...take a look?"

Claire turned towards her, expression flat "Mare."

"What? Back in Arcadia the only malls worth going to are forty minutes away by car and now you're telling me there's a magical one right under our feet? Course I want to take a look,"

"Not gonna lie, I'm also pretty curious," Toby added.

Darci shrugged "I could check out a magic mall,"

"How about it Blinky?" Master Jim flashed him a nervous grin "Can we...put the books on hold for now?"

Blinky sputtered. Put the books on hold!? They had barely scratched the surface of A Brief Recapitulation and had only gone over the basic nouns of common trollish! And these striplings wanted to run off and--

A rumble and a puff of air on the back of his head had Blinky looking up to where AAARRRGGHH was smiling down from directly above him.

"Maybe humans learn more by seeing, not reading,"

A rush of warmth filled Blinky's chest, he had to fight to keep a stern look on his face while he appraised his pupils.

"Very well," he reached over and shut Volume 39 "Perhaps the best way for you youngsters to learn of troll culture, is to experience it first hand,"

*

Draal glared at the tankard of ale as if it had personally insulted his father, mother, and the entirety of his ancestors. Letting out a low growl, he lifted his head to flick his gaze from side to side. He sat alone at his table, a glaringly open space in the crowded tavern. Usually Draal had no shortage of trolls willing to share a pint and knock heads, but now everyone in the tavern gave him a wide berth, none even daring to look his way.

Something that Draal would normally take a small measure of pride in, now he would have given anything to blow off steam by knocking horns with someone.

Then again he felt like tearing the head off the next troll that glanced at him oddly, so he couldn’t truly fault the other patrons for acting in self preservation.

The logic behind their actions somehow made him angrier.

He snatched up the tankard and started gulping down the contents as fast as his lungs would allow. Only barely registering the pleasant taste. Warmth filling his gut and adding to the existing hum in his skull.

Good ale no doubt, not nearly as strong as the mead he preferred, but mead was meant to be savored not chugged. And some deep down nagging voice in Draal’s head that sounded annoyingly like Vendel told him that he didn’t need a great deal of alcohol clouding his mind and fueling any poor decisions.

But not even the best mead in the market would do anything to abate the blistering rage that had been simmering in his gut for days.

The amulet had chosen a human. Worse than that, the amulet had chosen a human twisted by dark magics into the shape of a troll. Not a changeling, thank Gorgus for that, Draal didn’t know if he’d be able to control himself if an impure got their grubby hands on his father’s amulet.

Still, far too close for comfort.

Draal slammed the now empty tankard down on the table, dragging the back of his arm across his mouth to wipe away the foam.

The worst part of this whole thing was he couldn’t rage about the new hunter’s true fleshling nature with anyone that didn’t already know about it, and Vendel had already made his opinions on Draals ragings quite clear.

A flicker of shame rose up past the anger, Draal quickly smothered it and sank back into his rage.

If Trollmarket learned that the amulet had chosen a human, twisted and rotted with foul magics into an obscene mockery of a troll. Not only would the entire market panic, but they would lose faith in the legacy of the Trollhunters, his father’s legacy.

No. As much as the false hunter rankled him Draal couldn't allow that to happen.

But none of Vendel's logic, Blinky's reasoning, or even Draal's own conscience did anything to abate the boiling fury in his gut.

He opened his mouth to call for another tankard only to have a new scent, infuriating in how quickly it was becoming familiar, followed seconds later by the sound of shrill, chirping voices.

Draal didn’t even try to disguise his scowl as he turned to glare out the tavern’s entrance.

A pair of humans scurried through the market following after Blinky, excitedly pointing at various things and asking questions. To which Blinky happily answered each and every one. 

Of course, this must be a dream come true for the eccentric scholar.

But what really had him gnashing his tusks was seeing the figure– the one that looked like a troll but wasn’t, trailing after, two more humans on either side of him.

He wore an easy smile, one that set Draal’s teeth on edge, wrapped in that achingly familiar armor–

As if he had any right to wear it

He felt his fist tighten around his tankard, the wood creaking in protest.

One of the humans next to him nudged the false Trollhunter in the side, the fleshbag turned troll letting out a laugh in response and nudging them back. Draal was only barely able to restrain himself from letting out a roar and charging him right then and there.

This fake Trollhunter may not be impure, but he had no right to don that sacred armor, to brazenly stroll around the market as if he--

A loud crack split the air, momentarily startling Draal out of his fury, glancing down to see that he’d actually shattered the tankard. Shards of damp wood flecked with foam littering his hand and the table below.

“That’s going on your tab,” Rekl appear and brushed the remains of the shattered mug into their hand, four full ones clasped in their free arms “And you’re already running quite the bill,”

Scowl returning with a vengeance, Draal grabbed his sack of barter metal from the bench beside him and and slammed it on top of the table

Rekl pulled out a can and gave it a test bite, satisfied they scooped up the bag and replaced it with one of full tankards.

No sooner than its bottom touched the table Draal snatched up the tankard and started chugging the contents, not even registering the ale's taste. Pulling it away half empty, he was surprised to see Rekl still standing there, staring at him with a shrewd look on their face.

“You know I’m not normally one to give things away for free, but I’m gonna break my own rule and give you some advice. It was never a sure thing the amulet was going to choose you, let it go and move on.”

Only the knowledge that such an action would result in a lifelong ban from the only tavern in Trollmarket that served Kiltar mead kept Draal from throwing his tankard at Rekl's face. He growled again, closer to a roar now, tearing his gaze away from Rekl back towards the false hunter, shamelessly striding down Trollmarket's streets surrounded by his human lackeys.

“Look at that pup, he's never so much as scrapped with a goblin, let alone held a sword. He didn't even last half a minute in a spar! He has no right to bear the amulet, to wield the--”

A sudden hand on his shoulder jerked him back around, the street vanishing and Rekl's snarling face replacing it “Draal I’m going to respect the fact you’re in mourning and not throw your ass out of my pub for that comment and for what you did to that stripling in the forge," abruptly Rekl shot up straight, shoving Draal back in his seat "But you'd best remember, if only for your own sake, that you’re a grown warrior and our Trollhunter is an unblooded whelp. And there's no honor in besting someone with no chance of victory.”

Before Draal could formulate a reply through the ale fueled fog in his head Rekl briskly turned and started striding away.

“And by the way, you’re cut off,”

Draal snarled, grabbed the half empty tankard, poured the last of the ale down his throat and slammed it back down. Shoving away from the table and stomping towards the exit. Rekl watched him leave with a cool gaze, none of the other patrons daring to meet his eye.

Maybe Ygrin's tavern could do a better job of supplying him with drink without any sanctimonious lectures.

[gilbertsdumbblog]

bored at work. assorted Sky city headcanons (pre and post ‘Order Up!’) be upon ye

Pre ‘Order Up!’

As Sky City’s population steadily grew with people spawning in, food shortages became more and more common. Because of this, most Sky City residents can go awhile without food because they’re already used to it

Additionally, because of how scarce food could be sometimes, gifting food to another in Sky City was seen as an exceedingly kind gesture, or possibly even romantic in certain contexts

Even before establishing the ‘Build Club’ at his inn, Milo’s inn was fairly popular for being the only place in Sky City to serve (heavily diluted) alcohol. Funnily enough, even after establishing the new city and being able to brew stronger drinks, Phillipe despises the taste of any alcoholic drink and avoids them despite being a bartender.

Two of the people who help with Milo’s Inn, Phillipe and Maeve (oc lol-), both live at the Inn for free as a thanks for helping out.

Both Isa and Reginald are liable to have chicken feathers sticking to them at any point of the day. No they’re not going to explain where they came from.

There’s gotta be at least one or two people who got into fist fights over someone taking too long at a designated crafting bench or furnace, right? Like we all agree that’s happened at least once or twice in Sky City’s history

As the population of Sky City grows, Isa slowly expanded the base island to accommodate new housing for new spawns. Despite this, Sky City’s original layout is still claustrophobic as hell.

Speaking of new spawns, after a certain point Sky City simply stopped getting new spawns; It was too crowded, both in terms of player density as well as the proximity of buildings no matter where you’d spawn. To Isa, this was a blessing.

I’m not 100% certain about this, but I think the dimension Sky City is in has a higher block limit than most natural worlds; I don’t have a good estimate of how much taller it’d be, but Jesse and Isa fall off Sky City for a solid minute before they see land below them.

I like to imagine Reginald as being one of the longest-lived residents of Sky City; it makes sense why he’d be close to Isa if he’s been around for awhile idk (also just like the idea of Reggie being pretty aware of Sky City’s history due to living through most of it)

One time a pig got loose after Isa spawned them in and now the guards of the palace have an ever-persistent rumor about ‘The Squealing Pink Beast’ that ran amok through the palace once.

Post ‘Order Up!’

Sky City gets renamed to the Terracotta Villa after they re-establish due to their proximity to a mesa biome; The name was suggested by citizens of the town

Initially, for the first several months it was Milo and Isa trying to lead the rebuilding Sky City. As disagreements continued to build up and stall further development and progress, however, Reginald eventually butts in to start mediating. At first he’s just there to try and get the two leaders to calm down and actually talk to each other, but eventually, Reginald is established as the third proper leader to Terracotta Villa.

Before the first year passed on the new town, Reginald figured out how to build Iron Golems, and subsequently now has a handful of Iron Golems that wander around Terracotta Villa. Originally they were for protection against mobs, but now they just kinda live here.

Due to Sky City’s original location high above the clouds, prior to re-establishing none of the residents knew what seasons were. Milo is ECSTATIC about the discovery of snow and, subsequently, snow balls. 

None of the residents barring Isa know how to swim. Because of this, after the city moves to the mainland, Thalassophobia is exceedingly common among the residents of Sky City (Milo included)

Conversely, because the residents of Sky City lived in constant illumination and had no idea what monsters were prior to the Blaze Rods showing up, Isa is one of the few residents with a natural fear and trepidation towards darkness

Resource hoarding is a MASSIVE issue when Terracotta Villa first re-establishes itself, especially when it comes to food and ores. The only reason the problem didn’t get worse is due to Reggie getting fed up and making a series of community resource chests

It takes a VERY long time for the rebuilt Terracotta Villa to establish a Nether portal, and even longer to get potion brewing actually set up; When the portal was first set up, most expeditions into the Nether were led by Isa.

After Terracotta Villa has been established for a year or so, they set up a courier and mail system within the town that is meant to run letters between different dimensions. This is how Terracotta Villa, and Aiden, stay in contact with Jesse after the events of Season 2

This courier system ends up becoming a boon to Terracotta Villa’s economy; Prior to them, nobody had set up a proper system for sending mail between different portals. 

Isa, Reginald, and Milo take turns watching over Terracotta Villa to allow one of the others a break every once in awhile; For Isa, this is exploring and mapping out the area around Terracotta Villa with Benedict. For Reginald, it’s a half-day hike away so he can relax at a secondary house he built for ‘getting away’ from Terracotta when stressed. For Milo, It’s getting blasted on weed and sleeping for half the day.

Before anyone asks, yes, Aiden is responsible for Milo (+ probably other residents too tbh) learning what weed is. And probably acquiring it too.

Speaking of the Ocelots, it takes more than a full year after the events of ‘Order Up!’ before Reggie or Isa are willing to hear out letting Maya, Gill, and Aiden try to redeem themselves. 

Gill ends up doing a bunch of volunteer work for cooking food for the town, which becomes a hobby of his. Eventually, Gill leaves by himself through the Portal Network to find a new place for himself to live. Maya stays around longer than Gill, and she’s volunteered to help with mining and resource collecting for Terracotta Villa. When Maya leaves its without warning in the middle of the night, and she left by herself similarly to Gill. Aiden is the only one to stick around Terracotta Villa, and at first he isn’t even volunteered to do anything; Instead its mostly being babysat by Reggie or Milo to make sure he isn’t trying to grief anything again.

Aiden and Milo do become friends sort of? It’s a bit of a weird friendship because Milo is still definitely on edge around him at first considering he. You know. Destroyed his original home and got people killed.

The residents of Terracotta mostly dislike or are otherwise afraid of Aiden, but eventually some people do begin to warm up to him after he sticks around and slowly redeems himself. Isa is never letting the whole ‘act of terrorism’ thing go though.

Once people figure out fishing, cats become super popular among the residents of Terracotta Villa. Definitely helps with creepers when they’re first re-establishing at least. 

Benedict is the city mascot and she demands you feed her seeds please please please please plea-

Remember the community garden Milo wanted to establish? It’s back, and it’s massive! Citizens all take turns helping to maintain the huge garden, and after Reginald sets out community chests, the readily available food helps immensely with getting people to stop resource hoarding. 

Community furnaces, crafting tables, and brewing stands quickly come back in the new Terracotta Villa after chests are put in. The people are just kinda used to sharing at this point!

Speaking of sharing, at first when houses are being thrown together as quickly and haphazardly as possible in order to give people shelter from monsters, the residents of the budding city quickly got used to that as well. When the town was settled and not in immediate danger of getting overrun every night, some people decided to continue co-living with other residents even as more homes were established. 

The first time a raid happens probably takes everybody, Isa included, badly off guard. After the first incident, crossbows and contingencies for future raids are made almost immediately. 

[becomingpart2]

e https://impalementation.tumblr.com/post/188475654600/if-youre-still-taking-asks-you-mentioned-you-had hi, if you mind reading i link this to you

Okay, so I'm finally responding to this ask lol. Sorry for the wait.

I understand what this person is saying and I'm not going to go into every point because that's their interpretation. There's nothing to be discussed in how someone chooses to see symbolism because that's abstract and subjective.

What I am going to address is this:

"the point of seeing red is that buffy is capable of growing past that instability, is capable of saying no and meaning it"

Buffy had already been saying no before Seeing Red. She had been saying "no" from the beginning but even if we want to argue that the consent was left "ambiguous" in most of their encounters, Buffy had already reached that moment in her arc that OP mentions before Seeing Red. Buffy ends her "relationship" with spike several episodes earlier in As You Were.

Spike was the one who, as usually, wouldn't quit, wouldn't leave her alove. He insisted with her and bitched about it in the subsequent episodes, he even hooks up with Anya after she's left at the altar by Xander in a very deliberate "rebound" move from both of them where they're both kinda like "fuck our exes". So yeah I think he understood what Buffy meant and, most importantly, Buffy had already moved past that "uncertainity" and instability phase, she was making her decisions and sticking with them. It was Spike the one who couldn't/wouldn't accept what she decided. Who would follow her around and try to pressure her into budging, trying to make her doubt herself again. He was the one who pushed the situation to get to the point it got in Seeing Red, it had already ended as far as Buffy was concerned.

"with that in mind, i see buffy loving spike by the last episode actually as a matter of her loving herself [...] i see buffy’s advocacy re: spike throughout s7 as a direct, deliberate reversal of how she treated him in s6. just as she was determined to see him (read: herself) as a thing in s6, she is determined to see spike in s7 as deserving of forgiveness, as not a thing."

Like I said, I won't discuss whether this person is right or wrong for seeing spike as "the id" of the show (I think you could argue that for all vampires in the show, spike is just the one who stays the longest but his behaviour is not any different from any other soulless vampire when it comes to the common traits usually pointed out but anyway). So yeah I won't discuss whether that's right or wrong because that's their interpretation.

Because of that, I can understand why someone who sees Spike as the representation of Buffy's repressed id (something that could also be argued about Faith, which to me holds a bit more water since she's also a slayer) would say that her treatment of Spike in S6 and S7 mirrors how she sees herself. I can understand why someone would think that if that's how they see Spike's role in the show.

The issue with this interpretation and the subsequent defense of S7 is that it engages in abuse apologism because of the way that it whitewashes Spike's actions to merely being a reflection of Buffy's feelings. Similarly to the point made about the ambiguous consent of their relationship earlier, it places a responsibility on Buffy's shoulders for failings that are entirely Spike's. Buffy being depressed and feeling shitty about herself does not grant permission for another person (monster or not) to abuse her. It does not give permission for another person to take advantage of her vulnerable state. And that is true to any person, whether they're a superhero like Buffy or not. Someone being in a really low point of their life, struggling with their self-worth is not an open invitation for others to take advantage and it's not their fault if someone does it.

I understand that Buffy might have felt like she needed to forgive herself for how she acted in S6 but the truth is that she didn't do anything wrong. By choosing this line of defense of how S7 handled the lack of acknowledgement of the abuse in S6, you're implying that Buffy did something wrong that she needed to forgive herself for. And she didn't. Buffy could have an arc about "forgiving herself" without the show brushing off what happened, without leaving what happened between them in this ambiguous place where no one was at fault and because of that implying that both of them were. Because they weren't equally at fault. Even worse, this interpretation heavily suggests that what happened was actually entirely Buffy's fault - if only she wasn't so repressed, if only she was more at peace with her id, she wouldn't have fallen in a self-destructive path that would lead to "monsters" like Spike, who just don't know any better, taking advantage of her and hurting her.

[justforbooks]

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher

LG, OM, DStJ, PC, FRS, HonFRSC (née Roberts; 13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013) was a British stateswoman and Conservative politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold the position. As prime minister, she implemented economic policies known as Thatcherism. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.

Thatcher studied chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, and worked briefly as a research chemist before becoming a barrister. She was elected Member of Parliament for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her secretary of state for education and science in his 1970–1974 government. In 1975, she defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become leader of the opposition, the first woman to lead a major political party in the UK.

On becoming prime minister after winning the 1979 general election, Thatcher introduced a series of economic policies intended to reverse high inflation and Britain's struggles in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and an oncoming recession. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised greater individual liberty, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Her popularity in her first years in office waned amid recession and rising unemployment. Victory in the 1982 Falklands War and the recovering economy brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her landslide re-election in 1983. She survived an assassination attempt by the Provisional IRA in the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing and achieved a political victory against the National Union of Mineworkers in the 1984–85 miners' strike. In 1986, Thatcher oversaw the deregulation of UK financial markets, leading to an economic boom, in what came to be known as the Big Bang.

Thatcher was re-elected for a third term with another landslide in 1987, but her subsequent support for the Community Charge (also known as the "poll tax") was widely unpopular, and her increasingly Eurosceptic views on the European Community were not shared by others in her cabinet. She resigned as prime minister and party leader in 1990, after a challenge was launched to her leadership, and was succeeded by John Major, her chancellor of the Exchequer. After retiring from the Commons in 1992, she was given a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher (of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire) which entitled her to sit in the House of Lords. In 2013, she died of a stroke at the Ritz Hotel, London, at the age of 87.

A polarising figure in British politics, Thatcher is nonetheless viewed favourably in historical rankings and public opinion of British prime ministers. Her tenure constituted a realignment towards neoliberal policies in Britain; the complex legacy attributed to this shift continues to be debated into the 21st century.

Reputation

Thatcher's tenure of 11 years and 209 days as British prime minister was the longest since Lord Salisbury in the late 19th century (13 years and 252 days, in three spells) and the longest continuous period in office since Lord Liverpool in the early 19th century (14 years and 305 days).

Having led the Conservative Party to victory in three consecutive general elections, twice in a landslide, she ranks among the most popular party leaders in British history regarding votes cast for the winning party; over 40 million ballots were cast in total for the party under her leadership. Her electoral successes were dubbed a "historic hat trick" by the British press in 1987.

Thatcher ranked highest among living persons in the 2002 BBC poll 100 Greatest Britons. In 1999, Time deemed Thatcher one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century. In 2015 she topped a poll by Scottish Widows, a major financial services company, as the most influential woman of the past 200 years; and in 2016 topped BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour Power List of women judged to have had the biggest impact on female lives over the past 70 years. In 2020, Time magazine included Thatcher's name on its list of 100 Women of the Year. She was chosen as the Woman of the Year in 1982 when the Falklands War began under her command, resulting in the British victory.

In contrast to her relatively poor average approval rating as prime minister, Thatcher has since ranked highly in retrospective opinion polling and, according to YouGov, is "see[n] in overall positive terms" by the British public. Just after her death in 2013, according to a poll by The Guardian, about half of the public viewed her positively while one third viewed her negatively. In a 2019 opinion poll by YouGov, most Britons rated her as Britain's greatest post-war leader (with Churchill coming second). According to the poll, more than four in ten Britons (44%) think that Thatcher was a "good" or "great" prime minister, compared to 29% who think she was a "poor" or "terrible" one. She was voted the fourth-greatest British prime minister of the 20th century in a 2011 poll of 139 academics organised by MORI. In a 2016 University of Leeds survey of 82 academics specialising in post-1945 British history and politics, she was voted the second-greatest British prime minister after the Second World War.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[dragoneyes613]

The first Jews I met in Moscow on my 1973 visit were Vladimir and Masha Slepak, who three years earlier had applied for permission to leave Russia for Israel. At the time, their three-year wait seemed intolerable. I returned to the United States, kept in touch with the mfor a while, and continued to read about their case, which was frequently cited in the news. Finally, in 1987, fourteen years after we had met and seventeen years after they had first applied, the Slepaks were allowed to leave for Israel.

A leading Jewish activist, Vladimir Slepak became the most famous of the refuseniks, Jews whom the Soviet Union refused to allow to leave. The Soviets often gave no explanation for the denial of an emigration visa, though they frequently attributed it to state security. Slepak was told that because he had worked as an engineer years earlier, it was feared that he would divulge Russian secrets to the West. The explanation wa s absurd, since any technological know-how that Slepak and the several thousand other refuseniks had, had long been superseded by the West's. One refusenik, Benjamin Bogomolny, actually entered the Guinness Book of World Records as "most patient' - he waited twenty and a half years to get permission to leave Russia (1966-1986 - from the time he was twenty till he was forty).

The refuseniks' plight was horrendous. As soon as they applied to leave Russia, they were fired from their jobs; because the government is the only employer in Communist societies, it became impossible for them to find other work. Many Jews throughout the world sent the refuseniks money, a hefty percentage of which the government confiscated. Although many refuseniks were highly educated, they often had to accept whatever jobs were offered them (for example, cleaning streets at night) to avoid being arrested as "parasites (a Soviet classification for any able-bodied person unemployed for more than two months). Yosef Begun, a Jewish mathematician who taught an underground Hebrew class, was fired from his job when he applied to live in Israel, then convicted for not working and sent to Siberia.

In Novosibirsk the Poltinnikov family, Isaac, Irma, and their daughter Victoria, all three physicians, were refused permission to leave for Israel for nine years. Throughout this period, they were forbidden to work in their professions and were constantly harassed. The KGB periodically arrested them, subjected them to long interrogations, and on one occasion killed their dog. When the family was finally given permission to emigrate in 1979, Irma and Victoria concluded that it was a KGB trick, that they would all be arrested at the airport. Isaac Poltinnikov did leave and went to Israel. He immediately invited his wife and daughter to join him. The Soviets refused them permission. Irma died soon thereafter from malnutrition (she was afraid to leave her apartment), whereupon Victoria committed suicide.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, pro-Soviet Jewry organizations focused tremendous efforts on securing the refuseniks' emigration. It became common for Jewish communities and Jewish schools throughout the United States and Europe to "adopt" refusenik families, often writing and telephoning them. At many Bar and Bat Mitzvah celebrations, a young American Jew would "twin" himself or herself with a child reaching Bar or Bat Mitzvah age in Russia.

The refuseniks themselves served as the leadership of the Russian-Jewish revival that started after the 1967 Six-Day War. When my friend Dennis Prager visited Russia in 1969, a refusenik named Tina Brodetskaya asked him to smuggle out a document attacking Soviet antisemitism. When he asked her if she wasn't afraid of being sent to prison, Brodetskaya said: "Where do you think I am now?" Brodetskaya was subsequently permitted to leave for Israel.

With the rise of Gorbachev's policy of glasnost (greater openness and freedom), most of the longest-waiting refuseniks were permitted to leave, after having spent many of what should have been the most productive years of their lives unemployed, in fear of arrest, and under constant attack by their peers and neighbors.

- Jewish Literacy, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, pages 504-506

[bitfreak]

Most Asked Coding Questions in Placements

Getting ready for placements? Whether you're aiming for a service-based firm or a top-tier product company, you must brush up on your coding fundamentals and problem-solving skills. 🚀

Here are the go-to topics recruiters always test:

Arrays & Strings – Duplicates, palindromes, reversing arrays, maximum subarray sum.

Linked Lists – Reversing a list, detecting cycles, merging two sorted lists.

Sorting & Searching – Implementing sorting algorithms, using binary search creatively.

Recursion & Backtracking – Generating permutations/combinations, solving Sudoku.

Dynamic Programming – Longest Common Subsequence, Knapsack, and similar problems.

Trees & Graphs – Tree/graph traversals, finding shortest paths, DFS/BFS.

Stacks & Queues – Valid parentheses, implementing queues using stacks, and vice versa.

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[fae7899]

Yalda night or Challah night is one of the oldest Iranian festivals. This celebration was registered as a world heritage on 9 Azar 1401. In this celebration, the passing of the longest night of the year and the subsequent lengthening of the days in the Northern Hemisphere, which coincides with the winter solstice, are commemorated. Yalda night is said to be between sunset on December 30 (the last day of autumn) and sunrise on January 1 (the first day of winter). On Yalda night, Iranian families usually prepare and serve a sumptuous dinner together with all kinds of fruits and, most commonly, watermelon and pomegranate. In this celebration, it is common to serve snacks, read the Shahnameh, tell stories of family elders to other family members, as well as fortune-telling with Divan Hafez. [1] However, Yalda night is the shortest night of the year in the countries of the southern hemisphere, unlike the northern hemisphere.

"Yalda" is derived from the Syriac word that means birth. Abu Rihan Biruni named this celebration as "Milad Akbar" and considered it to mean "Birth of the Sun".The term "Shab Chele" or "Shab Chele Kalan", which is used synonymously with Yalda Night in popular culture, is because the first forty days of winter are called "Big Chele" and the next twenty days are called "Chele Chele". It is said that there were forty divisions among farmers in the old calendar.Challah is two chronology positions during a solar year with the functions of popular culture, one at the beginning of summer (July) and the other at the beginning of winter (January), each consisting of two large (forty days) and small (twenty days) parts.

Yalda night entered the official calendar of ancient Iranians from 502 BC during the reign of Darius I. Chale and celebrations held on this night are an ancient tradition. The people of the distant past, whose agriculture was the basis of their life and experienced natural contrasts and seasons throughout the year, due to experience and the passage of time, they were able to adapt their work and activities to the rotation of the sun and the change of seasons and altitude. Adjust the length of day and night and the direction and movement of the stars. People in the geography of Iran, especially in the field of Zagros-Rafdin civilization, were familiar with solar phenomena such as the greatest night, the greatest day, the spring equinox, and the autumn equinox more than three thousand years ago.

Yalda night is also known as the birthday of the sun god, justice, treaty and war. There are two main narrations about it. First, on this night of Mehr, Mithra or as mentioned in the Avesta and the writings of the Achaemenid kings, Mithra (Mithra) returns to the world. He, who is one of the ancient gods of India and Iran, lengthened the hours of the day and as a result the superiority of the sun appears. Mehr worship or Mehr ritual was formed on the basis of Mithras worship in the era before Zoroastrian religion and it is also called Mithraism in Europe.

[apocalypticavolition]

Let's (re)Read The Eye of the World: Prologue

I haven't reread the whole of the series ever (my last reread was in preparation for the finale), so with the books getting more popular and the show simultaneously entertaining me and getting my goat I figured I'd jump onto the bandwagon and maybe get some validation from internet strangers. As the title states, this is a reread, so I will be spoilering the hell out of everything, so if you're a show only fan or still working your way through the books, please run away screaming (but tell your friends!).

...

Okay now that I can no longer hear any screams, let's get into things. I first started reading The Wheel of Time in 2003 in middle school, catching up in time to read New Spring when it debuted and the subsequent novels after (except oddly, Towers of Midnight, which I didn't get around to until the finale was right around the corner, so I guess my longest reread only goes up to book 12 technically). It's probably my outright favorite fantasy world and has a lot of characters I love - in fact, at times I feel I don't quite fit into the fandom because I don't have an irrational disdain of any of the common hate sinks bar maybe Gawyn, and even then some people are making me like him a little bit more so I don't know what I'm going to do then.

That said, like most readers who came of age in the 21st century, I do have a lot of problems with Jordan's worldview. It's a rather interesting friction: the man was definitely trying to write a world without the sexism of our modern era (and to a lesser extent other prejudices as well), and yet he could never rise above them himself. I'll probably spend a lot of time talking about this kind of stuff and what might have been done instead.

Likewise, when we reach the inevitable Slog (and sorry people who didn't start reading until the series was finished, it's real), I'll be talking a lot about how the plot might be adjusted for brevity and, once we reach the Sanderson era virtually everything I want to talk about will be magnified tenfold because as much as I enjoyed his efforts at the time, I've greatly soured on him as an author in general and as Jordan's heir in specific since.

But for now, let's focus on what's important: The Eye of the World's first prologue: Dragonmount.

The palace still shook occasionally as the earth rumbled in memory, groaned as if it would deny what had happened.

As first sentences go, I'm not in love. It's not bad, but it's just a little too vague; "the palace" doesn't really give my mind's eye much to work with because they can vary so much depending on when and where they were built. It ends well though.

The dead lay everywhere, men and women and children, struck down in attempted flight by the lightnings that had flashed down every corridor, or seized by the fires that had stalked them, or sunken into stone of the palace, the stones that had flowed and sought, almost alive, before stillness came again.

Despite its length, a sentence like this would work better to me as the start. It's shocking and terrifying; this is a level of violence we won't see channelers pull off until much later in the series.

The mind-twisting had struck at the core, ignoring peripheral things.

This feels pretty on-theme for the story, really. The Shadow tries to subvert the major powers of the world but its defeat is primarily orchestrated by a bunch of farmers.

The edge of his pale gray cloak trailed through blood as he stepped across the body of a woman, her golden-haired beauty marred by the horror of her last moments, her still-open eyes frozen in disbelief.

Well I made it four quotations before we needed to talk about feminism so that's... more than I expected, really. Meet Ilyena, a character so posthumous that despite being part of a prologue 3,500 years before the main story she's still already dead by the time it starts! Obsessing over dead women is probably one of the biggest complaints this series gets and boy does it deserve it. Despite electricity being long gone, our characters have no shortage of fridges.

That said, I do want to note that as it stands in this book, things aren't that bad. In this book. See, in this book, Ilyena isn't the only victim - the children she and Lews had are also among the dead, as are quite a lot of other people who just happened to live or work in the palace or were visiting. Except for the use of LTT's title "Kinslayer", none of them will be mentioned again after this book - in fact, the non-family members are completely forgotten after the prologue. But again, that's jumping ahead. In this book, Ilyena is about providing a specific name and face to the tragedy, humanizing all of the victims by proxy in a way that, "Twelve hours after saving the world, Lews Therin went insane and killed two hundred and sixty-five people including all of his blood relatives," does not.

...brought by merchants from across the World Sea...

We talk a lot about how Jordan was too immersed in southern culture to understand how its gender roles were about as universal as Mongolian throat singing, but not enough about how he's too immersed in globalized petro-fascist markets based on maximizing inefficiencies for the global elite to use to extract wealth to understand why a real planetary utopia living in harmony with nature wouldn't be shipping luxury goods across the ocean when there's perfectly fancy fabrics to make at home and anyway the Green Men should be able to help silkworms thrive anywhere if you're that desperate for something breathable.

On the other hand, points to him for not going crazy about Gateways and assuming that all global trade could be handled by teleportation just because they're a fun tool. I will have a lot to say about Gateways as we approach the authorial transition.

For a moment he fingered the symbol on his cloak, a circle half white and half black, the colors separated by a sinuous line. It meant something, that symbol.

Even now though, it means something other than what it once meant (being the sign of the seals on the Dark One's prison) and before too much longer it will pick up two more meanings, one for each half. The Wheel turns and the world changes.

Behind him the air rippled, shimmered, solidified into a man who looked around, his mouth twisting briefly with distaste.

Props to Ishamael for clearly Traveling with the True Power even this early on in the series.

Not so tall as Lews Therin, he was clothed all in black, save for the snow-white lace at his throat and the silverwork on the turned-down tops of his thigh-high boots.

Thigh-high boots! <3 (Seriously Ishy how can you want to destroy the world you can express your fashion sense in?)

Also note how this contrasts the Aes Sedai symbol described earlier. There's a little bit of white though, because it can't be helped even by the Shadow.

It will soon be time for the Singing, and here all are welcome to take part.

One detail from the Sanderson novels whose origin I'm uncertain of but like regardless of who came up with it is Rand's claim that the AoL was NOT paradise and that it was rotting from within even before the Dark One got involved. The latter half of this sentence suggests one such flaw: having the Voice is a hell of a talent, but apparently there were places that did not welcome all potential Singers. This could just be a result of the War, but maybe it speaks to something deeper.

“Shai’tan take you, does the taint already have you so far in its grip?”

Ish here is mostly pissed that he doesn't get to enjoy his gloating, because for all his talk about nihilism, he is petty first and foremost.

Dangerous for you, fool, not for me.

Ironically, all things considered it's really the other way around - Shai'tan is no threat at all to the Dragon soul and will utterly ruin Ish by the end. Ish really isn't anywhere near as clever as he makes himself out to be, he just looks smart because he's the last survivor of Academia.

“So you do remember some things. Yes, Betrayer of Hope. So have men named me, just as they named you Dragon, but unlike you I embrace the name.

This is an odd detail, all things considered. LTT's fatal flaw was pride (this very prologue says as much), so why wouldn't he be proud of a flattering name? I wonder if we get any more details on this in the books or if it's just a little detail that was lost in the shuffle.

But it is not enough. You humbled me in the Hall of Servants. You defeated me at the Gates of Paaran Disen. But I am the greater, now. I will not let you die without knowing that. When you die, your last thought will be the full knowledge of your defeat, of how complete and utter it is. If I let you die at all

See what I mean about Ish? This is not the behavior of someone who is tired of existence and wants everything to end, it's the behavior of a dude with a petty grudge that he dresses up in fancy terms and fancier boots.

[Ilyena] will give me the rough side of her tongue if she thinks I have been hiding a guest from her. I hope you enjoy conversation, for she surely does. Be forewarned. Ilyena will ask you so many questions you may end up telling her everything you know.

Quick, name a female WoT character that Jordan doesn't think this description applies to! Can it be done? I doubt it. Another common criticism is that for all of his 3,000 characters, all of the women were just his wife. I don't think it's quite true, but I do think that the women he knew well were all cut from pretty much the same cloth.

“A pity for you,” he mused, “that one of your Sisters is not here.

This is another oddity. AoL healing required all five kinds of weaves and they didn't divide things up by gender anyway, so why wouldn't a Brother suffice? There's plenty of male Aes Sedai who haven't gone crazy at this point, and it's been only a couple days at most so you wouldn't think people would have time to reflexively assume men wouldn't be helpful. Is this another kind of healing that works better when you do it cross-gender? Maybe Towers of Midnight mentioned that?

Helplessly he convulsed, thrashing, his skull a sphere of purest agony on the point of bursting.

Good to know that every incarnation of the Dragon suffers horribly for no good reason, I guess. Rand's nihilism is a lot more understandable to me than Ish's is, considering how little suffering the latter actually endures.

“You can have her back, Kinslayer. The Great Lord of the Dark can make her live again, if you will serve him. If you will serve me.”

"Your kids are fucked though. We put their souls in vacuoles and then jettisoned them towards Sindhol, so we can't fix that even if we wanted to. Also you balefired half of them repeatedly, we think. Hard to be sure because there's no record of them left except some silhouettes on that doorway over there."

(More seriously, they're being left out right now because LTT isn't cognizant of their demise, making this the only excusable omission.)

“Ten years your foul master has wracked the world. And now this. I will. . . .”

Plus a whole century of societal collapse, but I guess RJ hadn't come up with that detail yet. Hell at this point maybe Shai'tan was still supposed to be ET's son.

You and I have fought a thousand battles with the turning of the Wheel, a thousand times a thousand, and we will fight until time dies and the Shadow is triumphant!

Ish says this and the fandom as a whole treats it as true but... we don't actually know this! Third Agers often state that they HOPE to be reborn, which suggests that's it's possible the Wheel stops reincarnating some souls (replacing them, presumably) - and who better to retire than the people who stop being grateful for existence and start actively trying to undermine you?

Further, Rand's epiphany is about how despite the crushing cycle of everything, anyone can still hope to live a better life - there's no guarantee that Ishamael falls to the shadow every time, or that he ever has before or will again! Hell, he could just repent even after he falls. Bro has choices, he just refuses to see them.

His own sons and daughters, sprawled like broken dolls, play stilled forever.

This is actually another odd detail. I don't know how Aes Sedai fertility works, but while it's not implausible that LTT & IS could have children who were of the age where their play is the most notable thing about them, they should also have kids old enough to have grandkids by now! Lews' murders could potentially number in the hundreds without starting on the servants and faithful companions.

Also note that while Ilyena's demise horrified LTT and left him with nothing to live for according to the narration, it isn't until he sees that he's killed all of these people he loved that he actually tries to commit suicide. This is the sort of thing that's completely neglected going forward, but it is nice that things were a little more complex than him finding his girlfriend in the fridge and his mom in the oven.

The land around him was flat and empty. A river flowed nearby, straight and broad, but he could sense there were no people within a hundred leagues.

This is a pretty subtle sign of just how much death the last ten years must have entailed: the Erinin is flowing through a temperate part of the planet (there being no indication that the Earth's axis was significantly affected by the Breaking) yet there are no cities nor farms within a hundred leagues. By all rights there should be, but now they're gone. One can see why balefire was banned.

He did not believe it could come, forgiveness. Not for what he had done.

Maybe it's just my own weird moral code speaking but I think stuff one does while literally and entirely involuntarily corrupted by the source of all evil shouldn't really count against them. Obviously he's in shock, but it seems like something that carries on into Rand's behavior as well and it's a little depressing that in a series about free will vs. determinism there's such a common attitude that the stuff you're doomed to do regardless counts against you more than the things you had a choice in.

Because in his pride he had believed that men could match the Creator, could mend what the Creator had made and they had broken. In his pride he had believed.

And he wasn't wrong to believe that, he just did it wrong and doesn't consider that there might be other approaches. Tunnel vision is a real affliction in this series.

Only a heartbeat did the shining bar exist, connecting ground and sky, but even after it vanished the earth yet heaved like the sea in a storm. Molten rock fountained five hundred feet into the air, and the groaning ground rose, thrusting the burning spray ever upward, ever higher.

No denial on the earth's part here, just straight up compliance.

Of Lewis Therin Telamon, no sign remained. Where he had stood a mountain now rose miles into the sky, molten lava still gushing from its broken peak.

Now imagine a million more dudes doing this and you start to see why the Breaking was as destructive as it was.

Then [Ishamael] was gone, and the mountain and the island stood alone. Waiting.

Presumably Ishamael went off and told someone about LTT's suicide before being vacuum sealed for a millennium and change, cuz otherwise there's no way people would know what Dragonmount was.

The oceans fled, and the mountains were swallowed up, and the nations were scattered to the eight corners of the World.

The west, the Waste, Shara, the sea, the Mad Lands, north Seanchan, southwest Seanchan, and southeast Seanchan. There, we've turned what was obviously an odd turn of phrase into a literal statement with all eight items acccounted for!

Let the Prince of the Morning sing to the land that green things will grow and the valleys give forth lambs. Let the arm of the Lord of the Dawn shelter us from the Dark, and the great sword of justice defend us. Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.

Well Rand did most of those things, but I don't remember any lambs, so I guess really he lost the war and the whole of the epilogue was a taunting dream the Dark One wove for him to distract him.

(God I hate those kinds of theories. If your assumption is that nothing is true, your theory is dumb and you should feel bad.)

From Charal Drianaan te Calamon,The Cycle of the Dragon.

So a lot of people talk about the conlanging in this setting and I just want to point one thing out: the fact that we go from the Old Tongue in the AoL to this New Tongue in the Fourth Age suggests very, very strongly that Randlanders are not inexplicably speaking English or anything close to it but something in between the two fake Tongues. We have a clear transition from things like "Telamon" and "siswai'aman" to "Calamon" for example, that dragon doesn't really fit into except as a distant ancestor/descendant.

Anyway, that right there is the prologue! I would compare and contrast it to Amazon's adaptation, but I cannot because they have not adapted this sequence yet. It's something of a shame, because I think the prologue is very important for making it clear that we're not actually doing a Tolkien-esque story like the early chapters suggest, but after seeing Winter Dragon I can also sympathize with not wanting to lead with this. That said, I am deeply depressed we couldn't keep Billy Zane and hope against hope that Rafe will find a role for him to be crazy in.

The TV show does do a sequence set in the AoL, but it's closer to being an adaptation of part of The Strike at Shayol Ghul than anything else, so I will hold off until we get there after A Crown of Swords.

[shinygoku]

The Beatles [The White Album] (1968)

So, after the terrific high of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and the rather more wobbly TV Special with some songs made for it that was Magical Mystery Tour (and the subsequent US spin that I covered, in opposition to the Band's original intent), The Beatles were in an odd place. India, Brian Epstein's death, John's controversial new girlfriend, tensions tightening enough that Ringo left for a couple of weeks and, of course, one of the longest damn albums ever. As it's a whopping FOUR sides, I'm gonna be doing a lightning round of sorts, let's crack on. (I don't normally hafta write this, but please scroll past the big white void lol)

Yes indeed, in deliberate contrast to the maximalist Sgt Pepper, this one is beyond minimal. The original pressings also had a unique serial number stamped in, but this has gotta be the most austere covers ever. The way the name is off centre adds a little visual interest, and one can argue this too is fine art (though it's a bit sterile for my tastes) and is suited for the task of holding all the varied songs which lack a unifying theme. Naturally, this stark white-ness gives the album it's much more common name, as just naming it after the band is pretty dull and confusing lol

SIDE ONE

Back In The U.S.S.R.: A parody of both Back In The USA and California Girls, but also a dope rock song in it's own right. Paul brings high energy, quickly but clearly sung lyrics and a slightly controversial sentiment where people aren't sure if it's pro- or anti- communism but chose one side to get pissed off at. As this one was recorded before Ringo re-joined the band, it seems the other 3 all had a certain amount of percussion presence instead. It's a good start to the album but not an all-time favourite.

Dear Prudence: Written in India in an attempt to reach out to fellow Meditation-er, Prudence Farrow, who would hole herself up in her bungalow and not answer for hours on end. It's pretty sounding but I find the name Prudence hard to take seriously... sorry, lady!

Glass Onion: A sequel to I Am The Walrus and packed with references to other Beatle songs, I dig this. It doesn't hafta have secret extra layers to be interesting lol

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da: I am a certified Obladi Oblada ENJOYER and I think anyone who hates it is weak and boring, though I give the band themselves a bit of leeway here as they had to do many, many takes. But the final version is such fun~ And again I find it interesting how said Perfectionist Paul put in that bit about Desmond seemingly doing drag towards the end XD

Wild Honey Pie: Really bad. If it's a sequel to Honey Pie why does it come on before it??

The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill: The story of a lameass hunter who needs his Mum with him on hunts lol. I like how we can quite clearly hear Ringo and Yoko's voices in the choruses, adds a unique flavour.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps: FINALLY!! I can say something really enthused about a George Song for the first time since pre-Revolver! Yeah this one kicks ass, the slightly randoms strings of words still come together to make a poignant, emotive song. Though I'm not wild on the moaning at the end, and I much prefer the Acoustic version, which sounds more intimate and doesn't have Icky Clapton on it. The shamisen cover is nice too but that might be my Weeb side showing, the title does make a bit less sense that way too lol. - Anyway yeah, even this early on in the album this is easily one of the strongest numbers and is a nice showing of what George can do with his turn in the Writing Songs department.

Happiness Is A Warm Gun: A title that aged poorly whether literal or the metaphor for heroin, the song itself is another word salad that John's so fond of. The melody changes a lot so it's more interesting for the ears that way, but I'm not enchanted. Kind of like the album as a whole in that it's a mixture with not-so-hidden darkness, I s'pose.

SIDE TWO

Martha My Dear: An upbeat ditty about Paul's beloved dog. Got some of that old fashioned vibe with strings and brass sections. If ya didn't know about the big shaggy Old English Shepherd muse, I guess the lyrics sound pretty bizarre given Pauls' penchant for writing about Girls, or his displeasure with Jane Asher or Girls who may actually be John.

I'm So Tired: Unlike I'm Only Sleeping, this isn't a soothing ode to being in bed, it's more about being tormented. The lyrics get more testy and sharp with the progression and then some mumbling at the end I can't make out. Maybe a bit too good at portraying stress, I'm not into it.

Blackbird: A song in tribute to the struggles of black girls denied basic civil rights, this feels empathetic and reassuring. Even without the subtext it's a very pretty, low-key song, assisted by real vocals from an actual Blackbird, but I do recommend keeping the message in mind for this one.

Piggies: George at it again, this time with satire! Pretty clearly against Capitalism and the class system, based. We even hear a vocal from George's Mum! Even knowing it's part of the lampooning, the harpsichord and string music sounds pretty, and it helps with the juxtaposition baked in.

Rocky Raccoon: A narrative song about an odd Western scene, in which the title character (furriness status unclear) tries to get revenge on his perceived rival but fails. Easy enough to listen to but probably more notable for naming Rocket Raccoon in Marvel Comics [they had to change the name slightly lol].

Don't Pass Me By: Not just a rare Ringo song, the first one he wrote himself! This again goes for a country and western style and the narrative is similar to the Beatles For Sale type of plots. I dig the fiddle though it feels like there's a filter of sorts over Ringo's beautiful voice? That's odd. Anyway I do prefer it to What Goes On but Act Naturally clears this easy ^w^;

Why Don't We Do It In The Road?: Bad. The piano is neat but wasted. Only a smidge better than Wild Honey Pie.

I Will: A very nice song that's been seized by many, many weddings lol - very much short but sweet and I appreciate that youtube comments also apply this to a lullaby for children.

Julia: I know this is a very personal song of John's, being about his mother, and it's certainly more beautiful and heartfelt than most of this album. My main gripe is kinda petty and it's that the words get strung out a bit long. Everything else is very nice and peaceful.

SIDE THREE

Birthday: A cool rocking tune with lyrics that, while not phenomenal, blow Happy Birthday To You out of the water and into the trash where it belongs. It even gets uptempo for the bridge and changes the melody~ I hadn't heard this one until doing this write up though lol

Yer Blues: I'm not into the heavier stuff, especially knowing John's many, many issues and that this song was one of the ones where he leaned into it a bit to avoid detection. Hard Blues may have good musicianship (like this does, ooh that drumming and guitar work!) and be a decent outlet for one's woes, but I can't enjoy it.

Mother Nature's Son: This is back into a calm, gentle vibe with acoustic guitar and basic percussion. Paul keeps it simple and it's stronger for it, leaning into evocative imagery and humming.

Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey: This title is too long and that pisses me off. Booooo!! 🍅🍅🍅 It's also a very harsh sound straight after the previous song, so I'll dock extra points for that. Otherwise it's an ok rock song I guess but I ain't digging it.

Sexy Sadie: This has an interesting sound and a lot of narrative focus. I think I like the piano best. It's decent. Maybe another great song vastly overshadowed by their own catolague? lol

Helter Skelter: I really like how proto-Metal music was about a kind of spiral slide found at funfairs. Sure, helter-skelter is also a phrase for things being in disarray, but Paul's lyrics clearly talk about the act of going down one'a these things made for children lmao. There's supposedly a secret extra long version, but the take used on the album still features a long coda and Ringo moment. I hope his fingers soon recovered xx

Long, Long, Long: Another George instalment! It starts off very quiet and intimate, and then crashing drums come and go, without it jarring. Then after the song a strange rattling begins and gets jamming to go along with it, apparently it was a wine bottle vibrating on a speaker? Huh! Song overall is nice but this odd ending feels a bit like a miniaturised version of the album, again!

SIDE FOUR

Revolution 1: A cool rock intro that then becomes a pretty vague kinda-political but unfortunately fence-sitting load of waffling. I get they ain't really in the best position to start calling for Landlords to be tarred and feathered, but living in 2024 and the current hellscape leaves me with less patience for this. Also I've no idea if this is the same as the Revolution without a number, I presume it's slower but I don't wanna go listen to the other one when I already ain't digging this. Piggies clears this easy.

Honey Pie: Why wasn't this before Wild Honey Pie?? This one resembles an actual song! Albeit in a kind of chopped up, ad libbing curiosity which swings. A lot more enjoyable than many other things on this compilation, though!

Savoy Truffle: Another George song (that's good!) and another Clapton having one (oh, that's bad). Not gonna lie though, it does make me want to eat some chocolates.

Cry Baby Cry: Another narrative that doesn't make much sense, but I find myself enjoying the lovely instrumental work. Another song that was brand new to my ears, though allegedly it cameos for a few seconds in Yellow Submarine, so I'll try hearing that next time I watch it :3 - Oh, and there's a coda. My main crit being John using an odd small voice for the whole thing.

Revolution 9: Number Nine. Number Nine. Number Nine. Yeah no, if this is an introduction to Musique Concrete then I don't want any. I can never listen to this whole thing, this write-up being no exception.

Good Night: A nice, peaceful song to cap this Experience off, with Ringo's lovely vocal work on a lullaby John wrote for his son. Critics may find it saccharine but I for one welcome it with open arms. Even with the surprize whispering after the main event, it manages to stay on tone and indeed feel like a parent tucking their child in.

CONCLUSION

I considered doubling the Best / Blurst amount but ehhhh, I'll stay consistent. It might be interesting to see what songs end up in like/dislike piles, but I've already spent ages on this, so maybe after the main Album reviews as a bonus issue. Maybe ¬w¬;;

Best 3: Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Helter Skelter

Blurst 3: Wild Honey Pie, Why Don't We Do It In The Road, Revolution 9

Ough. This bitch is Eclectic. There's something for everyone, but that also means there isn't much for some listeners, like myself. I feel this has been my most negative so far but there's some gems, it's just while I generally enjoyed the lesser songs of their earlier work (variable according to how poorly the main jist ages like all the Possessive Songs in AHDN lol), the songs I don't like here feel worse as they're further removed from the music I love, and the Bugs were older and more experienced by this stage and their dumb joke songs feel more irritating. But that's me. I know a lotta people dig the sheer range of choice here, and that's cool. At least in theory.

🪲🪲🪲🪲

Remember how much I wrote and quoted in Sgt Pepper? That was fun. Fortunately I know more amazing songs are coming up, wiiiith (sounds of clicking on another tab) Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road and Let It Be. Ok, as YS only has 4 new songs, I'll group that into the movie review that I'll do later on [and am warmly anticipating!], and Abbey Road was issued first but I am not ending the Albums on Let It Be! I want them to conclude on a HIGH note!!! So yeah, join me in November to Let It C, D, E

[ltwharfy]

"Bob's Burgers" Season 1 Episode Ranking Rewatch (Long Post)

Remember that "Bob's Burgers" episode ranking spreadsheet that @babsvibes came out with a while back? No, well, that's okay. But I personally thought it was one of the coolest things ever.

I particularly love how it calculates average ratings for the seasons because, honestly, I have no freaking clue what my favorite season of "Bob's Burgers" is. I'm certain it's somewhere between seasons 3-10 (inclusive), but other than that, I couldn't say. Because it is an episodic comedy with a rather consistent high level of quality, the individual seasons don't feel that distinct to me. (Now ask me about seasons of "Buffy" or "Deep Space 9" and that's a totally different ballgame...) The writer and director ratings appeal to me for the same reason- I recognize the names of the writers but have never noticed enough variation to label one as a favorite (again, "Buffy" and"DS9" would be contrasts to this.)

But I quickly realized that I couldn't just sit down and rate all the episodes because, for a lot of them, I've never really thought about how good they were. I know the episodes I love and practically have memorized (hey, "Bob Actually", I see you) and I know the rare episodes I had a strong negative reaction. But, honestly, I hadn't thought about "The Hormone-iums" enough recently to be able to assign a number to it.

The solution to this is: rewatch! I'm rewatching every episode and entering a rating in the spradsheet within minutes of finishing it- the ratings are very much a gut reaction after watching the episode! I've finished rewatching season 1 and my thoughts on it are below (I'm also watching episodes I come across on cable when I have the time, so I do have some episodes from later seasons filled in and I'll share subsequent seasons as they get completed.)

Oh, and here's a word about what the ratings mean to me: I'm seeing this as a 1-5 scale that I could rate all TV shows, or even all types of entertainment, on. So, a 3 doesn't mean I think it's an average episode of "Bob's Burgers", it means I think it is an average episode of television. It means it's fine, I wouldn't turn it off if I wanted to watch TV and it was all that was on. I also think of the scale a lot like letter grades with 3= a C, 4=B, and 5=A. That also explains why I haven't actually rated anything a 2 or a 1 yet. The Belcher kids might get Ds on their report cards, but "Bob's Burgers" rarely makes D episodes, IMO.

Okay, if you actually read the several paragraphs of introduction, here are my Season 1 episode ratings (the episode rating is the number in the furthest right column):

The average (mean) for the season was 3.54 and the mode (most common rating) was 3.

Some thoughts on the season as a whole:

First, I think one of my less commonly-held opinions in "Bob's Burgers" fandom is that I don't think Season 1 was awful. It's not as great as the show would become but, honestly, I think it is far from the worst example of Early Installment Weirdness on a show that I love. I've watched the show since it debuted, and even in those early episodes I enjoyed it enough to keep coming back week after week. If it had been cancelled after season 1, I wouldn't've viewed it as a tragedy like "Firefly" or "Terriers", but I would've been annoyed because I thought it was a promising show that made me laugh sometimes and had some talented folks working on it.

Rewatching these early episodes, I still found a lot to enjoy about them. There are some classic storylines and jokes, and while there was definitely a process of fine-tuning that would continue through the first few seasons, I think most of the character's core personalities are pretty recognizable. (Bob is actually the character whose personality seems most different in my book. It was really Bob's personality and the general family dynamic that took the longest to figure out.)

Some thoughts on particular episodes:

One thing I noted while doing the ratings is that 3 can mean at least two different things to me. Sometimes, 3 just means the episode is meh; I'm kind of indifferent it to it but it's okay. "Torpedo" falls in that category. I have very little to say about "Torpedo". Other times, 3 is more of a mixed review, where I loved some things and hated others. An example of that would be "Human Flesh"- I hate the child molester and autism jokes. But I really enjoy other bits, like Hugo's poem, Bob's speech to the protestors that ends up going off the rails, the kids locking Bob out of the restaurant, etc. So, I just average out the good and the bad and give it a 3.

It was interesting comparing my feelings towards these episodes going into them versus the ratings I ended up giving them. I ended up enjoying "Sexy Dance Fighting" and "Sacred Cow" more than I thought I would. Can't really give a good explanation except "they were funnier than I remembered". With "Sacred Cow", I'll add that I really like Randy and his dynamic with Bob, and that, on rewatch, the episode wasn't as mean spirited towards vegetarians as I recalled it being (my sister has been a vegetarian for decades, so I hate when people make cheap shots at them.)

On the other hand, my ratings for "Hamburger Dinner Theater" and "Sheesh! Cab, Bob?" were lower than they would've been if I was just going from memory. For those two, the subsequent evolution of the show made me like them less than I did when they first aired. For "Hamburger Dinner Theater", I remember really liking the songs when it first aired...but the show has done so much more impressive musical work since then that I can't say it's songs elevate it. For "Sheesh! Cab, Bob?", I really dislike the mocking of Jimmy Pesto's diaper fetish towards the end of it. It just seems mean spirited and out of character for the show when compared to later seasons. Yeah, Jimmy's a jerk but we shouldn't mock his sex stuff.

I totally admit that the ratings are shaped by my own personal tastes, and maybe the best example of that is "Spaghetti Western and Meatballs" getting a 4. Why did it get a 4 rather than a 3? Mainly because its really the first episode where we see the softer side of Louise and realize how much her relationships with her family, especially her dad, mean to her, and I love that stuff.

EDITED TO ADD: "Art Crawl"! I can't believe that when I originally posted this I didn't mention anything about the first episode I give a 5. I wish I could give a better explanation than "I found it very funny: but that's pretty much it. It is one that I remembered considering a highlight back when I was first watching this season, and in this case, I found it even funnier than I remembered. I really enjoy Edith and Harold- their voices and hostility towards the Belchers crack me up- and this was a great introduction to them. I particularly love the scene when Edith refuses to let Harold drink water from Bob's Burgers. Oh, and this episode introduces Gayle, too, and does a great job with it! Just a solid, hilarious episode, IMO.

Random thoughts (stuff that doesn't affect the ratings):

Gloria is my least favorite "Bob's Burgers" character. If you had asked me prior to the rewatch, I might say she has no redeeming moments on the show. But in "Crawl Space" she sticks up for Bob and Linda to Mr. Frond. So she has one good moment, in the show's second episode.

The bit of Early Installment Weirdness that bothers me the most? Ms. LaBonz's voice is off! Contrasting her appearance in "Lobsterfest" to her later appearances makes it clear how much the voice helps make the character.

I'm a big fan of the supporting characters in Louise's 4th grade class- Rudy, Kaylee, Arnold, Chloe, Millie, Jessica...so it is so weird that none of them are present in these early episodes but Large Tommy is! Weird to think that after Louise, he was first of those 4th graders to be introduced- he has a non-speaking role in the pilot episode!

Is there anybody out there who ships Normal Sized Jenny and Regular Sized Rudy? They've clearly got a lot in common....(This is a stupid joke. The last thing I need is another Rudy ship.)

I'll probably post something like this when I finish rating each season. The other posts will likely be shorter because they won't have the several paragraphs of introductory text at the beginning. Thanks for reading if you did!