#Their capitalism destroyed streaming

[punkkboyyluvrr]

i wish there was a way to support independent films without subsequently watching them on a streaming service owned by the most cartoonishly evil billionaire known to man

[fishing-lesbian-catgirl]

Studying sustainability has taught me that the answer to things like “is it better to use paper or plastic bags?” always ends up being something like “we would need to perform an extremely in depth study on the entire life cycle of both types of bags from virgin material collection to product recollection, compare things like amount of product each type of bag can carry, material usage per bag, how frequently double-bagging is occurring, and take into account a ridiculous number of factors down to the fuel efficiency of the trucks that transport them and even after all that we would have to try to find a way to compare whether the higher carbon emissions of producing and transporting paper bags is better than the fact that the plastic bags will be plastic bags for the next thousand years. And at the end of the day all this research would ultimately not be particularly useful because our waste collection streams in the US are so fucking bad it’s depressing.”

And then someone will ask about reusable bags and you’d have to do the study again only to reveal that you need to use the reusable bag like a couple thousand times to offset the carbon emissions it takes to make the reusable bag and make it worth it over disposable bags and that’s not taking into consideration bags breaking before then or being forgotten about completely.

The answer always leads to “it’s incredibly complicated but our current practices are so terrible we would need a full scale restructuring of our economy and practices to such a degree that can literally never happen because our government is lobbied by the people who make money off of said unsustainable practices.”

So the answer to “paper bags or plastic bags?” is that we need to destroy capitalism

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

hi there! love your work! i recently had a prof say that all zoos (USA) are bad (so we shouldn't support them) and sanctuaries are better because using animals for entertainment is morally wrong, most zoo profits dont go to conservation, and conservation efforts are bandaid solutions to capitalism destroying animal habitats, so the real solution is to return the land to indigenous stewards to manage/rewild. i didn't disagree with the last bit, but the argument as a whole felt a little off to me for a reason i couldnt put my finger on. am i off base here? just feeling really unsure about the whole thing.

You're not wrong! There's a mix of reality and personal opinions in those statements, and it's definitely something worth critically examining. A quick fact-check of what they said for you:

All US zoos are bad

There's a massive range of quality of zoological facilities within the US (and around the world). Some are stellar and some are not, and it's really just not accurate to lump them all under the same umbrella for almost any purpose. Unless, of course, your issue isn't with animal welfare, and it's philosophical, which is what it sound like in #2...

2. Using animals for entertainment is morally wrong.

This is one of my favorite things to talk about w/r/t how we exhibit animals. Entertainment has become equated with exploitation and implicit low welfare in the last couple decades, and so you get a lot of people saying using animals for entertainment is wrong. But those same folk will say that they enjoy seeing animals in other contexts, and they think that's okay. Where's the line between enjoying something and being entertained by it? What makes something one and not the other? Also, we know that people learn better from from situations which are enjoyable/entertaining - even just a fun teacher who jokes around vs a dry lecture - so how can that only be a problem when it's used to make viewing animals more impactful? I wrote a whole piece on this a while back (linked here) if you want to dig into this more. Some zoos (and accrediting groups) are shying away from "entertainment" type branding - shows are demos now, for instance - and others are leaning into "edutainment" that's done with good welfare and communicates actual education messaging. In short, this is a personal philosophical belief, and you're right to question if you agree. (Even if you decide you do think that too! It's always good to question why someone is arguing what they believe about animal use, and how they came to believe it).

3. Sanctuaries are better than zoos.

There's two reasons I think he's misinformed here. First, almost all exotic animal sanctuaries in the US are licensed exhibitors - just like zoos! I only know of a couple that don't exhibit to the public at all. It's an important part of their revenue stream, because gate take helps support paying for animal care. Also anything you see from a sanctuary on Youtube, Facebook, or TikTok? Also exhibition! They just message about it differently, and often have a different ethos about how they exhibit (e.g. tours to reduce stress instead of letting people wander, doing conservation or rescue messaging instead of just display). Second... look, most people assume that the word "sanctuary" means a facility is intrinsically more ethical than a zoo, and therefore they must be a good place. In reality, many sanctuaries get much less public and regulatory scrutiny (at the state level) than most zoos. There are good sanctuaries out there, but there are also sanctuaries where stuff goes on that would absolutely be unacceptable at zoos, and it slides because of the assumption that sanctuaries are inherently more moral and ethical and care for their animals better.

4. Most zoo profits don't go to conservation

This is correct! Direct conservation funding is often a small part of the money a zoo makes. However, that's because money goes to things like facility maintenance, new construction, paying salaries, etc. If zoos put all the money they made back into conservation programs, practically, they wouldn't have the funding to continue to operate. The question that I'd suggest asking instead is "where are they putting money into conservation" and "are they doing conservation work or just throwing money at something to display the logo of the program." Also, it's worth keeping in mind that a lot of what zoos do to support conservation isn't necessarily financial. Many facilities contribute "in-kind", by doing things like sending staff to assist with programs or teach specific skills, or by donating things like vehicles and equipment. Research zoos do also seriously contributes to in-situ programs, and breeding programs for re-introduction like the scimitar-horned oryx and the black-footed ferret are also conservation. Could many of the big urban facilities with huge budgets do more? Yes. But looking just at dollars spent on conservation programs is disingenuous and inaccurate.

5. Conservation efforts are band-aid solutions to capitalism destroying habitats / Returning the land to indigenous peoples to manage/rewild is the real solution to conservation issues

This is a little outside my scope so I'm going to only address the part that I know. First off, like, there's no One True Answer to conservation issues. That's reductionist and inaccurate. Conservation really is a human issue, though, and it often has to involve solving human problems that lead to negative results for animals. There's definitely an issue with what some people call "parachute conservation" where Westerners swoop in and try to tell people living in range countries how to best manage their animals and natural resources without recognizing their perspectives, needs, or what drives their behavior towards those animals. That's not just a zoo issue - that's an issue with a ton of traditional Western conservation work. And there is progress towards fixing it! In the zoo world, I've been very impressed with the work out of The Living Desert, where their conservation people spend a lot of time overseas teaching people in range countries to evaluate and improve their own conservation programs, so they can assess efficacy and also have data to apply for grants, etc. They provide support when asked, rather than trying to tell people who live with these animals regularly what to do. One of my favorite programs that TLD collaborates with (they don't try to run it!) is a group called the Black Mambas that reduces poaching by supporting entire communities to reduce the desperation for food/income, educating kids about animals, and running all-female patrols staffed by community members.

Overall, it sounds like your professor's view of zoos is really informed by their personal moral perspective, and possibly reinforced by a lot of the misinformation / misleading messaging that exists about the industry and about conservation work. They do have some specifics right, but not necessarily the context to inform why things are like that. It was a good catch to question the mix of information and approach it critically.

[totopopopo]

I think that capitalism and streaming services have almost completely destroyed the art of the tragedy in mainstream media. Send tweet

[shifuaang]

Just give it a chance! Don't be so harsh! Lower your expectations! You all are being toxic!

The gall, the audacity, the nerve, and the gumption to ask people to give the live action a free pass to be mediocre (and even downright atrocious at times) is laughable. The vast majority of you have ripped into the original show with the same stale arguments over and over and then expect the same fans you've patronized and ridiculed for almost two decades to extend grace to the remake because? it'll hurt your feelings if we don't?

It always, always comes down to the argument that the original is bad!actually because it was created by two white men, which completely disregards all of the show's consultants, animators, writers, producers, etc, many of whom were people of color and women. It has become the easy way out to pull a Bryke card when dealing with any aspect of ATLA that people don't personally enjoy, largely because of shipping reasons. It's so disingenuous and hypocritical, as I have seen the same 'fans' who lambast the original try to get actual POC and Buddhists fired from their jobs, doxxed, or run out of the fandom just for enjoying the canon or certain ships. You don't actually care about anything you're arguing for or against.

Meanwhile, you are willing to make an exception for and be open towards a show produced by Netflix - a streaming service that:

a) is destroying the film industry through homogenization and capitalism b) notoriously cancels its original shows created by marginalized peoples/featuring diverse characters to make room in the budget for mainstream garbage c) treated its writers so poorly that they had to go on strike for nearly half a year d) hired an actor from a fraudulent tribe to play Sokka (even if he has native ancestry, they still perpetuated colorism by giving the role of a dark-skinned character to a light-skinned actor)

So forgive me if I'm unwilling to 'lower my expectations' just because you decided you can't enjoy a show that is basically "what if every horrible fanon take was made canon?" unless the whole fandom is enjoying it with you. I am not going to stop criticizing something that very much deserves the scrutiny it is receiving.

[kittievampire]

Kin of the Demon Prince (pt. 9)

Warnings: Cursing, Childhood Trauma, Mentions of Child Abuse, Mention of Alcohol Usage, Night Terrors, Diavolo x Fem! MC, MC is a fuckin unit

Link to part 1

Link to part 2

Link to part 3

Link to part 4

Link to part 5

Link to part 6

Link to part 7

Link to part 8

Link to part 10

Enjoy.

When did it get so dark?

You couldn't see anything. Couldn't feel anything. None of your senses were working properly.

Is this how it feels when nothing matters anymore? When you can't feel anything, not even pain?

None of the suffering you'd endured could reach you here.

Right?

_

There you were again, hidden away in the cabinet with the few pots and pans that were clean and unused. There was a loud crash and the sound of glass shattering that made you jump, heart dropping as you felt the sudden shifting of the pant beside you.

"Little bitch," You heard him growl out, a hiccup following soon after. "I won't hurt you badly if you come out now, yeah?" A loud thump was heard before he shouted your mother's name. You pushed your palms against your ears, tears streaming down your face and staining the wood of the cabinet.

Then, it was dark again.

The abyss that offered you a break from this nightmare. Your tired gaze shifted upward, and your facial features relaxed as you pulled your knees to your chest. If you could just stay here, that would be nice.

No worries. Not a care in the world.

You closed your eyes, letting out a sigh of bliss as you allowed all of your woes to drift away from you. You could even feel yourself drifting a little.

Something felt wrong.

"MC,"

"MC, wake up!"

"MC.... Selene, you have... wake up!"

Selene?

"Diavolo... Realm... Solomon and Selene..."

Diavolo?

Solomon?

Selene?

_

The demon prince felt a chill run down his spine, gold eyes widening as he recognized the familiar feeling. However, this time it was more intense. An overwhelming feeling of dread washed over him, something icky pooled in his gut, and he felt like he might vomit from the discomfort alone. His mind began to ring, body shifting to accommodate the sudden change in emotion and the urgency of it. Barbatos was at his side immediately. "My Lord, are you alright?" He asked, Mammon letting out a yelp from the other side of the room.

Diavolo clenched his teeth together, brows furrowed, and pupils dilated as his eyes darkened. "Where are you?" He growled out, gold eyes flicking all over the map that was sprawled out on the table. "Damn sorcerer, where are you?!" He slammed his fist against the table, the friction of its legs against the floor making a sound just short of a screech.

He hunched over once more, the ringing in his head growing louder as his vision started to go blurry, and his hands started to feel numb from overwhelming nausea. Barbatos placed both hands on the demon prince, helping him stand upright and trying to get him to sit down. However, Diavolo would not sit. He would not rest for even a moment until he knew exactly where Selene was.

"Temple," He muttered, pulling the map closer to him for further inspection. "Thought it was destroyed years ago, yet it still stands... But where?" The butler at his side glanced at the map, motioning to one of the areas in the Middle East. "The sorcerer's temple was built in Jerusalem, which is now the capital of Israel, Lord." Diavolo swallowed a lump in his throat as the feeling slowly began to drift away.

Mammon was having a difficult time trying to find where he fits in this equation. He knew his role in regards to once they access the human world, but right now he wasn't doing anything. This made him restless.

Suddenly, the room door slammed open. Five of the Seven brothers were visible in the doorway, Lucifer in the back, guiding them all into the room before entering himself. "We want to help MC's child too, Diavolo!" Asmodeus declared, marching forward. "And if you think you can stop us, think again! We're coming to the human realm whether you like it or not! That sorcerer is going to pay for what he's doing to my adorable little niece, making me wait to go baby clothes shopping with MC!"

Lucifer let out a sigh, looking over at Diavolo. "It'd be in your best interest if we came along with you, Lord. He is a powerful wizard, and Belphegor will stay with MC for the time being." Satan nodded his head in agreement. "I've placed a temporary spell on Asmodeus, which I can do the same for Barbatos, to counter Solomon's summoning and control over them. Though it will last only a short while and can be broken easily if he catches wind of it," The blond stated. Mammon shot up. "Alright then! Let's get goin' yeah, Prince-Guy?"

Diavolo couldn't help but smile a little despite the lingering presence of the discomforting feeling. It felt nice knowing that his daughter would grow up so protected. It made him happy for the future.

However, if he wasted any more time daydreaming about a possible future with you and Selene, there was a slight chance that he may not get to see it.

"Take us to the human realm, Barb."

_

Belphegor sat at the side of your bed, trying desperately to wake you up. He was finding it difficult to get into your dreams, which was unusual. Perhaps Solomon's magic was rooted deep in your mind.

"Come on, MC, you've gotta wake up! They're going to find Selene, you can't be asleep when she gets here!"

Nothing.

The Avatar of Sloth let out a frustrated sigh, running his fingers through his messy hair. He'd already tried three more times to invade your dreams but to no avail. Something wasn't letting him in.

He rested his head on his folded arms, looking up at your sleeping face. "MC, please. Please wake up." Belphie's eyes slowly sealed shut.

He'd try one more time.

For you and for Selene.

_

Your eyes shot open, dried tears staining your cheeks, and ragged breath falling from your raspy throat. The wooden floors and the fireplace that were there made you aware that this wasn't the abyss, nor was it the nightmare you'd endured.

"Belphie?" You called out immediately, recognizing this place as the main living area of the House of Lamentation.

No answer.

You scrambled to your feet, wiping your face of any remaining salty tears. "Belphie?" You called out once more, hearing something shift behind you.

You spun around to see the white-haired sorcerer that had you under his spell. He smiled. "Not entirely correct, though Belphegor and Solomon do sound similar," He chuckled. "I must say, MC I'm impressed. Somehow you managed to escape the dreams I gave you, but I wouldn't expect anything less." Solomon grabbed a teacup that sat on the small table in front of him, taking a sip of his tea. "So I placed a cognitive version of myself here in your dream realm to keep you entertained until I'm ready for you to wake up."

You grabbed him by the collar, causing the teacup to shatter onto the floor, and pulled him close to you. "What did you do with her? Where is she?" You were met with a mere smile. "You should be proud, MC. Your daughter is going to be a part of something far greater than you'd ever imagine." That was the first time you'd seen him like this. The look in his eyes, the crookedness of his smile; Had he gone mad?

"What are you talking about?" You asked, voice lowering a bit. Solomon grasped your hand. "Rest assured, MC. I'll make good use of the child's sacrifice. Her power will not go to waste."

You froze, eyes widening. "Sacrifice?" You repeated softly, earning another chuckle from the man before you. Though, this time, you could practically taste the twistedness of his voice. "You seem troubled. Perhaps you should rest a while longer," He said, lifting a hand up to your face.

"No!"

He was gone, and you were starting to feel drowsy.

You stumbled forward, hands resting on the couch before you as you struggled to stand. "You bastard! No!" Your legs gave out beneath you as your body became heavier.

Suddenly, you heard a loud crash. You glanced to the side, catching a glimpse of what appeared to be the Avatar of Sloth in the room. "MC!"

He disappeared.

"Wake up... Selene... Diavolo..."

You trembled, rubbing your eyes.

Selene.

Diavolo.

Yes, you had to think about them. Those two are the only people that matter right now, especially Selene.

You sure as hell were not going to give her up to that sorcerer willingly.

Tag list; @lavynne , @jessiegerl , @romaissa , @krispsprite , @unlikelysublimekryptonite , @t-misaki , @zarakem , @darkflowerav , @lloydlovebot , @lovemidnighteclipse12 , @rose-ly , @quackimilktea , @traumamakesmefunnier , @buggaboorenegade , @simpinginthecorner , @thebixchyravenclaw , @pjsflowers , @basicgukk , @blue-rae18 , @mentallyunpresent

Likes, comments, and reblogs are welcome and appreciated!

Final part coming out next week!

Masterlist

[argyrocratie]

"Degrowth, properly understood, is to be achieved not by reducing either the material standard of consumption or level of output as such, but by destroying the growth in monetized exchange value (which is a measure of the total cost of resource inputs consumed in producing a given level of output). The proper approach is not to impose austerity or limit consumption as such, but to limit the use of resource inputs — in other words, to cease subsidizing the consumption of resources and allowing capitalist corporations to treat them as artificially abundant. The problem of growth must be attacked at the resource end, not the consumption end.

Illich explicitly seeks “lower industrial efficiency.” But the problem is deliberate inefficiency, for the sake of maximizing the utilization of productive capacity. Mass-production tools are only “over-efficient” in the sense that they are too efficient for a production stream determined solely in relation to autonomous demand.

The ideal, from the standpoint of genuine efficiency, would be to site the production process as close as possible to the point of consumption, scale the production stream to autonomous demand, and scale the machinery to the production stream. Mass-production capitalism instead maximizes the output of the individual machine without regard to the demand, which in turn requires redesigning the entire society around a Rube Goldberg device of subsidized waste, long-distance distribution, and high-pressure mass marketing in order to guarantee the consumption of output undertaken without regard to autonomous demand and keep those machines running."

-Kevin Carson, ”The Thought of Ivan Illich: A Libertarian Analysis“

[valoisfulcanellideux]

The 'diaspora from season one' discussion

I just watched Pix's stream from yesterday, wherein he discusses (starting at 01:11:45 into the stream) what the Ancient Capital actually is, while he builds part of the castle wall. There's a LOT of text, as I typed out the discussion - including some questions from chat (anonymised to just 'viewer', because I'm not going to intrude onto anyone's privacy).

WARNING FOR MAJOR SPOILERS

Behind the cut with you!

Viewer: Also i love your elden ring inspired castle Pix!

Pix: Thank you! Turns out this part is inspired by more than just Elden Ring, which we'll discuss in a second, but I still haven't seen anybody in the chat pinning down exactly what it is I'm doing here.

Viewer: Fwhips empire from season one

Pix: [Viewer] has it! Fwhip's empire from season 1. This is a Grimlands build. If you take a look at how I'm constructing this, it's basically copying the design of the outer walls of the Grimlands.

Viewer: That would imply that maybe members of grymlands moved to the ancient capital after the rapture

Viewer: Or that the ancient city was the remains of grymland?

Pix: The idea behind this place - and it's something that I will explain in more detail in future - but the idea is that this castle is going to be cobbled together from design ideas from a few different empires… like, across the history of this world, and that includes season one. So, in this case, I'm thinking Grimlands for some of the walls out here, obviously a bit of my own touches - but a bit of that is just the ruin detail. This [pointing to unfinished tower with diorite in it] is either Ocean Empire or Crystal Cliffs; I'm thinking probably the latter, so I want to do the roof out of amethyst and stuff like that. And then we're gonna to work in a few other details here and there. I'm not going to do absolutely everybody, because that would make the castle look like a huge mishmash of styles. But I do think that it's nice to bring some of that history to a build like this, right? That's kind of the idea.

Viewer: I like that the ancient capital seems to be seeing things that season 1 players did and copying those for their own area

Pix: My loose plan for this - like, the story behind it - is that, after the events of season one in which everyone's empires more or less get destroyed by this giant explosion, everybody started to migrate… the people who populated each of those empires travelled the world and went to different places, and some of them settled here, and started what eventually became this kind of ancient capital of commerce and technology and had this giant castle that they built, with architecture from the various empires. And then, over time, that area just fell into decline. And so there's gonna be bits and pieces of Mythland and Grimlands and Crystal Cliffs, and various other bits and pieces just kind of scattered around this. That's the idea.

Viewer: are you gonna have anything referencing the copper king?

Viewer: So this castle is like the ruin of season 1… I’m here for it

Pix: This castle is like the ruin of season one… kind of, yes. This area isn't meant to be any of the empires from season one; it's meant to have been… it's a very distant place that people from those civilisations ended up going to, basically. And then, over time, people… left. [laughs] And, like I said, this tower and that tower have clearly been attacked at some stage, so either war has broken out - some sort of conflict or some sort of disaster has happened. We've got the fallen masonry from this tower here; I'm gonna do something similar there once I know what I'm doing with the wall.

Viewer: So that explains how David exists, it's a remake of Pixandrian technology

Pix: Yes. So, people have come through vast journeys, ended up here, and a lot of the copper [points camera at museum roof etc] and the fact that there is a copper aging facility underneath here - and the fact that it's a slightly more advanced one than the one I had in Pixandria in season one - is all thanks to Pixandrian migrants settling here and bringing their technology with them.

Viewer: fitting in Pixanndria and Mesalea?

Pix: I don't know about Mezalea, because Mezalea's far too colourful for the build style that I have going on around here. I mean, look at this. A Mezalean build would just stick out like a sore thumb. Plus, Joel has already rebuilt some of Mezalea over there by Jimmy's base in the mesa, so like… that level of things is represented. Likewise, if you've seen some of Lizzie's series, she's hinted at some of her origins as a cat person coming from Joey's civilisation in season one. So I think there's a bit more stuff tying us to season one. I mean, Sausage's whole thing ties in anyway, but like… people have settled here, people have settled at Sanctuary, some of these civilisations are entirely new, there are people who were already here… I mean, I don't know how Joel fits into any of this. But yeah, that's the idea. The idea is that this is a wall, and the design, the architecture has come from the Grimlands.

Viewer: So the Pearl references are directly from that empire

Pix: Yes. So, obviously, with Pearl's death in season one having been like… her withering and that kind of stuff, she's taken on this sort of more… godlike, or sort of martyr figure in the world's religious history, and that's just kind of filtered down [he walks toward and gestures to the Ancient Capital statue] stuff like this. I mean, this is not explicitly meant to be specifically Pearl, but obviously her dress was green, there's like moss creeping up the side of that, there's the mural in the catacombs, there's all of the stuff that Sausage has going on. This [the statue] is meant to be more like how religious figures and iconography changes over time; the fact that it goes through various iterations, a lot of the traditions of the world are more oral traditions - they are storytelling - it's not written or pictographic kind of storytelling; it's more kind of just passed down from person to person. And so, the dress is absolutely modelled off Pearl's dress from season one, but then obviously the iconography of it - the fact that she's all grey and everything - that's a different kind of… that's an amalgamation of several different myths.

Viewer: A diaspora

Pix: A diaspora; exactly, yes. Great word.

[short discussion follows about how it shouldn't be assumed that any potential season three would contain parts of seasons one and two, how some people keep expecting Xornoth to return despite the empires people saying he won't, and how this season will not end the same as the last season with a big cataclysmic explosion or similar disaster because it's creatively stifling to expect that, etc]

Pix: Instead [of that] I wanna do stuff like this, and make it feel like this is already the product of a civilisation that has been enshrouded in the mists of time, and has disappeared into the past without it having to have come to ruin and been completely destroyed, y'know? Like, this is something that's really just been here over time, rather than something that's been destroyed all in one go by some kind of cataclysmic event, y'know?

[hlvrv]

And so, every single member of the ask blog (Yes, including Polite Benrey) had a great time on the rest of their vacation, where Leading Light did not try to kill or scam or summon a G-Man on them.

They later went home, and did NOT go their separate ways like a lot of fantasy stories do.

And they stayed friends for many years to come.

Leading Light successfully became a celebrity washout. He got no consequences for stealing Lady Gaga's entire discography. Him and his band are recovering slowly, but surely. They're learning what true love is again. And are happy.

Dr. Hypnos stole many McDonald's toys. He was later banned. She is happy.

Overlord got the Big Mac he was waiting in line for. He is happy.

DOG went on to share a fruitful partnership with the Love Letters, and his McDonald's is now an empire. DOG is happy.

The Y2K gang still isn't allowed on airplanes aside from Spork and Gordon B, and Joshua is taking his first computer science class this fall. They are happy.

The Swap gang finally got to see Swap propose to Neo. Their wedding was on a cruise ship they stole from the Merch team. They are happy.

The Worldstop household experienced an incredible popularity boom in Malcom's streams, thanks to Darnold agreeing to help him with some more insane things. Malcom and Darnold are now the Jerma equivalent of their world. Player is going to university, and is excelling in all his theoretical physics degrees, and are happy.

The Mad Science Team succeeded in taking over the world, and they made healthcare free for everyone, and made the world a kinder place. Doc also gave every Spiders 2 a funny party hat. They are happy.

The Admins kept gallivanting through space and having fun. Freeman aims to collect every game on the Nintendo WiiU. He is still 100 away. All of them are happy.

Capital M went on to win a Nobel War Prize for destroying property. She has upgraded her ship to have a self-serve ice cream bar and a bowling alley. Vil still has a complicated relationship with friendship, but vil is working on it and being kind to themselves while still being a supervillain. Vil also got a life-sized Eggman statue installed. He is happy.

The Merch Science Team is embezzling millions from Disney cruises after trapping them in a fake lawsuit. They ride the open seas and laugh knowing crime isn't chargable on international waters. They are happy.

Phoenix Wright got his badge back after proving Kristoph Gavin was guilty. He is happy.

GVRV is still stuck in Brazil.

This has been HLVRV.

Signing off.

[evieaxx]

Tbh I would also go crazy if the games I invented had ties to my ex and the friend I betrayed.

Suzanne Collins is a genius or I am going insane. I spent to much time researching these books. Anyways I digress

In MockingJay, Plutarch says this to Katniss to describe the capital and by association Snow himself.

"Thirteen was used to hardship, whereas in the Capitol, all they've known is Panem et Circenses."

"What's that?" | recognize Panem, of course, but the rest is nonsense.

"It's a saying from thousands of years ago, written in a language called Latin about a place called Rome," he explains. "Panem et Circenses translates into 'Bread and Circuses.' The writer was saying that in return for full bellies and entertainment, his people had given up their political responsibilities and therefore their power.""

Snow sacrifices two people in his rush for power. Those two people are Sejanus Plinth and Lucy gray Baird.

One of Lucy grey Baird's first descriptions in the books is clearly linked to the circus.

“She’s like a circus performer,” one of the girls remarked. The other mentors made sounds of agreement.

That was it. Coriolanus reached back into his memory to the circuses of his early childhood. Jugglers and acrobats, clowns and dancing girls in puffy dresses twirling around while his brain grew giddy with spun sugar."

One of the more interesting aspects of Sejanus character is the customs he brings back from living in district 2.

“He’s putting bread crumbs on the body,” said Ma. “So Marcus has food on his journey.”

“His journey where?” asked the Grandma’am. “He’s dead!”

“Back to wherever he came from,” said Ma. “It’s what we do, back home. When someone dies.”

Lucy Gray Baird and Sejanus fate's are not forgotten within the games themselves. Cornelius snow's empire is built on the death of Sejanus along with his customs and respect of the dead. Lucy grey Baird is a temporary sweetness that turns to poison in his grasp. They are the bread and circus respectively and are both consumed by the capitals ideals.

This symbolism goes even deeper when you read the original source material which is Juvenal's Satire X. The fact that it is satire is very prevalent in the hunger games series.

"What indeed do we wish for or fear that is Rational? How often is what we conceive so far from wrong-headed. That we don’t regret both the effort, and the fulfilment of our desire?"

Cornelius's fatal flaw is seen in the first part of the satire. His fear of love led to his desire for money, both destroying him in the end.

"Would you like to be greeted as Sejanus, possess all that he Possessed, be the one to grant highest office to some, appoint Others to military posts, be seen as the Emperor’s guardian,"

The second part is about Sejanus who at the very least inspired the book. It is about a death caused by a letter written because of the underlying envy of his wealth. Then the eventual climb to power is definitely comparable to snow using his death to climb up the social ladder.

"Yet both orators died for their eloquence, a rich overflowing Stream of talent was what sent both of them to their deaths."

This part can be viewed as Lucy Grey's fate. her words and spectacle are only viewed as good when snow controls them. her leaving him and the sound of her music haunting him is her revenge.

This phrase exemplifies Snow's downfall and eventual death

"Few kings go down to Ceres’ son-in-law, Dis, free from

Blood and carnage, few tyrants achieve a tranquil death.  "

[aphextwinselecteduser180819works]

putting in the immense amount of effort required to cultivate an esoteric taste in music just a few years before streaming destroyed any social capital it would have given you feels like being the fastest monastic scribe in Strasbourg at the exact time the printing press was invented

[mymothershumility]

Part 14 Preview

Fire flashes bright in the darkness, amplified by sharp bolts of lightning. The castle groans against the onslaught that bears down upon it, stone cracking and crumbling where struck. For a time, chaos erupts.

Helen and Sansa sprint to them, faces ashen. Tears are streaming down Helen’s face, breaths coming in ragged gasps when she reaches her uncle and her aunt. Sansa does not look far behind, her Tully blue eyes wide with terror.

“What is happening?” Sansa asks, reaching for Laira as Helen collides with Hal’s legs.

‘We have been betrayed,’ Laira thinks to say, the shock and the disbelief beginning to fade to white hot rage. Her husband’s voice echoes within the hall instead, muffled by the crack of stone and the deafening roar of thunder.

“The Tyrells have launched an attack on the island.”

His response is surprisingly calm, his voice even as he murmurs down to Helen and carefully guides her back to Sansa. She goes unwillingly, tugging desperately at the edge of his tunic. She latches onto Sansa’s skirts when Hal moves her himself, hands trembling where they grasp at the pale yellow fabric.

“Where can you take them to hide?” Hal questions, gaze turning to look at his wife. “You know the castle better than I do. Where can you take them?”

Laira can see something forming behind his eyes before she answers him. She does not care for what she sees, does not care for what his question implies. Her rage gives way to dread once more, the feel of it fluttering desperately inside her heart.

“There are passages among the walls,” she tells him. Such passages had been built for instances such as these, built so that the occupants of the castle might hide away or escape from invaders should the castle ever come under siege.

“Take them,” Hal instructs, attempting to turn her away.

“I will not leave you to face our enemy alone.” Her words are firm, hands quaking when he reaches to try and turn her away a second time. She shoves him away, ignoring the tension that is permeating the air about them. “We do not have enough soldiers upon the island to combat what is bearing down upon us.”

Few had remained behind once Daenerys departed to take the capital. Dragonstone had a garrison of its own, yet their numbers were limited. Such a thing is even more true now. Fifty infantrymen and two dozen mounted cavalry at most. There were perhaps two hundred Unsullied and a hundred Dothraki riders left on the island. One of Daenerys’ bloodriders, Aggo, was among the Dothraki screamers. Even under ideal conditions, though, the forces approaching the island would have been difficult for the Dothraki and the Unsullied to vanquish.

Laira had spied over twenty ships out among the waves. Such a number does not include any forces that may be too far out at sea for her to spy. It does not include others that may well be surrounding the island on the opposite side.

They are outnumbered.

“Viserion and I can destroy the fleet while it remains on the water…” Her husband’s voice soon overtakes her own.

“I need you to go with them, Laira!” Hal snaps, the first hints of frustration and panic edging into his voice. He reaches for her again, hands grasping at her shoulders. “Someone has to go with them and keep them safe!”

“I will do them no good if the Tyrells’ dogs overrun this castle!” she snaps in return. They have scarcely raised their voices in anger at one another and never in the presence of Sansa or Helen. The air about them is charged with fear, though. She can hear panicked cries and screams from elsewhere in the castle, the staff having been woken by the onslaught.

They are running desperately low on time. Laira must make him understand, must make him abandon the mindset of a husband protecting his wife and charges.

For now, Laira does not need her husband. She needs the Lord of Winterfell and the Warden of the North in his place. She will need her husband in the aftermath of the chaos. Helen and Sansa will need him as well.

“You know what will happen if those soldiers gain entry into the castle.” War was a terrible thing. It brought out the worst in men. Laira had seen enough on her campaign with Daenerys in Essos. She had seen enough when she had traveled into the North with her husband to regain control of Winterfell.

Hal had seen the very same horrors that she had, had seen more during his own campaign with Robb. She sees the weight of her words press down upon him as she speaks, sees the way his jaw clenches and his shoulders tense. She no more wishes to speak her next words than Hal wishes to hear them.

She speaks them all the same.

“They will kill everyone in this castle.” Stableboys. Maids. Cooks. Footmen. Highborn. Lowborn. Titles and status will matter little. “They will do worse to me.”

The thought is a sickening one, one that makes something dark and terrible settle in the pit of her stomach. But, it will be the outcome that occurs if they do not stop the fleet out on the water. There is only one way for them to do so.

[[ Author's Note: I'd hoped to have this finished before the new year, but it just didn't happen. Hopefully this will suffice until I'm able to finish it. It's moving quick and I am getting close. I think you all will like the chaos. 😇 ]]

[elbiotipo]

Hello! I love your blog and your big brains so I'm here to pick them.

I have a world that is a bowl world. A big alien creature smashed into the planet and destroyed it, and then the planet formed as a bowl. The bowl is lined inside with a sea and some land masses but there are a lot of floating islands formed from the debris. On the outside/underside of the bowl it is a radiated wasteland. Big alien is basically the new god of the world, a parasite that creates new life to colonise the world and farm all its resources, and she feeds off their energy and poops magic. Big alien also psychically projects onto a figurehead who is God Empress of Bowl World. Millions of years later, bowl world is a thriving fantasy world about to have their industrial revolution, but god empress doesn't want these guys to invent machines to do their work cuz she can't feed off their machines only life energy through hard work. So she decides to start devouring the world by draining its energy from the rim inwards. The capital city is in the middle inside of the bowl, and it's where her palace is.

ANYWAY

Bowl World is mostly fantasy hand waved, but I was wondering about seasons, weather, satellites and sun. Since Bowl World is kind of like Flat World +, I just wanted to hear your opinions.

YES, thank you so much for sharing this, this is an awesome setting! I love the idea of a magical ecosystem like this, with gods and their worshippers in a symbiotic/parasitic relationship (the lines often blur)

First of all, much of the stuff I'm gonna talk about is covered in my post about worldbuilding in flat worlds, so linking to it for reference:

But let me talk about a bit more. In a bowl-shaped world, much like in flat worlds, gravity will start to point "perpendicularily", pulling you towards the center. This also means that water and air will flow to the center, especially if your world is bowl-shaped, forming a "bulge" of water and air in the middle. Now, what does this mean? I'm no climatologist, but from what I've looked into it, it would generate a high-pressure area (THE high pressure area actually) which usually, on Earth, means clear skies and stable weather. Winds will inevitably flow towards this high-pressure area, possibly causing storms in a "ring" shaped area about it, and wind and rain erosion on their path. This ring shaped area will probably not be perfectly ring shaped but rather shift around because of geography and "seasons" (more on that below), I'm imagining it a bit like a huge jet stream; again, I'm no climatologist, so I'm not sure on the exact details, but this is a good starting point to consider these effects. However, if your world rotates on its axis, I do believe the effect would be a giant typhoon spining around the center instead. In general lines, you would have a wet, stormy center and a dry, perhaps even airless rim (I'm imagining something like the Andes here), assuming non-magical weather of course. This also might affect the, we could say "routes" of your floating islands and their climate, if they flow with weather patterns.

I'm also sure you already have plans for the central palace or city of your world, but do consider a giant spire rising above a sea that unaturally (in fact quite naturally) rises up like a mountain, inside the eye of an eternal typhoon. Quite the striking image.

Now, about the seasons and sun. Of course in a spherical world like Earth, seasons are caused by the axial tilt as it "wobbles" on its translation around the sun. Flat worlds do not have temperature changes based on latitude as they don't have latitude as we understand it, obviously, but they can also have this tilt. A bowl shaped world brings a question I hadn't considered, however. Depending on how tall your rims are, they will project a shadow as you tilt them. You can actually try this yourself by taking a bowl plate and holding it against a lamp (I actually tried this myself, don't ever say I don't do practical worldbuilding!). This is not an unknown phenomenon, places surrounded by mountains do experience shorter days because of their shadow (this is called "umbría" in Spanish but I can't find the English translation) and of course, this also happens with the long nights in the poles. It's a thing to consider. The rims in this case would have very harsh winters and summers compared to the rest of the bowl world.

Of course, this is assuming your world orbits a star like Earth. If you go the fantasy route of the "sun" (clearly not a real star) orbiting your world, you can play with more stuff. The orbits here are inherently unstable and this is a place where you can handwave it with magic, with your god setting the luminaries in place. This "sun" might get closer or farther in a rather elliptic orbit, giving you seasons without axial tilt, or spin "above" the plane of your bowl, in which case I think the bowl rims would recieve much more light than the center, which might make them even drier. This all depends on what kind of orbit you give your sun, in my flat worlds post I got a bit more in detail about it, but it's really an area where you can handwave a lot with magic if you go this route.

Funny enough, I think a natural satellite might work pretty much like our own Moon. Perhaps the weird shape of a flat or bowl world will mean a different center of gravity and a slightly more elliptical orbit, that might make the moon look closer and farther at regular intervals (good for calendars!) but nothing, I think, fundamentally strange. However, if it's a big moon like ours it will have effect on the tides, and given that there could be a big central sea, this might be more dramatic that it sounds. It might be that the shores of this sea, depending on the effect of the moon, are gigantic intertidal zones exposed to such forces. And in this case I really, REALLY recommend reading about intertidal zones since they are so interesting. I don't really have a way to calculate the effect of tides right now, but I can look into it if you want.

I hope this helped you and do not hesitate at all on asking more stuff! Oh, and this is not required at all, but since this is my personal hobby, here's my ko-fi, if you found this useful and want to give me a tip!

[hikari-ni-naritai]

Emily Isekai Momence: ButaReba

That's right, we're dusting off my short-lived series of reviews to talk about this show. Whether or not I do more in the future remains to be seen, but for now we're pulling out all the stops. For some shows I've tried to maintain a semblance of respect for spoilers, but that will not be the case here. Because I do not think any of you should watch this, though not for the reasons you're expecting. But to clarify, there will be extensive spoilers in this review! I don't expect that to matter to most of you. It's pretty long, so it's going under the cut. Content warning for mentions of sexual assault.

ButaReba, AKA Heat the Pig Liver, AKA The Story of a Man Turned into a Pig, is a show about a biology student in college passing out in a fit of food poisoning from eating raw pig liver and waking up to find that he has been turned into a pig in another world. He is given no name, so I will refer to him as Pig or Mr. Pig, depending on how charitable I am feeling toward him at the time. Maybe Pig-san if I'm feeling silly. Buta-san. I can still hear her voice...

Anyway, Mr. Pig is noticed and rescued from the pig pen by a young girl named Jess. Jess is a member of a slave race known as Yethma. And already that's a whole can of worms, so let's open it right up. Yethmas can read minds and communicate telepathically. Yethmas are sent from the capital city at age 8 with no memory of their past and live in servitude until age 16, when they are required by law to return to the capital. Yethmas are exclusively women. Yethmas wear a metal collar that can't be destroyed or opened. These collars are extremely valuable due to the magic they contain, so hunting Yethmas is a lucrative industry if you've got the stomach for it. Yethmas' bodies also contain magic power, so their organs can be sold for a high price. It is illegal for Yethmas to ride in vehicles. It is illegal to have sex with Yethmas. Magic in this world is performed through the use of special crystals with properties determined by their colour, and Yethmas are the only people who can use Black crystals to perform Miracles. That, I believe, is all the information about Yethmas we need right now.

Jess herself is a kind and demure girl, eager to serve. Due to her telepathy, she is able to hear Mr. Pig's thoughts and communicate with him. Naturally, since this is a fetish show, his thoughts are constantly horny about her, and she would be perfectly willing to give it an 18+ rating if not for the fact that he thinks its hotter if she refuses to go along with his horny fantasies and treats him like a pig (as used to describe otaku, rather than the animal). They come to an agreement where Jess will ignore any thoughts from Mr. Pig that aren't in a specific Voice, so they can communicate effectively instead of getting distracted by his constant stream of horny commentary. Thank god.

Jess turns 16 in a few days and is set to begin her journey to the capital. She tells Mr. Pig that the King is, according to rumour, a member of the last family of sorcerers, and can probably use magic to send him back to Earth, so he should come along with her. Mr. Pig agrees. After killing a Yethma hunter in Jess's boss's warehouse, they set out. Let's back up a moment.

Before they leave, Mr. Pig runs into what I shall refer to from hereon in as a Wretched Beast. These are horrible creatures reminiscent of ostriches with the heads of serpents. They keep me up at night if I think about them too much. I hate them. But Jess assures Mr. Pig that they are not dangerous! They don't do much of anything. They just sit around and stare vacantly. In recent years, they've been considered a good luck charm, or an ill omen, depending on who you ask. Wretched Beasts are, biologically speaking, relatively new life. They did not exist before the great Sorcerer Wars many years ago, when the world was overrun by sorcerer families killing each other in hopes of ruling the world. There are no sorcerers now except, presumably, the royal family. But this cannot be confirmed, because nobody's ever returned from the capital. The capital is, apparently, located on top of a massive earthen spire reaching up beyond the clouds. You can see the spire from Jess's house!

The first couple of episodes are about what you'd expect. Mr. Pig is a horny college boy, Jess is an indulgent doormat (according to her, his thoughts are much kinder than those of everyone else more used to the existence of a slave race), and Mr. Pig proves himself to be a resourceful companion. Despite being constantly horny, he's intelligent and able to think up solutions to problems pretty well despite having no real power. Overall, though, it's a vile premise in a vile setting. But unlike every other isekai where slavery is prevalent, ButaReba spends the rest of its episodes (episode 12 excepted, for reasons we'll discuss) digging into its own setting, deconstructing it, and examining it through an unexpectedly respectful lens. Even the horny jokes decrease significantly over time.

The first stop on their journey is a small village, where Mr. Pig and Jess stop at a tavern. Mr. Pig is horrified to see that the tavern has a Yethma collar displayed prominently on the wall, but Jess explains that this is counterintuitively a sign of safe haven for Yethmas on their journey to the capital. Yethma collars separated from their owners are sensitive to negative feelings towards Yethmas and will corrode quickly, so a collar as shiny as the one displayed here means the owners and clientele won't hurt Jess. It's tradition to display the collar of a Yethma you cared about if she is killed and you can manage to recover it, which is why they have one here. The owner explains that they used to have a Yethma who turned 16 and refused to take the journey, choosing instead to live her life in a nearby convent for Yethmas in similar circumstances. She lived to be around 20 before the convent was attacked by Yethma hunters who burnt the stone building fully to the ground before torturing and beheading her to get at her valuable collar. The bandits were then attacked by Local Swordsman whose name I've quite forgotten and don't plan to look up. Local Swordsman was in love with the 20 year old Yethma, so he slew as many of the bandits as he could and recovered her collar for her previous owners. The bandit leader escaped, and Local Swordsman returned to town with the collar, her bones, and an eternal grudge against both the bandit leader and the Wretched Beasts, who had been present around the convent in massive numbers. He used her bones to make swords, but that's not important to the plot.

Mr. Pig, upon meeting Local Swordsman, convinces him to come along on their journey because he can fight, something neither Mr. Pig nor Jess can do. The group then proceeds to their next destination, a larger town.

While in the larger town, Jess hears a telepathic message from another Yethma in the middle of the night. A repeated, chillingly dispassionate plea for help. Unable to ignore this, the group try to follow it to its source, despite Local Swordsman's warnings that it might be a trap. Yethma hunters may have captured her and forced her to send out the warning to draw in more Yethmas. But they follow it to a church on the outskirts of town, where the suspicious behaviour of the priest there convinces the group that they're at the right place. After subduing the priest and his accomplice thanks to Mr. Pig's planning, they enter the basement to discover a horrible dungeon, the walls of which are lined with glass jars containing organs and the cells of which are coated in blood. In the very back, they find the Yethma who was sending out the message and offer to take her with them. The group sets off in the morning with her. Pig remarks on the fact that she's got bigger tits than Jess.

I don't remember her name either, but I feel like it would be cruel not to look it up. Blaise. Blaise is a quiet girl. She's more reserved than Jess. She wears an oversized traveling robe. She doesn't eat much. She was also on her journey to the capital when she was captured by the priest. She didn't expect anyone to answer her call. At that point it had become more of a prayer than anything else, a mantra to repeat to comfort herself. Soon enough, they make it to an inn right on the edge of the forest surrounding the capital spire. This is the last safe haven on their journey, as the woods are notoriously full of Yethma hunters. All Yethmas must pass through the woods, after all.

That night, Blaise asks to speak to Mr. Pig alone outside. He reveals that he is a human from another world, and Blaise reveals that she isn't going to make it to the capital. By the time they rescued her, the priest had already removed several of her organs, so the fact that she was able to even travel this far was a miracle of sorts. She's accepted her imminent death, and tells Mr. Pig that if it would help Jess make it to the capital, she would gladly serve as a decoy in a final act of heroism. Blaise laments the sexism she's faced in this world. As a well-endowed slave, she's been assaulted many times, always with the excuse of "it's your fault for having such a slutty body." Mr. Pig tells her that's bullshit, and it's not her fault. She asks him if the world he comes from is kinder. If she'd been born in his world, would she have to curse the body she'd been born with? Mr. Pig recognizes shamefully that Earth isn't perfect in this regard, but it is better than this world, so he promises her that such terrible things wouldn't have happened to her. She prays that she is born there in her next life. She also tells Mr. Pig of a rumour she heard that in order to get into the city, you have to ask the King. But she doesn't know what that means or how to do it.

I like Blaise. I wouldn't say this is a perfect scene, but the fact that they address and call out the violent misogyny, and that Mr. Pig mourns the fact that Earth isn't as good as it should be, was unexpected and sweet and at the very least not poorly handled. I'd defend this scene. I like Blaise.

The next day, they venture into the forest, where they are immediately confronted by Bandit Leader, archenemy of Local Swordsman, and his Merry Men. They are of course here to hunt Yethmas, and they'd heard Jess would be coming through (Bandit Leader was the one who'd ordered the Yethma hunter to hunt her in the beginning when they killed the guy in the warehouse, so he'd been keeping tabs on her). The show's been suffering from budget issues, so the animation in this episode is. Lackluster, we'll say. Or just "bad". They fight, though it's mostly Local Swordsman and his Big Dog against all the Merry Men. Blaise pretends to be Jess, and Local Swordsman (thanks to Mr. Pig's planning) creates an opening for the real Jess and Mr. Pig to escape and try to make it to the spire while he holds them off. Blaise does not survive this.

The forest, by the way, is full of Wretched Beasts. Wretched Beasts, in fact, have been present and shown throughout the whole journey. Always just off to the side of the road, staring at Mr. Pig and Jess. I hate them, still. Mr. Pig and Jess reach the earthen spire, and there's no way to get in. No stairs, no door, no nothing. They circle it and find nothing. Then they're attacked by Yethma hunters again. After driving them off thanks to Mr. Pig's planning, he finally pieces it together. And I honestly appreciate the way this was done. Often, solving puzzles in anime feels empty. Like they just Figured It Out I Guess. You know? But here, they use established information. Mr. Pig was studying biology, so he begins to question how a creature like the Wretched Beast could exist. The fauna in this world is by and large the same as on Earth, with the only difference being the existence of Wretched Beasts, which don't disturb the ecological balance in any way. They don't seem to do anything, either. They don't attack, they don't hunt, they don't graze. They've just been watching him and Jess, and showed up after the sorcerer war. What if they were created by the royal family, the last remaining sorcerers? And what if they were created to watch Yethmas? That would explain why there were so many at the convent.

But why? Well, Yethmas come from the capital. They're telepathic. They're the only people who can create Miracles. What if Yethmas are sorcerers, sent as slaves into the world for unknown purposes with collars to suppress their powers, and forced to return to the capital to prevent them from being sorcerous in the rest of the kingdom? It could also explain how the convent was so thoroughly burnt, if the sorcerer royal family was watching and used fire magic to destroy it. And in order to talk to the royal family, you'd just have to use the Wretched Beasts, right?

So Jess tries it, and a door in the spire opens, allowing them to climb the stairs upwards safely. They're welcomed warmly by a receptionist who prepares a bath and a room for them, and at this point it's almost not completely fucking weird that there's romantic tension between a girl and a pig. Jess and Mr. Pig are granted an audience with the king, his wife, and his son, where the king explains that Mr. Pig's deductions were mostly correct. Sorcerers were far too powerful, so after winning the war, his family had them all executed. In order to prevent sorcerers from becoming too numerous, all male sorcerer children are executed at birth, and all females are raised to be Yethmas. This keeps their numbers low, as very few Yethmas survive the journey back to the capital. This is also why it's illegal to have sex with Yethmas. Mr. Pig tells the king this is cruel and there has to be a better way, but the king smugly announces that he has no plans to change the system. He invites Jess to join the royal family, an offer I presume is extended to any Yethma who returns to the capital, and I presume results in her becoming a wife destined to give birth to sorcerer children directly into the child meat grinder forever. She does not seem excited by this prospect. The king also reveals that Mr. Pig's body on Earth is still alive, and all he has to do to go back is die. He does not seem excited by this prospect. The king gives them time to consider their options, and.....

That was it. The show's budget issues caused the last episode to be pushed back a couple of months, so I was left waiting with surprisingly bated breath. I'd expected absolutely nothing from this show except horny jokes and uncomfortable moments, but it managed over the course of about 9 episodes to completely turn me around. I'd broken my rule of "Never Judge an Isekai by its Premise", and ButaReba had sucker punched me for it. An isekai so willing to engage with the horrible implications of its premise and setting? Somehow capable of creating poignant and powerful moments despite EVERYTHING about it? This was something special. How is the resourceful and cunning Mr. Pig going to overthrow the despicable Yethma system and create a better world with Jess in only one episode? Sure, maybe it'll be rushed, but that doesn't mean it can't be satisfying. I'll forgive a bit of rush in the face of the the way the rest of the show had gone. Plus the budget issues, I'm willing to look past a lot to call it a satisfying end. And so I waited.

The last episode finally airs. Jess admits she'd used a Miracle to bring Mr. Pig to this world because she was afraid of taking the journey by herself. Mr. Pig and Jess admit that they love each other. Jess insists that Mr. Pig go back to Earth and be happy. Mr. Pig insists that Jess join the royal family and be happy. Mr. Pig would not be happy on Earth. Jess would not be happy in the royal family. They both admit this to each other. They admit that what they both truly want is to be together. They both willingly go to see the king so Mr. Pig can be killed and go back to Earth and Jess can join the royal family. Jess holds Mr. Pig and they cry together as the king executes him, sending him back to Earth, and then she joins the royal family.

On Earth, Mr. Pig wakes in the hospital (depressed) and writes a light novel about his experiences in the other world. He is depressed. He gets a message from people who read his book and want to meet up. He doesn't listen closely (depressed) as they talk about how they ALSO went to that world, and how shit has gone south, and how they figured out how to send someone back there. They send Mr. Pig back there, and he for some reason inhabits another pig at Jess's old house's pigpen instead of being human. The end.

I have never been more disappointed in my life.

Gay Ass Weeb Shit Score:

Gay: 0. There is no gay.

Ass: 3. There is SHOCKINGLY little fanservice in this show, as far as I can remember.

Weeb: 4. The otaku pig fetish the story is based on is pretty weeb, but thats about it.

Shit: 6. I wouldve given it a solid 9 if the ending had been good.

Slavery: Yes.

Shinzo Abe Propaganda: No.

[opinated-user]

first of all, LO, you literally described yourself on the first parragraph. you don't have any respect for any culture, as demostrated for how you treat your "native heritage", but especially none for non western ones. neither the culture or the people for that matter. everytime you have a chance to consider cultural differences or appreciate them, you rolled them into the dirt and claim they don't matter because your own cultural interpretation should be enough. you were the one who in a stream sounded positively giddy at the idea of the USA destroying Japan so throughfully that now there's no real difference between the culture, which means celebrating the total colonization of Japan. that's one of the more openly hateful and disgusting things i have ever heard anyone say about another country, and i'm not even counting the times you refer to the entire country as being filled with pedophiles. second of all... LO, when have you ever looked into any of this? when? because what i have seen, Japanese have a crisis with overworking and people being taken to their absolute limits because of work... since the 90s at least. by saying that it's just capitalism then you ignore the very real history of how the economy of Japan was affected since the first bubble exploded. if it was just "late stage capitalism", then every creative person in the west too would be sleeping on the studios to keep working first hour in the morning and until they literally fell to sleep on the studios. it happens in the west, the reason why people protest for the bad treatment of animators and especial effects people, but it's not nearly as common as it happens in japan. read the accounts of managakas who burned out, were close to it or for some miracle withstand work hours that we can't even imagine here in the west and then tell me it's the same. it's not. in fact, by claiming that there's no cultural factors and it's all some big and vague "late stage capitalism", you're erasing how serious the issue is. you're erasing the culture entirely out of the question and making it about some universal form of capitalism, as if capitalism itself affected all countries and cultures exactly the same around the globe when it very much doesn't do that. how can you say that and pretend like you're not the racist one? third... no, actually, anime wasn't censoring anything. western companies who bought that anime for cheap and thus gave it the bare minimum in term of care censored stuff. Sailor Moon had accidental incest lesbian cousins very obviously in love because of the censorship... something i imagine you were actually pretty okay with. if only they were sisters, then you'd have loved it a lot more. the people who made those animes had nothing to do with that decision, they had no control over how those companies worked. Ghost Stories is an example of a dub company having so much liberty to do whatever they wanted that they completely reinvented the story and characters into something completely different. again, without anyone involved with the original anime having any power to do anything about it or even knowing it was happening. LO keeps having this idea that Japan is making any sort of effort to appeals to westeners and they do not. they make anime for themselves, first and foremost. rather colonialistic mindset to have. so, indeed, those animes were westernized... to avoid queer themes. and it was all done by westeners. once again, this is LO riding the corporate train to avoid blaming those poor defenseless companies and still making it about how the people in Japan are the ones always in the wrong, because she's a racist ignorant white person.

[blueiskewl]

City of Gladiators Fountain Flows Again After 2,000-Years in Turkey

An ancient fountain that was destroyed in a 23 BC earthquake has been restored in Turkey's “City of Gladiators.' Now, the two millennia old water font is streaming drinkable water again, just as it did some 2,000-years ago.

Unearthing Turkey’s Ancient City Of Gladiators

The ancient city of Kibyra, or Cibyra Magna, is situated in the township of Gölhisar in the southwestern Burdur Province of Turkey. In ancient times it represented the capital city of an independent state known as Cibyratis, that lay just outside the north-western limits of the ancient province of Lycia, that thrived in Anatolia from 15-14th centuries BC, and as Lukka until 546 BC.

Strabo recorded Kibyra as having originally been settled by ‘Lydians,’ who were indigenous people in this region of Asia Minor. These people constructed over 100 stadiums and after the Roman general Lucius Licinius Murena defeated the ruler of Kibrya in 83 BC the city became part of the greater Roman province of Asia. Listed on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List , ancient Kibyra is known as the “City of Gladiators.” Now, archaeologists have announced that “a colossal fountain” has been restored and that it will “flow with fresh water for the first time in 2,000 years.”

Piecing Together An Ancient Masterpiece

Dr. Sukru Ozudogru, an archaeologist at Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, recently told Anadolu Agency ( AA) that his team of archaeologists have spent the past four months collecting “150 original fragments from the ruins.” Now, they have successfully “pieced the architectural masterpiece back together.” The “round-planned fountain” measures 15.24 meters (50 ft) in diameter by 7.92 (26 ft) high and after being built it was used for more than 600 years.

The team of archaeologists have also restored the original water supply system from the spring, so that the fountain now flows with drinkable water “just the way it did 2,000 years ago.”

Dr. Ozudogru described the water from the restored fountain as “spouting from the mouths of lion and panther.” Not only do these two animals feature heavily in Roman mythology but they are two of the animals that gladiators fought in the arenas. Incidentally, it was after the discovery of the “10,400-person stadium” that hosted hundreds of gladiatorial fights that Kibyra became known as the “City of Gladiators.”

Rebuilding What Nature Attempted To Destroy

Blending both Roman and Byzantine architectural styles, during the 1000 years of the Roman empire the city became famous for its blood-thirsty gladiatorial contests. However, a 23 BC earthquake almost flattened Kiybra, and if it were not for diligent citizens in the aftermath rebuilding the giant fountain it would have been lost in time long ago.

The AA article said the restoration of the fountain and its two pools required “68 original architectural pieces and 24 imitation blocks produced from the original stone type.” Furthermore, it was observed that the original fountain featured one large circular pool and the second pool was added decades later. Dr. Ozudogru maintains that when the fountain was functional, some 2,000-years-ago, the two circular pools supplied potable water to four different parts of the city.

Sticking With The Original Plan

As far as aesthetics are concerned, fragmentary remains informed the researchers the original fountain was detailed with “elaborate statues of animals, huge columns and embossed friezes.” The archaeologists used two moldings taken from original sculptures that were both unearthed during recent excavations, and the originals are currently being exhibited in the Burdur Museum.

The researcher explained that in Roman times “Water was a mythological hero” that flowed into the two pools from the mouths of “lion and panther” statues. Relating these two animals to Roman mythology “ Heracles lay on a panther skin and Dionysus, the god of wine, wore a lion skin," according to the professor. However, both of these animals were fought by gladiators in the 10,400-person stadium in Kibrya, which Akkurnaz explained “was a building designed for an assortment of blood-soaked spectacles, including gladiator fights and wild animal fights”.

By Ashley Cowie.