#but another day

[fallen-goldfishcracker]

Part of the reason I find Wyll to be such a compelling character is that he is such a good person, but in what I think is a kinda unique way. 

I've seen a few criticisms of how quickly Wyll seems to switch sides in his initial confrontation with Karlach; how fast he goes from convinced he must kill her to letting her live. For me though, this makes perfect sense. 

The decision Wyll makes in that confrontation not actually whether or not to kill her; he has to decide whether or not Karlach is innocent, but once he's confirmed that, it's not a question.

He commits so quickly to Karlach because he doesn't have to choose whether or not to kill her in that moment; he already decided seven years ago. 

Because at seventeen years old, he decided he would sacrifice anything for the safety of others. 

At seventeen years old he decided that his own life, comfort and happiness was never worth the cost of someone else's. 

And so at twenty-four, he learns the devil he's been chasing is a person, and a victim, and an innocent, and the decision is already made up. 

Because Wyll Ravenguard at twenty-four is who he was at seventeen, and twenty, and ten. 

And to me that's one of the coolest things about him.

There's a separate post I'd like to make about how Wyll never loses his childhood wonder of the world- and I think there's a very similar principle here. Wyll grew up hearing stories of knights who slay monsters and heros in shining armor, and he took those stories and loved them and held them close to his chest. 

And then he's seventeen and a devil asked him if he wants to be a hero, and he's not an idiot; he understands the price of saviourhood so he says yes. 

And so when he meets Karlach, it's never really a question of if he'll kill her. It's just a matter of him finding the courage. 

Because he says "you don't know what you're asking of me" and he's absolutely right, we don't. But Wyll understands the cost; he's understood it for seven years. I'll bet anything that when Wyll Ravenguard made his pact with a devil to save tens of thousands of souls, he promised himself and his city and his father who wouldn't listen that he'd only ever use his pact to help and be good, and when it comes down to it, he sticks to his word. 

Because above all, Wyll Ravenguard is a man who knows who his is and what he beliefs, and who sticks to his principles no matter what, and for me that's incredibly compelling.

[manglechan1204]

Am I the only one being so happy about Missa's mom (aka La Catrina ? ) being canonised in his last stream ?? It means that Chayanne is not protected by only one but 2 deities !!

[gunkbaby]

What I luv luv luv about Shuu lately is how deep his character is. Like I’ve been writing him for 8 years, studying every inch of this man - and my perception and understanding of him changes constantly!!!

Like, a lot of it is me basically growing up having this character and not much else, but still. Every time I reread the manga, or meditate about him, or watch the anime, or whatever - I find something new about him! And I love that! I live for that!

I have always gotten things wrong about him, even now, but I don’t mind as much anymore? Because yes, the idea of not doing him justice devastates me, but I also have come to understand that with Shuu, getting something wrong comes with the correction. I see my flaws in my reading of him mostly when I see something from him that contradicts my idea - I find the character does communicate that. You have to read between the lines with Shuu, and I think my problem with a lot of previous characterisation of him was down to him being taken at face value, or commodified, or viewed through this very specific light. I try to view Shuu as Shuu - but I think lots of people in the past cast a very pessimistic, cynical idea onto him, no doubt due to the edgy nature of the fandom. I do think with Tokyo Ghoul, that there has been a severe lack of more optimistic views of characters and story in analysis. Not that it’s an optimistic story inherently, but I find people get quite into it being this inherently nihilistic view of the story. Tokyo Ghoul - and it’s characters - are grey but people paint it black. I try my best to view it through a neutral, grey lens.

But my point is that Shuu’s like. Completely esoteric to me. I love it. He’s my muse, my religion - he’s both my raison d'être and something that serves to shock it. He challenges me, and then I want to understand that - and it all feels so fucking rewarding.

I find his character motivates me to educate myself more. I read books I would never consider, do hobbies because he does them or I think of him via them. I only drink good coffee because Shuu says so, and when I was in my recovery to begin with - it was Shuu that made me want to get better, and give myself good quality food. And all because I want to understand him, because I want to feel him and know every part of him. Because of that, my life has been genuinely improved by him. He’s my force of good. He has saved my life. I think about where I’d be without him and there is no answer. I got so lucky with finding him when I did - when my mental illness was just showing itself, and just a year before it all fell apart - like. That was when the best thing in my life showed up - and I’m supposed to believe that was coincidence??? Like he’s not literally my guardian angel or some kind of heaven sent messenger???? God is real, you guys, and it exists for all of us.

I’m off-track. I just. I love that Shuu is so esoteric, so hard to understand, sometimes. Yes, he is chronically mischaracterised and I’m not under the impression that I have not contributed to that, but also? Him being like that is so wonderful. I love that he’s so complex, I love that he pushes me to learn and read and study and experience. I just love him quite a bit, you see.

[cyraen-ae]

Mechquest character sheet template

I got overtaken by the sudden desire to design an OC character sheet for Mechquest OCs

I’d be really curious to get feedback for them, see if there’s any info that could be added or any way to organize it to be cleaner

And I’d really love to see other people make their MQ OCs on it! I want to get to know more about other player’s MQ OCs!

SC

No SC

With the house logos below, because due to layering issues (taking the corner of the Mecha’s picture) I felt it’d be easier to have the full segment accessible to people

[ruhua-langblr]

Duolingo Sucks, Now What?: A Guide

Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:

"I just want an identical experience to DL"

Busuu (Languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Korean)

"I want a good audio-based app"

Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)

"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"

Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)

Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)

*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.

"I have a pretty neat library card"

Mango (Languages: So many and the endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)

Transparent Language: (Languages: THE MOST! Also the one that has the widest variety of African languages! Perhaps the most diverse in ESL and learning a foreign language not in English)

"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"

AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)

"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"

AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone

"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"

lingory

"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"

ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)

"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"

Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)

[mcworm]

JUST SAW A FED-EX DRIVER JUMP OUR OF HIS TRUCK AT A REDLIGHT AND RUN UP TO A SECOND FED-EX TRUCK (THREE CARS AHEAD) AND THE GUY LEANED OUT AND THEY JUST KISSED ON THE LIPS? HELLO?

[eldritch-elrics]

obsessed with the april fools day joke from the another crab's treasure devs

[hinamie]

mentor

[proselles]

alex hirsch was really just so pissed that no one saw his epic old man yaoi that he went and wrote a whole new book and made a whole website specifically to show meticulous evidence that this weird old man fucked a triangle.

he really said what were ford and bill really doing in that pocket dimension they shared, hm? did you ever think of that? oh - you think it was just chess? hm. interesting. i dont.

the ultimate rare pair shipper. i have never seen a creator do this before. absolutely fascinating at every angle.

[lemon-wedges]

Sorry you're gonna have to repeat that

[yourangle-yuordevil]

Local goth cryptid goes through a tough breakup 😔

[nyancrimew]

can you explain the ai thing to me as though I were a small child I am in fact very stupid and don't understand what the point being made was supposed to be

the point i am trying to make it that ai is fundamentally a labor issue (and just more broadly a capitalism issue) and should be treated as such, any attempts at trying to classify what makes something "not real art" is a slippery slope leading towards fascism and fundamentally irrelevant in the fight against unethical (uses of) AI. the same goes for any attempts at just making copyright laws more strict, this has never helped any independent artists and never will, at best it'll make any sort of derivative art (including fanart, remixes, collages, etc) basically impossible to do unless you're a massive corporation with an unlimited legal budget.

[aboutiroh]

You know what’s astonishing about Katara? She grew up in a world without bending.

It’s not surprising that Sokka calls her bending ‘magic water’ in the first episode. It might as well have been magic to them at that point; they had never seen it in practice until they meet Aang.

So not only did Katara not have any teachers, she didn’t have any kind of guidance, no visual aids, no idea of how bending is supposed to look or work. The first time she ever sees actual waterbending movements is when she steals the waterbending scroll from the pirates. The first time she meets another waterbender is when she reaches the North Pole, where within weeks she outmasters pretty much everyone and goes on to teach the Avatar.

Everything she does is so incredibly impressive, and yet I can’t help but feel the most proud of her when she catches a fish on that little boat.

[saints-who-never-existed]

“In the war film, a soldier can hold his buddy—as long as his buddy is dying on the battlefield. In the western, Butch Cassidy can wash the Sundance Kid’s naked flesh—as long as it is wounded. In the boxing film, a trainer can rub the well-developed torso and sinewy back of his protege—as long as it is bruised. In the crime film, a mob lieutenant can embrace his boss like a lover—as long as he is riddled with bullets. 

Violence makes the homo-eroticism of many “male” genres invisible; it is a structural mechanism of plausible deniability.”

–Tarantino’s Incarnational Theology: Reservoir Dogs, Crucifixions, and Spectacular Violence. Kent L. Brintnall.

[clownsuu]

S h i n y

[incandescent-mushroom]

House has definitely sent Wilson a dick pic or several but he sends them by email because they are both old men and the titles are things like ‘URGENT: please identify if lung cancer’ or ‘patient biopsy results - respond ASAP’ so that Wilson’s guilt complex makes him feel obligated to open each one just in case someone’s life is actually on the line