#capital wheel

[istandonsnowpiles]

Capital Wheel Sunset

[akosiaubrey]

still

[andrebearakovsky]

Scrolling through twitter and was absolutely ACCOSTED by this image

First of all: OUCH!! My heart!!! Second of all: guys did you forget whose ceremony this is? It is not EITHER of yours!!!

John Carlson getting third wheeled at his own ceremony, as is standard for the life of John Carlson

[keshetchai]

Do you ever just get obsessed with how cultural Christians (esp atheist or agnostic ones) often openly choose to maintain Santa Claus for their kids?

Like think about this with me:

A group of people who don't actively align themselves with religious life, religious institutions (churches) or other traditions, and may even be total atheists STILL sometimes choose to do Santa Claus for their children, because THEY had Santa Claus as children.

The parents give their child a folk demigod (lesser deity?) of outsized importance to children SPECIFICALLY, and teach them the demigod is definitely totally real. They maintain this active belief as long as possible through childhood. They may encourage and actively engage in this belief with their children moreso than anything else involving the religion it comes from (aside from perhaps, the easter bunny). They know Santa isn't real, does not exist, and is a fiction.

They know their children will learn this demigod is a lie. Subconsciously or consciously, the child then learns that Santa Claus is really only as real as the parent intention to make him real, and the child belief in that truth. The child grows up. Knows Santa is a fiction. And then they make Santa for their children too, because that's the only real thing about Santa — parents knowing it's a fiction and then passing it on anyways.

I just like...am deeply fascinated by this unique cultural training of accepting that the Santa deity isn't dead or anything so extreme, and even though he's made up, he is still extremely important and the fiction gets passed on while explicitly knowing and acting upon the fiction. Parents have to be Santa, they can't just encourage belief and sit back. No no, they must actively CREATE Santa's existence for the belief to work. And they do this willingly!

It's not that I think believing in a myth is unusual in any religion (like we don't need to believe hundreds of thousands of Israelites fled Egypt all at once to observe passover or even to think some Hebrews did flee Egypt and the legend developed from there, or w/e), so much as like, this is an incredibly obvious and well known one that every adult Knows 100% is Not Real, not even based on any kind of reality or possible actual legend, Santa doesn't have all those powers, he does not come to your house or get your wishlist (prayers).

No adult has a pure and genuine belief that Santa is a real being who visits and brings children gifts.

I just want to study everyone who actively is like "I don't believe in God or go to church but like, I'll obviously still do Santa for the kids, that's fun."

(Regina George voice: so you agree? Religion doesn't need to be grounded in imperial facts of science in order to provide substantial benefits to people, foster positive emotions and connections within communities, and for people to derive meaning from it? It doesn't matter if God is real, if you yourself make the benefits of God being real happen for yourself and others?")

[toxooz]

Ponti grants Kari Scary Dog Privilege

[braisedhoney]

he doesn’t know what it is.

[allthecastlesonclouds]

also!! y'all!! if you enjoyed caldwell and nathan on game changer and happened to go whoa i need them on d20, caldwell DMs a D&D adjacent game called Drawga with the drawfee cast– and various guests including ally beardsley, rekha shankar, and zac oyama– so if you want to see that, i would highly recommend!

[spearxwind]

Oof I'm kinda scared to ask... Why do you not want to be an artist professionally?

Its just like, incredibly miserable in my experience.

Everyone wants their dream job of being paid to draw whatever the hell they want but 99% of the time you are hired and tasked to draw things that you don't have a lot of interest in, professionally speaking, and constantly getting your artistic efforts undermined by the rest of the team (this is esp. true in the videogame industry) artists always try to push for better designs and get their takes watered down for the sake of general public pleasing. Also you don't have a security blanket unless you're under long term contract. Most freelancers live gig to gig with the fear of not being able to support themselves if they don't take a job to take a break. Videogame and movie jobs arent stable because companies never keep the art teams, they are laid off and rehired whenever there is a new project

During my major, I drew nonstop for 4 years for class. Not always things I enjoyed, but also not always things I didnt like. In fact I enjoyed my major immensely! It was so fun. But the burnout is very, very real, and the workload was similar (even inferior to) regular art jobs. What happens if you like to draw in your off time? You spend your days making and pumping out art nonstop for hours, and then on your free time breaks you draw some more? I personally couldn't do it. I just wanted to do other things

And like.... I spent the first three years being told by teachers (people with stable, contract based jobs) how cool of a job it is to do art, and then the last year getting grilled on how insanely hard it is to make it out there. If you don't have connections, money, an audience, a studio, it's actually impossible. You need to be your own lawyer, abide by the very strict self employment rules that take a severe chunk out of your earnings. Do all of your finance/schedule/marketing etc while on top of that constantly producing work (I know there's people who can do it but, personally, I cannot) I really admire the people who were able to build themselves up as artists from the ground like this (because its definitely possible, just insanely hard)

Also, making something you love into your job ends up being miserable too. I experienced this with patreon, which I posted to as like a chill thing and it just got increasingly hard to make content for it or just post in general, even drawing my own ocs and sharing stuff about them started to feel like a chore.

Maybe it's just me though, this has just been my personal experience but yeah in general I realized I am immensely happier just keeping art as a hobby or its gonna suck my soul out (Since I already experienced it)

I don't mean to discourage anyone, I think the world in general needs more artists. But for that we would need to actually be taken seriously and valued, which sadly we are not, at all. And if there's anyone reading that is considering art as a job: it is absolutely grueling. It's not an easy job. Even if you desperately love art it can suck the life out of you and the joy for what you do

(As an extra sidenote. Artists are usually exploited using this mentality as well. That they are supposed to love their job. So they expect you to work your wrists off "For the passion". Dont fall victim to it)

[canberramaidan]

Ferris Wheel. Peremoga Park in Kyiv, Ukraine.

[markantonys]

I deeply enjoy coming up with WOTshow season structure predictions that will inevitably end up being completely wrong, so behold my rough outline for 8 seasons! I tried my best to think objectively about what's likely to happen, but there are definitely places where I get carried away by What I Personally Want to happen, so let's call this a mix of bona fide predictions and a wishlist.

Season 2

We already know the main structure of this season, so in brief:

Rand wandering alone, then Daes Dae'mar-ing with Moiraine and Lan

Perrin hunting the Horn

Egwene, Nynaeve, Elayne, Mat, Min, Gawyn, and Galad at the Tower

endpoint: Falme

romance checkin: early groundwork laid for Egwene/Gawyn; final letting go of Randgwene on Egwene's side; Rand, Elayne, Aviendha, and Min all meet at Falme

Season 3

Rand, Mat, Egwene, Aviendha, Moiraine, and Lan go to the Waste, then come out of it to take Tear

Elayne and Nynaeve travel to Tear to hunt Black Ajah

Perrin in the Two Rivers

Min, Siuan, and Gawyn involved in the Tower coup; Galad joins the Whitecloaks

endpoint: Two Rivers battle; Stone of Tear battle combined with elements of the TFOH Cairhien battle (such as the Shaido and the formation of the Band) and TSR Nynaeve vs. Moghedien Tanchico battle

romance checkin: Perrin/Faile meet and possibly get together; Rand/Aviendha get together (officially, rather than hooking up and then avoiding each other like in the books); groundwork laid for Rand/Aviendha/Elayne via Rand learning about Aiel polyamory and discussing with Aviendha how pretty Elayne is

Season 4

Rand, Mat, Egwene, Aviendha, Moiraine, Lan, Elayne, and Nynaeve in Tear to start, tackling misc TSR-LOC plot beats (such as: Elayne and Moiraine teaching Rand politics, Mat starting to become a general, continuation of Egwene and Aviendha's Wise One training, Elayne bonding Birgitte, Rand founding the Black Tower, the retaking of Caemlyn, and of course Moiraine vs. Lanfear)

Min, Siuan, Leane, and Logain pass through Tear on their way to Salidar; Nynaeve heals stilling and gentling in Tear; Min stays in Tear to join the main crew; Logain could possibly also stay with Rand to become one of the first Asha'man; Siuan and Leane continue on to Salidar (after Siuan witnesses Moiraine's "death" in an appropriately devastating scene)

Perrin and Faile in the Two Rivers doing some made-up plot before heading off to join up with Rand & co

Gawyn with Elaida's army, Galad with the Whitecloaks

Egwene goes to Salidar and is raised rebel Amyrlin

endpoint: Dumai's Wells

romance checkin: Perrin/Faile in a serious relationship by now; Lan/Nynaeve are reunited; Rand/Elayne get together, so we now have an established Aviendha/Rand/Elayne V with Rand as the hinge; groundwork laid for Elayne/Aviendha; Min grows closer with the other 3 and groundwork for her romance(s) is laid (Elayne/Aviendha romance is a guarantee, but I'm undecided on the likelihood of Min dating Elayne and/or Aviendha in addition to Rand)

I desperately want the Ebou Dar crew to participate in Dumai's Wells, but this poses 2 problems: 1) Elayne being at Dumai's Wells would interfere too much with Gawyn's arc since he'd defect from Elaida's army immediately if he saw Elayne there. 2) Elayne spending the entire season in Rand's plotline means she would Have to be involved in retaking Caemlyn, and if she did that, then she'd have to stay and start her Succession plot early, which I initially was all for, but as I was hashing out this structure I realized that wouldn't leave enough for her to do in later seasons.

So sadly, we may have to send at minimum Elayne, Nynaeve, and Birgitte, if not also Mat, Lan, and Aviendha, off to Salidar/Ebou Dar partway through the season. But Mat, at least, will probably need to still be with Rand for retaking Caemlyn so he can Die And Live Again (and on a personal note I'll be devastated if Rand going apeshit over Mat's and Aviendha's deaths is cut!). This portion of the story is really where everyone ends one plotline and embarks on a new one, so there's lots of room for rearranging various threads.

Season 5

Mat, Elayne, Nynaeve, Aviendha, Lan, and Birgitte in Ebou Dar searching for the Bowl for half the season (midseries climax is Seanchan invasion of Ebou Dar with Mat getting left behind and the others escaping)

In the second half, Mat plans his escape; the others travel to Caemlyn and kick off the Succession

Egwene leads the rebels towards Tar Valon

Rand recovers from Dumai's Wells, meets Cadsuane, defeats Sammael (if he's still around - I've seen theories he might replace Rahvin in Caemlyn, and thus he would already be gone by this season), and fights the Seanchan

Perrin hunts Masema

endpoint: Mat leaves Ebou Dar with Tuon; Rand fails drastically against the Seanchan and realizes a) Callandor is flawed, b) he needs to cleanse saidin; Faile gets kidnapped; Egwene gets kidnapped

romance checkin: Rand/Min get together; Elayne/Aviendha get together; Lan/Nynaeve get married; Mat meets Tuon (note: I strongly hope for Tuon to be introduced in season 4 or even 3 as a character unrelated to Mat who is spearheading a Seanchan plotline)

Season 6

Perrin searches for Faile

Egwene works on taking Elaida down from inside the Tower

Gawyn abandons Elaida's army and joins Egwene's

Mat and Tuon have a plotline that I PRAY is more interesting than the book version of the circus roadtrip and involves actual character development for Tuon

Rand and Min go to Caemlyn early on and the polycule is formalized; Rand leaves Min behind and takes Nynaeve (and Lan) with him for the cleansing, which will be the midseason climax

Elayne, Aviendha, and Min are in Caemlyn doing the Succession (with Min using her viewings to help Elayne), Wise One training, Callandor research (with Elayne and Aviendha using their ter'angreal talents to help Min), and strengthening their relationships with each other (personal hope: first-sisters is maintained as specifically a metamour relationship, and so with Elayne and Aviendha on the path to be regular wives instead of sister-wives, it is instead Aviendha and Min who do the first-sister ceremony. Controversial to take away a major Avilayne moment, I know, but they have so many great moments and Avi & Min desperately need some.)

Rand visits his partners in Caemlyn while recuperating from the cleansing and learns of Elayne's pregnancy, which will proceed to have a major emotional impact on him for the rest of the show, as it should have in the books. The S1 setup of both Rand and LTT as (aspiring) fathers is a strong indication that Elayne's pregnancy and LTT's murdering of his own kids will play a significant role in Rand's emotional arc in the show.

Lan leaves for the Blight after the cleansing

endpoint: battle of Malden; Rand loses his hand to Semirhage; Egwene emerges as uncontested Amyrlin after the Seanchan attack on the Tower (and this structure would mean Tuon is NOT the one responsible since she's still off with Mat, which would assist the arc she should've had wherein Mat's "you're not my enemy but your empire is" line actually makes sense)

romance checkin: we've achieved full polycule formation; Egwene and Gawyn are reunited; Mat and Tuon grow closer

Season 7

Darth Rand

Since Min is still in Caemlyn, Nynaeve is the one Rand almost kills when collared in an early episode, which causes him to subsequently send her away To Protect Her. He does this by ordering her to go investigate the situation at the Black Tower on his behalf, and then the Black Tower plotline is led by Nynaeve and Logain instead of Androl and Pevara (shoutout to @butterflydm for this godtier idea!)

With Min and Nynaeve both elsewhere for the bulk of this season, Rand will actually be completely emotionally isolated during the portion of his arc where he's supposed to be at his most emotionally isolated

But these 2 bullets are definitely my personal wishes, not necessarily genuine likelihood! I just think that in terms of Rand's love life, having S3 focus on Rand/Aviendha, S4 on Rand/Elayne, S5 on Rand/Min, S6 on full polycule, and S7 on Rand alone makes sense and is a much more even distribution of screentime among the various relationships than we see in the books. Plus, sending Nynaeve to spearhead the Black Tower plotline solves the problem of her fading away into a secondary character post-cleansing.

Egwene works on patching up the Tower and hunting Seanchan Bloodknives and/or a Mesaana equivalent (personal hope: Lanfear will take over Mesaana's role in the White Tower)

Adjusting Egwene's timeline to make her already uncontested Amyrlin before Rand's epiphany allows for their first meeting about the seals to be while Rand is still in ruthless mode, which will make their clash and Egwene's wariness of him more believable

Perrin deals with the Whitecloaks and the consequences of his behavior during the search for Faile, finishes wolf bootcamp, and battles Slayer

Mat reaches Caemlyn and Tuon has returned to Ebou Dar to take the throne (personal hope: this is a changed Tuon who's begun unlearning Seanchan conditioning and accepting that she can channel, so her return to Seanchan territory is higher stakes since her worldview now clashes with theirs and Empress Fortuona is only a mask she's putting on to keep them from being suspicious of her)

Elayne ties up loose ends in Andor and with the Black Ajah, then takes the Sun Throne in more detail than she did in TOM

Aviendha completes Wise One training and goes to Rhuidean

Min does something, idk, they're gonna have to do a LOT of storyline-inventing for her throughout since she doesn't do shit after book 4. Hmmm maybe if they were to REALLY overhaul Tuon's arc, she could reach Caemlyn with Mat, make an alliance with Elayne, and then be gateway-ed to Ebou Dar with Min as her Truthspeaker and the intention of trying to end the Seanchan's war against the Westlands?

endpoint: Rand's epiphany

romance checkin: Egwene/Gawyn get together; Mat and Tuon have caught feelings but probably haven't admitted it yet

Season 8

Mat rescues Moiraine, with Birgitte replacing Noal as the person who sacrifices themselves and Siuan possibly replacing Thom for the romance of it all (though I'm unsure how Siuan could cross paths with Mat in time to join the Moiraine Rescue Heist, and I would be ok with Thom still being involved but in a platonic capacity). Unless they want Rosamund back sooner, in which case this could be in season 7.

But they'd have to save at least 1 major pre-AMOL plot point for the last season because AMOL alone is not nearly enough to fill up an entire season. If you condense the repetitive battle scenes it'd be like 4 episodes tops.

So somehow I've gone from "how will they pack 14 books into 8 seasons?" to "wow, 8 full seasons is almost too much time" haha but some seasons are pretty crowded in my structure, so they could shift things around in order to spread stuff out more evenly than I've done using my "the slog scarred me so much that I'll die if the show doesn't resolve every plotline in the same season it's introduced" rule.

[oinonsana]

writing longform prose is so empowering,

what do you mean i have power over time?

what do you mean i can make it so that

every moment is now,

i don't have to keep saying "eventually" or "then"

like my ancestors unchained

from the calendar of greed,

the wheel of the machine god

[riddlemefuckingthis]

I believe that one of the reasons why literature doesn’t feel like it’s literaturing anymore is because we’ve lost an understanding of what art is. Art is political, it is commentary, and one of the things that capitalism uses is the dilution of art to make it not commentary anymore, but a diluted piece of work. You see this with the dystopian craze that happened years ago. Hunger Games came out and a way that people used capitalism was to create their own stories like Hunger Games without the commentary on capitalism. You can also see this with Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Rings was a critique of the Industrial setting that Tolkien was born into, yet the books that followed after Lord of the Rings took influence with the whimsical style that Tolkien had, but didn’t do any commentary on how things were at that time. Robert Jordan kinda did that with the post apocalyptic setting in Wheel of Time but some authors… not so much.

Anyway, that is my essay. Have a nice day.

[darkestaken]

if i was to host a mini event for atoma's independence day this summer would you guys be vibing with that

[minarachelle]

Paris, France - 2023

[whatevergreen]

Capitalism: "We're introducing The Round"

Someone: "It's just a wheel. It's been around since the 4th millennium BC

Capitalism: "But it's now The Round™ and you will pay thousands for the improvement"

Someone: "What improvement?!"

Capitalism: "It is officially even rounder and now provided in a variety of copyrighted patterns and finishes that have nothing to do with function"

Capitalism: "Also, it no longer works without a wifi connection, and a monthly subscription"

[handspunyarns]

See now, I figured Din Djarin would drive a 1970’s Camaro or a 1969 Mustang, not this Speed Racer Mach 5 bullshit.

Discuss.

ETA: oh, Frith, it’s like a late 1960’s Chevy Impala grafted onto the Mach5. Like in a hate-fucking way.