#cliffnotes version basically

[whelpimnauthuman]

I had a thing happen in Clangen and I need to share (and probably eventually draw/make a story about)

For background, the two main cats (Boulderlight and Dustshard) are siblings, in a mountainous Clan known as Crestedclan. Their parents are Fawnstar and Frostsnap, the two are from different litters. Boulder is older with a sneaky personality, Dustshard just graduated a few moons ago and is compassionate.

The Clan recently ended a war with a neighboring Clan; during that time Boulderlight's leg was broken from a trap that had been set. She's nest-bound while it heals, which is fine because she's expecting kits. (Dustshard sympathizes; he had broken a bone during his assessment - he'd graduated on time, and recovered just fine! But he remembers the feeling all-too well)

The kits are born, and after a few weeks Boulderlight's leg heals, although it's horribly mangled- she'll clearly have to relearn how to walk on it.

Dust offers to take his sister out on a walk outside camp - not far, he promises, just to get some air. She happily agrees, although it takes much more effort to convince her mate, Scorchbloom.

"We're not going that far, just for me to get some air. Besides, you heard Lynxstep, I need to exercise my leg-"

Scorchbloom doesn't like it ("Why can't you get some air in camp?") but eventually agrees, going to watch their kits.

I'm kinda vague on details here, but essentially the two go out and enjoy themselves, have some sibling bonding, etc. but are stopped by the smell of rogue. It puts them on edge for obvious reasons, but there's also the fact that the last moon a rogue was spotted, but fled before he could be chased off. The patrol at the time had felt very strange and off-put by how quickly he fled and agreed to keep an eye out.

The siblings now are on edge, and are suddenly confronted by a gang of 3-4 rogues, who, while they don't seem violent, immediately put Boulder on edge. They give off a weird vibe, and she tries to subtly, quietly, get Dust to go back to camp without the rogues noticing, or at least before they get more aggressive. After all, he can at least run and get help.

Dustshard refuses, until Boulderlight physically shoves him, right as one of the rogues leaps. She's forced to the ground, and he bolts, one of the attackers hard on his paws.

The sounds of Boulderlight's battle draw another patrol, but it's already too late - Boulderlight is dead.

Dustshard isn't going back to camp with this stranger behind him. He's going back to his sister as fast as possible. He realizes he knows this territory better than this intruder, so hides himself... Before ambushing the larger cat. Dustshard knows he's losing, but he can at least take this rogue with him. In a final, desperate attempt, he tackles the stranger and pushes them both into what is known to be an unstable part of the mountain...

Hearing his mate's death, Scorchbloom can't return to the nursery...

[naomiknight-17]

Family friends visited from out of town today and they were both straight women and I don't remember how it came up but I had to explain what queer, TERFs and the stonewall riots were

Thank God they were p cool and eager to learn and when I told them the kind of things TERFs believe the older lady was like, "Oh, that's really extreme, that's nasty" and I was like... oh, good, I am glad my Mom's oldest friend knows what's up

[toriangeli]

Y'all scared the shit out of me, freaking out about Armand's horrible lies about Lestat. I was thinking, did he say something irredeemable? Have they decided to make Armand even worse than he is in the books while abusing my second son Lestat unduly? So I've seen the episode now and...

Y'all.

He just.

He literally told the most sanitized possible version of the CliffNotes of the Lifetime movie adaptation of the story, threw in a little wish fulfillment fantasy, and left it at that.

What's the terrible slander, here? That Lestat did, in fact, put his dick in crazy? If he did (which I'm sure he didn't), it wouldn't be his first time, nor his last. That he did it in front of Nicki? He basically did Antoinette in front of Louis, so the audience is not thinking worse of him now.

Just chill, y'all.

Also rofl at the whole reveal after Armand tells Lestat he doesn't have a coven. Out of all of that, that was somehow the hokiest bit.

[eliasdrid]

you keep putting these tokusatsu shows on my dash for months and I have less than zero context what they're about. what's the cliffnotes version to get me interested in whatever these odd looking robots or perhaps creatures are doing?

Alright I'll try my best but it might get long.

To me, the most appealing thing about them is that the suits are very much suits, they often try to use practical effects where they can and there's a lot of neat choreographed fights. There's also often sci-fi elements (which I'm a fan of). Each season of each show seems to be made with love and passion for the genre* too and I've read/seen a few interviews which support this. There's also some very talented actors and it's amazing to watch them play pretend the colorful plastic weapons are real and can hurt you (they really sell it to you if you can suspend your disbelief a little and have some fun).

*edited - I wrote labor of love but forgot it is a specific thing and might not apply very well here?

Anyway. I'll give you the basics. The three big tokusatsu shows you may often see around are: Kamen Rider and Super Sentai (both from Toei) and Ultraman (from Tsuburaya).

Screenshots from: Kamen Rider OOO (2010), Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger (2021) and Ultraman Blazar (2023)

There's others! like Dogengers (screenshot below) - but I'll try to focus on those three.

In general these shows are aimed at young audiences so you have to watch with that in mind. Also, like any superhero show, they will want to sell you merch (figures, toys, plushies, etc).

Another important thing to know is that the seasons of these shows are usually self contained, and each have their own theme, so you can pick any season that catches your eye to check out with no previous knowledge. There are crossovers events (movies and especials) and anniversary seasons which will explore and/or showcase previous content too! I personally really enjoyed Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger (2021) which is a 45th Anniversary Sentai season and I had watched only two other sentais before it.

Now, some differences! so you can tell the shows apart and also know what you will potentially have in store if you decide to watch any. I'll put a read more because this is getting long 👍

Kamen Rider and Super Sentai air all year long, for this reason, seasons usually have 45-50 episodes. All the Ultraman shows I've watched have 25 episodes per season. Meanwhile Dogengers has kept a 12 episodes per season formula so far. Spin offs, specials and reboots have no defined number of episodes (to my knowledge).

I feel like I should mention that (especially in the case of 45-50 episodes shows) the episodes might feel a bit off sometimes? Be aware there's often release schedules with toylines involved* From what I've noticed this usually happens past the mid-season point the closer you get to finale territory. My guess is that, generally at that point, the writing team (or writer) was trying to do things they forgot to properly set up before, tie loose ends and/or finish arcs quickly. *Sometimes other things affect production, like COVID or an actor suddenly not being able to continue with their role.

All shows value The Power Of Love and Friendship and usually feature a team of heroes (or allies) fighting against an enemy faction. There's also, almost always, some sort of transformation device involved and in all these shows the heroes must collect some season-themed item to get power ups. The key difference between each show will be how they decide to play with these things.

Super Sentai is what Power Rangers is based on. If that tells you nothing: there's a team of heroes ("rangers"), color coded suits that are generally not too complex in design and one giant mech vs. giant monster fight per episode (on average). I've not seen too much Sentai so that's all I got for you.

Kamen Rider gives its heroes more complex suit designs and (usually) multiple forms (ascending in strength/skill). Kamen Rider's signature elements are probably: the drivers (belts), the henshins (transformation scenes) and the fact that they often have motorbikes (they gotta ride something).

Ultraman has more of a shared universe between seasons situation going on than the previous two so there's recurring lore. I won't explain that lore to keep this as short as possible. Either there's a host-alien situation (to varying degrees) or the protagonist has the ability to transform. In this show there's always an almost guaranteed Titular Ultraman vs. giant monster fight per episode.

More visuals that might help you tell them apart:

Screenshots from Ohsama Sentai King Ohger (2023)

Screenshots from Kamen Rider Ryuki (2002), Kamen Rider Den-O (2007), Kamen Rider OOO (2010), Kamen Rider Build (2017)

Screenshots from Ultraman Orb (2016), Ultraman Geed (2017) and Ultraman Blazar (2023)

I hope this was helpful! sorry it got long!

[viktoriakomova]

What’s the simone-morgan drama im new here please explain

basically the cliffnotes version (i may be misremembering the details but heres the gist): morgan posted a selfie on her finsta of her and iirc alyona shchennikova after podium training at 2018 classics with a caption to the effect of "ur not the only person here we matter too" [assumed to be about simone and her comeback sucking all the air out of the room] and someone (allegedly jade) was a big snake and sent a screenshot to simone, violating the cardinal rule of finsta! and simone as someone like 5 whole years older than morgan, and not only an actual adult but one who is internationally famous, tweeted something like "come get yalls world champion" thus siccing her millions of followers on someone with way less social capital than her all because shes too emotionally immature to either a) roll her eyes and move on (the better option), or b) keep her beef with a teenager as a grown woman PRIVATE not air it out on social media lmao

[incorrectmahabharatquotes]

i’ve like, watched bits and pieces of mahabharata adaptations, heard a gazillion people talk about what happens in it, and also one random netflix show where they’re judging the characters in heaven?? anyway. my thing was that i’ve never consistently watched/read it, and since it’s such a big corpus of work…. is there like a summary? a list of events? like a wiki?? it’d help a lot

I'm always hesitant to give out singular recommendations for anything, honestly, because I feel like no singular piece of work could ever properly capture every nuance and discourse. A lot of said pieces of work also have stuff that I find objectionable so I cannot endorse them without adding essays worth of caveats.

I wish I had a personalised summary for you that I could tell you to read/watch/listen to for a start. (maybe I should make one? No. That'd be insane of me. That'll take YEARS. It'd be a Project. I couldn't do that. Could I?)

If you're just starting out, maybe some of the compiled and heavily summarised versions would help. Children's book versions of the epic can be helpful to start with, they sanitise and flatten things but as a summary, they work. If you're grown up, it might feel a little odd to be reading children's books but I think they serve their purpose of being little cliffnotes version of events. Baby me had this book called Puffin's The Mahabharata by Namita Gokhale that I liked. I haven't read that book in years so I cannot give you an updated opinion on it.

Jaya by Devdutt Pattanaik also has quick summaries of events, often in bullet point formats which one could find helpful. However, Devdutt Pattanaik has a Thing™ where he's the gateway drug to Hindu supremacist nonsense so you have to watch out for that. Be So Careful, my dude. (My issue of being unable to recommend something without caveats and warnings in action, ladies, gentlemen and theyloveds.)

There's also stuff like Wikipedia, various websites with summaries etc. I would recommend checking citations on those as much as possible. You can peruse through those too.

Once you get a basic level of familiarity, you'll soon realise that everybody disagrees with everybody on events and characterization and there's millions of different versions and there's no "canon". It's chaos out here and that's the beauty of it all. Happy reading!

-Mod S

[cat-astrophe-comic]

SHIT I just realized I never mentioned that the chapter's been delayed to novemeber, sorry I've been working on it & some other stuff so much that I forgot to keep you all updated. I'll have a more formal status update out tomorrow, but for the cliffnotes version:

basically, a personal issue happened in october that set my progress on pages back a bit. nonetheless I've been making good progress on catching up

some panel wips to hopefully tide everyone over somewhat. don't worry, after this posting will go back to the usual 👍

[studentofetherium]

being spoiled on something out of context is a problem because stories depend so much on their context that being told something outside of that context will lack the proper meaning. it's not just about the basic story beats, it's about what led up to it, what the emotions are in that scene, how it plays out

spoilers are the cliffnotes version of a story. it's cheating yourself out of proper engagement

[south-sea]

PLEASE tell me more about your version of Mephiles. What does he like to do as a hobby? How often is Shadow involved in said hobbies? What's their relationship like? Are they friendly?

Even if your thoughts aren't complete you can give me the cliffnotes version please please please please

disclaimer: i am very ill thanks to a medication allergy mishap earlier today, so if this is more ramble-y than usual, i apologize! it has been a rough week health-wise, but for that same reason this couldn't have been better timed. silly guy mephiles is like 1/2 of what my brain is laser focused on rn to get me through it apparently. that said, this definitely got a bit longer than i expected,

-

that's the catch: they don't currently have hobbies (if you don't count being an eccentric goofball). at least, it's difficult to explore new ones on account of being physically tied to semi-modern shadow.

so i'll start there: their relationship is a tenuous one at best. semi-modern doesn't fully trust them. some part of him expects mephiles to slip back into old ways, or to find out they've just been faking the amnesia the whole time. standard tropey stuff like what happened with Mr. Tinker in IDW. and similarly, mephiles is in fact Not Faking It.

on the flipside, it's hard to tell if mephiles is actually bothered by this trend of distrust everyone seems to show them. outwardly, they just roll with/don't even acknowledge it. inwardly, one might be right to assume they've tethered themself to semi-modern's literal shadow specifically to ensure they have at least one guaranteed person to fall back on. people aren't exactly wrong to be cautious of them, either. they are uncanny and unsettling in every way. and when i said shadow's basically their hostage, i wasn't entirely joking.

but shadow's not stupid. mephiles may not remember being a god, but the entitlement and sense of constant attention is burned into their existence. while their methods are usually harmless and subtle if not just silly, they take what they want. shadow knows this, but he lets it slide because ultimately there's no harm being done, and at least this way, he's able to keep tabs on them more easily.

that said, i'd not say they're unfriendly with each other. shadow tolerates their antics, but not begrudgingly. he just thinks they're odd, and occasionally embarrassing. mephiles meanwhile is just having a grand ol' time, all the time. they don't push their luck with shadow and intentionally annoy him, but they generally do whatever, however they want to. even if on average they can't be farther away than four blocks or so, it's not uncommon for semi-modern to turn a corner and find them hosting a tea party with some stranger surrounded by a bunch of shadowy minions.

tea tends to be a recurring theme with them, if just because i'm pulling from various mephistopheles interpretations as inspiration, with a little bit of mad hatter/sheogorath thrown in for good measure. they're meant to be this wacky goofball on the surface, less because they're ~off their rocker~, and more because they're a timeless god that has no concept of/regard for what mortals consider "normal". underneath it, they're suppressing a desperate need/fear.

they want company. what's a good way to get company? you have one of your shadowy minions shepherd some unwitting soul toward a table you've just made out of thin air and serve them tea and snacks. nevermind that this poor person now probably feels pressured into staying put thanks to all the other minions circled around acting as butlers. sometimes it's a genuine attempt to connect to someone. sometimes they're just lying to themselves. they have company now; they're not letting go of it easily.

even then, they're not aggressive or intentionally threatening. it's spooky as hell, sure, and definitely manipulative, but if the person were to try to leave, mephiles would ultimately let them go if an insistent "stay, stay!" doesn't work. at that point they just return to shadow and sulk.

my absolute favorite thing about them is that more often than not, they really do mean well. their motivations might be terribly selfish, but they're not always aware of those motivations themself, so it's all done innocently. they say or do some truly unsettling things that come off as thinly-veiled threats, but in reality they're just being sincere in a blunt way. (which is not to say they're faultless; the whole "lowkey using shadow/holding him hostage" isn't exactly great and i'm not going to claim it is, even if things turn out alright.)

in any case, the two share a mind link of sorts. whether mephiles is physically in semi-modern's literal shadow, or blocks away, they're able to communicate more or less telepathically. oftentimes if shadow looks like he's spacing out or brooding more than usual, he's literally just talking to mephiles (and occasionally maria). i'd liken mephiles's approach to conversation in this way to a pleasantly annoying friend who texts you memes or random thoughts from out of nowhere.

and so, while shadow views their relationship with cautious neutrality if with a bit of stubbornly-ignored fondness, mephiles is a bit more attached, even if they don't consciously realize it. it's a bit like the very early dynamic between second chance shadow and metal; they're in contact a lot due to circumstance, and that naturally leads to the two warming up to each other over time. (they're not nearly as close, though, and likely never will be.)

should semi-modern be threatened in a way he can't get himself out of alone, mephiles is very likely to pop out of his literal shadow and assist in some way, if not teleport them both out to safety. i'd even go so far as to say they're a bit protective of him. they just don't realize that's the case until something's actively happening to warrant those protective feelings.

i actually intend to cook up a scenario like this to kickstart shadow's acceptance that mephiles is genuinely not malicious anymore, and for mephiles to come to terms with the fact they genuinely care about shadow as more than just "convenient company". and hopefully that will in turn lead to mephiles having a bit more freedom, where they start to branch out with physical copies/extensions of themself to explore different interests and the like.

i mentioned it in an earlier post, but future interests might look something like taking a more genuine approach to tea. even if they themself can't drink it, they can look into making their own unique blend based purely on the science(?) of it. how they approach interacting with people may also develop along with it, making things a lot less spooky and instead just kind of purely eccentric/left field.

they could take up acting, an instrument, generally anything related to the arts. hopefully not anything to do with high-stakes gambling like their namesake was so known for (though iirc theatre was also something associated with him, so i'm trying to strike a balance there, too).

something something, the parallels between shadow and mephiles both starting with a narrow view of the world and slowly exploring and coming to appreciate it on a wider scale

[forter-from-meteos]

What is this silly meteos stuff

oh! ohohoho

I took a quick peek at your blog because of the thirnova icon, and love the theming you've got, but i didn't see any meteos posts (which is fine) so I'm gonna give the full rundown 👍

lemme just start by dropping a few links: Miraheze Meteos Wiki - Meteos Wikipedia Page - if you want comprehensive, objective stuff

Alright! Now time for the Cliffnotes version of that stuff, plus my own subjective info

Meteos is a game series consisting of Meteos (2005) for the DS, Meteos Wars (2008) for the Xbox Live Arcade (Xbox 360 online store), and some other titles that I'm not knowledgeable on, like the now defunct Meteos Online and Meteos: Disney Magic (which is just funny to me)

The very basic plot is: The planet Meteo is sending out streams of destructive matter called meteos, which is threatening to destroy all the planets in the universe. The various alien civilizations discovered that when the meteos group in a certain way, they change direction, and launch the meteos falling from the sky back out into space. Now they're fighting back against the meteos, and one of the civilizations has created the Metamo Ark, a spaceship made of meteo ore, to sail to Meteo and defeat it. There's some details I'm leaving out, but this isn't an award-winningly deep plot we've got here.

Actual gameplay is essentially just a match-3 game, but with a twist: meteos (matchable blocks) fall from above, and by moving them through the columns, you match them, and they launch upwards. The real kicker is the many different planets with different mechanics. For example, Forte (the home of my namesake) has a playfield 9 columns wide, has relatively low gravity (stacks fall back down slower) low-ish horizontal launch power (matches where the blocks are next to each other instead of above/below) but very high vertical launch power. And now that I'm typing this, I realize that I'm just saying words, so, uh, I'm just gonna drop another link to this playlist of gameplay samples for every planet in the original Meteos DS. The uploader is playing pretty fast, but it should give a basic idea.

Anyways, subjective opinion time. First of all, the gameplay is simple, but it's really good. Second of all, the art and general visual design is just, also really good. This post is already on the bulkier side, so look through the miraheze wiki if you want some images. I just, I just like it a lot, especially the aliens. They're all just color, no shading, just flat shapes, and the lore is bare-bones, but what's there is so nice and creative! It's beauty in simplicity, and it's a perfect little base to build off of!

Ok, but how could I play it? Well, the roms for both Meteos DS and Meteos Wars are easy to find, and the emulators DesMuMe and xenia are too! The company that made Meteos is defunct now (sad), so I don't think supporting the devs is something you can really do here, but if you really wanna play legit (or if your computer can't handle Xbox 360 emulation, like mine) and you have the consoles, then Meteos Wars is still available for purchase from the XBLA, and there's copies of Meteos DS still floating around on online marketplaces.

In summary, Meteos is a simple but good game (series) with very nice visual design, with easily available roms. If you're thinking about playing it, do. Please. /lh

[choices-and-voices]

Hii can you please explain the real ending of Arthur in the legend? I've heard from it but never really knew the full story :)

~~~ Updated 01/05/2023 after some further reading on my part, because apparently I’m obsessed with Arthurian legend now 😅 ~~~

Hi Anon! No problem, here’s a summary. Disclaimer that I originally made this post using just the Encyclopaedia Britannica, but I now can’t find the articles I originally referenced & I kept coming across contradictions to them in other articles, so I’ve decided to cross-check everything against CliffNotes & sections of original text. If anyone reads this and finds things that still need correcting, please lmk ☺️.

The legend of King Arthur is set in 5th-6th century Britain, although the details of the time & the geography are more fiction than fact. As with all folklore, it developed over hundreds of years through a mostly oral storytelling tradition, so there’s no one version of it. However, most of our modern adaptations are based on a book called Le Morte d’Arthur (The Death of Arthur), written in the 1400s by an English knight named Sir Thomas Malory. Malory basically compiled as many pre-existing stories about Arthur as he could, and also tweaked them to suit his time period. He was the first person to add a lot of the themes of chivalry and brotherhood that are now considered central to the legend. (As a side-note, Malory also went to great lengths to link the legend to his homeland, which can make his descriptions of geography even more confusing. He frequently mentions England and reports that Arthur became King of England by pulling the sword from the stone, when actually, ‘England’ didn’t exist yet in Arthur’s time. Instead, the island of England/Scotland/Wales was divided into many independent kingdoms, like Camelot and Carmelide, and the only way to collectively refer to them was as ‘Britain’. In this post, I’m going to be mirroring Malory’s language, but it’s worth noting that when he says England, it’s more accurate to say Britain, and when he says that Arthur was the King of England, it’s more accurate to say that Arthur was a King of Camelot who began to unify Britain through his influence & may have been destined to eventually rule it all. In fact, Camelot is usually identified as being in modern-day Wales rather than modern-day England. I know that all of this is tangential, but it confused me a lot during my reading & I wanted to help clarify it for other people, so 😊).

Le Morte d’Arthur sets up Arthur & Guinevere’s relationship very differently to Choices. For a start, they get betrothed earlier in the story, before the Knights of the Round Table are established – in fact, the physical Round Table & the first hundred of its knights are an engagement gift from Guinevere’s father. Secondly, they do know each other a little before they get betrothed – they meet a few months prior, while Arthur is helping defend Carmelide from attack – and although Arthur getting married is a political decision driven by his advisors, his choice of Guinevere as his wife is inarguably a personal decision driven by love. According to Malory, Arthur loved Guinevere from first sight & refused to let Merlin suggest any other brides when the time came, instead sending him to Guinevere’s father to ask him for her hand. We never really learn if Guinevere returns Arthur’s feelings, but honestly, the point is kinda moot – and that’s because, in perhaps the most important difference from Choices, Malory’s Arthur walks into the relationship knowing that Guinevere will betray him. When Merlin suggests choosing another bride, he explicitly warns Arthur that Guinevere will fall in love & cheat with a future Knight of the Round Table named Lancelot, and Arthur puts that aside, marries her anyway, and befriends Lancelot anyway.

I could go on such a long rant here about how complicated Merlin’s characterisation is in Le Morte d’Arthur – even more so than in Choices – and about what the symbolism might be of him making that prophecy & of Arthur ignoring it. But there’s tons more background reading that I’d have to do about that, and it’s also not the point of this post. Suffice to say, I think we’re given enough clues that Arthur ignores the prophecy not because he doesn’t believe it, but because he loves Guinevere and later Lancelot so much that he’d ignore anything just to have them by his side. When the two of them do start their affair, it’s stated that Arthur suspects what’s happening but ‘[won’t] hear of it’ from other people, particularly because of how much he loves & trusts Lancelot. It is left up to the reader whether that means that a) Arthur is deliberately overlooking the affair to protect his wife & friend or b) Arthur is burying his head in the sand about the affair happening – most critical sources go with Option A, but I personally think that both are presented as equally plausible. A similar trend continues throughout the book, with Arthur making several ambiguous decisions that Malory never directly explains, instead leaving us to judge him for ourselves. It’s quite a cool literary technique for a character who lives under public scrutiny, and who has had his story told in so many different ways over the years.

Before I move on, it’s also worth noting that Malory’s Arthur is… not quite as saintly as in Choices, so it’s not inconceivable that he’d struggle to handle the affair gracefully. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still incomparably noble & brave, but he’s also a young man under a lot of pressure who’s prone to dichotomous thinking, bursts of impulsivity, and difficulty telling people ‘no’. He himself has a few affairs between meeting Guinevere and marrying her, including one with a woman whom he doesn’t know is his half-sister with whom he conceives a son, Mordred. Like in Choices, Merlin then prophesies that Mordred will be Arthur’s downfall – more specifically, he prophesies that a boy with Mordred’s birthday will be Arthur’s downfall – but unlike in Choices, Arthur actually endorses Merlin’s horrific plan to prevent that. All baby boys with Mordred’s birthday are exiled to sea in a ship, until Fate, in one of its inevitable twists, sinks the ship and has Mordred wash up on shore. He eventually ends up in Camelot as a Knight of the Round Table, where he plays a big role in everything falling apart.

(And before we move on to that, just one more aside: the half-sister with whom Arthur conceives Mordred is not Morgana, although modern adaptations of the story often conflate the two characters. Her name is Morgause, and she also has four other sons – Arthur’s half-nephews – who are Gawain, Gareth, Agravaine, and Gaheris. I mention them not just because of the nod to Choices, but because they’re also very important in what happens next).

The trouble starts when Lancelot & Guinevere get extremely obvious about their affair, to the point where it becomes common knowledge among the Knights of the Round Table. Most of them ignore it, but there are two – Mordred & Agravaine – who insist on formally bringing it to Arthur’s attention, thus obligating him to deal with it. Arthur initially refuses to do anything unless somebody catches Lancelot & Guinevere ‘in the act’, but Mordred & Agravaine then suggest a plan to achieve that – they ask Arthur to spend a night away from the palace in the hope that Guinevere will invite Lancelot to her chambers, where Mordred & Agravaine will lie in wait for him. And this is the point at which Arthur makes his second ambiguous decision. The facts: Arthur agrees to the plan, and even tells Mordred & Agravaine to take more knights on their stakeout as backup, because Lancelot is more than capable of killing them in a rage. The question: Why would Arthur say that? Is he genuinely still unsure about whether an affair is happening, and eager for his wife & friend to be investigated and captured at any cost? Or is he trying to dissuade Mordred & Agravaine with threats about Lancelot’s wrath, while also making sure that there are witnesses to whatever happens so that nothing gets too out of hand? There are a couple of subtleties in Malory’s writing that might imply Option B – for a start, the conversation about the plan goes back & forth for a while, with Arthur giving three separate warnings about Lancelot before Mordred & Agravaine literally tell him to shut up and let them deal with it. So it’s not hard to read some reluctance in Arthur’s voice, and to consider that maybe he’s grasping at straws trying to stop this disaster he’s been backed into. Secondly, Mordred & Agravaine are explicitly said to be very unsubtle about their plan, to the point where Lancelot’s supporters at the Round Table suspect it and try to warn him. So it’s possible that Arthur is counting on Lancelot & Guinevere recognising and avoiding the trap, meaning that the stakeout will come to nothing and the ‘rumours’ of an affair may actually be put to rest. That said, it’s not like Arthur tries to warn Lancelot or Guinevere himself – sure, he can’t be seen to do that in public, but you’d think that he’d be able to catch Guinevere in private at least. Instead, he goes out hunting, Guinevere summons Lancelot to her chambers, and Lancelot goes, ignoring his supporters’ advice. The two of them are together when Mordred & Agravaine’s 14-knight party starts banging on the door, and everything immediately goes to hell. Lancelot & Guinevere know that they’ll be put to death for treason and agree that Lancelot should escape while he can, so he can return and save Guinevere later. Lancelot does make a show of wanting to resolve things peacefully – he says he’ll voluntarily stand trial in the morning if the knights let him walk away – but by now, everyone is raring for blood. Lancelot ends up killing all the knights except Mordred, who runs off wounded, then escapes Camelot with his supporters in tow. He does offer to take Guinevere with him now that her captors are dead, but interestingly, she turns him down – she actually says that he’s done a lot of harm by killing Arthur’s knights, and she doesn’t want him stealing her as well unless Arthur goes through with her death sentence. This is probably the first sign of doubt that we see from Guinevere, and it’s a cool, subtle hint of what’s to come.

Of course, Arthur does go through with Guinevere’s death sentence, and for once Malory actually explains his reasoning. Arthur has founded his entire reign on principles of honour and equality – on the idea that no one, not even a royal, is above morality or the law. Guinevere has committed treason – has even contributed to the deaths of 13 knights – and the punishment for treason is death, so Guinevere must die. What Malory does leave somewhat ambiguous is Arthur’s actual wishes for Guinevere & Lancelot. The facts: when Arthur first hears what’s happened from Mordred, he mainly expresses grief, both because Lancelot has torn the Round Table apart & because he now has no choice except to put Guinevere to death. He doesn’t express any anger until later, when Gawain tries to convince him to spare Guinevere in case her interactions with Lancelot have been misconstrued. At that point, Arthur says that Lancelot will have a ‘shameful death’ if he ever gets captured, and orders his knights to stand guard at Guinevere’s execution in case Lancelot attempts a rescue – even Gawain, who begs to be excused, and Gareth & Gaheris, who agree to be present but refuse to carry weapons. Now, it is possible that Arthur is doing all of this because he genuinely wants Guinevere & Lancelot dead. But there’s also another popular interpretation that actually, it’s all just for show – Arthur knows that Lancelot is going to rescue Guinevere, and by setting up a public execution with sympathetic guards, he’s maximising their chances of a successful escape while also ensuring he can’t be accused of letting them go. Essentially, he’s giving them a clean break away from Camelot, while also still trying to maintain the laws of the kingdom & his integrity as a king.

Of course, even if that is Arthur’s intention, this story is a tragedy & things can’t go according to plan. This time, the complicating factor is that Lancelot goes on a violent rampage while rescuing Guinevere, killing another 24 knights including the unarmed Gareth & Gaheris. When Arthur hears about this, he’s openly devastated, and I think it’s impossible to argue that he doesn’t have at least some anger for Lancelot from that point on. He does make an attempt to prevent further violence, asking his knights to shield Gawain from his brothers’ deaths so that he doesn’t swear a vow of vengeance, but when Gawain goes ahead with the vow Arthur is quick to offer support. He musters an army from across England and lays siege to Joyous Gard, where Lancelot has hunkered down with Guinevere, his original supporters, and an accumulated army of his own. What follows is an all-out civil war, and Arthur’s emotions are quickly torn from anger & righteousness to heartbreak & regret. There’s one particular scene burnt into my brain where he and Lancelot are duelling one-on-one, Lancelot refuses to kill him despite the fact that it would end the war, and Arthur just breaks down in tears, because he doesn’t want to be fighting anymore. Eventually, the Pope gets involved to bring about peace, and decrees that Lancelot & Guinevere be pardoned, that Guinevere be returned to Arthur, and that Lancelot be exiled to France. This leads to a tragic scene where Lancelot delivers Guinevere to Arthur before leaving England forever, and every single character cries except for one: Gawain. He refuses to retract his vow against Lancelot & insists on pursuing him to France with Arthur and his army, leaving England in the care of Mordred. Mordred, of course, has been out for trouble since the beginning, and this is the point at which he truly goes off the rails. He forges a letter saying that Arthur has died, gets himself officially coronated, tries to claim Guinevere as his wife (she refuses, fleeing to London & barricading herself in its Tower), and drums up discontent about Arthur’s past reign until public opinion is on his side. It helps that he also inherits most of Lancelot’s supporters, although a few of them do follow Lancelot to France.

When news of Mordred’s treason reaches Arthur & Gawain in France, they return to England to fight him. However, Gawain is already badly injured from repeatedly duelling Lancelot, who always refused to land the killing blow. On his deathbed, Gawain writes to Lancelot, granting him forgiveness and begging him to come to Arthur’s aid. And Lancelot does come, as fast as he can, but – he’s destined to arrive too late. On his final night alive, Arthur dreams of Gawain, who tells him that Lancelot will arrive in a month & that Arthur will die if he goes into battle before then. The next morning, Arthur meets Mordred on the battlefield to negotiate a month of ceasefire, but then a snake slithers out onto the field and a knight unthinkingly draws his sword to kill it, breaking the peace. Arthur rides into that battle knowing that he won’t come out alive, and watches in despair as all but one of his knights are also slain. Eventually, he sustains his mortal wound while killing Mordred. His only remaining knight, Sir Bedivere, tries to carry him to safety, but instead Arthur asks him to return Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake & to place Arthur in a boat being rowed by her attendants (including Morgana), who take him to their mystical isle of Avalon. In many versions of the legend, Arthur is said to still lie on Avalon under Morgana’s vigil, being healed from his wounds by a magical slumber from which he will eventually wake up immortal – a ‘once and future’ king. In Le Morte d’Arthur, that rumour does circulate, but Malory is ultimately clear about the fact that Arthur dies on Avalon, and is returned to a forest outside Camelot for a quiet burial. His throne is taken over by a distant half-nephew, his Order of the Round Table dies with its knights, and his dream of unity & honour across England dissolves. Guinevere, filled with grief & guilt, retreats from the world to join a convent, where Lancelot eventually finds her after his return. The two of them still love each other, but Guinevere refuses to renew their relationship, and Lancelot ends up joining a monastery himself as a way of honouring her & showing his remorse. When Guinevere gets sick a few years later, she prophesies that Lancelot will come to perform her funeral & to bury her beside Arthur, and sure enough Lancelot sees her death in a dream & rushes to her side. Six weeks later, he also dies of a broken heart, and is buried at Joyous Gard.

Whenever I revisit Le Morte d’Arthur, I’m always surprised by how subtle & complex a text it is, especially considering how long ago it was written. There are no clear heroes or villains; nobody is blameless in bringing about the tragedy, and yet nobody acts in a way we can’t sympathise with; nobody gets a happy ending at the expense of somebody else. But there is a general idea, reinforced over time by simpler adaptations, that Arthur is the member of the love triangle who suffers most. He loses not just his wife & his friend, but also his kingdom, his dream, and his life. Yes, he makes some questionable decisions along the way, but they’re all made for the sake of other people – he’s torn apart trying to simultaneously protect his loved ones, his country, and his ideals, whereas Lancelot & Guinevere precipitated everything by being publicly affectionate without any regard for the consequences. They also both get at least a chance at a future, while Arthur does not, and I think there’s a public sentiment that it’d be nice to see him end up happy for once. I’m personally really glad that Choices gives us that option, and it seems like some other readers feel the same way. Speaking of which, it’s also nice to see other readers interested in the original legend. Thank you so much for the ask 💕

[dorunasch]

I'm super in love with the Overdress era Cray lore, except Bushiroad is very slow at releasing the unit lore -- or, in the case of the Cray Cross Epic/Glitter unit lore, has not translated ANY of it -- and someone suggested I write detailed summaries of it for people who don't want to read it through bad Google translations (I empathize) or who just want to learn a cliffnotes version of the lore.

Is this something people would be interested in? I don't want to spend a lot of time on it if nobody really cares about the lore (though, in my opinion, the Overdress lore is insanely good and anyone who liked OG/G lore will love this stuff).

The basic premise of the Cray Cross Epic is that a young Neo Nectar bioroid named Rorowa is attacked by a mysterious creature and put into a 3000-year sleep, waking up in the Chakrabarthi divine era. The story mostly follows him and his new companions, Radylina and her baby dragon Momokke, as they search for the legendary Fire Regalis -- a crystal that holds the power of fate, power said to be able to grant wishes.

Also, please note that this would be a SUMMARY, not a translation. My Japanese is only good enough to translate a line or two here and there if the translate machine is particularly unclear (or straight up inaccurate).

Anyway, let me know. Thank you. 🫶

[mariorsomething]

hey can you give me a cliffnotes version of what's happening with TMA? I lost track of the fandom after the podcast ended. Are they making a sequel?

I'm definitely not the right person to give you a rundown on this because I'm not totally up-to-date myself but basically there was a tma arg going around recently posted by the official rusty quill accounts on twitter/patreon/insta with a series of codes hidden in videos and such that, when decoded, say things like "are you still listening" and "statement remains" and "the magnus archives two". and no one's really sure what they mean exactly considering the cryptic nature of it all but they seem to be pointing to some kind of sequel, yeah. afaik we're getting more info on the 30th that'll hopefully tell us what's going on!

[lookitsaworm]

This.

We don't need all girl power movies to be more masculine, tom boy type characters. We need that but not entirely that because that's not what all females are like. We also need things where the protagonist is feminine who loves makeup and clothes and boys and it's celebrated.

I think that's where Buffy really excelled because Buffy is overtly feminine and celebrated for it because she's still being a kick ass girl boss. However, at the same time she will do so whilst wearing a really cute halter top and then go home to snuggle with her boyfriend and she will make mistakes both when it comes to fighting and slaying but also real life *cough, cough Riley*

And that's amazing because she's realistic and she isn't perfect and she's still femine and this

1) makes her more realistic and therefore a better role model because we shouldn't raise anyone, male or female, to unrealistic, overly high standards

2) doesn't enforce the toxic idea of for a female (or any person in general) to be good or kick ass they have to be perfect and give up on all femininity; they can be whoever they want and still be kickass, whether they are really feminine and a popular girl like Cordy or Buffy, if they are treated as basically useless all their life like Xander, if they are bookish and nerdy like (early) Willow or Giles.

You can be kickass no matter who you are, just don't be a dick. And even dicks can change/ be good.

Anyways... I feel very passionate about this subject but for the cliffnotes version

•Buffy = feminine girl power and that's good

•You can be whoever you want and still be kickass so don't be a dick

[domesticangel]

Can you tell us more about your guys? Like do they just hang out or are they in a story or something? What’s the Lore there?

YES I will try to do this in a way that makes sense because I have thought a positively insane amount about them.

First things first: they’re monster girls and everyone in this universe is a monster person. the reason for this is. Monster People Cool. it’s not much deeper than that. its licherally just a modern setting except with monster humanoid species and said species’ lore woven in as it fits in a modern setting. lilija is a selkie and neale is an angel.

anyway OKAY so basically their whole deal is that they’re a hitwoman duo that work for the same agency called REX, which masquerades as a vague “risk reduction” agency but actually just employs mercenaries and takes on jobs for them to carry out. legally they’re pretty sketchy and an extremely toxic work environment but their owner and CEO Madame Rex has enough money and lacks enough morals that it doesn’t really matter 👍🏻 their story is set in an alternate Vague SoCal Area where crime and corruption is pretty rampant, thus why an assassin agency has a pretty substantial market in their universe and why the Madame has enough local law enforcement in her pocket that they can get away with a lot. ok I can feel myself getting in the weeds here. moving on.

ANYWAY. lilija fell in with REX after being discovered by the Madame on the shooting range of a weapons dealer REX often worked with. lilija’s father was also a hired gun and a hunter so he taught her to shoot from a very young age and by the time she was grown she was a very skilled markswoman, so the Madame was impressed and offered her a job. lili was already on the tail end of a years-long bender sparked by a bad relationship and a car accident that may or may not have altered her brain chemistry so she was like yeah fuck it I’ll kill people for money.

(this is a VERY cliffnotes version but. lilija had a pretty traumatic childhood marked by her fathers’ extremely abusive treatment of her mother, and although she was once a fairly quiet and reserved girl, certain life events triggered an extreme fear of being controlled the way her mother was and she became very controlling and power hungry as a result. as such a career as a ruthless killer appealed very much to her psyche, esp since selkies are often seen as a defenseless species that are captured and kept by others; she has quite the complex about that and made herself into a predator rather than prey)

after lilija had already been employed by REX for years and worked her way up to the top ranks, neale appeared on their radar when lilija suddenly kept running into her on jobs. again very cliffnotes, but neale also had a rocky childhood and eventually ended up on her own in NYC where she fell in with a crime ring that put on fixed underground boxing matches. this was pretty underhanded on the bookies’ part since in this universe angels have the ability of constant regeneration, so she made a pretty good puppet that could either win a fight whenever she needed or go down as she was told. however she’s kinda naive and lonely so she didn’t really care, she kinda just liked having people to hang out with and the money didn’t hurt either. eventually that ring broke up and couple stragglers planned to go out to the west coast and take root there, and neale came with since she didn’t really have anybody else. they tried to set up their own sort of rag-tag mercenary group to get their footing, but REX quickly realized someone was trying to shoulder in on their turf when certain jobs started to line up.

this resulted in neale often getting in the way when lilija was sent out on jobs, which is where their rivalry, love-hate thing began. neale was pretty okay with having a mean, pretty girl beat her up every weak, but it drove lili insane since she’s a workaholic lone wolf type bitch. when neale’s interference began to noticeably trip lilija up, the Madame demanded to know what the deal was, and lilija begrudgingly told her some stupid angel bitch was getting in her way and not to worry about it because she was going to take her out. except when the Madame heard angel, a fairly powerful and near indestructible species, all she saw was dollar signs babeyyy and was like no fuck that, recruit her ass so we can take on even MORE clients 🤑🤑🤑 also worth mentioning angels have varying elemental abilities, neale’s being fire which is great for evidence disposal……and then since lili was her top dog she forced her and neale into a partnership and the rest is herstory girlies!!!

OH and mari is my ram girl, she’s one of many side characters but she’s the most main side character….she’s Madame Rex’s daughter and is very much a spoiled princess type, but her and her ma have a pretty strained relationship since the Madame is ummmmm Not a great mom. as such she often gets peddled off on neale and lili to “babysit” and they’re more or less her main bodyguards LOL

anyway. idk if any of that makes sense like I said I left out A LOTTTTTTT of the specifics but I basically created them to play with and indulge in various interests, likes and loves of mine LOL. a lot of their universe was inspired by things like TF2, archer, kingsman, the nice guys, etc….like THAT level of over the top, just-have-fun-with-it, sometimes goofy sometimes serious. I wanted that stuff but like, with big lesbians and monster girls I nstead.

[regencyofhell-if]

I'm curious about the angels hierarchy. Are archangel's the highest rank? Are there others?

The hierarchy goes as follows from highest to lowest:

Virtues

Seraphs

Archangels

Angels

Nephilim

Archangels are basically the heads of the angelic military. Seraphs (which is technically Lucifer's rank if he wasn't one of the fallen) are the highest order and only the Virtues are above them.

To sum up with a cliffnotes version, Seraphs are the most powerful and their job is to do the bidding of Time, aka the Creator God, to make sure the universe runs smoothly. Lilith is a Seraph.

The Seven Virtues embody goodness and are the caretakers of Heaven, where Time resides. Aurora is one of the Virtues, representing Love. Her sisters represent the other six and are listed as follows:

Tamara is Purity

Abigail is Peace

Delilah is Joy

Joanna is Faith

Isobel is Patience

Cassandra is Knowledge