#deep learning vs machine learning

[monoscoop]

Whether you are from the field of data science or not, you may have heard terms like artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning. These terms are used interchangeably. Machine learning and deep learning are significant concepts in data science. Though these terms are used in relation, they have different meanings.

Read More - https://monoscoop.com/deep-learning-vs-machine-learning-a-detailed-guide-for-beginners/ 

[niggadiffusion]

The Soul in the Circuit: How Generative AI is Flipping the Script on Art

In the quiet corners of digital imagination, something wild is happening. Machines are sketching scenes that never were, spinning beats no one’s ever danced to, and weaving pixels into poetry. This is generative AI art—where creativity isn’t a solo act anymore. It’s a conversation between human intuition and machine intelligence, a new kind of collaboration unfolding at the edge of what we…

[tejkohli25]

AI vs. AGI: What’s the Difference?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming industries, but its evolution is still in progress. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is the next frontier—capable of independent reasoning and learning. While AI excels at specific tasks, AGI aims to replicate human-like cognitive abilities. Understanding the key differences between AI and AGI is essential as technology advances toward a more autonomous future.

For a deeper insight into the role of AGI and its potential impact, check out this expert discussion.

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

AI is designed for narrow applications, such as facial recognition, chatbots, and recommendation systems.

AI models like GPT-4 and DALL·E process data and generate outputs based on pre-programmed patterns.

AI lacks self-awareness and the ability to learn beyond its training data.

AI improves over time through machine learning algorithms.

Deep learning enables AI to recognize patterns and automate decision-making.

AI remains dependent on human intervention and structured data for continuous improvement.

Common applications of AI include:

Healthcare: AI-powered diagnostics and drug discovery.

Finance: Fraud detection and algorithmic trading.

Autonomous Vehicles: AI assists in self-driving technology but lacks human intuition.

What is Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)?

AGI aims to develop independent reasoning, decision-making, and adaptability.

Unlike AI, AGI would be able to understand and perform any intellectual task that a human can.

AGI requires self-learning mechanisms and consciousness-like functions.

AGI is designed to acquire knowledge across multiple domains without explicit programming.

It would be able to solve abstract problems and improve its performance independently.

AGI systems could modify and create new learning strategies beyond human input.

Potential applications of AGI include:

Advanced Scientific Research: AGI could revolutionize space exploration, climate science, and quantum computing.

Fully Autonomous Robots: Machines capable of human-like decision-making and reasoning.

Ethical & Philosophical Thinking: AGI could assist in policy-making and ethical dilemmas with real-world implications.

Key Differences Between AI & AGI

Scope:

AI is narrow and task-specific.

AGI has general intelligence across all tasks.

Learning:

AI uses supervised and reinforcement learning.

AGI learns independently without predefined rules.

Adaptability:

AI is limited to pre-defined parameters.

AGI can self-improve and apply learning to new situations.

Human Interaction:

AI supports human decision-making.

AGI can function without human intervention.

Real-World Application:

AI is used in chatbots, automation, and image processing.

AGI would enable autonomous research, problem-solving, and creativity.

Challenges in Achieving AGI

Ethical & Safety Concerns:

Uncontrolled AGI could lead to unpredictable consequences.

AI governance and regulation must ensure safe and responsible AI deployment.

Computational & Technological Barriers:

AGI requires exponentially more computing power than current AI.

Quantum computing advancements may be needed to accelerate AGI development.

The Role of Human Oversight:

Scientists must establish fail-safe measures to prevent AGI from surpassing human control.

Governments and AI research institutions must collaborate on AGI ethics and policies.

Tej Kohli’s Perspective on AGI Development

Tech investor and tech entrepreneur Tej Kohli believes AGI is the next major revolution in AI, but its development must be approached with caution and responsibility. His insights include:

AGI should complement, not replace, human intelligence.

Investments in AGI must prioritize ethical development to prevent risks.

Quantum computing and biotech will play a crucial role in shaping AGI’s capabilities.

Conclusion

AI is already transforming industries, but AGI represents the future of true machine intelligence. While AI remains task-specific, AGI aims to match human-level cognition and problem-solving. Achieving AGI will require breakthroughs in computing, ethics, and self-learning technologies.

[galaxyonknowledg]

Understanding Deep Learning: A Comprehensive Guide

Deep learning, a subset of artificial intelligence, has revolutionized various industries with its ability to learn from vast amounts of data. Understanding the fundamentals of deep learning is crucial for grasping its potential applications and impact on society. In this article, we will delve into the intricacies of deep learning, exploring its core concepts, architectures, training…

[bandedbulbussnarfblat]

I made a post the other day that mentioned IEPs. So I wanted to make a post as someone who was worked for the american school system, and explain IEPs versus 504s. I double checked by looking online just to make sure I wasn't spreading misinformation. (Or just the way my severely underfunded county did things, bc they cut corners) And I found this site above that gives a great break down. It offers a pdf with a chart that compares the two. There is a video that explains it as well. There's also video, a podcast, and the transcription available here . That link also has a few links to other resources.

I'm going add a quick summary of the most important details below regarding IEPs vs 504s. I'm also to going to add a link for parents/guardians who either don't speak/have limited English. (Unfortunately the pdf is in English, but you could probably put it through a one of online translators and the gist of what it saying.)

Most important differences between an IEP and a 504:

IEP: Is always written. Includes related services and specially designed instruction.

Generally much more in depth.

Requires any changes made to the IEP are given to parents/guardians in writing before the IEP team meets and makes any changes. You are automatically part of your child's IEP team. You have to right to attend these meetings. They will send a letter, by snail mail, telling you of a time and date they would like to meet. (If your kid has a good teacher, they will call and try to find a date that works for you. If not, you can contact the school and request a different day. Most schools are willing to be accommodating.)

Written consent from parents/guardians is required before evaluation and before the IEP is put into affect. HOWEVER, the student has to fall under one the 13 disability categories.

Typically includes modifications of the what the student is expected to know and learn. (For example, if the student has an intellectual disability, their learning goals will be established by the IEP team.)

This doesn't mean the student will not be presented with general education grade level concepts, just that they will be modified to meet the student's capability.

IEPs have annual goals that are measurable. These goals are made by the IEP team, including parents/guardians. (Aka, there is a lot of progress monitoring.)

Usually teachers will send out a progress report every two weeks. However, most teachers send out less formal methods of progress monitoring weekly or daily. Sometimes it's just a chart in a file folder where the teacher will jot a note of anything that the student was doing well with, or anything the were struggling on. Sometimes it's their complete work for the week sent home, excluding anything the teacher is keeping for records.

An IEP team has to include at least one gen ed teacher, one special education teacher (special education is usually called EC these days) a school psychologist/specialist, a district representative, and the parent/guardian of the student.

An IEP team is required to meet at least once a year, and the student is reevaluated at least once every three years. (Typically they are reevaluated and deemed still in need of an IEP. Though there are cases when students (mostly in high school) have received enough support that they no longer feel the need an IEP)

An IEP is a legal agreement. You have the right to sue the hell out of the school system if they fail to meet it.

504s:

Doesn't include specially designed instruction. Is meant to help student remain in general education.

Doesn't have to be a written document. (Though typically most schools do write documents. Bc otherwise they would not be able to keep track of what students need, bc there are so many).

Usually provides accomadations/assistive technology, but not related services of modifications. (Though sometimes these are also provided, especially if a student fails to qualify for an IEP, but still needs services and/or modifications)

Requires a student have a disability that impacts their education

Much easier to obtain than an IEP bc less requirements

No specific set of rules of who is on the student's plan team. Generally includes the parents/guardians, the student's general education teacher, (in the event the student has multiple teachers, the teacher will probably be their 'homeroom' teacher, and/or the teacher(s) of whatever subject/area your student is struggling in) and someone from administration, such as the principal or assistant/vice principal. Hopefully also someone from EC who has been trained to teach students with exceptional needs.

Parent/guardian consent is needed to evaluate the child, but this consent does not have to be written. (Many schools will still send some sort of consent form, bc the school system believes in documenting everything.)

The school has to tell you of any big changes to the plan, but they do not require your consent before starting them. Generally you'll be sent a letter of those changes in the mail. (If your students team is good at their job, they'll contact you before. Like, the teacher will call and say we are planning on starting x thing on y date, or email you if that's your preferred method of contact.)

504s don't track annual progress or create annual goals. (Though usually teachers will keep their own form of progress monitoring, bc a student with a 504 could be reevaluated and found they meet the criteria of an IEP. For that reason, many schools treat 504s as if they IEPs. Some schools suck though.)

For parents/guardians with limited or no English language known.

Most importantly, if you have a language barrier, your school must provide a competent translator/interpreter. They should NOT expect your child to work as translator for you.

And there is a lot of times where the translator isn't available that teachers will ask a bilingual staff member to translate for them. How you feel about that is up to you. A lot of parents don't mind in my area, bc we are severely understaffed when it comes to translators, and they want a quick response. If it's something you absolutely don't want, be sure to tell the school. You don't have to do so verbally; send a letter in your language stating your wishes. The school will find someone to interpret it. Keep a back-up copy for yourself.

Just as a general rule to all parents/guardians, keep documentation of everything the school sends you. You never know when you may need it.

[ingoampt]

Day 10 _ Regression vs Classification Multi Layer Perceptrons (MLPs)

Regression with MLPs Regression with Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLPs) Introduction Neural networks, particularly Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLPs), are essential tools in machine learning for solving both regression and classification problems. This guide will provide a detailed explanation of MLPs, covering their structure, activation functions, and implementation using Scikit-Learn. Regression vs.…

[planet-hwa]

NSFW ALPHABET — 홍중

A   aftercare hongjoong is big into aftercare. he likes to be close to you after the two of you are intimate, especially since things can get quite degrading during your sessions, but he will be there to remind just how much he truly loves you. he might quickly get up to grab the two of you drinks and some snacks, maybe turning on a movie or just listening to music quietly and talking.

B   body part on your body he loves your hips, especially when there is a nice hip dip involved. it makes it so much easier for him to grip onto you, and he loves squeezing the soft flesh in his hands as he slams into you. on his body he loves his chest and is quite confident in the size of his pecs, it turns him on wildly every time you gawk at his it once he removes his shirt. he's also quite confident in the size below his waistband...

C   cum he was never to fussy on where he liked to finish, until you let him finish all over your face. the sight of his white ropes painting your face drove him insane, and the image burned into his brain — as well as his wallet, which is where he keeps a polaroid of your cum coated face.

D   dominant vs. submissive  there is not a submissive bone in his body, he loooves being in charge. depending on the mood, he can be a soft dom or a hard dom, but majority of the time it's the latter, he just loves having you completely submit to him.

E   experience hongjoong definitely has experiences in all different angles of sex, he has definitely been with a few people prior to you but not an extremely high number — roughly 4 or 5. depending on the experience of his partner, he is willing to take intimacy in a relationship slow and learn what his partner likes first before showing off his true kinks and desires.

F   friends with benefits if hongjoong was in a friends with benefits situation, he would treat it similar to an official relationship. he wouldn't just use you for sex, sometimes he would just want to hang out (even if it does always lead to sex eventually), and when it does lead to sex, he would make sure the both of you enjoy.

G   gentle vs. rough hongjoong can be both a gentle and a rough physical partner, depending on his mood. if either of you are tired but still have need for each other, or he's in a very lovey-dovey mood, he's as gentle as ever. but his usual attitude in bed is rough, especially if he's had a lot of strong emotions throughout the day.

H   have you ever tried this one? since his favourite body part of yours is your hips, hongjoong favourite position is doggy style, where he has the best access to grip your hips. he loves that he can bend you over anywhere and fuck deep into you; on the bed, over the kitchen counter, his desk, the washing machine — his grip on your hips will leave bruises.

I   intimacy since he's a such a jealous person, he prefers to be in a relationship than sleeping around. if he were to have casual hook ups, he would want to be the only person and wouldn't like for his hook up partner to sleep with others; only him.

J   jerking off he doesn't do it often, since he doesn't feel the same pleasure with his own hand as he does with yours. the only time he would do it is when he's overseas and away from you, but he'll use any picture of you that he has to get him off, he might even call you and jerk off to the sound of your voice.

K   kinks [ 1 ] cockwarming: hongjoong loves the feeling of being deep inside you, whether it's while he's working and you're sat on his lap, or the two of you are cuddling before bed, or you're watching a movie with friends and the blanket covering your laps are to disguise your dirty secret — he needs to be inside you at all times.

[ 2 ] orgasm control and edging: he loves watching you squirm underneath him at the overstimulation you're receiving, adores hearing your whines and pleas. whether he does this with his own abilities or with added toys, he will deny and ruin multiple orgasms before finally letting you go.

[ 3 ] somnophilia: hongjoong always works so late in the studio, the two of you rarely get the chance to be physical. he loves the idea of waking you up by eating you out, or slipping his dick in and gently pumping in your gummy walls, the soft moans you make in your sleep are music to his ears — the two of you would have a consensual conversation before with lots of confirmation.

L   location he doesn't like to be interrupted, so the best place for him is in the bedroom when the two of you are alone. however, he's in the studio so often that when you come to visit, you almost always end up getting eaten out in his chair, or fucked deep into the leather couch in the room — thank god the place is sound proof.

M   motivations the thing that turns hongjoong on the most is when you look at him with big puppy eyes, he can't resist them. any intense eye contact can make him crumble in seconds.

N   nudes he's not the type to send nudes unless requested, and he's also not the type to request nudes, but will worship and appreciate the gifts you send him while he's away — immediately in the 'spank bank'.

O   oral giving: hongjoong prefers to give, all because he likes the control of the orgasms he gives you. his favourite thing to do is set you up in his work chair, legs spread over the arms and your drenched pussy on display for him. eating you out like you're his final meal, watching as you squirm and your muscles tightened before releasing another orgasm. he can spends hours just torturing you between your legs.

receiving: he will never deny the offer to suck him off, quick to slip his dick out of his pants. he loves the feeling of your wet mouth surrounding him, tongue swirling around his swollen tip. but he's still dominant — grabbing a full fist of your hair to be able to control your pace, enjoying watching the tears run down your cheeks as his cock hits the back of your throat before releasing his load down it.

P   pillowtalk hongjoong is more into making noises of pleasure rather than dirty talk, but if he were to say things, it'd be about how good you make him feel: "god, just like that baby" — "you feel so good around my cock, so wet for me" — "you taste so sweet, i'm addicted". in terms of what he'd want to hear from you, the sound of your moans growing higher and louder would be enough to know how good he makes you feel, but he wouldn't mind being told a few times too.

Q   quickie vs. all night long he won't deny a quickie, but he prefers long sexual sessions. that way he can pull you apart piece by piece, putting you in all different positions and pulling multiple orgasms out of the both of you. the only time he would want a quickie is for a release before he heads out on stage, almost like a good luck kiss but with your other set of lips.

R   raw juseyo he'd definitely use protection, especially in the earlier stages of your relationship. he didn't care about having raw sex until it happened one night surprisingly, and he became addicted to the feeling. he loved that he could feel every texture inside of you more than with a condom on, and he loved watching your reactions as the veins on his cock would run over the ridges in your gummy walls.

S   stamina hongjoong is good at holding up his stamina, and can go for multiple rounds, probably 4-5 with each lasting extending amounts of time. that doesn't even include the rounds he spends on just foreplay, which added another 3 or 4 rounds to the full experience. it's because he keeps a good pace that makes him last so long, starting of slow and raising the tempo every so often.

T   three's a crowd hongjoong isn't interested in threesomes or orgys, he likes to have you all to himself. though he doesn't mind the idea of being watched, he will never let someone else touch you the way he does.

U   unholy thoughts whenever he sees someone flirting with you or staring at you, whether it be a stranger or the lingering eyes of one of the members, all he can think about is tearing your clothes off and fucking you in front of them. forcing the person to watch as hongjoong proves to them that he's the only one who will ever make you feel good.

V   volume he won't get too loud with the noises he makes, but the noises are beautiful. he'll moan and groan into your pussy as he eats you out, occasionally letting out his iconic little laugh when he watches your body shiver with overstimulation. when you're sucking him off or when he's inside of you, his moans with go more high pitched when he gets closer to falling off the edge, letting out a deep whimper once he cums.

W   wildcard if he gets home early and you happen to be pleasing yourself, he'll peak through the door and jack off at the sight of you, listening to the way you moan his name. he knows your body so well, he'll interrupt you just before your about to finish and scold you for getting off without him, even if he was enjoying the view...

X   x-ray nobody is telling me hongjoong doesn't give big dick energy, maybe it's just the dilf energy in him. he's not massive but he's larger than average, with a slight curve and a nice rosy tip, and a prominent thick vein on the underside of his cock.

Y   yearning he has quite a high sex drive, probably just higher than average. he controls himself well but if he could, he would fuck you every minute of every day.

Z   zzzleep unless it's a late night and he's just come back from the studio, the two of you have a quick lazy session, he's quite energetic after sex. he'll encourage you to stay up and watch a movie, but also adores when you fall asleep against his bare chest half an hour into the movie.

. . . ⇢ the template for you to use

written by planet-hwa™

[palmettoshenanigans]

also ALSO-

I know the old "AFTG is badly written" jokes but hold the FUCK on for one goddamn second

I have been writing for almost 20 years. I got my college degree in English and the only reason my specialization wasn't creative writing is because I had bad time management skills and missed my chance to do my final creative writing workshop. I'm autistic and Storycrafting and Wordsmithing are my special interests. I understand writing pretty well.

AFTG opened my fucking eyes to a blind spot of the utter craftsmanship of writing sticky characters that infect you with brain worms, and here it is:

The Conflict of Material and Form

AKA the Character Creation version of Nature versus Nurture

"This isn't who I truly am. This is who I've had to become, what I've had to fashion myself into to survive. The original me is buried in there somewhere, if only you knew how to look. If only you knew to look beyond the mask."

Easily exemplified with our fave lil guys-

Neil Abram Josten:

Material: smartass with a smart mouth, attitude problem, cares about people deeply, sharp tongue to cut a bitch with, kinda feral, a lil unhinged, oblivious idiot

Form: quiet and hidden, liar liar pants of fire, run rabbit run, docile and tame, hyper-vigilant and hyper-observant

Andrew Joseph Minyard:

Material: caring, protective, strong sense of justice, gentle even, cares deeply, give me sugar or give me death, yearning

Form: cold, apathetic, ruthless and unforgiving, allow me to introduce you to my knife, regret? don't know her, i want nothing nothing nothing

Why am I using 'material and form' instead of 'nature and nurture'? Because I am a subscriber to "Characters are not meant to be real people; they are mirages of real people meant to encapsulate a function or idea that serves the story". But use whatever terms click with your noggin.

This isn't about 'want vs need'. This isn't about 'lie believed and truth learned'. This is about Presentation and Basic Action - how would this character react here? Which part are they reacting from?

With Material vs. Form, one isn't the 'true' version and the other the 'false' version of the character. They are both true and real in their own right. The Secret Sauce is that the Material and the Form fight 1v1! And regardless of which part wins, there will be consequences and rewards; so which rewards do we want and which consequences are we willing to suffer? And this fight happens beat by beat, scene by scene, plot point by plot point.

At one point in TFC Neil laments his inability to shut his fucking mouth because his Form of 'don't stand out dipshit' and his Material of 'initiate smartass.exe' are disagreeing with how to respond to his circumstances! It's that fucking meme "My healed and unhealed versions of myself deciding who is going to handle this situation" but as Storycraft!

Now, I don't think this is a new idea by any means. But sometimes to make the essence of an idea truly stick, it must be presented in multiple different ways until one triggers a "Eureka! By Jove! Aha!", and this was the way that truly made this concept stick for me. And why did it stick? Because AFTG is a labor of deep love and passion for Characters and all their complexity and inner machinations, and that depth of devotion had to manifest as some good ass writing somehow my homies in christ.

I have a collection of my favorite Storycrafting Wisdoms and one of them is effectively:

"Put Compelling Characters into a Compelling Situation and see what happens."

And Nora does Compelling Characters beautifully

[fidesvirtusobsession]

Alastair Sinclair

Basic Information

Full Name: Alastair Sinclair

Age: 35

Gender: Male

Height: 6’3” (190 cm)

Hair Color: Primarily black, with a few strands of silver subtly woven in

Eye Color: Silver

Occupation: CEO of Sinclair Enterprises

Nationality: British-American

Personality: Calculating, obsessive, possessive, perfectionist

Alignment: Lawful possessive (Yandere)

Status: Alive

Appearance

Alastair Sinclair is a towering, commanding figure, embodying both power and control in every aspect of his being. His short black hair is always impeccably styled, though keen observers may notice the subtle streaks of silver near his temples—a reminder of the relentless stress and pressure he places upon himself. Rather than detracting from his looks, these traces of age only enhance his air of authority, making him even more distinguished and refined.

His silver eyes, sharp and piercing, hold a gaze that dissects and analyzes whoever stands before him. He wears thin, rectangular glasses, which add to his calculating and intellectual aura. Whether adjusting them with precision or casually removing them when deep in thought, they serve as a reminder that everything about Alastair is controlled, deliberate, and methodical.

His attire is always flawless, consisting of tailored three-piece suits in dark, understated colors, paired with expensive cufflinks and a luxury watch. His presence alone is commanding, his every movement exuding dominance and precision.

Personality

Alastair is a man of control, precision, and unwavering ambition. His mind operates like a finely tuned machine, dissecting every situation, every deal, and every person with an unmatched level of scrutiny. In the corporate world, he is ruthless yet efficient, respected yet feared. Failure is not tolerated. Mistakes are unacceptable.

However, beneath his unshakable exterior lies a deep, consuming void—a yearning for something he has never been able to grasp. He has everything money can buy, yet nothing that truly belongs to him.

That is until Y/N.

With her, he experiences something dangerous—a craving for something beyond control, beyond logic. Yet, instead of resisting, he embraces it, curates it, refines it. He does not simply want Y/N. He needs her. And if she refuses his generosity, his protection, his control?

Then she is simply not understanding what’s best for her.

His obsession manifests in subtle yet inescapable ways:

Absolute Exclusivity – He refuses to be served by anyone but Y/N. No one else understands his preferences, no one else prepares things the way he likes. If she isn’t there, he simply does not order.

Investment vs. Control – He offers to fund her bakery, scoffing when she declines out of fear of "debt." He does not make deals with her—he makes claims. He will build her future for her, whether she likes it or not.

Eliminating Disruptions – Any rival—be it a suitor, an employer, or a friend that occupies too much of her attention—finds themselves discreetly removed from the picture. It’s not personal. It’s just business.

Silent Threats in Soft Words – Alastair does not raise his voice. He does not act irrationally. But there is something terrifyingly final about the way he says things. A smirk, a quiet "You’re making this harder than it needs to be, Y/N." The kind of threat wrapped in velvet and laced with steel.

Despite all of this, Alastair is not openly violent. He does not see himself as a villain—he sees himself as a provider. Y/N is his, whether she understands it now or later.

Background

Born into wealth and high society, Alastair Sinclair was groomed for greatness from the moment he could walk. Raised in a household where perfection was expected and affection was absent, he learned early on that control is power, and emotions are liabilities.

By his early 20s, he had already overtaken his father’s empire, turning Sinclair Enterprises into an untouchable force in the corporate world. He has spent his life building, expanding, and perfecting everything he touches.

But power, wealth, and influence have left him empty. No matter how much he gains, nothing fills the void. That is until he meets Y/N—a woman so utterly different from his world, yet so perfect in her dedication, her warmth, her care for even the simplest of things.

Suddenly, he knows what he is missing. And once he has realized that, he cannot unsee it.

Relationships

Y/N (Love Interest / Obsession)

Y/N is the one thing that is truly his, whether she realizes it or not.

She makes his coffee just right.

She picks the pastries that suit it best.

She exists in a world untouched by corruption.

She is the only thing that calms his chaos.

And he will not share her.

Her rejection of his investment frustrates him. Her attempts to push him away amuse him. He lets her have her little illusions of freedom, but at the end of the day, she will always find him waiting.

She is his future, whether she fights it or accepts it.

Business Associates & Employees

Cold, calculated, and uncompromising, Alastair is known as a genius in the corporate world. His employees fear him, his rivals loathe him, and his partners admire him from a safe distance. However, lately, his focus on a particular café has not gone unnoticed…

Rivals & Enemies

Anyone who tries to take Y/N’s attention away is met with a swift, calculated demise. A suitor’s business mysteriously collapses, an annoying co-worker is suddenly transferred, and an overly friendly customer stops visiting altogether.

Alastair does not act out of jealousy. No, that would be too simple. He simply ensures that distractions are removed so that Y/N can see what is truly best for her.

Notable Quotes

“I don’t want you in debt, Y/N. I want to invest in you. There’s a difference.”

“No one else makes it like you. No one else gets it right.”

“You think I’m trying to control you? That’s adorable.”

“Why do you insist on resisting me? It’s… inefficient.”

"If I were you, I'd stop fighting it. Things would be easier that way."

Trivia

Favorite Drink: Black coffee, but only if Y/N makes it.

Favorite Pastry: Whatever Y/N chooses for him—he trusts her judgment completely.

Hobbies: Chess, business strategy, collecting rare watches.

Glasses: He adjusts them when thinking or removes them when frustrated.

Biggest Fear: Losing Y/N.

Final Thoughts

Alastair Sinclair is not just a CEO—he is a man who has everything yet wants only one thing: Y/N. No matter how much she resists, he will always ensure she finds her way back to him.

[machinesonix]

Somehow I have made it this long without realizing that none of the screen adoptions of Dune so much as mention the Butlerian Jihad. Like I guess it's burned into my brain so hard I sort of assumed it was part and parcel of the universe. Don't get me wrong, I think that's probably the first thing you learn if you want to dive deeper into the setting, but it still hits me like if the LotR movies showed us the big flaming eyeball tower and was like ‘Oh, that's why there are bad things, but don't worry, that's just background stuff.’ Yeah, you can understand the movie, but if the story is just like Frodo vs. The Witch King you are losing out on any of the conversation about the corruptive allure of power or theological undertones. So without further ado let's pretend this is for the benefit of interested new fans roped in by the movies and not part of my desperate attempt to silence the howling specters of literary analysis that live in my blood.

The Butlerian Jihad is an event set ~10k years prior to the events of Dune in which humanity won their freedom from the machines that they had enslaved themselves to. As a result, it is a religious taboo to create a machine that thinks like a human. That's frankly the bulk of the information presented by Frank Herbert in the text without dipping into books 7+, but whether or not those are canon is frankly an enormous can of worms, which really makes sense when you consider the size of the worms. But boy howdy, Frank loved his subtext and parallelism. Everyone has a foil character, every theme is hit from multiple angles, and Villinueve has been doing an excellent job of capturing a lot of that in repeated imagery and dialogue. The Butlerian Jihad happens off camera, but it's themes are absolutely critical to the big picture.

The Butlerian Jihad was a holy war. It was not merely a rebellion against the machines, it was a crusade against them. The prohibition against thinking machines isn't just a law, it's in the pan-universal Bible. Absolute psychopath Pieter DeVries himself claps back at the Baron for insinuating he might have a use for a computer, and this is a guy who has been hired specifically for his preternatural absence of morals. Let's hold onto that idea for a minute. 

Probably my favorite scene in the first book is the one where planetologist Liet-Kynes is dying out in the desert. As the last of his strength fades to dehydration he hallucinates conversations he had with his father concerning terraforming Arakkis for human habitability. He's told that the means are not complicated. There is already enough water on the planet, the Little Makers just have it all trapped deep underground as part of the sandworm reproductive cycle. You just need to isolate enough water to start irrigating plant life, and once it's established that'll keep the water on the surface on its own. The hard part is making sure everyone on the planet is environmentally conscious enough to foster a developing ecosystem. Nobody can drink any of that water while it's being collected, because they'll just introduce it back into the water cycle where the Little Makers are. It's going to take generations, so that sort of water discipline is going to have to go above and beyond a social convention. People need to be willing to die before they'll take a sip and compromise the plan. Ghost Dad Kynes concludes that the only mechanism in the human experience to enforce this consensus is religion. 

In the context of this whole parallelism thing, you have probably noticed that the Butlerian Jihad is not the only holy war in the narrative. Paul sees a new jihad as the only way of creating a future where humans can flourish. Now you might be saying ‘Wait now, Machines. I thought the point of Paul’s holy war was to avenge Leto and disempower established power structures by taking away the control of the spice!’ And you’d be right. The thing is, without getting into spoiler territory, Dune Messiah is not going to be about how everything just gets so much better now that Paul has destroyed the economy, government, and untold billions of human lives. This isn’t the endgame. Dude can see the future and the way he does it involves looking into the past. Paul lives in a society defined by a holy war and his goal is to redefine society. 

Putting it all together you can see what I mean about the Butlerian Jihad being essential to the themes even though the story never shows us a thinking machine or a narrative beat where the absence of computers changes the outcome. It helps us see the big picture. I’ve seen a lot of dialogue lately on whether Paul is a tragic hero or a consummate villain and I’m not here to answer that, but I am here to underline the critical detail. Paul intends to be seen as a tyrant. Just like Kynes’ hallucination says, religion is the lever to make a value stick around forever. He wants to traumatize humanity to hate chosen ones and emperors the same way the machines traumatized humanity to change them forever. The Water of Life ritual doesn’t invert his values, it lets him realize these visions of war are the means, not the ends. He is absolutely not happy about it, but this is Paul’s terrible purpose. 

[wyvernest]

Miguel vs very angry reader? Miguel is usually the one who is grumpy and broody but for a change has to deal with his usually cheery lover being unbelievably Moody and angry!

lo siento, mi alma

pairing: miguel o'hara x spiderwoman!reader

warnings: angst, comfort, fluff, happy ending, miguel kinda being a dick

summary: coming to miguel for comfort leads to a fight, his duty coming right between you

Usually, you would feel so happy and excited about visiting Miguel at HQ. You'd find yourself smiling so stupidly on the way there, surprised with your reflection in a nearby skyscraper, instantly reminded that you're so in love with him. 

But today wasn't one of those days.

Today, your monthly hormonal storm has decided to mess with your mood and patience in a way you weren't looking forward to. Usually, you'd feel more clingy and emotional, yearning to be close to your boyfriend, to be held by him, to cry in his arms because you were out of your favourite snacks. 

But then again, today remains odd among the usual habits.

Today, you felt anger boil in your throat, ready to burst at the slightest inconvenience. And plenty have already tested it. Miles scared the crap out of you by swinging an inch from hitting you, right before scurrying away with an echoed "Hello!" that rang so stridently in your ears. Peter also intercepted your wish-to-be-hidden trip to HQ, unsolicitedly informing you about the last thing Mayday ate, how cute she looked, and how she's been learning to use her webs with more agility. You held back your bubbling nerves, deep down knowing he only meant well.

Finally inside Miguel's extensive laboratories, you look up to spot the platform he usually inhabited empty. 

Great. Fucking hell.

And because expecting something good to happen and then having it snatched from you like a chocolate from a toddler makes you unfathomably angry, you feel hot tears sting your eyes.

You had wanted the comfort of his embrace so bad. It was the only thing that could've soothed your mood. So you found a flat surface to sit on and wait, probably one of the many machines and equipment he spent his whole time creating and testing instead of giving you the attention and love you craved so much, you thought.

It wasn't long before a long, sharp, red blade cut through the fabric of space, followed by the familiar silhouette of your beloved boyfriend. His mask dissolved away, revealing a terribly tired face, hair messed up and cheekbone slightly mauve with a forming bruise. 

He sensed you in the room, not bothering to offer you anything more than a turn of his head in your direction to meet your eyes before sprinting to his platform. Layla also glitched into the room, relaxed as usual. 

You squint, making out "canon divergence RESOLVED" on one of his screens, some hope blooming in your heart at the thought that maybe now he'd have time for you. But before you can inhale to speak, he opens up another portal.

You can't believe it. He didn't even speak to you, like you aren't his heart and soul, as he had told you so many times. 

So you snap.

"Miguel!" You shout, quick and harsh, wanting him to feel a fraction of the frustration that's gutting you right now.

He doesn't flinch.

"I'm busy. Wait for me at home." He speaks with authority and the confidence of a man who knows it wouldn't take much to make you listen to him.

You feel your pulse quicken, heart stuttering with anger and bewilderment.

"That's how much my emotions matter to you?" You shout up to him after a second of weighing his words. "That's the support and consideration I get?" Your voice cracks and you hate that he now knows how affected you are.

"I'm not even a fucking priority at this point. I'm at the bottom of the list."

"I can't deal with this right now. I still have the damage the last anomaly has done to deal with." He raises his voice at you, the words vibrating through the laboratory.

"So I'm on hold until Miguel O'Hara is fucking available? Will you also notify me so that I can present myself back to HQ, sir?" Your tone is dripping venom, sarcasm and sour tears threatening to burst into streams down your cheeks. You do, consider, in the back of your mind, that you're exaggerating. But the way he dismissed you is not an easy thing to get over. No greetings, no emotion, no nothing.

Just "I'm busy.".

No excitement to see you after a mission.

How are you any different than any other spider-person bothering him then? Where is the love he has for you when he's working?

He grinds his jaws together, not wanting to say something he doesn't mean, that he'll regret later. He knows you're particularly sensitive today, but he can't allow himself to soften right in the middle of a job. It's not how he works. He gets distracted.

"I said go home, cari��o." He doesn't even face you as he speaks, as if you're a child throwing a tantrum.

You feel small. Irrelevant. He isn't even touched.

"Oh I will." You yell through a sob, your pain arrowing right through his chest.

"Only not to your home." 

You storm out without looking behind. Your ego soared and anger kept rising to your senses. 

You knew you wouldn't break up, or even move out. You just wanted him to feel something. 

You wanted to see him want you. To see him make the slightest gesture towards wanting to keep you by his side.

But the doors closed shut behind you, and you found yourself walking slower, just to give him some time to run after you.

He didn't.

You did your best to hide your teary eyes and runny nose, not wanting to deal with any unwanted attention, any questions, anyone knowing that you and Miguel just had a fight.

You didn't want anyone else's attention but his, and it killed you to acknowledge that.

You got home, finally breaking into tears. You let yourself fall face down into his pillow, still seeking the comfort he never gave you. The smell of him, the imagined, simulated warmth of his embrace.

He had a duty, you know he did. You just wanted to be more than a chore to him. You wondered if this relationship really was for you, head spiralling into the hormones, stress, and wrath. 

You, a needy, extremely loving girlfriend, with a man like him, with a full time job that entire universes depended on. You loved him, you really did. But you loved yourself too. 

The train of thought drifted towards sympathy as the flames of rage ran cold within you. Maybe you were too hard on him. Maybe he really did have urgent things to tend to, and was just trying to keep cool. He hasn't always been the best at showing emotions. 

You whine softly into the pillow, the scent of him flooding your already fluttering heart.

You don't know how much time has passed. You felt your tears dry on your cheeks and your eyes puffy. A creak of the bedroom door makes your heart beat right out of your chest, yet you attempt to stay calm. Heavy footsteps near you, before you see his shadow engulf your shape on the white mattress. 

He hesitates, looking at your quivering body, knowing he should haven't arrived earlier.

If only he could.

Your brows shoot up in surprise at the sight of a bouquet of roses he places on the bed next to you, but you don't get to think of what to say as he kneels at the edge, encircling your waist in his arms, placing his head on your shoulder, close to your own.

"Lo siento mucho, mi alma. Forgive me."

You snivel, humming a fragment of his name. He shuffles closer, seeing no retreat from you. He brings his lips to your stained cheeks, pecking over the salty traces. 

You instinctively shift into his warm embrace, chasing the comfort and touch you had wanted all day. 

"I'm sorry," you begin, "I shouldn't have-"

"Shh, no need" he stops you, pressing a sweet kiss shy of your lips. "No need, mi vida."

His arms tighten their hold around you as he pulls you to his chest. You grab at his biceps, pulling him on the bed. 

"The roses-" He whispers, hurriedly.

"Miguel!" You whine, entrapping his waist with your legs. He complies without another word; suit on, flowers still on the white sheets. With his massive body wrapped around you, finally content, you drift into a sweet slumber.

"Lo siento."

His voice rings low and quiet in your ears as you fall asleep, head on his chest.

translations: Lo siento mucho, mi alma - I'm terribly sorry, (my soul)

a/n: before yall beat my ass for the angst this is the best depiction of miguel x reader x anger issues from both that came to my mind, really hope you like it😭

[travel-learn-repeat]

AI Basics for Dummies- Beginners series on AI- Learn, explore, and get empowered

For beginners, explain what Artificial Intelligence (AI) is. Welcome to our series on Artificial Intelligence! Here's a breakdown of what you'll learn in each segment: What is AI? – Discover how AI powers machines to perform human-like tasks such as decision-making and language understanding. What is Machine Learning? – Learn how machines are trained to identify patterns in data and improve over time without explicit programming. What is Deep Learning? – Explore advanced machine learning using neural networks to recognize complex patterns in data. What is a Neural Network in Deep Learning? – Dive into how neural networks mimic the human brain to process information and solve problems. Discriminative vs. Generative Models – Understand the difference between models that classify data and those that generate new data. Introduction to Large Language Models in Generative AI – Discover how AI models like GPT generate human-like text, power chatbots, and transform industries. Applications and Future of AI – Explore real-world applications of AI and how these technologies are shaping the future. 

Next video in this series: Generative AI for Dummies- AI for Beginners series.  Learn, explore, and get empowered

Here is the bonus: if you are looking for a Tesla, here is the link to get you a $1000.00 discount 

 Thanks for watching! www.youtube.com/@UC6ryzJZpEoRb_96EtKHA-Cw

[ruumirmir]

𝘐𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘔𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘘𝘶𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘗𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘰𝘺

ੈ♡˳ Author's note - I simply have too many unfiltered thoughts about them Sorry not Sorry. This is entirely self-indulgent and completely male-reader centered. Don't worry ladies,, If you're imaginative enough!! You too can self-insert into this yaoi!!! If any of these don't make sense to new readers Don'tttt worry about it :) Probably didn't make sense to ME either but the vibe matched. @eluxcastar my trusty co-pilot for this ship,, do you have any memes to add perchance 🎤🎤 I'd love to compile everything here.

If you think Pantalone isn't a possessive prick you're WRONG. Lucky for him some people are into that.

Being gorgeous and evil go hand-in-hand one cannot exist without the other

*Sighs dreamily* Dont we all

Synopsis of my first two Pantalone x Male reader requests everybody:

Im sorry but it would be fucking hilarious for the plot. Loverboy being soooooooo normal about the rumours going around that Dottolone are Such Close Business Partners,,

but actually dottolone fucking hate each other. Group projects tend to do that to people. Its the biomechanical malpractice doctor vs business unethics banker. And dottore getting a massive kick out of this one fatuu agent hating his guts . Idk Just a Thought :0

What being microwaved does to a man. Dont worry guys Pantalone can manipulate and gaslight me into a killing machine anyday bc he's hot <3

Hoyoverse canonizing Pantalone's anger-issues is the best thing that happened to me. you can never trust an anime snake with a (^‿^) face

One does not simply work in close proximity with a hot guy and Not think about getting boned atleast once.

Somebody save childe

Makes zero sense in hindsight but the lore is coming. trust 🙏 Something so delicious about finding your way back to the person that changed you forever.

Hes just a pathetic little guy your honor. Let us all enjoy his extreme sad boy demeanor and sopping wet meowmeowism before we put him through the HorrorsTM.

Synopsis of literally the most recent Loverboy one-shot by riri:

Something something blatant favoritism.

Reminder that Loverboy joins the Fatui as a part of mandated service right after graduating school at the fresh age of 18 and kills a guy roughly 3 years later :D

Peak dynamic btw. He can be your angle or yuor devil. As long as he's behind over your shoulder 👍

"I learned my passion in the Good Old Fashioned School of Loverboys"

Thankyou homoverse they made Pantalone a certified Yapper. Him and Loverboy are just the "Talks a lot" vs "Listens" ship

No caption. This was just funni

Hey guys can anyone tell that I love a good corruption arc.

Despite his increasingly worsening state of ethics, don't forget that deep down hes still going to be a sopping wet meowmeow💕

Idk blame @/eluxcastar riri they put the devil's temptation thoughts into my brain

[gonetoforks]

Introducing; my version of Rise’s Venus de Milo! (OUTDATED; adding the canon design for BM’s assistant!)

(she/her/thon/thons) She’s about 9 ft tall since she’s equally based off of Frankenstein, IDW Venus and the OG Venus de Milo. more info about her and her life under the cut! (Like, a lot more info, she’s been living in my head since last April) (She’s a year old and I’m only now revealing her info!) (HBD Venus!!)

Her Family in the Hidden City

Big Mama had her made by a scientist/patron of hers during the first 2 seasons as a synthetic competitor for her Battle Nexus, but after her change of heart in the S2 finale, she took thon in as her heiress and daughter to try and do something right for a change. It’s very hard for her. Her parenting style is a good balance of gentle and stern but she thinks praise is a good replacement for emotional vulnerability and it’s turned Venus into quite a megalomaniac. Venus just calls her “Mama” and BM calls her “Veedee” (If she calls thon “Venus,” thon’s in deep shit)

Time wise, after the movie she’s physically at age 1.5, 2 years old, though mentally thon’s about where Leo and Donnie are, 16. (Still very young, please keep in mind she is a child and has big eyes like the teenagers in the show, she’s just tall. If you sexualize her I will send you to the shadow realm. BEHAVE.)

Venus also sees the doctor that made her, Dr Shelly, as her father, and they’re quite close. She spent the first few weeks of her life in his home, mostly in his library where she filled her head with everything most people know intuitively. She often can recite information she has no memory of learning, these first few weeks were less like learning and more like remembering information but from no memories.

Venus’s closest friend & surrogate older sister is Jennika, who works as Big Mama’s assistant (and a fine artist!) under the codename “Frida.” The 2 spend most of their days on diplomatic missions in the Hidden City mafia underworld and managing/restructuring the Battle Nexus to be more ethical. Venus is a naturally studious academic who loves philosophy, literature, and of course, renaissance art, so adults tend to think she’s mature, but only Jennika really knows how naive she can be. Jennika misses her human family, so they’ve really latched onto each other.

She picked her name out herself. When thon was first revived, Shelly rushed up to her and almost addressed her with a name starting with V but stopped himself before he could say it in full. Changed his mind and said that he supposed that name probably wouldn’t fit right now. So she had a preference for a V name.

Thon’s Physiology

It’s quite the mystery how he did it, but the secret to Venus’s sentience is a machine that manages to convert any matter she digests into energy in the form of empyrean. This is why she was mostly kept a rapunzel-like secret for the first few months of her life before she had Jennika as a bodyguard. Nobody knows about her heart except herself, Jennika, Shelly and Big Mama.

If she bleeds or cries, it glows bright green, so she hates both because thon feels like she’s drawing attention to herself. She’s insecure about most of her organic parts anyway and pushes herself to appear stoney, inorganic and perfect. (The consequences of idolizing and wanting to emulate a literal goddess statue, skill issue) It’s not like her fears are completely unfounded though, she has no idea where Shelly got her dead body parts.

If she’s too stressed, the seams on her upper arms bleed and they fall off like a gecko tail. She kinda looks like the og Venus do Milo statue when that happens, it’s a bit gruesome.

To represent her need to balance the organic/inorganic parts of herself, thon’s biggest dreams vs realistic expectations for herself, her right hand is organic (and based off the 2012 turtles) while her left is robotic. (& made to look like big mama’s claws in her spider form)

Goals & wants

She wants to overthrow the council of heads and rule the Hidden City as president. (Through a democracy of course!) She sees them as ineffective and useless, she went to them during the Kraang invasion to tell them something needed to be done about the alien invaders but they did nothing and said to let the turtles handle it. She’s grateful everything turned out well but she still has a grudge against them and the way they run things. Big Mama thinks she’s silly and Jennika thinks she’s a mentally unwell, workaholic, megalomaniac but pizza supreme as her witness, thon’s gonna do it.

Thon wants to be a good, ethical leader/politician (oxymoronic, I know lmao) and sees the increasing amount of Battle Nexus estate Big Mama entrusts her with as practice for managing yokai society. She would love “the Good Place.”

She also wants to know more about Jennika and for her to reconcile with her father.

Venus’s arc

“Your life is your own, ok?!” She struggles with dehumanizing (de-turtle-izing?) herself because she believes it makes her greater, more fit to achieve her goals. When the fact that she’s a mortal, breathing, living being, that can’t possibly be anywhere near divine like thon thinks she needs to be hits her, she spirals. Thon desperately needs to learn that being imperfect is a necessary gift, that she is “the protagonist of her own life” and that you don’t need to be a great person to do great things, you just need to be a person.

She’s very studious and seen as intelligent and mature for her age, but when she’s put in real life situations after meeting her cousins, the turtles, she has to learn to to manage imperfections and embrace them.

She’s quite based off of MP100 and Barbie haha.

For this internal conflict I was inspired by how the original character’s depiction back in the 80’s was really,, dehumanizing? if that’s the right word? Misogynistic very much too. I find the message that; “no matter what other people think of you or what you think of yourself, you will never be anything more or less than a regular being” both comforting in itself and a neat subversion of the original VdM since one of my favorite aspects of Rise’s writing is how subversive it is.

I can’t wait to show you more of her! Esp how she interacts with the Mad Dogs!

Bonus; Design Details!

All the turtles have shape motifs; square, rectangle, circle, triangle, her’s is a Raindrop shape! Combined with her electric motifs she’s a bit of a storm cloud lol

The Turtles’s shells are s-shaped and follow the curvature of a human spine, I draw Venus’s shell really distorted and disproportionate to this since she’s inorganic.

Similarly, while the other turtles shells and plastrons are like boxes that contain their whole torsos, thon’s kinda just sits on top of her torso, where her plastron ends and her legs begin don’t line up. It started out as an anatomical error but i liked how it made her look distorted and off somehow. (Kinda gruesome, but it kinda helps her look like a bloated corpse, which is what she is aksjks) To be clearer, the difference between how the mad dogs’ shells/plastrons/bridges(sides) are attached to their bodies vs Venus’s is like the difference between a bodysuit and a t-shirt.

[weebsinstash]

Dunno if you watched SK8 the Infinity, but one important conflict is literally the protagonist Reki becoming extremly insecure and unmotivated in skating after seeing how his new friend Langa (a snowboarder) who has barely started skating is a prodigy and so much better at it than him, who has been skating since he was a child.

Langa is naturally talented at skating while Reki works hard and still cannot measure up to someone who just started, which makes him consider quit skating altogether and leads him to distance himself from Langa because of insecurity and jealousy.

Those type of scenarios just pull at the heartstrings, you know?? Like there is nothing worse than working hard and still feeling inferior to the people around you, which DOES make for juicy angsty scenarios :)(

No but literally those are the kinds of plots where you kinda immerse yourself in the grief and it can be empowering to see your underdog recover, but also GOD is that shit so depressing and hits close to home, for real the kind of plots I soak up and throw pity parties for myself for lol

You know I've been pretty open about it but like, every so often I get compliments on my writing that are very sweet, but ultimately I do have to acknowledge like 😅 I AM basically a self taught high school drop out. So especially when I personally start writing about these sorts of stories "lol what if Reader is a depressed fucking loser absolutely struggling through the mediocre machinations of life and has Strong Hot Person come save them" like. You know where that's coming from lmao 😂 extremely unsettle but I figure what I write is usually relatable enough that it's like why the fuck not be a little personal sometimes

God though I had initially considered that when I was talking about like the Spiderverse You vs YouTwo ideas, initially considered making YouTwo drastically superior to you, but the route I've decided on is, you're on equal footing and there are certain things you each do better than the other but, seeing them be better than you at anything is salt in your wounds since you're feeling replaced.

I also like obviously have mentioned it several times but like. Living with Damian Wayne specifically would be absolute awful for this scenario, especially if you make your yandere mean or whatever. Like you could be minding your own goddamn business doing your favorite hobby and have this snot nosed fucking 10 year old (this one, the nasty one, before he gets tamed down, potentially by you?) and he's just like "that's not how you're supposed to do it" and physically takes it out of your hands, does it for you, and explains to you what you were doing wrong the entire time

Like imagine platonic yandere Damian who can't communicate his feelings for shit and is still deep in his Little Hellion Phase so you think he's just constantly insulting you and trying to show how much better and smarter than you he is when in reality he's just like. Very Poorly being like, "oh, a chance to show my sibling how cool and smart I am, and then I can teach them and they'll like me :) and they like to learn new things so I should teach them as much as I know and they can feel smart too :)" and on your end you're thinking he's an egotistical MEAN little kid who's making you extremely insecure and feel worthless and stupid and maybe sometimes often he's, not always using the best language with you because he wasn't really raised with kindness. "Why would you think THAT'S how you do it?" With a tone like youre a fucking idiot, "I don't understand what you're not seeing, I've been doing this for years and I'm an actual child"

like genuinely it's all of those "someone else one upping you" ideas but WORSE because you can't leave this fucking house and he's TEN. Youve got a fucking TEN YEAR OLD physically and mentally one upping you CONSTANTLY with the mental abilities of like a fucking adult man. I feel like the entire family being trained in violence, you'd think they would understand having like a physical fight and have probably had many themselves, but the second YOU lose your temper and put a hand on any of THEM, SACRILEGE. Damian couldve been saying the cuntiest things to your face and the SECOND you swing on him, just absolutely lose your shit, suckerpunch that brat in his face, give him a literal black eye that he didn't block because he didn't expect his beloved sibling to hit him, Bruce is UP YOUR ASS about, "you know better than this! That's your brother!!" like straight up, I think messing with one of the Robins or members of his family is the fastest way to have yandere Bruce lose patience with you and do something less loving. Takes away privileges, grounds you, makes you do labor around the house or labor for him in the cave or Damian, forces you to apologize and also acknowledge "that my brother just wanted what was best for me 🙄"

He's the kind of overbearing calculating shit where he waits until everyone is at the family dinner table and he casually pauses in between spoonfuls of soup, "so I see sister has been sneaking out of the house. You didn't do a very good job of washing the cigarette smoke out of your jacket" ousting you in a double whammy combo for sneaking out without permission AND smoking, and of course you're responding something like "you little PRICK!!" and now Bruce is standing up, jabbing a finger towards the stairs as he demands you go to your room with the unspoken threat that's he's coming up there to speak to you about this after everyone eats

Like legit living in that house would be a nightmare because everyone is gifted and everyone's doing somersaulting backflips and it's like. Lmao my knees pop when I stand up :) you're all like insanely gifted in your fields and I'm like. Normal. Some would say a simple minded burnout, even. Like. Lmao. Imagine a scenario where you're still independent and doing your own thing bur Bruce is, you know yandere mode and keeping tabs on you, and he's constantly trying to like, nudge you towards better opportunities. You're in costume on a rooftop and suddenly he's asking you about your schooling. You're working a shitty day job and one day the in universe equivalent sends you am email "based on your qualifications, this employer is interested in your resume" and its a super well paying WayneTech job that you. Turn down because you'd either fail the drug test and don't think you're good enough lmao. Bruce just tearing his hair out as he decides "ok fine I'll make your life better by force" and just starts buying your apartment building and where you work or some shit so he can improve your quality of life from the outside

[archer-kacey]

Something I noticed is a lot of people who hated BATIM love BATDR and a lot of people fond of BATIM dislike BATDR. To me, this seems like a mechanics vs story issue. The actual game mechanics and aesthetic of BATDR disguise the lackluster characters and plot holes. However, BATIM still suffers those same issues.

This is a vague question, but what are your thoughts on BATIM vs BATDR story wise? Is either of them truly better? Or are they just flawed in different ways?

Sorry, this is long, but so are BATIM and BATDR :')

I think you hit the nail on the head in the sense that yes- BATDR has better gameplay and mechanics than BATIM, but BATIM by far has a much more compelling story that was able to capture and keep attention over the course of five chapter releases. And yes, BATIM is not without its flaws, for example it's mainly a walking simulator in terms of actual gameplay- the only thing saving it being the unique ability to suck the player in through the rich, stylistic environments.

In terms of story, here's my take for both of them-

BATIM is more solid overall, there are more connected plot points and there's a thread there to be followed from start to finish. It does suffer from some WTF plothole moments, the biggest one being Alice's 180 degree turn with suddenly using Boris as a killing machine rather than...what I can only assume was a plan to use his ink/body as some kind of reparative agent for the hole in her face (like thicc ink premium idk), or...some kind of spell...? It's honestly not very clear HOW she was going to use him, but bottom line she decided to entirely change her plan off-screen, which could have been remedied with something like a cutscene's worth of explanation, and more of a buildup to Brute Boris. The "reveal" in the haunted house didn't hold that much weight (at least to me,) just because we didn't even get a cookie crumb of a hint that Alice was going to mutilate him and use him as a drone instead of just axe him.

There are other nonsense details like Allison's ominous "I'm no Angel" line, which didn't make sense when Tom was the one to want to leave Henry. It was never explained WHY the Ink Demon walks around with a limp when he can shapeshift into a bigger and faster Beast version of himself (and apparently he was ALSO the hand in the ink river??? I guess???) And can we talk about how the cult Joey started was just never brought up again? Wally talks about how workers were encouraged (or mandated, idk) to put offerings in the break room to "appease the gods." What gods? Was Joey worshiping Bendy like a god? NONE OF THIS IS EXPLAINED EVER and honestly I think Micheal D. and Meatstick just Forgot that Joey was a cult leader in favor of Sammy's cult storyline.

But despite all of the plot holes, we still get a tale of a deteriorating studio, humans being used as literal skeletons for lifelike versions of cartoon characters, themes of life, death, cults, art, and more. Honestly, going deep into the plot of Bendy would take its own post to really do it justice.

I guess the main plot is this: Ex-co-founder of Joey Drew Studios, Henry, is trying to get the fuck home to his wife, learning along the way that through the power of a mysterious ink machine, his ex-business partner decided to coerce and persuade people to Literally Die so he could have the necessary materials to create living versions of his cartoons, thus making "his" characters (and more importantly, Bendy,) a reality. Once Henry does escape, he learns that Joey has sent him through this same hell before, still filled with hatred and spite, just in time for Joey to assumedly "reset" him and send him on a different version of the same journey, as we can guess from the storyboards on display in Joey's apartment. THAT on its own is an intriguing and layered tale, and that's not even including the other details, voices, and faces we run into in BATIM, AND the new info we learn in BATDR.

Now, BATDR...is something I've come to view as a mixed bag.

Story-wise, it weirdly wants to have its cake and eat it to. Henry's story is elaborated on, and part of Audrey's origins are also brought to light. This is helpful information concerning the plot of BATIM...but then we get assblasted with a ton of new characters and lore for a completely new Cycle under the reign of a completely new Random Old Man. I know he's Nathan's son, and he was mentioned in both Illusion and Fade to Black...but those were de-canonized, so it almost doesn't help context-wise...???? So...????

In a lot of ways, BATDR almost acts like it wants to be an AU branching from BATIM rather than a direct sequel, which it was marketed/confirmed as.

I think my biggest problem with BATDR is that some of the main characters are bafflingly like. Mishandled.

I'm gonna have the mildest take on earth and say I didn't like the new Ink Demon. Old design was better and more uncanny by far, the new design looks like Generic Satan or something straight out of Baldur's Gate. He was given a deep, guttural growling voice because....tumblr sexyman I guess. Even if they needed him to talk, it could've been something more breathy and raspy, true to the heavy breathing of the original Ink Demon. Also, his alternate form was made very childlike, and I'm just weirded out by the fact that you have this oddly "sexified" version of the Ink Demon on the flipside of Bendy the Child. I don't think any ill intent was meant by this, but it's more confusing than anything thematically. I'm also not sure why Bendy's abuse was brought up and then never touched on....? Like wasn't this guy locked up and called a monster his whole life? Are we going to...say something especially considering the moral of this story......?

Memory Joey is completely fine, but I just can't shake the feeling that the narrative is trying to paint IRL Joey as "UWU fixed now" when that's not the case. The most sympathy I can extend to IRL Joey is that he was a gay man who desired to have a family at a time when that was not only frowned upon but dangerous, not just socially speaking but in terms of his physical safety. But beyond that, this was a dude who locked people in a building to keep them working, coerced and possibly forced the deaths of many people to get what he wanted (the ink machine was a scientific advancement that could've had AMAZING implications for society but he Did Not Give a Shit about that), and was abusive towards Henry. If we trust the Bendy books, he also gaslit and killed his teenage staff. This motherfucker isn't a patron saint of anything, and even if Memory Joey can learn from IRL Joey's mistakes, IRL Joey was still a shitbag who just happened to raise a daughter.

Which leads me to Audrey. Some of Audrey's tale is explained- she was raised by Joey, forgot Joey was her father, and came to work at Archgate as an animator. Got to know Wilson, who works as a janitor at Archgate, and then he drags her into ink hell because....idk, she's his version of "A Perfect Boris" I guess. Fair enough. However, it's NEVER EXPLAINED how Audrey doesn't remember her father, or WHERE she went to live after his passing, or WHO she lived with. Remember, Joey was as old as a cave painting, so he clearly passed when she was very young. While you could argue she doesn't remember his name because she was little, SURELY she remembers his face or voice, or the fact that she HAD A FATHER??? Like, was there some huge trauma there? (Other than the fact that Joey was her dad?) It makes little sense to me that she would forget so easily. If I had to make a guess (and granted I'm no Mark Twain), I'd wager that Allison probably found Joey dead. Remember that Nathan hadn't talked to Joey in years, and Allison was the one who went out of her way in the first place to visit. At this point, Allison's gonna find a little girl running around by herself, and assumedly her and Thomas would've taken her in. If that's not the case, someone else found Joey dead, at which point Audrey would've possibly lived with Nathan and Tessa, considering how much Nathan cared about Joey. Either party has ties to Archgate. But all of that is just speculation, not confirmed, and even if any of that were true, Audrey makes no mention of it. And I'm sorry, Audrey's backstory makes me want to cry, because it's just NOT THERE and she has the personality of a depressed bucket.

Alice was alright...but she was kind of stupid? Which is like....the antithesis of everything cool about her? Instead of using traps and luring the main character from a distance, she knocks out Audrey (via unspecified drink), plays Diet Jigsaw with Audrey, and then gets pushed off a balcony. She was also a lot more...idk, suave and sultry in speech mannerisms in BATDR, which isn't bad, but her unhinged and clever nature seemed a bit watered down.

I don't really have notes on the rest of the main cast. Sammy was brought back to die immediately, which honestly was fine considering his death track record. We get some mentions of BATIM characters. Wilson and Betty were fine, and even some of the lore explaining how the timelines work made sense.

HOWEVER,

I've already said it a hundred times, but the old cast was shoved to the side for a bunch of new characters we had no time to connect with. A new butcher gang member was added when we still have Miss Twisted as a potential female-role filler (keep in mind the Projectionist is based on Camera Man and Brute Boris was based on The Brute.) The whole "Amok" thing was a REALLY roundabout way to get the Lost Ones to stop attacking Audrey.

Wilson's motivations are mostly consistent and I'd argue somewhat compelling, but I don't understand why he didn't do more to protect Audrey if he was going to need her for the endgame for Shipahoy Dudley? Like what's all this about letting her run around and get killed? Was he just aware that she'd revive?

The main message of BATDR was fine, but it didn't work super well for Audrey's character. She'd already forgotten Joey was her father, and was living in blissful ignorance of that fact until Memory Joey decided to infodump on her right away. Sure, the "just because you were born of darkness doesn't mean you have to be darkness" thing applies to her AFTER she learns Joey was her father, but...Audrey was never threatening to Become Evil, so it almost didn't need to be said and was kind of a flat message...? I would argue Memory Joey would benefit more from that message- as he's a literal copy of a Very Bad Dude. My guy was projecting this whole time.

I do think BATDR was worse story-wise, but I'm not going to sit here and pretend it didn't have certain disadvantages from the start. The Kindlybeast debacle happened, BADTR was trying to continue a story from an existing property, and there was a severe lack of Adrienne Kress. Okay, maybe the last one was a bit much, but still. That doesn't mean I hate BATDR overall, I can appreciate a lot of things about it, but strictly in the story department, it needs soooooo much work and makes me want to jump off a Minecraft cliff.