#god butcher saga

[vertigoartgore]

2012's Thor: God of Thunder variant cover by Daniel Acuña.

[gotham-at-nightfall]

AMALGAM: Batgorr the Dark Butcher

By ArtDavidRiver

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

Have you or vinelle ever considered moving to TikTok? I think your metas would be very much appreciated there especially with a larger audience like Twilight Tok where it mainly consists of locals not knowing anything about the saga they claim to be fans of and criticizing Stephenie Meyer for silly things like Twilight being anti-feminist propaganda because Bella cooks and cleans. I've also seen a few blokes with suspiciously butchered similar takes to the ones you and vinelle do on here and I'd hate to your work receiving praise by being credited to others

I'm very flattered but you overestimate how hip I am, dear anon.

Notice the blank wall of text that is my profile, posts and posts adorned with nothing, just text. I barely understand tumblr, TikTok scares and confuses me. I'm not kidding, I actually do not understand half the videos there or what I'm even supposed to understand from them.

I can only imagine my short form videos, where I dress up as a gentleman and a scholar, sit in front of a roaring fire, and say with text on a screen, "Ah yes, dear audience, I believe we left off with our these 'Edward's Totally Gay for his Father' part 1.3. In today's argument, read the fucking book, thank you"

And that's with the idea of putting my face on video. You lot can get my voice on spotify (@rankheresy) but ewwwww to video.

(And while I am flattered, I'll say... I don't know if we'd be popular over there. Remember that @therealvinelle and I live in a clown car and it's one that fandoms aren't always receptive to for a variety of reasons. Depends on the flavor of Twilight Tok which I personally don't know. But then again, I don't understand why I've become even marginally popular here, so who's to say.)

As for the suspiciously similar takes this is... well, I don't like it and if people do do this, please for the love of God give credit, it's free internet nonsense and fame that doesn't actually exist, just give credit, but it's not a TikTok only phenomenon in that I have vague awareness of this going on in Instagram every once in a while and I'm sure other places.

Not enough for me to get on TikTok personally, at least, not for the foreseeable future.

You have any TikTokking plans, @therealvinelle?

[the-everqueen]

for the AMA: what compels you most in a fictional character!

rage as a trauma response.

it compels me when a character spits in the face of god. when the response isn't "why did you let all this happen" but "how dare you let this happen." something about the assertion of agency in the wake of un-meaning. something about "there was never a Purpose, the point is what you make of it." this is undoubtedly because i was raised evangelical and continue to struggle with what i believe vs what i want to be true. pero also i think i was denied anger for so long (and even now my reflex when i'm hurt is to divert/repress/hide/sublimate anger) that it's cathartic for SOMEONE to get to be mad at the powers that be.

misogyny means it's usually (white) male characters who get these narrative arcs. this is evident in my blorbos: astarion from bg3, the corinthian from sandman, will graham from hannibal. (my immediate first thought was actually emilio sandoz from the sparrow, very literal autistic brain serving me well here lmao, what does it mean to be god's whore.) but my favorite female and genderqueer characters have this, too. saga anderson from alan wake 2 (LITERALLY tells both the in-game narrative force and the meta "fuck off, i'm done with other people writing my story"). essun from the broken earth trilogy (everyone who says they can't connect to her...i need you to examine yourself for misogynoir). vic from nos4a2. eurydice from hadestown. erica slaughter from something is killing the children. jade from my heart is a chainsaw.

(horror is obviously a huge medium for this...the final girl is a figure of righteous anger, the avenging angel, the woman who mows down the ultimate horror with a baseball bat or a butcher knife and she's right, she's in the right, she's the monster slayer, fuck you fear me.)

[ghost-maya]

Thanks for the tag @fivedayslater !!

RULES: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Oh god... I haven't cleaned that out in ages... most of the non one piece ones are abandoned unfortunately :") - I'll still put the rest in the "read more" bar in case anyone is interested but it's probably best to stick with the op ones lmao

Behind Blue Eyes

life's a precious thing

Deep Sleep

Ghost Hunting AU Outline

omegaverse outline

sanji's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad heat

Straw Hat Vampires

The Cruise - Outline

The Skyscraper

(+ 2 wips that have not made it out of the discord dms yet. let's call them "zosan closet pwp" and "nami x conis pwp")

Tagging: @ms-all-sunday @abilusanji @brunetta6blog @misqnon @summerofspock @sinelanguage @redyarns @lakesandquarries @purpleneutrino

Fandom works (mostly haikyuu lol):

Gelphie Omegaverse

Zukka Canon Divergence AU

A leap of faith

A Whisker Away AU

BokuAka in BOTW

Just Sum World Building

KageHina Witch Fic

Kageyama Birthday Oneshot Thing

kghn band au thing

KGHN hurt/comfort

Shadow God Kageyama AU — Outline

SPSS & PSS: Operation SakuAtsu

The Absence of Hinata Shouyou

The Kagehina Wedding Saga - Miwalisa

The Kagehina Wedding Saga - Planning

The Silver Lining

train au??

TSL Info & dumping grounds

MLP:ZLS Loredump

Zelink

Long Forgotten Words

Original works:

*Record Scratch* *Freeze frame*

Character background stuff

Character Info

Coffee shop AU: A Character Study

Dandelions

Evergreen

Getting into Mo's Voice Stuff

I have too many beginnings

in the classroom

Izzy vent

Kit's backstory

Kitzy Banter

leandy

Lucilleana Fic

Magic System

Nanowrimo Outline

The Ghost of Wilson High School

Train

Untitled document

Untitled document

Untitled WIP (A Novel Study)

Venty Thing

Vy's Butchered OCs

Word Vomit

World Building.exe

Zodiacs

If anyone ventured in here; hello! I'm happy to post/talk about any of these still. Some are a LOT more recent than others. This game finally had me move my "miraculous ladybug" folder out of there bc i know i am truly never going to touch those again rip 😭

Also bc i find it interesting - the last time i did this game was 2 years ago. Hyperlink if anyone wants to see which "wips" have been sitting around for 2+ years now (i dont think i published any of them.. just put them in the abandoned folder..) *sweats*

[as-de-spadas]

Alright, so I'm in Grian's ep30 of his season 6 POV, and god is this peak Grian content. I'm just gonna write down some of my favorite things:

-Butchering X's name on purpose.

-His pickle shop

-The moustache removal machine

-The golf episode

-Phantom menace and the phantom hunt

-The missing fish saga

-The whole Poultry Man thing

-The Grian Head Hunt

-Him getting back Jack Skelebone and NEVER using it.

-Him saying he won't fly that much and 20 episodes later becoming the best flyer in the server

-Jevin giving him 9x times the amount of diamonds he should have.

-Pranking Mumbo AFK twice in a day

-THE INFINITY ROOM OH GOD

-Achitechs

-The original Achitechs logo

-Him creating like 6 different songs on accident.

-The kill a Tango competition

-His fucking halloween skin

-The Tag competition always coming back to him

-Trapping Iskall to his death

-His base being called different household objects

There's a lot more that I can't remember, but those are the main ones.

[silver-and-stars]

The thing is... I don't think I even want to see Dragon Age 4. Especially not now that they have sacked the main writers or that they have left on their own accord, which isn't a good sign either.

It will probably look good. But I don't believe it will have any soul left.

I want to be wrong. But I don't think I will be.

They never managed to do as good as Origins (it had its faults but it remains the best of the franchise : the storylines, the characters, the worldbuilding, the immersion, the dialogue choices, the RP...).

Baldur's Gate 3 did though. And they aren't fron EA.

I love DA2, the characters, the main storylines, but it was unfinished.

DA:I was already soulless, I liked some of the companions (Dorian mainly. Even Varric was less interesting there) but got attached to none. They felt like colleagues, not a close knitted team.

The Inquisitor themselves were blank where Hawke and the Warden had a background that mattered, one you could build your RP on.

The main quest itself didn't feel like much. Tears in the Veil and demons (the Warden beated them close, Hawke dealt with demons on daily basis). It sounds huge, but it didn't felt like it, only a minor inconviences, tasks to complete to get points for.. for what anyway ? There was no apprehension during the quests (except the Fade, the only one where your choice had consequences) and when the final fight came it ended so easily and quickly.

Too many things were reckoned in DA:I and some I cannot forgive (Redcliff's topography, the dalish not caring for their mages, their whole pantheon being 1) not gods 2) bad slavers, while the Maker is still good and divine ofc, the whole "templars are bad actually" narrative after all we've seen in DAO and especially DA2, Leliana character development from DAO, etc. Actually, pretty much every choices from DAO, major and minor, didn't matter here at all, which is a huge flaw for a RPG saga).

The one quest I really enjoyed was the Jaws of Hakkon DLC. A DLC.

Sure the maps were pretty but too big and empty, as I said, soulless.

And the combat looked pretty too but it was messy, we couldn't even use all the abilities we unlocked because it was badly tailored for consoles, not PC. And there was no healer or blood mage class. DA2 fights had the non-stop spawning and yet they were more satisfying imo.

Seeing EA's track record and the mess development of DA4 was, I just expected it to give the final blow to Thedas and butcher once and for all this franchise that I loved thanks to DAO and DA2.

Just do it properly or don't do it.

[ippoliya]

Rhaena Targaryen and Sansa Stark: Parallels and Speculation

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly’s James Hibberd, George R.R. Martin responds as follows when asked whether Fire and Blood would tease what is to come in A Song of Ice and Fire:

Are there any hints here in terms of what’s to come in your Ice and Fire saga? There are a few that are definitely important, but I’m not going to flag them. Readers will have to find them and puzzle out whether they’re hints or red herrings. (x)

The distinct similarities between Sansa Stark in A Song of Ice and Fire and Rhaena Targaryen in Fire and Blood lead me to conclude that Rhaena’s life provides us with some “hints” from which we can predict Sansa’s endgame.

I. The Wild and Willful Sisters

A pertinent connection between Rhaena and Sansa are their wild and willful sisters. Below, I catalogue several similarities between Baela Targaryen and Arya Stark.

First, Baela and Arya are known for their willful behaviour:

“[Baela] is wild, willful, and wanton, as we feared,” (Fire and Blood, 648) “[Baela] was as wild and willful a young woman as any in the realm” (Fire and Blood, 645) “[Arya’s] long horsey face got the stubborn look that meant she was going to do something willful.” (AGOT, Sansa I) “And Arya … he missed her even more than Robb, skinny little thing that she was, all scraped knees and tangled hair and torn clothes, so fierce and willful.” (AGOT, Jon III)

Second, Baela and Arya commonly consort with the small folk:

“Time and time again she would escape her ladies to seek adventure in the streets. She took part in drunken horse races along the Street of the Sisters, engaged in moonlight swims across the Blackwater Rush (whose powerful currents had been known to drown many a strong swimmer), drank with the gold cloaks in their barracks, wagered coin and sometimes clothing in the rat pits of Flea Bottom.” (Fire and Blood, 645) “Sansa knew all about the sorts of people Arya liked to talk to: squires and grooms and serving girls, old men and naked children, rough-spoken freeriders of uncertain birth. Arya would make friends with anybody. This Mycah was the worst; a butcher's boy, thirteen and wild, he slept in the meat wagon and smelled of the slaughtering block. Just the sight of him was enough to make Sansa feel sick, but Arya seemed to prefer his company to hers.” (AGOT, Sansa I)

Third, Baela and Arya’s rejection of gender and class restrictions is a source of tension for their teachers' that strive to inculcate gender and class norms:

“Septa Amarys, who had been given charge of her religious and moral instruction, despaired of her, and even Septon Eustace could not seem to curb her wild ways.” (Fire and Blood, 646) “I despaired of ever making a lady of [Arya].” (ACOK, Catelyn VII) "Sansa's work is as pretty as she is," Septa Mordane told their lady mother once. "She has such fine, delicate hands." When Lady Catelyn had asked about Arya, the septa had sniffed. "Arya has the hands of a blacksmith." (AGOT, Arya I)

Fourth, Baela and Arya are romantically involved with bastards. Baela marries Alyn of Hull, later known as Lord Velayron, and Arya's relationship with Gendy, the bastard son of an alehouse worker and Robert Baratheon, is replete with romantic undertones*.

Finally, Baela/Rhaena and Arya/Sansa have strong sun and moon imagery*.

Sansa is your sister. You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts. You need her, as she needs you … and I need both of you, gods help me." (AGOT, Arya II) “Baela’s dragon, the slender pale green Moondancer would soon be large enough to bear the girl upon her back/“ “Baela’s twin had brought a dragon’s egg with her to the Vale … and egg that had proved fertile, bringing forth a pale pink hatchling with black horns and crest, Rhaena named her Morning.” (Fire and Blood, 432 & 593)

In short, the first similarity Rhaena Targaryen and Sansa Stark share is their wilful sisters. Baela Targaryen and Arya Stark challenge the status quo by undermining inherent gender, social, and class restriction; have romantic ties to bastards, and share sun and moon imagery with their respective sisters.

*Arya Stark was initially romantically tied to another bastard, her half-brother Jon Snow, as was revealed in the 1993 ASOIAF outline. Jon Snow is theorized to be the bastard son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark.

*Although Ned’s “sun and the moon” quote does not specify which of the Stark sisters is the sun and which is the moon, I speculate that Arya is the moon and Sansa is the sun. For one, Baela’s “moondancer” brings to mind Arya’s expertise in sword dancing. Second, as this essay (x) demonstrates, the moon plays a larger role in Aryas narrative than it does in Sansa's.

II. The Dutiful Daughters

It should be acknowledged that there are fewer connections between Rhaena and Sansa than there are between Baela and Arya. This is due to the Rhaena’s minor role in the Dance translating to limited information about her character. Nevertheless, the few mentions of Rhaena strike a compelling comparison to Sansa.

To begin, both Rhaena and Sansa lose their pets soon after bonding with them. Rhaena’s first dragon egg hatches but dies shortly after emerging from the egg. Similarly, Sansa’s dire wolf, Lady, is killed roughly three months after bonding with Sansa.

“Rhaena’s egg had hatched a broken thing that died within hours of emerging from the egg” (Fire and Blood, 432-3) “Lady was dead” (ASOS, Sansa IV)

Second, in contrast to their willful sisters, Rhaena and Sansa embrace and conform to the traditional feminine traits of their milieu:

“Lady Rhaena proved to be as tractable as her sister had been willful.” (Fire and Blood, 649) “[Sansa] was the good girl, the obedient girl …” (AGOT, Sansa IV) "Sansa was a lady at three, always so courteous and eager to please.” (ACOK, Catelyn VII)

Relatedly, Rhaena and Sansa enjoy by pomp and spectacle of the court:

“… Rhaena delighted in being the centre of court life” (Fire and Blood, 645) “She loved King's Landing; the pageantry of the court, the high lords and ladies in their velvets and silks and gemstones, the great city with all its people.” (AGOT, Sansa III) “Sansa would shine in the south, Catelyn thought” (AGOT, Catelyn II)

Finally, the Vale of Arryn establishes a pertinent connection between Rhaena and Sansa. During the Dance, Rhaena accompanies her cousin, Prince Joffrey, to the Vale where she spends the remainder of the war as a ward of Lady Arryn. Comparably, Sansa is smuggled from King’s Landing to the Vale where she adopts the identity of Alayne Stone and takes care of her cousin, Robert Arryn*.

In short, Rhaena and Sansa share three notable connections: the death of their bonded animals, embodiment and embrace of traditional feminine and Southron ideals as it relates to behaviour and activities, and spending their formative years at the Vale.

*Rhaena and Sansa led somewhat different lives at the Vale. Rhaena is said to have “enjoy[ed] a life of comfort and privilege as Lady Jeyne’s ward” whereas Sansa, while enjoying the comfort and privileges of being the alleged daughter of the Lord Protector, is embroiled in problematic political schemes and experiences sexual harassment at the hands of her alleged father.

III. Kind, Gentle, Noble versus Brave, Gentle, Strong

“There are a few [hints] that are definitely important,” says Martin. Given these connections, what does Rhaena’s story “hint” about Sansa’s endgame?

Perhaps Rhaena eventually hatching another dragon, Morning, is meant to hint at Sansa eventually receiving a second dire wolf. Perhaps Rhaena’s role in solving a succession crisis is teasing Sansa’s involvement in solving a potential Arryn or Stark succession crisis? These are all compelling answers, but a third captures my attention: Rhaena’s marriage.

After the Dance, King Aegon the Third's regents attempt to secure a successor for the young king by marrying off his half-sisters, Baela and Rhaena. However, Baela defies the regents by marrying Alyn Velayron. Incensed, the regents attempt to prevent Baela from being the first to provide the Crown with a suitable successor and thus quickly order Rhaena to marry a man of her choosing.

Assessing her options, Rhaena requests that her potential husband meet the following criteria:

“[I]t would please me if he was not so old he could not give me children, nor so fat that he would crush me when we are abed. So long as he is kind and gentle and noble, I know that I shall love him.” (Fire and Blood, 649)

She chooses to marry a man that she is “especially fond” of, Ser Corwyn Corbray. Rhaena’s decision is considered “far from an ideal choice” for several reasons. In particular, Ser Corwyn is thirty-two years old (sixteen years Rhaena’s elder), a second son, and has two daughters from a previous marriage. Nevertheless, the marriage is accepted not in the least part due to Lord Corbray’s influence as Lord Protector of the Realm.

—

I believe Rhaena’s marriage to Ser Corwyn is meant to “hint” at a future marriage between Sansa and Sandor Clegane. For one, Rhaena’s request that her husband is “kind and gentle and noble” echoes a promise Ned Stark made to Sansa:

When you're old enough, I will make you a match with a high lord who's worthy of you, someone brave and gentle and strong. (AGOT, Sansa II)

Although, Sansa characterizes several characters as brave, gentle, and strong, Sandor is the only character that Sansa describes using all three adjectives:

“To thank you, for . . . for saving me . . . you were so brave." (ACOK, Sansa IV) “The Hound gave her a push, oddly gentle” (ACOK, Sansa II) “He pushed her toward her wardrobe, almost gently.” (AGOT, Sansa VI) “The Hound pulled her to her feet, not ungently.” (ACOK, Sansa III) “Strong hands grasped her by the shoulders,” (AGOT, Sansa I) “She might have fallen, but a shadow moved suddenly, and strong fingers grabbed her arm and steadied her.” (ACOK, Sansa IV)

The quotes listed above are not the only moments where Sansa describes Sandor as such. Qveenofthorns created a graph illustrating the occasions where Sansa describes a character using those specific adjectives and finds that Sandor dominates the graph (illustrated here).

In addition to similar phrasing regarding what Rhaena and Sansa want in a husband, Ser Corwyn and Sandor share a few similarities. Ser Corwyn and Sandor are in their thirties, share a similar age gap of sixteen years with their romantic interests, and are second sons. However, there are some notable differences. Ser Corwyn was a previously married father and a knight of great renown … whereas Sandor has never experienced marriage and fatherhood, nor is he a knight — much less one of great renown. Nevertheless, these connections between Fire and Blood characters and ASOIAF characters are not meant to be a consistent one-to-one match but complementary.

*Ser Corwyn is Rhaena’s first husband. He dies attempting to settle a succession dispute between different Arryn claimants. Rhaena later marries an unnamed Hightower.

Conclusion

The distinct attitudes, interests, and experiences that characterise Rhaena Targaryen in Fire and Blood reappear in A Song of Ice and Fire through Sansa Stark. The compelling similarities between the two characters, which include the loss of a bonded pet, conformity to feminine ideals, and dwelling in the Vale under the wardship of Lady Arryn, indicate that Martin intends for Rhaena to be a "hint[] in terms of what's to come," as Hibberd puts it. Extrapolating from Rhaena’s narrative provides a crucial hint from which we can predict Sansa’s endgame. Specifically, given the similarities between Ser Corwyn Corbray and Sandor Clegane, Rhaena’s first marriage to the former may hint at Sansa’s impending relationship with the latter. Ser Corwyn and Sandor are second sons, in their thirties, and have a sixteen-year age difference with their romantic partners. In addition to these cursory similarities, Eddard Stark’s promise to Sansa that he will find her a husband who is "brave and gentle and strong" is oddly reminiscent of Rhaena’s request to the Council that her husband be "kind and gentle and noble." While Rhaena chooses to marry Ser Corwyn, who, by all accounts, meets her criteria, Sandor Clegane is the only character in the series that matches Eddard Stark's requirements.

[bomberqueen17]

kitchen remodel saga part 1?

I don’t know if I’ve posted about this already but Dude and I are going to get the kitchen of our house remodeled. It’s original to the house, it’s from 1950, it’s very dated, the cabinets were very high-end and remain lovely, being real wood and all, but are starting to have hardware failures. We had to replace the stove and fridge already, the sink faucet is starting to go, the sink sprayer broke, the linoleum floor is damaged in a couple of places, it’s got yellow wallpaper, it’s just-- gotta get redone. Right? Right.

We don’t know how much that costs so we don’t know how much to budget. We don’t know any contractors, of course. We don’t really know what we’re looking for. So Dude asked around. A coworker had just had his kitchen done, and recommended a place. So we went there.

Before we came in for a meeting with the specialist, she had us write down anything we really cared about. What do I know about interior design? Nothing, but I do know what I do and don’t like, in a kitchen. I only had a few things I wanted to note down.

The first thing on the list was, no stone countertops. They’re ugly, I think, but more than that, they’re prone to staining, they need special cleaning I think, they’re not *that* heat proof, they’re so hard that anything you set down too hard breaks, they’re so heavy you need special cabinets to hold them and a special process to make them level-- just, in every single way, they’re what I hate about current fashion. So I went in with a bulletproof rock-solid (ha) number one: No stone countertops.

Heh. This place only offers stone countertops. The choices of countertop surface were quartz, granite, marble, or quartzite.

“Okay how about not stone, though,” I tried, and probably I should have just walked out, because the answer was, only stone.

But. Dude was like. Let’s at least get a quote. We gotta start somewhere. But what is the point, I ask you, of getting a quote for a thing you do not want? Stone countertops mean you gotta have special cabinets and a special process to make them level and like none of that is going to apply in any way at all if we go with a laminate or butcher block countertop like we wanted. Like, it’s not even going to be the same kind of cabinets.

(Also, I was like, “i don’t like those microwaves that are supposed to act as range hoods, I don’t think they do a good job, I’d rather just have one on a shelf.” “Oh,” she said, “it’ll have to go on a countertop.” “... No,” I said, “I’d like one on a shelf, there’s never enough counter space and we’re both tall enough to reach a shelf, that would work better for me.” She stared at me. “You can’t put a microwave on a shelf,” she said, “your only other option is to put it in a drawer.” “You can’t put a microwave on a shelf,” I said, flat with disbelief; I grew up with a microwave on a shelf, two of my sisters have microwaves on shelves, I cannot think of a single reason on God’s green fucking earth that you could not put a microwave on a shelf, unless there is some newly-enacted law prohibiting it??? “Right,” she said. “But drawer microwaves are the thing now! We have one in the display upstairs, go check it out.” We dutifully trooped over to the display. It was in fact a drawer, that slid into the kitchen island and somehow was also a microwave. It was hideous, it looked impossible to clean, it was a steam-burn-accident waiting to happen, and it was two thousand dollars. “I will die before I get a drawer microwave,” I said, and we said to her, much more politely, “No, thanks, we don’t want a drawer microwave.” and inwardly resolved to have a shelf installed and maybe a power outlet put near it and we’d just put the microwave on our shelf ourselves and maybe the authorities wouldn’t find out.)

Anyway.

We had this specialist come to our house, which I wasn’t wild about, but okay, she could measure the room at least, get some idea of what we already have. We have a few pieces of furniture we’ve put in, a stainless steel counter and a wooden buffet sideboard thing, to hold all our dishes and give us some workspace since the existing kitchen had like two square feet of counter, so we pointed those out to her, and said we were planning to get rid of those. And we pointed out the table, where we eat, since we don’t have a dining room. And we explained that we wanted the half-wall to go, since it was sort of passe, we felt, to divide the kitchen proper from the dinette-- just make the whole thing kitchen, and get rid of the awkward corner cabinets. Cool cool, all on the same page, no problem.

So we went in yesterday to see her rendering. And I liked the look of it, it was nice to see the kitchen laid out a little differently. She hadn’t changed much, the stove and fridge were in the same place, sink in the same place, fine and dandy, didn’t mind that.

I didn’t actually notice right away, but as she was finished showing us the last wall, Dude was like “... where do we eat?”

She gave us a blank look. “Oh,” she said, “well, in the dining room.”

...

we don’t have a dining room. Our house is quite small. The next room is the living room, and has just enough room for a sectional couch, a coffee table, an armchair, and a couple of small bookshelves. There’s no room for a dining table there, not unless we ditch everything but the sectional.

Also she’d put in a drawer microwave. “I mean,” she said, “you don’t have to go with that, it’s just, it’ll take up so much room on this counter...”

“We could put it in the dining room,” I said, sotto voce, to Dude.

This is my new personal meme. Anything I don’t have room for can just go be in the dining room, where I’ll eat, since there’s no room in this kitchen for a table.

Sorry, but are eat-in kitchens illegal now too??????????????

I feel like even rich people eat in their kitchens sometimes???? what’s wrong with a kitchen table???

I am feeling like my way of life is under attack here, not gonna lie. Is the kitchen table no longer sacred???

also, insult to injury, or injury to insult, my dang sister who i was helping move has a new house that has a slate floor in the kitchen which is fucking terrible and now my phone is dead from getting knocked off the counter onto that slate floor so i am like even more wildly dead-set on an Absolutely No Stone Surfaces In My House vendetta and yet again we have confirmed, this place can only sell us countertops made out of stone and I will not have stone surfaces in my house i am too clumsy and will fucking break myself and everything i own for the love of god i will not compromise on this but like

i don’t know, i am losing faith

please don’t let me end up spending more on a kitchen remodel than on my undergraduate education only to wind up with nowhere to eat and stone countertops upon which i instantly shatter my skull, please no

[orlissa]

I’ll be teaching a class on American comics (theory and history) this coming semester, and since we won’t be actually reading comics in class (except for one class), I thought part of my students’ grade could be them doing a presentation on exceptional/significant American comics, so I started putting together a list for them to choose from, and... got stuck :D Since my area of study is superheroes, and female representation beyond that, where I deal with a lot of themes, tropes, individual issues, super long storylines, I’ve found it really hard to come up with a list that is not exclusively superheroes and filled with compact stories.

So here is my question to you: do you have any comic book/graphic novel recommendations for me/my students? I only have two criteria: - It needs to be American (no manga, manhua, etc.) - It needs to be no longer than around 250-300 pages/12ish standard lenght issues (So stuff like Sandman or Saga are not exactly in the running)

Beyond that it can be any theme or rating, the more diverse the better. I’m expecting around 15-20 students, and these are the publications I have on my list so far (but some might get crossed out yet):

Art Spiegerlman: Maus (volume 1)

Frank Miller: The Dark Knight Returns

Alan Moore: Watchmen

Alison Bechdel: Fun Home

Chelsea Cain: Man-Eaters

Tom King: The Vision

Chelsea Cain: Mockingbird: I Can Explain (either this or Man-Eaters might get crossed out, so I don’t have two works from the same author, but Man-Eaters does some really inventive things with the format, and this one is pure brilliance when it comes to the timeline/reading order)

Jason Aaron: Thor - the “God Butcher” storyline

Matt Fraction: Hawkeye

George Takei: They Called Us Enemy

[vertigoartgore]

Esad Ribic splash page from Thor: God of Thunder.

[samasmith23]

Jane Foster: Bridging the Gap Between Godhood & Humanity

The Death of the Mighty Thor is hands down one of the most thematically rich and character-centric storylines I've read from not just Jason Aaron's Thor run, but from his body of comics work as a whole!

It actually took awhile for me to fully unpack all my thoughts about this arc after I initially finished reading it, but that's only because there's just so many layers of meaning & symbolism which makes it a truly worthy finale to Jane Foster's saga as the Mighty Thor!

I stated before that Jane Foster is basically the Anti-Gorr in a previous post linked here:

After I read "The Death of the Mighty Thor" in its entirety, I realized that there was far more meaning to that initial description than I previously thought. Jane is the anti-Gorr the God Butcher not just in how she defends the gods from annihilation, but also in that unlike Gorr who was repulsed by the fact that he was becoming the very thing he despised so much, Jane Foster makes a conscious effort to bridge the gap between mortals and gods.

Jane is similar to Gorr in that she too has witnessed first hand the gods' arrogance & failure to protect those they've been sworn to uphold, and has directly suffered as a result. But where Jane ultimately differs from Gorr is that simultaneously has witnessed and recognizes the god's ability to love and protect others. This why when Odinson becomes unworthy and Jane hears Mjolnir's call in his place, she answers that call. She wields the power of Thor to not only live-up to the standards that the gods who came to her were never able to achieve, but also to provide the gods who have simultaneously failed and loved her a chance for redemption. Jane wants the gods to finally live-up to the ideals that they claimed to represent, to finally become truly worthy of the mortals who worship them.

Consequently, Jane is willing to sacrifice her own life in order to save the Asgardians from complete annihilation at the hands of the Mangog, a monster who sees only the negative traits of the gods, believing that they're incapable of self-improvement or change. Jane dies for love, whereas the Magog dies for naught but hate.

But dying is not the end of Jane Foster's story, as Aaron effectively illustrates that while suffering and dying for the sake of others can be meaningful, it's even more meaningful and important to live for yourself and others. Continuously sacrificing one's own well-being for others is a godly ideal that is unhealthy for the human body, which is demonstrated by Jane's cancer worsening every time she lifts the Mjolnir and the the transformation into Thor purges all toxins, including the chemotherapy drugs (which are essentially radioactive poison), from her body.

While Jane does more than once debate on whether or not this means she should completely cast aside her mortal half and remain as the Goddess of Thunder forever, she inherently recognizes that doing so would mean sacrificing her very humanity. And that scares her since while mortal life is painful and filled with unavoidable hardships, life simultaneously contains simple and unfathomable joys and beauties that are priceless and worthy of preserving, cherishing, and experiencing.

This is a point that was repeatedly emphasized by other characters in earlier in narrative. For instance, while Odinson recognizes that for all the happiness Jane has for provided others as a goddess, he states that she still has plenty to give by living as a mortal as well. Additionally Jane's friend and former S.H.I.E.L.D agent Rosalind Solomon makes an incredibly valid counterargument to Jane's desire to control her own fate and refusal to die due to forces outside her control like cancer. Regardless of whether or not Jane desires to die in battle protecting what she loves versus dying from cancer, dead is still dead either way.

So when Jane quite literally sacrifices her life to give the gods who failed her a second chance, in a deliberate Christ parallel she is resurrected with the assistance of Odinson, Odin and the sentient Mother Storm which previously dwelled within Mjolnir. And upon her revival Jane fully commits to living for herself and those who love her by dedicating herself to combatting her cancer with chemotherapy, while entrusting Odinson and the Asgardians to protect the realms which she had protected in their place.

"There must always be a Thor."

There must always be a Thor because Thor in all their various incarnations represents the ideal version of what a worthy god should be: a being whom continuously strives to protect others, questions and improves upon themselves, and cherishes love and humanity. A humanity which extends to not just humans and the various other races inhabiting the Ten Realms, but also to the Asgardian gods themselves, who are idealized representations of humanity. Jane recognizes the humanizing symbiosis wherein God compliments humanity, and humanity compliments God.

And while Jane is a mortal who lives up to godly standards by sacrificing herself to continuously protect & save others her mortal perspective also serves to remind the gods of their own humanity, thereby successfully bridging the gap between humanity and the divine.

Jason Aaron's run on Thor functions as an insightful inverse of real-life theological teachings for humanity to live by the god's standards, by instead teaching the gods to live by humanity's standards. In essence, Jane Foster is the anthesis to Gorr the God Butcher in that she conversely recognizes the gods as being human instead of inhuman.

And The Death of the Mighty Thor arc effectively serves as the enthralling apex of both Jane Foster & Jason Aaron's thesis on godhood.

[little-engineer-who-cant]

3 and 5 for alla stone shield!

Thank you so much for the ask and I am sorry for the delay, life got a little busy! This does get long and has mild spoilers for the ongoing Damnation Saga, so I've put part of it under a cut.

3.What are their religious affiliations, and how does their worship (or lack thereof) affect their day-to-day life?

Alla didn't to think much on religion at the beginning of her story. Growing up in Windhelm, she worshiped the Nine but modeled herself after her parents in their more casual devotion. Tossing a quick aside up to Talos, offering prayers at the temple when needed for holidays and harvests, but her personal religious beliefs did not play a central role in her upbringing. To her, the Nine are real and very important forces, but they don't do much for her daily life.

However, she was VERY aware of how religion affected other people and politics. Her close proximity to Ulfric's ideology (fueled by religion) lent her a unique view into the systemic use of religious beliefs to further the ambitions of a political entity. Windhelm is a place where everyone is listening to everyone else for a lick of dissent, a climate that grew more extreme the longer Ulfric's war dragged on. While she herself is not very religious, she is conscientious of all the ways one can speak that displays their religious, as thus likely political, affiliations.

All this changes after she awakens her Dragonborn soul. She now has a new place in the cosmos, amongst and in opposition to the aedra and daedra. To others, depending on how the Dragonborn legend is viewed by their culture, she is a god made flesh. She's now directly in divine crosshairs and this leads to an ongoing religious crisis that is steadily building throughout Acts 1 and 2 of look into the eyes of damnation and bare your teeth right now and will continue as her destiny unfolds. Prayer becomes more important throughout her journey, especially as the influence of the likes of Akatosh, Hermeaus Mora and Molag Bal (and others but that's big spoilers) become more overt.

5. Would they be able to live off the land if they were lost in the wilds of Skyrim? How skilled are they at foraging and hunting?

She is kind of able to survive the wilderness on her own. She's decent enough at foraging with a very workable knowledge of basic alchemy ingredients and edible roots/berries that one can find on the trails of Skyrim, but she's really shit at hunting and trapping. She'll get lucky every now and again, but that's not sustainable. Unless she found a way to build a shelter and have a makeshift homestead, surviving on her own long term is out of the question. This is why Kaidan is so valuable to her and Lucien early in the story, before they get to know him. He has wilderness survival skills in spades. Once they can no longer safely use roads, he becomes even more important. Though he does try to teach Alla how to hunt, it does not go very well. She's just not patient enough to find prey when a perfectly good berry bush is right there you know? (Best not to say anything about his single attempt with Lucien.)

Once prey is caught though, she's in her zone. As a farmer, she's had to butcher livestock and prepare them either for selling the meat or for prolonged storage and personal meals. Pelts and leather are also right in her wheelhouse so if she manages to snag something sizable, she's set for a bit.

[bedlamsbard]

I know the MCU is your wheelhouse, but given you like comics as well have you read any? Find it interesting or just don't particular care given the different continuities?

I've read Loki: Agent of Asgard and really enjoyed it; I own this one in hard copy and there are references to it in my fic. I bounced really hard of the Loki Journey into Mystery comics by Kieron Gillen and have never finished them. Gillen has the problem -- and this is true in Star Wars, in DIE, in The Wicked + The Divine, so it's just him at this point -- of doing something that in theory I really really like, but then doing it in a way I really, really hate, so I have learned not to read Gillen anymore. I haven't read any Loki comics since, but that's just me not being in the mood.

I also read the Thor: God of Thunder comics (by Jason Aaron) that deal with Gorr the God-Butcher and I think the lead-up to War of the Realms, but not actual War of the Realms. (I think this is the 2012 one?) I unfortunately really liked the comics arc that deals with Gorr, which is unfortunate Thor Love and Thunder is very, very different in the way that it deals with that arc. (It's the multiverse era! this is the perfect time to do time travel bullshit with multiple Thors! Hemsworth is good enough to pull it off!) I tried to read Mighty Thor but unfortunately I really really disliked it (Jason Aaron is really hit and miss with me).

I read Ms Marvel and the Fraction Hawkeye back in the day around when they were first coming out (in trades) and were really being talked about in fandom circles, so like...ten years ago, possibly more, and I reread them at some point in the last couple years; I own them in hardcopy back at my parents' place so it would have been probably summer 2021 or 2022. They're fine, I don't have strong feelings about them. I was reading Runaways when it was coming out in TPB -- when I was in high school, actually, so mid/late-'00s, didn't keep up with it, was keeping up with new Runaways for a while when it started again a few years back, but it's a lot of effort to keep up with comics, you know?

There's other Marvel comics I've read; I will go through phases every couple years where I read comics, but there's a base level of knowledge that tends to make it difficult, plus the eternal problem of same title, same number, different comic. Some of Marvel I know enough that I can more or less just jump in -- I went through all of Astonishing X-Men some years back, because I know enough about the X-Men that I could do that -- but not everything by a long shot, and it's really hard to figure out what is actually supposed to be good. (especially when everything has the same name.) I have actually had an easier time with it in DC rather than Marvel -- not that I read a lot of DC and it may just have more to do with what specific comics I picked up, which were Gotham Academy and Wonder Woman Rebirth, which are both pretty standalone. (I have read other DC comics, not recently; DC as a universe just doesn't do it for me, which is why I'm over here in Marvel instead.)

I have read indies, I read WicDiv and Saga and Motor Crush and tried a few others that didn't stick with me. I don't read comics very often, especially since Amazon killed Comixology. (though I do have a comics reader app that I really like, but that requires I go hunt down the specific comic in .cbr or .cbz.) For a very long time, I kept up with all the canon Star Wars comics (I think I still have all the flimsies bagged and boarded from the first year 2015-2016, maybe into 2017, including some pretty rare variant covers that I'll get priced at some point in my life), and there are a lot of EU Star Wars comics I really, really love, like Knights of the Old Republic and Legacy and the Ostrander/Duursema Republic/Clone Wars comics. I actually did grow up reading comics, but I grew up reading my dad's comics from when he was a kid, and these were not Marvel or DC comics, these were the old Gold Key Tarzan comics, so it took a really, really long time to break me of hearing "comics" and immediately thinking "Tarzan." No one ever means "Tarzan" when they say "comics," they mean "superheroes." (I also grew up reading Edgar Rice Burroughs novels. I tell people this and they go "this explains everything about you.")

In Marvel I also have the problem of being really attached to the MCU versions of most of the characters, which makes the entry level of getting into those characters' comics really difficult for me because I already have strong feelings about specific versions of those characters that don't exist in the comics -- Black Widow and Captain America are the big two here. (Don't ask me why I have an easier time with Thor and Loki, I don't know.) I've never read a Black Widow comic, I don't know if it would go well or if it would go poorly; it may go fine or it may be too much of a discrepancy that it will be impossible for me to read. Same with Cap. (But like, feel free to rec BW and Cap comics to me if you think that for whatever reason they'll work for me, just bear in mind I hate BuckyNat, which limits a lot of BW comics.)

One of the things that has for a very long time been a strength of the MCU has been that the less you know about the comics, the better the viewing experience actually is; every time they've leaned really hard on prior comics knowledge it's backfired on them (AoU, Loki "Journey into Mystery," parts of Hawkeye, DSMOM, the frickin' "Avengers Assemble" line in Endgame that I hate, Captain Marvel in general, Ms. Marvel is also a serious offender here, unfortunately). So in a lot of ways as a MCU fan, it's easier and even preferable to not know things about the comics, especially because nothing translates 1:1 and if you expect it to, you'll be disappointed. (see: why I have been avoiding TLAT, because I love the Gorr arc in the comics.) I see a lot of people in the fandom going "why don't they do [comics thing], XYZ is (comics) canon, they're just ignoring canon" and it's like...no they're not, that does not exist as canon in the MCU, you can't make that assumption, we made this very clear back in 2008. (BuckyNat my beloathed. Same for Loki/Sigyn. Or in a less ship way, people going "well, THIS is Bruce Banner's REAL backstory" or "this is a FAKE Yelena.") So it also kind of puts me off knowing things about the comics, though I am on Wiki a lot looking up background details to use in fic, but in the same way the MCU does, the "I am going to use this as a kernel to build off of," not straight 1:1 adaptation. This is going to sound super petty, but I will say it anyway: I also at this point will nope out of reading fic if it's very clear that the author is using comics backstory over the MCU canon. (Even if it's an old fic that predates the new canon, it is now just unreadable to me.) Like, you do you, but it's just what I can't read. I can't read most MCU fic in general anymore anyway.

I feel like lately I've been circling around doing another comics reading phase; I don't think I read any in 2022 (other than the MCU movie prequel comics), but I read Agent of Asgard and Thor: God of Thunder in 2021, so I'm probably about due, it does tend to be about every other year. I don't know, what's good right now that I probably wouldn't hate?

[jaynosurname]

(82) One Piece Live Action

This didn't need to exist, but it's good, so I can't complain too much. Going into it, I was cautiously optimistic. The trailers looked fine, but the CGI, especially for Luffy, didn't look great. I was worried that it would make the show unwatchable for me. And then I watched it and was pleasantly surprised. It was actually good. While it may not be as good as the manga/anime, it's still a good alternative, especially for people intimidated by the series length.

The biggest strength of One Piece Live Action is the cast. They all fit their characters perfectly. Sanji especially felt basically one-to-one with his manga counterpart. I wished he and Ussop were in the show longer, which relates one of the bigger problems of the show; the pacing.

This show needed more episodes because arcs like Arlong Park were not done justice. Thankfully, the "help me" scene was still there, handled masterfully, and probably the best scene in the show, but the rest of Arlong Park felt off. I wished there were two more episodes to tell all of Arlong Park's story. It sucks that the best arc in the East Blue Saga got butchered hard.

What surprised me the most was Syrup Villiage. It was the weakest arc of the saga in the manga. It went on for far too long. Kuro was a weak antagonist. But the live-action gave this arc a major glow-up, and in all honestly, I prefer this version over the original. It has its flaws, but it's a vast improvement. I love what they did with Kuro. They turned him into almost a slasher-like villain, with how he hunts down everyone in the mansion. He's genuinely intimidating. I also love the change that has most of the arc play out inside the mansion.

Most of the changes the show made were valid. Getting rid of Orange Town and having that arc take place in Buggy's tent was a great change. However, there is one major change that isn't great. The Introduction of Garp. He feels so shoehorned into the story and he doesn't even feel like him. I liked getting more of Coby, but not at the cost of character assassination for Garp. His inclusion in the story is the only major flaw of the show.

The music is shockingly fantastic. It really got me in the mood. I loved that they played Bink's sake during Luffy's flashback. The song that played during the "help me" scene made that already near-perfect moment better. Also, I freaked out when "We Are" started playing in the show.

Oh, I forgot to mention the CGI. Easily the part of the show that worried me the most. It's fine. The only part that grossed me out is when Luffy inflates himself to reflect a canon ball. Everything else looked great, especially the Chop Chop Fruit abilities.

This show was great. It's flawed, but it captured the heart of the source material, which most anime adaptions fail to do. I'd recommend checking it out, even if the ad campaign on Tumblr was god awful. (I seriously hope they never try that again)

(3/5)

[richardsondavis]

So I have just finished watching the live action One Piece.

Not bad. I'll give my thoughts below. Spoilers, sort of.

So we start with Romance Dawn

So to just give how much I know about One Piece. I read the manga and have read all the parts of the East Blue saga and safe to say, Arlong Park and Baratie were my favorite arcs ever. Especially, Arlong Park.

So with that said, Romance Dawn. Luffy meets with Koby who saves Koby from Alvida. That's how it went but I did wonder how they were going to get Alvida thin as shown in the anime and manga. I actually thought that it might've caused an uproar with the woke crowd but in the end, she's still fat and did team up with Buggy in the end, which happened. Fun.

I don't have much to say. This was the beginning. It's to test the waters. And if you like what you see then yeah, you are in for a ride.

Next is:

The Man in the Straw Hat

Buggy the Clown. One of the first major enemies that appeared in One Piece. Let me tell you, the actor who played Buggy gave it his all and he is one of the best things that happened. Fantastic work by the actor. Kudos to him!

The crew gets captured by Buggy and all that. A lot got cut out like Zoro having this sword fight or some such. Memory is a little hazy but I am making this after binging the show so do forgive. Nothing really bad happened here. Buggy is just very menacing. He's like Joker. He's exactly like Joker.

Moving on, we got:

Oh god, Usopp. Ussop's arc, man! Tell No Tales is about Usopp and fuck me if it wasn't the worst shit I've seen. This kind of crap took too long. It shat on a lot of Ussop's character. He is a shot, a marksman and the fact that he ain't got his friends nor the epic showdown between Kuro and his crew against the Straw Hats is just damn disappointing. A lot was cut out. This will feel like a test for some because it gets boring to slog through this crap. This arc could've been done better but goddamn. This was a memorable arc from the manga but this was butchered in love action.

Next we have a continuation of the Ussop arc but with Sanji's backstory now. It's still as insufferable as the last episode but Sanji's past is not bad. Could've been done better. All I can say. Epic fight between Sanji and the other members of the staff that was with Kuro who were not in the anime nor manga I believe. So yeah.

Next up Baratie. Holy shit. This was it. The Sanji arc. I didn't really get my hopes up but two things were done here that made me consider this as the best live action anime adaptation. Sanji's backstory and Sanji's goodbye.

Suffice to say, both were done so well, so damn well that I cried. I cried when I read the scene in the manga and now I cried when I saw it in live action. My god. It's so wonderful.

I do see some folks comment that Sanji should've bowed to Zeff when he left Baratie but to me the bowing never really was the point. It was that Sanji was crying and said his thanks. Sanji crying while saying goodbye was the highlight of that scene for me and the live action delivered. We also get Mihawk and a look on Arlong. So there's that.

Just a continuation of the Zeff, Sanji Arc stuff. Said what I need to above.

Arlong Park. The arc that I said would be the basis of whether I would consider this to be a good live action. They should be thankful that they chose to put Sanji first before this because the emotional scene from Nami was fucking shit. It was shit. That's what it was!

THEY FUCKING RUINED THE EMOTIONAL SCENE OF ARLONG PARK!!!!!!! FUCK!!!!!! THEY BETTER BE THANKFUL THAT SANJI CAME FIRST AND THAT HIS ARC WAS MY SECOND FAVORITE. IF NOT, I WOULD HAVE CONSIDERED THIS TO BE AS SHIT AS THE REST OF THE LIVE ACTION TRASH!!!!!!

I'm just damn mad at how they just meh-ified it. Nojiko's actress was awful. Woman can't act and her child counterpart was equally awful. It was the arc I was waiting for the most but it didn't deliver. The emotional scene of the Arlong Park arc was the goat! THE FUCKING GOAT AND THEY BUTCHERED IT! FUCKING HELL!

I'm just peeved man.

A continuation of the Arlong Park Arc. Fight scene was meh. Garp's fight with Luffy is kinda neat though so I'll give them that. Damn.

Anyway after all that, I'll give this series an 8.5/10.

BECAUSE OF SANJI'S ARC THAT'S WHY!!!!!

Thanks for reading and I wish you a wonderful day!