#gotterdammerung

[cimmerian-war-shrine]

[fgo-main-chapter-tournament]

Round 2, Match 8: Gotterdammerung vs Babylon

[pimsri]

Götterdämmerung

[telzeylovestigger]

Kinuko Y. Craft’s posters for the Dallas Opera’s production The Ring of the Nibelung by Richard Wagner

[cynthiaandsamus]

Wodime: So you summoned the literal Norse Devil? Ophelia: Yes Wodime: That's... probably fine, there's nothing left to destroy anyway, this'll be okay Ophelia: *sitting among a flaming Lostbelt* This is fine...

[generallemarc]

Gotterdammerung running update:

Ramzan Kadyrov, the brutal leader of Chechnya, has denounced Prigozhin as a traitor and has said that his personal militia will be sent to join the fight.

An earlier post I made regarding Wagner announcing that "there will be a new President" was in error-that post was made by a Wagner-associated Telegram account, not one of the ones known for sure to actually be run by Wagner directly. So they might still be trying for the "the emperor is misled by his wicked advisors!" ploy.

There was a confirmed shootdown of an An-26 transport plane by Wagner. This was the aircraft they claimed belonged to the Ministry of Defense. It's not clear yet if any personnel were being transported or if it was just a cargo flight.

The British Ministry of Defense has said that, given how relatively sparse the fighting in Voronezh has been so far compared to the distances being covered by Wagner units, it is likely that some units had remained "passive" and "acquiesced to Wagner". Whether that's in reference to regular-ass police and Army conscripts or more powerful units is unknown, as we don't even know what units are where rn.

I saw a report about the 45th Guards Spetsnaz Brigade(which is based in Moscow Oblast) refusing to leave their barracks as part of the mass mobilization of forces in the area, but I can't find any other mention of that anywhere rn.

I'm going to bed, and will hopefully be back online at 2pm central time. I'll keep doing these tomorrow, and for as long as this situation keeps having new developments every 20 minutes. Please pray that whatever the outcome of this is will lead to an end to the war and, God willing, an end to the oppression of the people of Russia and occupied Ukraine.

Remember that doge meme about coming back in time to warn us about something happening on June 23rd, 2023? Yeah, that's both way funnier and not funny at all now.

[4operalove]

GIUSEPPE BORGATTI

Primo Tenore Eroico

1. Nei panni di Siegfried ne WAGNER *Gotterdammerung* , Teatro alla Scala di Milano.

2. Nei panni di GIORDANO *Andrea Chenier*

3. Nei panni di GIORDANO *Andrea Chenier*.

Tutti i Diritti per Teatro alla Scala di Milano.

[cynicalclassicist]

How RTD writes the Time Lords' doom vs. how Chris Chibnall writes the Time Lords' doom. Preferably set to music. Don't take this too literally!

[madillhethen]

Long overdue review of Lostbelt 2.

Putting under the cut in case its too long and in case some mutuals are still behind.

I finished this a while ago actually lol. Anyways, When we first arrived in Scandinavia, I was unimpressed with another snowy place, like they really chose Jötunheimr for the location amongst the entire Norse mythology worlds but it explains it all in the end.

I have to admit after Lostbelt 1, this Lostbelt felt...lackluster. I feel like I enjoyed almost all of the characters--Napolean was really great. He came in with a strong introduction and continued to carry us throughout the Lostbelt, at times when he was withholding information I thought maybe he was suspicious but he wasn’t. He was a man who had regrets, and love and despite the harshness and almost hopelessness of the entire situation he kept going with a smile and I loved it. 

I mentioned before that I love Ophelia. Coming to know her was great, her story chapter and her relationships with Mash and Napoleon were both touching and funny. I was also glad to see it wasn’t focused entirely on Guda. 

I feel like Brynhildr introduction and the lore dump was good, the mystery revolving around Sigurd and Surtr’s integration. I loved the cast of Lostbelt 2, but the story took a dive in the wrong direction.

I know the entire point of the Lostbelt was stagnation, but having the plot go that way was a poor choice in motivation in my opinion. Skadi’s own unwillingness to act made the entire chapter feel like I was reading the same 10 pages over and over again. The fact they tried to make her an all-good Queen was...okay? I guess, it just felt that it lacked wisdom in my opinion. It was an interesting concept to explore about the all-loving-Queen and a world without war and hatred, only for them to turn around and try and say she wanted better but just couldn’t do so because of Surtr, just to justify the stripping of humanity, and making kids breed before 15 and killing at 25 was in poor taste. It felt like a poor ploy to try and sympathize with her. 

I don’t know, it just felt like if someone told me ‘oh Zouken used the worms on Sakura because he wanted to eradicate all evil so he was good actually’ like that doesn’t excuse the crap he did to Sakura, in the same way, I don’t care that Skadi wanted better for humans when she was the cause of it all, killing what made them human to begin with. The fight for their survival here felt weak too. 

I wished it had explored more on Gerda and her hopes and dreams in the aspiration from Napoleon. It felt like it was heading that direction but they wanted to beat around the bush.

Sitonai’s and Dante’s guest appearances made me happy but then they barely played a role at all so it felt a bit useless. 

There was also something, I don’t know if it was just me or what, but the pacing of story segments after and before battles felt...off? Many times after I read a segment, I felt like I was missing something or that I skipped something entirely.

And when Ophelia died, it made me incredibly sad, but then Mash was on the field again and no one talked of Ophelia, and just...what even happened to her body after that??? Did we bury her, or did it disintegrate because of the Sirius Light? It never explained.

I don’t know, each character arc in this was great but piecing it altogether felt like a hot mess which kind of sucks to me because I really liked the cast. I loved Ophelia, Bryn and Sigurd, hell Napoleon was great too. 

Oh! The part of putting Holmes on the bus, when he fought alongside us against Not Sigurd was great. The little tidbit of information of Helena, and him being sad, I really loved it. Like I want Holmes with us on the field! I don’t want him to be just another Romani.

I don’t know, if there’s any mutuals here that did love it, I would be happy to hear about your opinions! For me, this is just in the less than favorable opinion. Lostbelt 1 really went all out for me and maybe that just rose my expectation too high.

[cimmerian-war-shrine]

[fgo-main-chapter-tournament]

Round 1, Match 11: Gotterdammerung vs Orleans

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

TRUMP PREYS

TCinLA

AI image posted this morning on Trump’s Truth (anti)Social account:

Reasons to know that the photo above is AI generated:

As always, the big tell is the hands. Trump appears to be missing his right ring finger. And his thumbs are mashed together in a way that defies human anatomy.

The biggest clue it's a fake image might be his right knee. It's directly behind his left foot, showing a super-human flexibility the former president is not known for.

Then there are countless context clues that don't add up. Trump is the center of attention in every room he enters. Yet the four people we can see behind him don't bother to look at Trump taking a knee to pray.

Of course the biggest tell of all that this is fake is the fact if Trump tried doing this, he would be struck by a bolt of lightning.

While the rest of us have been going up and down all week - Will he be arrested? Will he not? Is the grand jury meeting today? - people on Twitter have been having fun showing what GPT4 can do to create a visual image with a word prompt.

But in the meantime, El Jefe Del Merde A Loco is actually diving deeper into the Merde A Loco, which is dangerous for everyone.

The former president posted this ominous message on Truth (anti)Social shortly after 1 a.m. Friday morning:

“What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former president of the United States, who got more votes than any sitting president in history, and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a crime, when it is known by all that NO crime has been committed & also that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country? Why & who would do such a thing? Only a degenerate psychopath that truely hates the USA!”

He’s been building to this all week.

This is what he posted Monday:

“Just Out: District Attorney Alvin Bragg received in EXCESS OF ONE MILLION DOLLARS from Radical Left Enemy of ‘TRUMP,’ George Soros. Bragg is also very close to the Clinton Campaign.”

And this on Wednesday:

“HOW DO YOU INDICT A PERSON WHO HAS’NT DONE ANYTHING WRONG, AND

YOU KNOW THAT PERSON HAS’NT DONE ANYTHING WRONG???”

And this on Thursday. (It is fairly certain that the all-caps posts are definitely written by Trump - but just remember that ungrammatical death threats are still death threats.):

WHY WON’T BRAGG DROP THIS CASE? EVERYBODY SAYS THERE IS NO CRIME HERE. I DID NOTHING WRONG! IT WAS ALL MADE UP BY A CONVICTED NUT JOB WITH ZERO CREDIBILITY, WHO HAS BEEN DISPUTED BY HIGHLY RESPECTED PROFESSIONALS AT EVERY TURN. BRAGG REFUSES TO STOP DESPITE OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY. HE IS A SOROS BACKED ANIMAL WHO JUST DOESN’T CARE ABOUT RIGHT OR WRONG NO MATTER HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE HURT. THIS IS NO LEGAL SYSTEM, THIS IS THE GESTAPO, THIS IS RUSSIA AND CHINA, BUT WORSE. DISGRACEFUL!

He followed that with this.

“District Attorney Bragg is a danger to our Country and should be removed immediately, along with Radical Lunatic Bombthrower Jack Smith, who is harassing and intimidating innocent people at levels not seen before, “Get Trump” Letitia James, the worst Attorney General in the United States, and Atlanta D.A. Fani Willis, who is trying to make PERFECT phone calls into a plot to destroy America, but reigns over the most violent Crime Scene in America, and does nothing about it!”

It is obvious that Trump is terrified of being arrested, of finally - after a lifetime spent getting away with anything he did - being held to account.

This is the kid who should have been locked in a seabag and thrown off the George Washington Bridge when he was caught at age 10 throwing rocks at the toddler in a playpen next door to the family mansion.

This is what he posts to let the Goobers know what he wants them to do, since as a physical coward he would never be able to do this on his own:

Tomorrow night, Trump will hold his first major rally of his reelection tour: Waco, Texas, where religious cult leader and anti-government extremist David Koresh led an infamous clash with federal law enforcement in 1993. This is during the 30th anniversary of the deadly standoff, an event that looms large in the Far Right Calendar of Grievances. This isn’t a “dog whistle” - it’s the fog horn on the old Queen Mary.

When asked about the timing and the location of the rally, a spokesman for the campaign issued a statement that they chose the city because voters there firmly supported the former president in the past. “It is undisputed that Texas is Trump Country after electing 37 Trump Endorsed Candidates and recent polling among Texas primary voters.”

Yes, Trump did win McLennan County, of which Waco is the county seat, by 23 points in the 2020 election.

But Waco has also long been an important landmark for anti-government extremists. There is no other place in the U.S. that could have been picked that would tap into such a deep pool of anti-government hatred, of Christian nationalist skepticism of the government.

It’s impossible to believe Trump doesn’t know what Waco represents. It’s one of the Stations of the Swastika for the Goober Right.

The rally was announced last Friday, then early on Saturday morning, he posted that he expected to “BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK” by the Manhattan district attorney. He ended the post by calling on his supporters to protest his impending arrest and “TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”

There’s been a lot of discussion as to whether or not his supporters would listen. Would they consider his arrest for paying off a porn star to be in the same category with The Big Lie, that the election was stolen from him, and them? The media has pointed to the fact that when members of the New York Young Republican club showed up in front of Trump Tower on Tuesday there were more reporters covering the event than there were demonstrators. There was the additional report that fewer than a dozen supporters showed up at Mar-A-Largo to protest his arrest.

According to these reports, Trump is the big bad wolf who has huffed and puffed and failed to blow the house down.

Sorry media, it doesn’t matter if he's playing a role or trying to play everyone for fools.

Inside that lizard brain, he knows that when his more dangerous cult members hear him raving like this, they hear The Master’s Voice.

He may be terrified, he may be quaking on his golden throne when he writes this crap, but he is willing to bring the temple down on his own head. A demented, malignant, psychopathic narcissist like Trump cannot imagine a world where this happens to him, and he is willing to destroy that world in the same way Hitler was willing to let Germany be smashed to ruin - to bring on Gotterdammerung - to avoid facing the truth of what he is and has been since the day he was born: a worthless piece of shit; a lifetime loser.

And he is especially willing to continue down this path while the entire Republican Party gives him support for anything he does. The Republican “leadershit” (typo intentional) who are actually afraid of their “base, but who continue to seek the support of these voters. These “leaders” do nothing to reason with them, to persuade them to abandon their violent tendencies, beyond empty pieties about how “we should not allow violence.” Doing anything to actually take responsibility would take a lot of work and actual honesty - things none of them are capable of.

[Thats Another Fine Mess]

[that-stranger-in-paradise]

vengeance is sweet (sorrow)

[cynthiaandsamus]

Skadi: I am the only Goddess in this Lostbelt Ritsuka: What's that mountain over there that says 'Emergency Goddess Seal Do Not Open'? Ophelia: that's uhh... a typo, it's supposed to say... Hugs and Bunnies Ritsuka: "Hugs and Bunnies Do Not Open"? Ophelia: ..........yes

[generallemarc]

Gotterdammerung running update:

This is what I've been able to piece together of the major events that happened as I was asleep. I'm leaving out alot of minor encounters and claims that I couldn't confirm visually.

Wagner's units had made it to the border of Moscow Oblast, though that's not the same thing as the city of Moscow(like how Mexico City is surrounded by the State of Mexico)

At least one more Russian helicopter was shot down, for a minimum total of four(probably more, but I'm only reporting things I have personally seen visual confirmation of)

That An-26 that was shot down was stated to have had three people on it, meaning that it was probably on a supply run and not carrying Shoigu or Gerasimov themselves

Kazakhstan had apparently been considering shutting down its border with Russia, and if they're smart they still are.

Putin made calls to the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkey, probably to try and assure them nothing was going to happen to him

There is at least one visually-confirmed instance of Russian Army forces attacking a civilian truck(it blew up, but I can't tell if it was an airstrike or a tank shell or what), and I guarantee there are more that will soon be verified.

Saw a claim that Wagner released a bunch of convicts from prisons in Rostov to join their ranks, but I'm not sure A. if that happened or B. what will happen if that happened now that the deal has been made.

Oh yeah, that fucking deal. We literally do not know what it was. All we know is that Lukashenko brokered it and that it made Wagner turn back around(for the moment). Tellingly, there's been no word at all on Shoigu or Gerasimov.

It is possible that, right before that happened, the 217th Parachute Guards Regiment(in Russia paratroopers are seen like Marines, being more elite than the regular army but not quite special forces) went over to Prigozhin. I'm seeing multiple sources claim that, but the video provided as evidence is of a guy speaking in Russian and I can't find a full translation.

As I was writing this, one of the accounts I follow for up-to-the-minute info posted a claim from a Russian source saying that part of the deal was giving the Wagnerites immunity from prosecution for the events of the past day. No confirmation, but it would make sense.

What in the actual fuck is this clown world.

[wearethekat]

One of the best stagings of perhaps the finest ten minutes in western classical music. The Met’s “Machine” for their Ring cycle setting may have been controversially massively expensive and offputtingly modernistic for some (boring) viewers, but it’s used spectacularly here to depict a Rhine River turning slowly red with blood. A nice change when many directors just have the funeral procession walk (very slowly) offstage for the entire ten minutes!

Context: this is Siegfried’s funeral march from Wagner’s colossal (and colossally Problematique, but we won’t get into that here) Ring Cycle. Betrayed Siegfried lies dead, partially through Gunther’s machinations (he’s the blond). Which is an uncomfortable position for Gunther, as he had sworn blood brotherhood to Siegfried a mere two acts ago. 

Bits to watch out for:

Gunther’s face as he looks down on his bloodied hands (impressive, especially given that traditionally opera singers barely bother with acting)

The thundering chord that plays precisely when he puts his hands in the river

The orchestra plays one of Siegfried’s leitmotifs as Gunther bends over his body (possibly “Siegfried Heroic” but don’t quote me on that)

as Gunther picks up Nothung (the sword) the Sword leitmotif plays

and then they walk the bier out very slowly. A real improvement over the usual.

The music in general, especially the brass section. Wagner uses a massive amount of brass, including increasingly obscure instruments like the Wagner tuba, the contrabass trombone, and the bass trumpet.