#hp general knowledge

[shnoob]

Severus Snape Romantic/Dating HC’s:  

A/N: I’m back for real this time! The end of school shut me down, but I am back! I will be busy for a bit after a few posts, but my timing will definitely be better than before. I wanted to try something new as I’ve been getting into Harry Potter again soooo. To note, I will NEVER do a Teacher x Student dynamic as that is NOT appropriate whatsoever! This is in the perspective of two ADULTS, (Like a Professor x Professor)

C/W: Romantic, maybe abit out of character? I haven't seen any HP content in a long time so I apologize if it is. 

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Absolutely infatuated with you, and I mean this in an obsessive way. Although he doesnt display it 100%, especially infront of other people, he will learn every single thing about you, even the slightest of details. (Find this cute or not is up to you but I’m not sure if this is a positive thing half of the time.)

Loved you from the very first interaction you had with him. Your smile, laugh, and even the way you shook his hand as a formal greeting had him hooked. He never felt like he could feel this way again, but you set up a spark inside of him that he couldn't put out. 

The thing he loves the most about you is your intelligence. The way you understand your craft, apply knowledge behind several situations, and never seem to skip a beat grows the urge inside of him to get to know you. Get to understand what you know, basically just enabling his obsessive nature of knowing everything about you lol. 

Again, will never be a PDA sort of guy in the castle. He likes to keep things professional, especially when theres his co-workers and the children around. He wouldn’t risk having rumors spread about your relationship, (which I bet there is already), but outside of the castle, probably max PDA would be holding your hand and being seen with you at all times. 

Now, not to say that if somebody came up to you trying to get your number he wouldn’t make that super clear you are taken. A hand sliding down to your waist, pulling you in and some words exchanged before practically dragging you out and talking about how stupid they were to attempt such acts towards you like the hand holding wasn’t a clear enough sign. 

Speaking of that, he is definitely the jealous type. Watching the moves of any person coming up towards you that seems to have a romantic inclination behind their actions, making detail of what they looked like and every motion they made towards you, to ask later who it was and what business that person had. Of course, he would trust you didn’t have anything to do with it, but rather doesn’t trust anybody else. 

When you two are alone, he is the sweetest guy. Although he still keeps the majority of his composure, he can't lie and say he doesn't have a soft spot for you. Asking you about your day while holding you and rubbing your back as you go into the types of antics all the students are up to, or making you tea as he forces you to rest in the bath that he drew for you. 

At some point, you have had a night where you talk about the drama with the students if you heard rumors about them. Mainly it would just to make sure that your relationship isn’t aware by all, but you can’t lie and say it isn't a bit fun talking about the potential relations between students in the classes you teach.  

His love language I believe would be quality time. Although you cannot spend every day together as you both teach classes, on the weekends he just wants you to himself since neither of you don’t have to see the world. He gets quite frustrated when your plans are ruined, so later in the evenings, he’ll sneak on by to your room to spend the evening, not particularly caring for wandering eyes. 

Remembers every single detail about you. What foods you like, interests, even how you like your hair to be worn. Not even just in general, but on certain days if you ask him to recall he could name what color your clothes were and how you were acting. This causes him to remember certain patterns about you which helps in the long run.  

Albus 100% has theories on you guys dating. He has pulled you both aside separately and asked about your relationship, which both claimed nothing outside of co-workers was occuring, deep down he has a growing feeling its more than that.

[pangaeaseas]

The Problem of Religion in Harry Potter (or, what is Wizard God?)

tl; dr: I wish more hp fics did something with religion and the wizarding world

so to state my credentials up front: I've read a lot of hp fanfiction, a little on the Reformation and religious history--like, I have probably more background knowledge than the average person but I am very emphatically not an expert and have never actually taken a class specifically on any kind of religious history, and I'm an ex-Catholic who did ten ish years of religion classes. There are probably a LOT more people more qualified to talk about this than me but whatever I've never actually seen very much meta written out on this specific issue so I'm giving it a try. (if you have written or read such meta, please send me recs)

ahh the Problem of Religion one of the great unsolved mysteries of the hp world building (similar issues include What the Fuck is Going on with Ireland, How Does the Ministry Actually Work, What is the Population, etc) and I call it 'unsolved' because the fandom has no massively popular solution (like Lordships for the Problem of the Wizengamot) and in general tends to just not think about it, much like JKR originally did. Now IMO she probably intended most wizards to be, like, generically Church of England or whatever without much investment--basically copying the Muggle equivalent whenever it isn't spelled out how the two worlds differ, which is I think a lot of her un-filled-out world building is meant to be. Which. OK. You can do that, but, you know, religion is a very very important aspect of worldbuilding and in my opinion ignoring it and expecting it to be just the same as 1990s Muggle Britain is uninteresting and lazy.

This (wizards are meant to be some kind of Christian and probably Church of England just for simplicity's sake) is evidenced by things like Hogwarts having Christmas and Easter breaks, James and Lily having a Bible quote picked out by Dumbledore on their tombstone, and Draco Malfoy, most emblematically wizard of wizard characters who can be taken as a potential baseline, automatically saying things like 'Good God'. Which, you know, implies that the idea of a single God, and probably the Judaeo-Christian God because that's the same cultural background as the rest of Britain, is taken for granted by wizarding society. It doesn't necessarily imply anything about Draco's or even the Malfoys' personal beliefs, and of course you have other characters saying things like 'Oh my Merlin' and "Morgana" and things like that. Which in my opinion wasn't meant to be indications of some kind of Merlin or Morgana worship but more quirky and fun flavor things of the kind jkr loves to include without thinking out the implications. But you absolutely can take those statements that way--this post is absolutely not meant to dictate how people want to headcanon and I am absolutely here for giving wizards a well thought out pagan or Non-Christian religion, I just don't think that was the author's intent. There's also plenty of other things that imply Wizarding cultural Christianity that I'm not remembering off the top of my head.

And, of course, much better writers than me have extensively discussed all the Christian themes in HP. Of course, themes don't need to affect how people worldbuild in fanfic.

So: with HP canon, we are looking at a society that is probably culturally Christian and probably (key word) intended to be Church of England. But, because JKR wasn't putting much thought into it and basically just took a Chrisitian bedrock of society for granted, the implications of this are not really explored at all. So what I'm interested in is how fandom deals with it.

Mostly, that is...not at all, either taking cultural Christianity in the Wizarding World for granted the way JKR does or by ind of handwaving that wizards have evolved beyond the need for religion and that's just how it is. And that's perfectly fine! Not everyone wants to come up with a full, working, wizard society, and even if they are trying to worldbuild some aspects of wizarding society religion is often ignored, because people don't want to deal with it for often valid reasons (religious trauma, just disinterest, grew up agnostic, not Christian but thinks wizards probably are etc, etc, etc, ) Personally I wish more fics delved into what wizarding religious belief actually is, but to put it bluntly, that's just me. And I have never dealt with religion in my own fics. So don't takethis as judgement at all.

But there are interesting headcanons when people do choose to try and worldbuild religion in HP.

Fom what I've seen, one of the major ways to deal with religion in HP (aside from not dealing with it at all) is to give wizards, often pureblood wizards, some kind of pagan, often Celtic-inspired, religion. And this is quite defensible! Sometimes this is badly executed and/or turned into Death Eater apologia, but the idea of wizards having a different religion is really interesting and a good deal more interesting (IMO of course) than just not mentioning religion at all. Most fics that I've seen don't delve too deeply into, like the actual history and theology of these religions, but there are definitely some that do. (Also if you know any PLEASE send me recs). So if handled well, this is a great way to add some religion worldbuilding in the world of Harry Potter.

However, my personal favorite set of possibilities--obviously I have some personal bias as a history nerd with a long standing if never as deeply researched as I would like to interest in the history of Christianity and as an ex-Catholic--is that, well, we know the statute of secrecy started..when, exactly? 1690. So this much is obviously a result of JKR's Hollywood understanding of witch hunts (a subject for another time and someone far more qualified). For interested wrodlbuilders, we can take this as a guideline at best, as personally I think it would have taken a good deal longer than one year to agree on and implement something like the Statute and I tend to take 1690 as an end date, not a start. I also tend to take the Statue as a largely European phenomenon, at least at first. But, uh, what was happening in Britain at the time..oh, right...the Glorious Revolution....what was happening that created the conditions for the Glorious Revolution...oh, the English Civil War...which was because of...oh yeah, and what was also happening on the continent, maybe it involved, wait, thirty years..oooh, the Thirty Years War...wait weren't there a whole bunch of massive social shifts happening in Europe at this point in time isn't that funny but surely the stature of secrecy could be considered a part of these massive social shifts...all of which was heavily influenced by...you guessed it, the Protestant Reformation.

Wait. So. Maybe, the separation of Wizards from Muggles, at least in Britain, wasn't actually about Muggles hating wizards or wizards hating Muggles. Maybe it was about religion. Now personally I find this ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING. The possibilities, the possibilities...

Wizards had a massive religious civil war that created the blood status system in its modern form? Particular families have wildly different denominations? Excellent. Religion both in terms of level of religiosity and in terms of denomination is a blood status marker? Excellent. Purebloods are all Catholic (what does this do to both Catholic and not Muggleborns?) Excellent. Purebloods are all Puritans? Weird, but if you can pull it off excellent. Purebloods are all one of the wacky new denominations that sprung up after the Reformation and then either died out or conquered the world? Excellent. Pure bloods are all Lutherans who really hated Henry VIII? Excellent. One of my favoirite ways to create a wizarding religion was someone who had most pure bloods follow a denomination that split off from Catholicism in the Great Schism and then a small minority being Catholic, with the worlds splitting around the Reformation. Even the paganism headcanons can be incorporated: the Reformation could conceivably have made it much more difficult to keep practicing wizard paganism causing separation of the worlds.

Personally I would love to see a world that used the history of the Protestant Reformation super well, but it's not the only way to relate a Wizarding religion or a Wizarding religious history. I just wish more people tried to do that at all. Let wizards be religious! Or let them be irreligious but have thought about it, instead of just ignoring religion at all as something that might conceivably have influenced human societies. Maybe Wizarding Britain has state sponsored atheism. Just say that outright!

Another thing I'd like to see more fic doing is theology: how does having magic impact people's religious doctrine? Does every major religion essentially have a wizarding branch with its own theology because magic impacts their view of the world so much, or do most wizards simply follow the majority Muggle religion in their country with no modifications? if so, why? Do some wizards disagree, potentially violently, over how to incorporate magic into their religion? Do some people refuse to use magic because they think it goes against their religion? Etc etc etc you could go on forever. I've seen fic, which randomly enough was about Regulus Black, do this pretty well (or I thought so as a non-Jew) for Judaism, and I'd love it if done with other religions.

Anyway. Now I have to figure out how the hell religion works in the Wizarding Britain of my own headcanon.

[vintagegeekculture]

The Evil Little Hairy Cave People of Europe in Pulp Fiction

From the 1900s to the 1940s, there was a trendy theme in occult and horror stories that the explanation for widespread European legends of fairies, brownies, pixies, leprechauns and other malicious little people, was that they were a hereditary racial memory of the extremely small non-human, hairy stone age original inhabitants of Europe, who still survive well into modern times in caves and barrows below the earth. Envious of being displaced on the surface, these weird creatures, adapted to the darkness of living underground and unable to withstand the sun, still mean mischief and occasionally go out at night to capture someone.... usually an attractive woman....to take to their dark caves for human sacrifice.

Displaced by the arrival of Indo-European language speakers at the dawn of the Bronze Age, these original, not quite human stone age people of Europe were driven deep underground into caves and barrows below the earth, where they went mad, adapted to the darkness and acquired a fear of daylight, became extremely inbred, in some cases acquired widespread albinism. It is these strange little people who gave the descendants of Europeans a haunting racial dread of places below the earth like mines and caves, and it also is these strange, hairy troglodytes who originally built the uncanny and mysterious menhir, fairy rings, and stone age structures of England, Scotland, and Ireland that predate the coming of the Celts and Romans.

In some cases, these evil troglodytes are usually identified with the mysterious Picts, the pre-Celtic stone age inhabitants of the British Isles. In some cases, they are identified with the Basque people of Spain, best known as the inventors of Jai Alai, and the oldest people in Europe who speak a unique language unrelated to any in the world.

The original codifier of this trend was Arthur Machen, a horror writer who is less remembered than his contemporary, Henry James, but who may be the best horror writer in the generations between Poe on the one end and Lovecraft/CL Moore/Clark Ashton Smith on the other. His story, "the White People" from 1904 (a reference to their strange cave albinism) was a twisted Alice in Wonderland with a girl who is irresistibly attracted to dark pre-Roman stone age ruins and who is eventually pulled underground.

In addition to being a great horror writer, Arthur Machen was a member of the Hermetic Society of the Golden Dawn, an occult organization, and was often seen at the Isis-Urania Temple in London. Many of his works have secretive occult knowledge.

H.P. Lovecraft in particular always pointed out Arthur Machen as his single biggest inspiration, though he combined Machen's dread and occultism with Abraham Merritt's sense of fear of the cosmic unknown, seen in "Dwellers in the Mirage" and "People of the Pit."

Another and scarier example of this trend would be "No Man's Land," a story by John Buchan, a Scotsman fascinated by paganism and horror, who often wrote stories of horrific discoveries and evil rites on the Scottish moors. He is often reduced to being described as a "Scottish Ghost Story" writer, a painfully reductivist description as in his career, Buchan wrote a lot of thrillers, detective, and adventure stories as well. In later life, he was appointed Governor General of Canada, meaning he may be the first head of state to be a horror writer.

It was Buchan who first identified the cave creatures with the Picts, something that another Weird Tales writer decades later, Robert E. Howard, would roll with in the 1920s.

Howard is a very identifiable kind of modern person you often see on the internet: a guy who talks tough, but who was terrified to leave his small town. He created manly man, tough guy heroes like Conan the Barbarian, Kull, and El Borak, but he himself never left his mother's house. It's no wonder he got along well with his fellow Weird Tales writer and weird shut in, HP Lovecraft. With 1920s Weird Tales writers, despite your admiration for their incredible talent, you also can't help but laugh at them a little, a feeling you also apply to a lot of Victorians, who achieved incredible things, but who are often closet cases and cranks who died virgins ("Chinese" Gordon comes to mind, as does Immelmann).

With Howard, his obsession with the Picts and the stone age cave dwelling people of Europe started with an unpublished manuscript where at a dinner party, a man gets knocked out and regresses to his past life in the Bronze Age, where he remembers the earliest contact between modern humans and the original inhabitants of the British Isles, the evil darkskinned Picts. This is a mix of both the "little cave people" story and another cliche at the time, "the stone age past life regression novel," another turn of the century cliche.

Still with the Picts on his mind, Howard would later create Bran Mak Morn, a Pict chieftain, who predated Kull and Conan as his Celtic caveman muscle hero. Howard was of Irish descent and proudly anti-Colonial and anti-British, with his Roman Empire and Civilized Kingdoms as a stand in for the British and other Empires, which he viewed as rapacious and humbug, a view shared by his greatest inspiration, Talbot Mundy. His "Worms of the Earth" gets to the heart of why these little cave people scare us so much: they remind us that we live on land that is impossibly ancient and we don't fully understand at all.

It was another Weird Tales Writer a decade later who wrote one of the last stories about the little hairy cave people of Europe, though, Manly Wade Wellman in 1942. Wellman was mainly known for creating the blond beefcake caveman hero Hok the Mighty set in stone age times, and for his supernatural ghost stories of Silver John the Balladeer set in modern, ghostly Appalachia (like many ex-Weird Tales writers, he made a turn to being a regional author in his later career, in the same way Hugh B. Cave became a Caribbean writer), but Wellman also had a regular character known as John Thunstone, a muscular and wealthy playboy known for his moustache who used his great wealth to investigate the supernatural and the occult. Thunstone had a silver sword made by St. Dunstan, patron of Silversmiths, well known for his confrontations with the Devil.

Most John Thunstone stories featured familiar stories, like a demon possessed seance and so on, but one in particular featured a unique enemy, the Shonokins.

The Shonokins were the original rulers of North America, descendants of Neanderthal man displaced by American Indians. This fear that the land we live is ancient and unknowable and we just arrived on it and don't know any of its secrets is common to settler societies, who often hold the landscape with dread, as in Patricia Wrightson's fantasies of the Australian Outback. It was easy enough to transport the hairy cave people from the Scottish Moors to North America. I suspect that's what they are, a personification of a fear shared in the middle class, that in the back of their minds, that everything they have supposedly earned is merely an accident of history, built by rapacity and the crimes of history, and that someday a bill will come due.

A text page in the May 1942 issue of Weird Tales gives strange additional information on the Shonokins not found elsewhere:

Since then, there have been too many examples of evil cave people who predate Europeans. Philip Jose Farmer's "The All White Elf" features the last survivor of a pre-European people who live in caves. A lot of other fiction of course has featured the Picts, but according to our modern scientific understanding, which describes them as much, much less exotically, as a blue tattooed people not too different and practically indistinguishable from the Celtic tribes that surrounded them, and which they eventually blended into.

[yoiurboi]

JRWI X SU: GEM PLACEMENT GUIDE

Forewarning: my handwriting is kind of ass.

A few (like two) of you have asked about this and I am happy to oblige. Apologies in advance for the shitty doodles, I did this on my laptop as opposed to on my PC like I normally do.

First and foremost, I'm going to explain how Gem Placement Theory works. Obviously, if you've no knowledge of Steven Universe, this will make little sense. But to put it simply, the location of the Rocks on these Gem Aliens can tell us a little bit about their characters!

This one's gonna be a little long, so strap in!

For general gem placements, I use a body map like this:

Different regions of the body hold different meanings. The head: brains, intelligence, mindfulness. The chest: emotions, the heart. The naval region: sentimentality and kindness. A few of these have been confirmed to be SU canon. In an interview once, Rebecca Sugar implied that Roses' gem is on her stomach because she is sentimental, or something like that.

I tend to focus on these meanings and then apply them to my gem OCs and Gem AU characters. Gillion fits into this category. However, sometimes gem meanings can be even more specific.

Two big examples of this from Steven Universe are Aquamarine and Jasper. Aquamarine's gem is placed (and shaped) to resemble a fake tear drop. It's sort of ironic because of how uncaring she seems to be. Also it looks like one of those prison murder tats but I don't think that's on purpose. And Jasper's placement was explained (I think in the SU podcast?) to be a reference to being "hard-nosed". Gem Jay and Chip sort of fit into both this and the last category.

I use both the specific meanings and the body regions when making gem designs. But, I generally gravitate towards the first one. Now onto the actual designs.

Gillion is "The Strong One". At least, that's what he wants you to think. Actually, at one point Jay had more HP then him, but that didn't stop him from tanking hits to keep his friends out of harms way. Paladins are also generally more associated with being physically strong than rogues and artificers. So that's one factor, after all, you puff out your chest to feel stronger. But also! Gillion is PASSIONATE! He loves his friends and has all sorts of big emotions that come from being new to the Oversea! And the chest is where the heart is. Finally, and don't take this too seriously, Gill is a little stupid. They all are, actually. There's a reason the Albatrio aren't know for their brains. That's what Edison Kingdom is for. But out of all of them, I think Gillion is the most "Feelings over Thoughts" kind of guy, mostly because he's the least emotionally reserved.

Now Jay and Chip are a little less about where the gem IS and more about where it ISN'T.

Did you know that the right eye is the Eye of Ra? The Egyptian SUN god? Obviously the, Ferin's have connections with Aster, with Jay's "Hot Sun Dreams" and all that. Whether or not she's some Sun chosen one like Gill is to the Moon, I'm not sure. But regardless, she's got a glaring link to the big, bright, fiery lady in the sky. Jay's got some eye stuff going on in general. As do the other Ferins. Her gem is specifically over the one that DOESN'T turn orange, though. Mostly, so it'd still be visible without affecting her gem. Also, people tend to close one eye when aiming.

Chip. Chip. Chippy Chip Boy. Did you know that the left eye is the Eye of Horus? Did you know this eye can be associated with the moon? Did you know Fish and Chi-

Okay, but seriously. His open eye is the left one, which can be associated with "protection from malevolent forces". He survived the Hole in the Sea, which one might say is a malevolent force, relatively unscathed (well, not emotionally, but at least he's not still stuck in there like Arlin is). And of course, there's the shit with Niklaus. A little ironic, as he is DEFINITELY not safe from that guy. Plus undead are often considered to be evil, and well... you know. More irony.

I also wanted all their gems to be symmetrical for when I draw their fusions (I already have technically, just not in Clip Studio).

Additionally, Jay and Chip are sort of two different kinds of traditional "smarts". With Jay being more tech-y/book smart and Chip being a cunning street smart kind of guy.

BONUS! A bunch of doodles I did for other characters in this AU. I think the Black Rose Pirates (and pirates in general) are like the Crystal Gems, and then the Diamond Authority would be the Navy. So, just know that even though I didn't draw him, Captain Rose will probably be either a Desert Rose or just straight up Rose Quartz.

[a-substantial-trash-pile]

hey guess what. it's finally time for my Stardew Valley Loredump. i’m about to ramble about my farmer and yo-yo/yoba and shane in a probably long-ass, disjointed post because i have a problem ok. not expecting anyone to read it all of course—just want to finally write these brainstorming shenanigans down. the loredump will be below the cut below the image 👇 (WARNING: IT'S LONG):

SAMUEL IZAWA:

*samuel is 28 years old, pan, japanese okinawan (no im not self projecting hahaha), and goes by he/they. main thing is that they’re from “our world” where stardew valley is a video game, but he died and ended up in the stardew universe. because i think isekai tropes are fun and silly. as the player, samuel can do things others in the stardew world can’t do, such as: 

summon the in-game HUD that’s only visible to him, so he can see health/energy levels and inventory and all that.

speaking of inventory, it’s essentially a pocket dimension samuel can shove stuff in. the inventory doesn’t really care about size/weight/etc as long as it’s something the system considers an “item.” so like samuel can put a whole ass four poster bed in there but he can’t do that to a person or a whole house. samuel just needs to touch the item to make it disappear into his inventory. he can then summon it back out when he needs it. the game’s inventory limit system remains the same. samuel gets 12 slots on their own, but if they have a bag on them it increases to 36.

can access the player menu you can normally access in game. so like profile, skills, collections, relationships, etc are all there. no options or quit tab though. having the relationship tab is a nightmare for samuel, who has major insecurities about what people think of him. that tab is a quantifiable measure on how much people like him. it a real brain demon for him to know it exists and is right there for him to access anytime. 

can see the “stats” of food and healing items. hp/energy recovery amounts, buffs, etc. 

*funny thing is that samuel has never played SDV himself and only has knowledge based on what he’s heard and seen online secondhand. ironically he was planning on playing the game for the first time before the whole dying thing ruined it. they can’t even remember how they died, but it doesn’t bother them as much as they think it should. they didn’t leave much behind in that life.

*anyway, i’m talking a lot of game terms here, but don’t get it twisted. while samuel has all these game systems going on, the SDV world is very much a real one that doesn’t normally work by that logic. by that i mean time flows normally like in our world and there isn’t just 4 months in a year. things exist outside the valley. there’s a whole planet of places and people. 

*luckily samuel has help in navigating this new world in the form of yo-yo the junimo, who is the first living thing samuel sees when he first wakes up in that joja cubicle. yo-yo helps explain a lot of things and guide samuel around in its own abrasive way. he’s also there to be like, “hey i gave you a second chance at life so you kinda owe me actually. sign this contract.” and samuel, who is a pushover and also confused, is just like, “ok.” (yo-yo sounds like danny devito btw. because i think it’s funny.) 

*i call the contract a “magical girl contract” because that’s essentially what it is. samuel gets access to extra powers/abilities on top the stuff he can already do as a player. in return he fights monsters n shit for yo-yo and generally does things for them that they can’t do easily on their own. the extra benefits include: 

higher pain tolerance. which isn’t always a good thing. especially when you tend to not be great with self-preservation like samuel is. 

can heal most injuries by just eating/drinking stuff to regain hp.

yo-yo can teleport the both of them around as needed, but it’s tiring and it drains a lot of magic. distance matters too.

yo-yo can spawn items but it drains magic as well. the more valuable/rare the item, the more draining it is. spawning items is already a magic-intensive thing in the first place. also yo-yo isn’t creating the item out of nothing. they’re actually randomly taking it from wherever it already exists in the world. for example, say yo-yo “spawns” a jar of pickles. somebody in the world is going to open their fridge and discover their jar of pickles is missing or maybe a grocery store will have a sudden empty spot on its shelf. yo-yo doesn’t have control of where the items are taken from (or so they claim).

samuel and yo-yo’s magic pools became connected so they can both do more than they could do on their own before. this is one of the reasons why yo-yo wanted a contract with samuel, who has a larger magic pool than normal due to being from another world. but it’s possible for one side to use up all the magic for the both of them. 

*samuel’s personality can be summed up as Awkward People-Pleasing Tired Sad Garbage Dork. either he’s dressed like a grandparent in sweaters and turtlenecks or he’s wearing a button up shirt with the collar undone and jeans. they usually have their neck covered in public to hide the mark of yoba embedded there. he has a “resting bitch face” as some may call, but that’s just because his brain is busy over-analyzing 193828 different things. he loves being outside in the grass and dirt, looking at bugs n shit. he’s also a nerd who likes to play video games and ramble about the lore in them (he likes RPGs the most, but if the game’s got a good story and cool world, he’s into it). they like to do things with their hands like model building/painting. in their new stardew life, they get into woodcarving after willy teaches them the basics (he carves shane a little chicken). 

*samuel does NOT know how to say “no.” absolute pushover. their self-worth is based on how much they’re liked by others, which isn’t healthy obviously. he has a fear that the only way he can be liked is by being useful. he’s scared that he is inherently a bad and selfish person, because he can’t say for sure if he’s helping others purely out of kindness or because it just makes him feel better about existing. deep down there’s anger/frustration that’s accumulated over the years, anger towards himself and also others because he’s always doing things for other people—going above and beyond—but it never feels like enough. at the same time though, they hate it when these thoughts come up because they believe that you shouldn’t go into helping somebody expecting that you’ll get something out of it. he hates how much of a hypocrite he is. he hates how he bases so much of his self-worth on the opinions of others, but feels helpless to it. they usually just push these emotions down because samuel feels guilty about them. how can they be a good person if they’re thinking like this? how can they deserve to exist with this mindset? however they get a chance to let out the anger/bitterness/frustration through fighting monsters. kind of disassociating in a way. this also isn’t a good thing because his demeanor is much colder and scarier during combat. having someone who’s felt powerless for so long suddenly gain power is a dangerous thing.

*this mindset when monster fighting shatters when samuel meets krobus and realizes that monsters aren’t just the simple enemy NPCs their brain had been automatically categorizing them as. guilt galore. he gets real depressed about that for a while but yo-yo, krobus, and shane are there to help him. 

*SPEAKING OF SHANE… it’s crush at first sight for samuel because hot damn is shane their type. i mean just look at him. mamma mia. haha anyyyway, they first meet at the stardrop saloon. samuel’s waiting at the bar for his to-go order near where shane is drinking. shane’s looking sad, so samuel gives in and decides they’ll start a convo to maybe distract him from whatever’s bothering him. samuel employs the “crack a dumb joke to hide the fact that i’m nervous because i’m talking to a hot person and then use that opening to introduce myself” strat. shane, being an asshole, is like, “oh so you’re the new farmer. here’s a tip: don’t bother me.” samuel takes 999 damage and their brain immediately goes “THIS IS MY FAULT I FUCKED UP like who wants to be talked to by a stranger when they’re sad goddammit why am i so bad at this?!!” it’s overall not a great first impression. after that, samuel tries to avoid shane out of embarrassment, but circumstances keep making them run into each other. for instance, samuel works a lot with marnie with her being a mentor figure to him in animal husbandry, so he and shane have a lot of opportunity to interact through that (plus marnie is secretly trying to get them closer to each other). through these meetings and shenanigans, samuel and shane get to know each other better until one day they’re friends. then good friends. then best friends. then kiss friends. then marry friends. :)

YOBA (A.K.A. YO-YO): 

*yo-yo is ????? years old and goes by any pronouns but most of the time it's it/they.

*yo-yo is actually THE yoba, but they’re not the completely benevolent creator-of-all-things humans have made them out to be. maybe they were in the past, but now they’re selfish and rude and swear a lot. but they do still care, even if they don’t admit it (tsundere-ass). yoba is currently stuck in the form of a little junimo and is substantially weakened because it gave too much of itself away to the world in the past and got burned for it. because the world kept taking and taking. and now there’s war and pollution and shit and yoba/yo-yo is maybe just a teensy tiny bit angry and bitter now. but it’s ok because now they got this human from another reality to help them reclaim the pieces of itself. and maybe along the way relearn how to love the world again.  

*oh also yoba didn’t create the whole planet like the creation story claims. they’re technically an alien that came across a young planet full of life and decided to stay and help it develop. 

*main reason yo-yo made a contract with samuel is because it needs help finding/reclaiming the pieces of itself. pieces can usually be found in strong monsters empowered by the piece. this isn’t always the case though. sometimes it’s in an ancient artifact. sometimes it’s in a specific place like a temple. sometimes it’s in a person. 

*samuel doesn’t have to deal with having an existential crisis about yo-yo, since he’s from our world where yoba doesn’t even exist as a god. yo-yo claims to be the one responsible for bringing samuel over into the stardew universe, but there are holes in their story. where did yoba even find the power to do such a thing when they’re in such a weakened state? mysterious. 

*the first time yoba reveals itself to shane is kind of chaotic. it’s in the middle of the night when yo-yo suddenly appears in shane’s room, grabs his face with its little stick arms and yells, “WAKE UP!!! YOUR BOYFRIEND IS IN MORTAL PERIL!!!” shane is like, “WHAT THE F–”     it was an act of desperation on yo-yo’s part, because samuel was in trouble and shane was the only one it could think of going to for help. essentially samuel meets something Bad in the deep mines, something that takes him out of commission and puts him in a trance state while draining his lifeforce. y’know, the classic kind of trance state where you need to figure out how to get the person back–how to snap them out of it. yo-yo tried and failed, so that’s where shane comes in. it’s the classic “love-interest-breaks-main-character-out-of-mind-control-with-sheer-power-of-love” trope. except shane does punch samuel during it. lovingly. in the face. hey it works ok.     after the chaos is over and everyone’s safe and gathered together, samuel and yo-yo explain everything to shane (well more like samuel explains everything while yo-yo wishes outloud that they had their memory erasing powers back). shane, who is canonically an atheist, learns that this talking pottymouthed jerkass apple is actually THE yoba and is just like, “yeah. this might as well happen.” and then he remains atheist because what else are you going to do when you learn that god is a talking pottymouthed jerkass apple who calls you a bitch and is also responsible for your partner having to go do dangerous shit. he and yo-yo have a rocky relationship at first to say the least. but once they both realize how much the other cares about samuel, things get a little better. 

*yeah, yoba may be a bitch and they may be angry and they may be bitter, but they really do care, even if they try to convince themselves otherwise. even though so much got taken from it, it still cares about humans and dwarves and shadow people and everything else on the planet. and when it eventually comes down to it, yoba will step up to protect what it loves, even if it means losing everything again. 

SHANE FINCH: 

*this post was technically supposed to just be about my farmer and yo-yo’s lore and stuff, but i gotta give some personal headcanons i have about shane… like for instance his last name is “finch.” because i thought the bird theme was cute. he’s 29 years old, bi, and half asian, half white (in our world that asian half is korean). i’m not being specific because i don’t know if korea even exists in the stardew world, since all we know in the game is that there’s a “ferngill republic” and a “gotoro empire.” i was thinking of just headcanoning that stardew’s planet is essentially the same as earth. so like most of the same countries/nations exist except the history diverged a bit along the way, leading to the ferngill republic and gotoro empire. OK SORRY for the tangent—back on topic.

*so shane is a trans man who started transitioning back in high school. he had two best friends who were very supportive and really helped him on his journey to figure himself out. those two friends were like family to him. it was good that he had this support because his parents were always pretty shitty and shane transitioning just made them act even shittier. the only good family member of shane’s is marnie, who was supportive, but she lived far away, was busy, AND wasn’t on good terms with her sister (shane’s mom), so shane didn’t get to see her much. 

*the moment shane became a legal adult, he got away from his parents, finding a place with his two best friends and moving in together. oh and his friends’ names were rosa and heath. should’ve probably mentioned that earlier oops.     shane, rosa, and heath go to the same college together, suffer student loans, graduate, etc. haven’t thought of what shane would get a degree in yet—most likely something “generic” because he’s unsure of what he wants to do himself (i feel u bby). 

*ok so rosa and heath were dating since high school, but they were so comfortable with shane and vice versa that things never got that awkward living together. however when rosa and heath got married (“yoba, FINALLY,” shane would say), shane felt like it was time to find his own place, much to the devastation of his bffs. the apartment ended up close to where rosa and heath lived of course—the couple made sure of it (“stop backseating my apartment hunting!” “MAKE US”). 

*rosa and heath get pregnant and have a healthy baby girl that they name jasmine. i headcanon jas as black (from heath’s side) and portuguese (rosa’s side). everyone is thrilled about the baby. shane was immediately offered godfather role and he happily accepted. jas was the cutest baby ever and he adored her. he babysat jas all the time. 

*jas was 4 years old when rosa and heath tragically passed away in a car accident. they were coming home from a business dinner when they lost control of their car on some black ice and slid into oncoming traffic. shane was babysitting jas when he got the call. in the span of one cold winter night, shane and jas’s world shattered. 

*rosa and heath didn’t have any reliable relatives either. those relatives only came to take the money and belongings. shane was the only one jas had, so he adopted her. he tried his best to pick up the pieces. he really did. he lasted for a year trying to raise a kid on his own with the salary of a dead-end job, but he knew the situation wasn’t good with the money and how much his mental health was spiraling. he knew he and jas were in dire need of more support (“jas deserves better than this”). so he turned to the one person he had left to rely on: his aunty marnie. and that’s how shane and jas ended up in pelican town.

*shane’s joja jacket was actually originally rosa’s. rosa worked as an accountant for joja and would get free promotional items all the time from the company. the jacket was one of the only things she actually ended up using because “it’s pretty comfy for being joja bs.” she would wear it all the time, much to her more fashion-conscious husband’s chagrin (yet he would patch up any holes she’d get in it anyway). after rosa died, shane kept her jacket. there were a lot of memories in it. 

~~~

ok that’s it for now. if anyone actually read all that, thank you for even wasting your time to process my ramblings. i’m sorry it’s so fucking long like jfc.

*who is mr. qi?

[baphometsss]

My personal take on the DAI companions as Tarot Cards

I've been reading Tarot for a long time now (20ish years) and I don't always agree with the cards they chose for the companions in DAI... I can see why they chose them; I think they're representative of where they are at that point in the story rather than their whole personalities. But I was thinking about how they would be represented as people using just the Major Arcana...

Personally, I would say:

Cassandra -- Justice

This card is very much about doing the 'right' thing. Cassandra is always grappling with what that is. She is honourable and ethical, and willing to change course when necessary. Always, she is guided by her faith and belief in a greater good.

Leliana -- The High Priestess

The High Priestess guards the veil that leads to hidden things. She's full of secrets and knowledge. She is someone who moves in the shadows. Leliana is all of those things, and a lay priestess to boot. The card is highly spiritual, like Leliana is highly spiritual. Like the HP, she knows how to use her secrets at the perfect time and never before.

Cullen -- Strength

Strength deals with a need for some kind of control. With strength, this comes in the form of patience and discipline. Cullen is struggling with addiction and how to manage his responsibilities to the Inquisition while doing so. He has to master it if he's going to do a good job.

Josephine -- Temperance

Temperance knows how to take opposing or extreme forces and bring them together to find a compromise that suits both. In a sense, they represent the ultimate diplomat. Josie is a master of this.

Solas -- The Magician

The Magician is intelligent, quick-witted and silver-tongued. He is a master of his craft. He knows how to use his abilities and the tools at his disposal to the best effect. He points one hand to the sky and the other at the ground, showing that his body is a conduit for divine power, and he gives it direction. At his best, he knows that he is just its conduit, not its source, and at his worst, he is prideful enough to believe the opposite.

Dorian -- The Star

The Star represents hope and inspiration, and is often referred to as the 'light at the end of the tunnel'. Sometimes, those hopes and visions are too unrealistic, or deemed to be hopeless by others. Dorian sees a vision of the future for his homeland that many think is impossible.

Sera -- The Chariot

It's very tempting to give her the Fool because of her attitude but ultimately I don't think it's suitable for her. The Fool is open and innocent, blissfully unaware, an empty vessel waiting to be filled with knowledge. Sera, by contrast, is not only determined and passionate, but she is not naive despite outward appearances; she has very strong motivations for her actions. She cares about the little people. This is her driving force, and she's unwilling to give up on it.

Vivienne -- The World

I'm really struck by where she sits at Skyhold--on the upper balcony area that overlooks the grand hall. From this vantage point, she can see all the goings on. No doubt she can understand exactly what is being said and exchanged by body language alone. It's due to her extensive experience at court that she can do this; where the Fool is the empty vessel waiting to be filled, the World is that vessel filled to its brim with knowledge and experience.

Cole -- The Empress

The Empress is the archetype of the mother, and she represents all that is kind, nurturing and compassionate. Cole, as Compassion incarnate, is all of these things. Compassion, and love in general, is about nurturing someone. It's about encouraging them to be the best that they can be. The Empress is also one of the great healing cards, and this is the core motivation behind Cole's actions.

Blackwall -- Judgement

Judgement, sometimes called Final Judgement, is the penultimate card of the Major Arcana. It's about the benefit of hindsight and how things sometimes only make sense when you get to the end of the road and can see all the patterns that led you to take certain actions. It's a card often associated with atonement and transformation, which is aligned with Blackwall's story in DAI.

Varric -- The Sun

The Sun is usually read as being about happiness and joy, but it's so much more than that. It stands for communication, truth, illumination and creativity. Although Varric is a bit of an unreliable narrator, his goal is to share stories and record them so they can be shared by everyone, like sunlight spreading over the land.

The Iron Bull -- The Lovers

Contrary to popular belief, The Lovers is not just about romance. It can be, or it can be about any powerful bond. However it would be better described as 'choice'. In older versions of the card, instead of Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden, we see a man torn between two lovers. One is a virgin, the other is a temptress. Does he choose what he's supposed to like, or does he follow his heart and be with the one he truly wants? Moreover, it represents the experience of not knowing exactly what you want, or how much you want it, until you realise what you're willing to give up. Bull faces this choice when choosing between his duty to the Qun and the Chargers, whom he loves.

[eccentricechoes]

How to defeat Jackenstein

SPOILERS FOR DELTARUNE CHAPTER 4

(This guy was a pain in the ass to beat though, so I thought I'd give some tips.)

GENERAL:

The whole party should defend on the first turn

After this, have Kris and Ralsei defend and Susie use "treasure hunt" until you have enough tp to use Kris's "Unleashed," which costs 60tp.

Whenever a party member's hp gets halfway or lower, use an item.

The house's have different set ups. I'm not sure if it's random, but they're all a similar deal.

Take your time to avoid getting hit by the ghosty things while collecting as much tp pellets as possible. Jack WONT get you until you collect the key. After getting the key, book it even if you get hit.

Try to move in sink with the ghosty's like you would in chapter one when avoiding the dancing creatures in field of hopes and dreams.

Despite the heart lighting up next to the ghosty's you CAN NOT farm tp this way. (Atleast not on Original Switch)

The items themself don't matter. I'd recommend anything that heals more than 100, in addition to some revive mints. Don't use Ralsei's heal prayer. You NEED that TP.

After using "Unleashed" there's either "You're long" which isn't that different from the normal attacks or Jack will be a "really nice guy" it'll be a house that also has an exit through the chimney. You can leave through the chimney without collecting the key, (and summoning jack) but then you'd lose out on some sweet sweet tp. :(

ACT TIPS:

Don't use treasure hunt on the same turn you use Kris's “unleashed”, there's no point.

Kris’s "Scaredy cat" looks good, but I think it makes Jack come sooner. That, combined with the lowered defense, it's not really worth it.

To my knowledge, Ralsei's abilities are useless in this battle. Keep him alive to farm TP with his defense, but if you're low on healing items and have to choose between party members, let him stay down.

After using “Unleashed” a second time, there will be a “ultimate humiliation” or something like that. It’s like the other attacks, but the soul has to collect a tutu instead of a key. You will drop this tutu on the way out of the house, do not go back and get it, Jack will give it to you. Once you have it back, RUN FOR THE DOOR. Otherwise, Jack will get you.

Use “Unleashed” three times to beat Jackenstein.

EQUIPMENT:

I don’t think what you have equipped matters that much, just use the best ones you have. When I beat him, this is what I used:

Kris: Spookysword, ChainMail, Waferguard

Susie: AbsorbAx, RoyalPin, JevilsTail,

Ralsei: FiberScarf, Dealmaker, FrayedBowtie

Good luck.

[dmitri-smerdyakov]

I want to be really real with you all because I’m well aware that the reason most people followed me between 2016 and 2019 was because of my Fantastic Beasts / Newtina fics, and because I need to get it off my chest anyway.

(This is a screenshot of a post sent to me by one of my friends on Instagram, hence the language difference)

I’m not terribly shocked that it appears that we’ll never get another Fantastic Beasts film again. The last two underperformed considerably compared to the first film, and both were in general less well-received by both the critics and the general audience than the first film. While the third film was overall an improvement in many ways, it still wasn’t the same caliber as the first FB, let alone the eight Harry Potter movies before it.

I am in two minds about this: on the one hand, I completely agree that we need to stop giving that woman money - the money she gets from Harry Potter and the Wizarding World is funnelled directly from her bank account into anti-trans groups. I hope that if people really must watch the money grabbing TV show they’re planning, then they’ll at least pirate it so as to not give HBO or WB any views, but I’m sure people will watch it anyway because people are nostalgic and they value nostalgia over decency. JKR aside, however, it’s the sad truth that the second and third films were nowhere near the same level as the first for so many reasons - the writing quality went downhill, there were too many plots and characters, too much retconning etc.

All of this said, I have to admit that a part of me is disappointed by the news.

In late 2016 and throughout 2017-2018, FB was a HUGE part of my life; it was a comfort for me when my Nan died, writing the fanfics and posting about the film brought so many amazing people into my life, and for a long time it was an obsessive special interest of mine. I have FB and HP tattoos (my first five are all WW related as a matter of fact), I spent so much time watching the first film and writing fanfic and I even cosplayed as Tina. Despite the troubles within the fandom I later had, the first film was still a huge part of my early adult life.

I’m disappointed because while there was an air of finality to the third film (which I knew they’d do because they wanted to see how the third film performed before deciding whether to do more or to scrap it), there’s still so much that we were told we’d see and plot lines that were never fully realised: how Nagini went from CoG to being Voldemort’s snake, the Grindeldore battle of 1945, etc.

I am also tremendously disappointed that despite Newt being the lead and Tina being his love interest (and the knowledge that they were endgame), we never got to see their relationship play out beyond the fact they clearly liked each other. We got Jacob and Queenie’s wedding but not Newt and Tina’s - we never even saw Newtina kiss, and they were supposedly the main couple of the series. As someone whose blog used to be “newt-loves-tina” and who’s written about fifty Newtina fanfics over the years, I can’t hide that it disappoints me that we’ll never get to see them again, especially given Eddie and Katherine’s close friendship and chemistry.

Part of the lack of Newtina is no doubt because of how dirty the second and third film did Tina/Katherine - you’ll never convince me that it’s a pure coincidence that JK went from “Tina is my girl” and shouting Katherine’s praises to reducing her role to a tiny cameo in SoD after Katherine publicly posted her support for trans people. Her slightly reduced role in the second film was more down to there being far too many characters and plot lines so NONE of the characters got the focus they needed, but the third film…that was definitely intentional. People have tried to blame Katherine getting COVID in March 2020 for it when the film didn’t start filming until September 2020, by which time both Jude and Katherine were doing press for The Third Day show and she was talking about her experience with COVID. The way Katherine refused to promote SoD (to the point of attending the London premiere to sign things for fans and hang out with Eddie, posting photos of herself at the premiere but NOT mentioning the film at any point or tagging it in her post whilst still tagging all of her stylists/make up people/brands) speaks for itself.

I am upset because Tina was my favourite character when I watched the first film, so much so that I cut my hair into a bob, cosplayed as her, my first tattoo was her wand, I bought her locket, etc. I literally saw so much of myself in her that it was a little bizarre: the older sister whose younger sister is more bubbly/sociable/considered the pretty one and who baked/cooked, the shyness, the sense of duty, the willingness to break the rules if it went against her moral code… I saw a lot of myself in her, more than I did any other character, and I was so excited to see what happened with her character next.

Most importantly, however, I am upset because while JKR is a horrible human being who I despise with all my heart, we’ve lost positive autistic representation in Newt Scamander.

I’ve spoken before about how finding out Newt was played by Eddie as autistic helped me come to terms with and feel proud of my own diagnosis between 2019 (when I first got referred) and 2022 (when I finally got my letter confirming the diagnosis). Seeing Newt be the hero and not be treated like a joke for being autistic meant (and still does mean) the world to me - and I know it meant so much to a lot of us who are on the spectrum who watched the film and saw ourselves in Newt, who saw ourselves be the hero for once. I remember going to see SoD on opening day with my sister and seeing a young boy on the row in front getting so excited at seeing Newt that he flapped his hands excitedly and bounced in his seat. I remember getting emotional when I noticed Newt stimming with his coat pocket multiple times. I still think about how I was lucky enough to thank Eddie in person for playing Newt as autistic.

It’s just another reason that I hate JKR - her bigotry (as well as the subpar writing in the second and third film) undeniably contributed to people boycotting the film, which has meant WB has discontinued it - and we will no longer see an autistic person as the hero. Her decision to go down the rabbit hole of transphobia (and a number of other different prejudices) is absolutely a contributing factor in the decision to cancel the series, and because that’s a reason more personal to me, I will always hate her.

(I already hate her anyway just for the fact she is in fact a despicable person)

[wisteria-lodge]

hi op!! hope you're doing well. genuine question, but do you think lucius pays his taxes? he makes public donations and associates with the ministry to a rather personal extent that i imagine he at least forks over some to whatever department at the MoM handles taxes but he does strike me as the person who'd at least find ways to evade being taxed (writing off business dealings as personal purchases to avoid getting taxed for them, donating to charity to get a write-off for the money, having some under the table deals so what taxes he has to pay for wiltshire are rather minimized) but what do you think?

Now I'm thinking about how taxes work in the wizarding world.

Okay, so one of the interesting things about HP is that pure-blood wizards are sort of stuck in the 1700s. There are a few aesthetic/fashion details from the 1800s, but in terms of tech level and the way the world is set up, we're still pre-industrial revolution. Which makes sense! The wizards never had an industrial revolution, and split away from the muggle world in the late 1600s.

(Phillip Pullman was also doing a psuedo 1700s-1800s thing for his children's fantasy series at around the same time. Cannot prove that JKR has any knowledge of His Dark Materials, but another English author writing a similar kind of book? Stealth-setting a book in the 1700s isn't such an out-there choice.)

That means a lot of the issues people have with the HP world building are really just issues with... life in the 1700s. Why is there no mental health care? 1700s. Why is the Hogwarts curriculum so weird? 1700s. Why is slavery okay? 1700s. Why is there no drinking age, and you can just purchase drugs (love potion) over the counter? 1700s.

In a similarly 1700s way, the Wizarding World seems to be composed of semi-autonomous fiefdoms, which report back to the Ministry of Magic. On paper, the Ministry has has control over Hogwarts, St. Mungos, the various pure-blood estates. Whether or not that's that's totally true... I mean the Ministry tries and fails to take over Hogwarts in Book 5, and in Book 2 they clearly *try* to prosecute the Malfoys for holding dark contraband, but never get very far.

Here's what I would do, if I were writing something political based in the Harry Potter universe. The Wizengamot seems to be the oldest ruling body (its name is a pun on the Wittengamot, which is from the 7th century.) So probably those seats are inherited (House of Lords style) possibly with a magical component involved. New members can be added, but only by existing members voting them in. The Wizengamot serves as the High Court (as we see - more normal cases are processed by the Council of Magical Law, and Arthur is really wrong-footed when he hears Harry is getting a *Wizengamot* trial.)

They also probably have some sort of pass/veto power, and the power to elect/replace a Minister of Magic. (the position was "offered" to Dumbledore multiple times, but he turned it down. So he's definitely not campaigning in a general election.) I doubt they actually *write* laws - that seems to be handled by the more bureaucratic-flavored Ministry members like Arthur and Percy, who do *not* sit on the Wizengamot.

I'd also have it so that taxes were handled in a more 1700s style. There'd be a lot of sales tax, which the Ministry would be able to enforce because I'm pretty sure they they oversee food production. There would also be a fee for the various Ministry-run procedures like booking overseas portkeys (and legal-social functions? the officiant at Dumbledore's funeral and Fleur's wedding is pretty Ministry coded.) "Pay a fine" seems to be a pretty common punishment in this world - which isn't a tax, but definitely a way for the Ministry to make money. I wonder if people like Ludo Bagman *bought* his position. It would be very 1700s of him.

Then there's property tax, and this is where the the old pure-blood families on the Wizangamot come in. I think the Ministry presents a budget to the Wizangamot, and *they* make up the difference, among themselves. At which point yes of course Lucius finds ways to weasel out of paying if he doesn't like the current minister, if he doesn't like the deal he's getting, if he's just feeling pissy that day, whatever. But at the end of the day, they collect their own taxes from the various spheres they control.

Now we're getting into headcanons, but I think the Malfoy money comes from primarily being landlords. At *very least,* Malfoy Manor has a magical satellite village (a la Hogsmeade or Ottery St. Catchpole) that they just own and probably low-key police. (they probably also just own a chunk of Wiltshire.) I also highly, highly doubt that the Malfoys gave up all their ties to the muggle world post Statue of Secrecy. If every new Muggle Prime Minister has a meeting with the Minister of Magic, then... I bet every time Lloyds of London gets a new CEO, Lucius Malfoy shows up to say, "We get 1.5% off the top. My bankers will be in touch." Goblins don't care about the Ministry's laws even slightly, and there's got to be an exchange rate if Hermione's parents can show up to Diagon Alley and buy her books.

All of the old pureblood families are going to have their own *thing,* their own under-the table agreements and sweetheart deals. The Blacks strike me as being big into shipping, probably because they're so based in *London.* But yeah, at least to me, this is the sort of thing that gels with the universe that we see.

(Hogwarts and St. Mungo's would be funded the same way, on a smaller scale. A huge part of St. Mungo's budget just seems to be the Malfoys. And Hogwarts has a board of governors who under normal circumstances raise money and make decisions on how to run the school... but they don't seem especially powerful these days. I'll bet it's because whatever endowment Hogwarts has/whatever funds Dumbledore has at his disposal *are* enough to run it... which is why Dumbledore can do whatever he wants, and becomes an almost independent political entity.)

[lunachy]

New 6★ Medic: MON3TR

Chain Medic

Illustrator: 伍秋秋秋秋

Trait: Restores HP of allies, bouncing between 3 allies. Healing reduced by 25% per bounce.

Talent 1: Can deploy a reconstruct that can only be healed by self. Allies around the reconstruct gain increased ATK. When the reconstruct is healed by self or Mon3tr, it triggers an additional healing bounce that does not decay.

Talent 2: When Mon3tr or the reconstruct heals a target, both the target and Mon3tr gain +APSD for a short duration (does not stack).

Skill 1: Strategy: Overpressure Links

The next heal restores HP equal to a certain percentage of ATK and increases the number of healing bounces.

Skill 2: Strategy: Overload

Prioritizes healing the reconstruct during the skill duration. Each time the reconstruct is healed by Mon3tr, it triggers a healing bounce. The effects of the second talent are multiplied several times.

Skill 3: Strategy: Meltdown

Attack range changes and Mon3tr moves to the reconstruct's position. Increases ATK, reduces attack interval, increases block count, and max HP. Loses a certain amount of HP per second. Attacks all blocked enemies simultaneously, deals true damage, and heals self for a portion of ATK per hit. Returns to original position when skill ends or upon taking fatal damage.

Translated Weibo Introduction:

Doctor, you can leave my file in the Medical Department. As Kal'tsit said, this is Rhodes Island's core response to critical issues and my knowledge is crucial. Now, let me concentrate on completing my mission.

————————

Updating memory log and performing integrity verification

Memory log updated

Key timestamp generated

Symbiotic construct, reading internal embedded information...

"Servant AMa-10"

Executing procedure overwrite

"Mon3tr."

[romnianistan]

@joannerowling

[Introduction]

While many articles have been written about Harry Potter and the school board genre or its relationship to fantasy, very few people have looked into the influence of the Gothic in Harry Potter (or in JKR's works in general). Part of it I think is due to the depreciation of Harry Potter by the cultural bourgeoisie, who only regard it as mere children's books that don't hold any actual literary value and that aren't worth to be studied seriously. Yet many tropes, storylines and plot devices used by JKR draw inspiration from the Gothic genre, bringing to it a modern twist by both adverting and subverting Gothic clichés. This inspiration is apparent in JKR's focus on broken families stuck into a cycle of poverty and violence involving incest and alcoholism or in the settings of many of the most iconic scenes of her book (to me the situation of Merope Gaunt, the way she's treated by her male relatives and the description of her house clearly allude to that of Catherine Linton at Wuthering Heights). In another post, I tried to argue that one example of such a subversion in JKR's works was her use of the Gypsy theme -- Romani people as the embodiement of marginality, social and sexual danger as well as oriental mysticism --, a trope of Gothic literature most notably used by Emily Brontë in Wuthering Heights and Victor Hugo in the Hunchback of Notre-Dame, and that's been studied by Ken Lee in his article on Gypsylorism. But while JKR never once mentions Romani people in the Harry Potter series (an omission that is very interesting in itself; she's leaving out of her series the ethnic group that's been associated the most with witchcraft in folk tales for centuries, even though she's drawing inspiration from European folklore), she does mention them a bit in The Casual Vacancy and a lot in Cormoran Strike. However, as opposed to Wuthering Heights and HoND, Romani people aren't actually associated with paganism in JKR's books (they would have if she had been racist); their mention serves a Gothic aesthetic purpose as the non-Romani pov character starts thinking about Gypsy witchcraft and wandering, but that romanticising is quickly destroyed once the narrative brings up the actual reality of what it means to be Romani(-adjacent) in the UK: poverty and social exclusion. (In my opinion, this is a subtle commentary on how rich people idealize wanderness and poverty despite their being trauma-inducing experiences for the people who experience them.)

In my opinion, another influence of the Gothic is also the character dynamic she builds around Harry and Voldemort. In three different ways, the Harry/Voldemort dynamic parallels that of Dracula and Mina Harker in Bram Stoker's Dracula: first, the in-narrative construction of that dynamic; second, the way that character dynamic is used as a plot device by both Stoker and JKR in their respective works; third, the significance/symbolism of that character dynamic.

1. The narrative build up

In both Dracula and HP, the psychic bond that unites Mina/Harry and Dracula/Voldemort is created in spite of Dracula and Voldemort. In Dracula, that bond is an inevitable consequence/side effect of the repeated blood sucking Dracula does on Mina. In HP, that bond is created despite the knowledge of Voldemort and as a consequence of Voldemort's murder attempt.

In both stories, that bond was created/reinforced by blood mixing. In Dracula, blood mixing allows Dracula to link his mind directly with Mina's. In HP, that bond becomes much stronger after the graveyard scene, when Voldemort also uses Harry's blood to regain life. In both cases, we have blood magic and DNA mixing involved, resulting in an identity crisis on the part of Harry/Mina (their sense of self is eroded after the distinction between their body and that of Dracula/Voldemort got blurred and as the emotions/thoughts of the other start influencing theirs).

Dracula forms a psychic bond with Mina Harker as a step towards mind control. He wants to read, manipulate and control her mind and her thoughts, and in particular, he wants to use it to spy on his enemies (Jonathan and Van Helsing). However, he is forced to block the link when he realizes that, if he can spy on the heroes through Mina, Mina can spy on him as well by being put into a hypnotic trance that allows her to sense Dracula and his surroundings and can feel how far away or how close he is to them. This is what eventually leads the heroes to Dracula and allows them to catch him.

In Harry Potter as well, Dumbledore fears that psychic link would be used by Voldemort to spy on the Order of the Phoenix through Harry. This is why Dumbledore ignores and isolates Harry for an entire year and this is also what prompted Dumbledore to get Snape to teach Occlumency to Harry -- to block Voldemort's thoughts. But Voldemort doesn't actually use the link to spy. afaik he only uses it twice: once to deceive Harry and get him to come to the Ministry of Magic, and once at the very end of OotP when he briefly takes control of Harry's body. But Harry (just like Mina) realizes he can use that link to his own advantage and spy back on Voldemort (he repeatedly does so in DH): just like Mina, Harry is able to feel what he feels, to hear his thoughts and to sense how far or how close he is.

So we have a similar process following the same steps: evil blood magic on the part of an unwilling villain first, blurring of identity second. In both stories, the psychic link serves as a war strategy playing out over a deep identity crisis. The difference is that this process spans 4 books and 13 years in Harry Potter, with many more smaller steps in between, but overall it's still the same structure.

2. The Harry/Voldemort (Mina/Dracula) dynamic as a plot device

Because everyone uses the psychic link to spy on the other, it becomes a power play for the two characters involved, symbolically representing the struggle between life and death (love and hatred). But it also serves a narrative purpose: both stories are written from the perspective of the heroes. By introducing the psychic link as a plot device, the reader can get some insight into the pov of the villain of the series. The psychic link then becomes a way to drive the action: after each discovery, the character (be it Mina, Harry, Dracula or Voldemort) takes action. They plan a fight/battle, they track each other or they fly from each other. With the psychic link, the writer (Stoker/Rowling) is able to write very cool descriptive scenes from a totally different perspective, taking place in a totally different setting we don't normally see otherwise (think of the description of the Riddle House at the beginning of GoF -- an apparition that is justified in-narrative by its being shown to Harry in a dream). In both Dracula and HP, the psychic link also allows the writer to write dialogues that have more to do with the mystery genre than the fantasy genre (what's the villain doing? are we sure that information is legit? who is he talking to?) Finally, and even if we have to wait a few chapters for it, it leads to the introduction of battle scenes.

So both Dracula and HP use the psychic link as a plot device in a similar way: 1. it drives the action by justifying the writing of descriptive scenes, action scenes and dialogues, 2. it makes the story even more compelling for the reader who gets to hear the exclusive thoughts of the villain in a setting we are not used to (the villain's lair!) so those scenes feel special and cool, 3. it allows the writer to diverisfy the genre of their book by introducing new elements taken from the mystery genre.

3. The symbolic of that relationship

Voldemort, just like Dracula, is an undead being, a living dead. While Voldemort himself isn't a zombie (an "inferi"), a ghost or a vampire, he does surround himself with them and his physical description is very much akin to that of the undead. Two of his most significant features are his paleness (also a recurrent adjective to describe ghosts) and his long, spidery fingers, which together can be used to describe both Voldemort and Nosferatu:

(book!voldemort literally looks like this bad guy over there ^ but without a nose and with red eyes -- and this is why he haunts my sleep sometimes!! that character design fucks)

Symbolically as well, Voldemort is an undead being, a living dead, as it says in his very name ("fleeing death", "flight from/of death"). In his backstory as well, Voldemort became twice a living dead. First, by spiritually killing himself and rendering his soul to the dark arts in pursuit of immortality (in much the same way vampires render their soul to the devil). Second, by falling victim to his own Avada Kedavra spell in Godric's Hollow. (Harry is an example of how one survives the Avada Kedavra; I wouldn't say Voldemort survived it considering all the (physical, if not spiritual) remnants of his past humanity were completely destroyed by it.)

More specifically, Voldemort is a vampire: in his very first apparition in the series, he is seen drinking the lifeblood of a living creature (a unicorn). All throughout the series, Voldemort is the undead that needs to feast on others to survive, by exploiting his followers (in the years following Godric's Hollow, he only survives by drawing on the life force of Quirrell and by living as a parasite with Pettigrew), by living on the terror he inspires to other people, and by turning other living beings (Nagini and Harry) into horcruxes (the same way a vampire would turn the human he drinks the blood of into another vampire). Of course, the number 1 inspo for Voldemort is the boogeyman: everyone in the wizarding world is scared to say his name in case he might literally materialize out of thin air. But he is not described (narratively, physically) as any boogeyman, he is specifically the vampire.

Just as Voldemort is Dracula, Harry is Mina Harker: a human being who represents life. Both Harry and Mina carry a part of Voldemort/Dracula's inside of them, and both of them are scared of eventually becoming like them. Both Harry and Mina survived their confrontations with Voldemort/Dracula thanks to the help of their friends (love and friendship trumping death). Both of them are also common human beings who have been involuntarily turned into something so much more unique by the very assault they survived. The way they responded to it (opposing hatred with love and bravery) turned them into something so much more important than mere human beings: they became symbols inspiring strength to others around them. And all throughout the story, both Mina and Harry retain that common-ness, it is repeatedly stated by both Stoker and JKR, in-narrative, that the only thing that sets them apart from others is Mina/Harry's ability to feel empathy and to draw strength from the love of others.

In the novel, Mina openly feels pity for Dracula - not for the monster that he is but for his soul, explicitly questioning whether it might want to find peace. In the last two books of the HP series, Harry also takes on a similar stance with regards to Voldemort. Dumbledore's last teaching was that Voldemort was someone to be pitied (don't feel pity for the dead but for those who live without love), and even though pity doesn't excuse evil, it gives us the moral ground to be better people and create a better world. This was also Dumbledore's most important teaching, the one Harry only fully understands by the end of Deathly Hallows, when he confronts Voldemort and says the only thing that sets him apart from others and that makes him stronger than Voldemort is the love he feels (only understanding this after spending the entire book trying to figure out why hadn't Dumbledore left a strong weapon, like the elder wand, for him in his will).

So in both their moral complexity wrt to the villain and in the ideals they represent, Harry and Mina are very similar. I would finally add that both of them represent vulnerable groups of people (children and women) who are victims of male/patriarchal violence: Harry (a 14yo boy) is abducted and tortured by Voldemort (an adult male) in Goblet of Fire, while Mina is metaphorically raped by Dracula. It's a bit tangential but I think it's another interesting parallel between these two; in all of her books, JKRowling often associates the harm men do to women to the harm fathers(/male authority figures) do to children and the way Voldemort repeatedly tortured, abducted and tried to kill Harry from age 0 to age 17 could also be one of the ways she builds on that social commentary.

[Conclusion]

=> So narratively, I would say JKR drew inspiration from Dracula when designing the Harry/Voldemort bond. In Dracula and HP, that link is established in pretty much the same way: through blood magic, DNA mixing and resort to the dark arts. It is repeatedly reinforced throughout the story following the encounters of Mina/Harry and Dracula/Voldemort, and it serves as a war strategy between the two of them as everyone involved realizes they can use it to spy on the other, leading to the ultimate demise of the villain. When it comes to character growth, the psychic link also works in the same way: it leads to emotional/mental/psychological distress for Harry/Mina who is scared to become evil too. Structurally as well, JKR used a plot device identical to that developed by Stoker in Dracula to create the Harry/Voldemort dynamic. The psychic link introduces a POV-shift in a book series that's otherwise almost exclusively written from the good guy's pov, drives the action by leading to descriptive/action scenes and dialogues, and makes the story more entertaining for the reader. Thematically, I would also say JKR drew inspiration from Dracula when creating Voldemort and Harry as characters. In the books, Voldemort represents a vampiric living dead boogeyman who rendered his soul in search of immortality (just like Dracula), while Harry represents the hidden force of life and love that lies inside the most common of people (like Mina).

[dartagnantt]

Chirurgeon Roguish Archetype | The doctor will see you now. You might not see them, though

PDFs of this and more can be found over on at my Patreon here! I release everything for free, so your support makes this possible. I've also started making a new system based off of 5e, 6th Dawn! Become a patron and join the playtest.

This is a subclass I've been meaning to make for a while now. Those who have played pathfinder 1e may know of the Vivisectionist Alchemist Archetype. This is not a conversion of that, but I am borrowing its vibes. Someone practicing surgery that has more familiarity with the concept of bodies than actually bodies. While I do not replace medicine checks with nature checks, I do use sneak attack for healing… which is the same thing, right?

Bonus Proficiency

I don't believe that medicine is within the list of skills that rogues can get access to. Nor do I believe that the kind of background that would lead to a character that would take this archetype would get it either, so this was a no brainer. Also, in following with my preference to adding diversity to skill abilities, and sort of a reference to the vivisectionist, Dex to medicine. You need a steady hand, you see.

Bedside Manner

This is similar to song of healing, but because I don't want to step on the bard's toes nor did I want to deal with a scaling dice. But while this isn't big and exciting, battle medicine seems more balanced for a later level, besides 2d6 wouldn't be that great here.

Battle Medicine

I'd prefer this to be a 6th level feature, but you know that rogues aren't allowed to have nice things. This is inspired by the pathfinder 2e feat of the same name, with a slightly stricter limitation. I still think pathfinder wanting HP to be functionally infinite, so 1 per day per person.

Bolster Companions

Well, battle medicine is limiting, I admit, so have a little boost.

Rapid Revival

Cunning action raise the dead (non magical)

Sawbones

I mean, if your medicine comes from your knowledge of anatomy, it stands to reason that your stabbing skills would improve with you improved medical knowledge. Flawless logic

And now to plug my stuff. I release homebrews weekly over on my Patreon. Anyone who pledges $1 or more per post don't have to wait a month to see them, and also help fund my being alive habit.

At the moment, they have exclusive access to the following:

And your House, Too!

The Conjoined

Feats: Resoled

Assassin: Rehired

I also have four classes, and two splatbooks over on DriveThruRPG to check out:

The Rift Binder. A class specialising in summoning monsters and controlling the battlefield.

The Witch Knight. A class that combines swords and sorcery in the most literal way.

The Werebeast. A class that turns you into a half beast to destroy your foes.

The Beguiler. A spellcaster dedicated to illusions, enchantments, and general fuckery.

d'Artagnan's Adventurer Almanac. A compendium of races, subclasses, feats, spells, monsters and more!

d'Artagnan's Lycanthrope Survival Guide. A book of lore, stats, and werebeast subclasses for lycanthropes.

[crescenthistory]

hello miss Carina! I'm not very well versed in the marauders fandom (but I love your works) and was wondering what are the valkeryies?

hello my lovely!! i am SO HAPPY you asked

crescenthistory's introduction to the valkyries

since you said you're not well-versed in the fandom at all, i'm over-explaining to be on the safe side, sorry if you already knew all of this 🙏

"the valkyries" is a group name in the same way as the marauders (james, sirius, remus, peter) and the slytherin skittles (barty, evan, regulus, dorcas, pandora) are

unlike the marauders (who are named explicitly in the hp books through the marauders map), the skittles and the valkyries are fandom names for the different friendgroups at hogwarts

(nb, the skittles are sometimes called the emeralds by people who think that name is too silly lmao, and pandora is traditionally thought of as ravenclaw, despite the name being slytherin-centred)

these friendgroups, of course, often over-lap in fan interpretations as we love to have them all as one vast giant family

in OG fanon lore, the valkyries consist of the three gryffindor girls: lily evans, marlene mckinnon and mary macdonald

lily we know a "lot" about from the books; she is studious, fiery, kind/nurturing, stands up for what is right and loves her friends fiercly

mary is only named as a member of the order who did not die and is mentioned by lily in a flashback where she says mary was a victim of a muggleborn hatecrime

thus we as a fandom have concluded that she is muggleborn and kind. from there, interpretations of her vary, but i characterise her as sassy, down to earth, a bit flirtatious yet shy, kind of cottagecore-y

when we talk about the marauders era in a canon compliant way, most people believe that mary survived the first wizarding war and obliviated herself of any knowledge of magic afterwards because she couldn't live with the trauma. she went on to live the rest as a "muggle"

marlene is mentioned only once in the books and is said to have been a member of the order who was killed alongside her entire family

she is generally characterised by the fandom as being incredibly loyal and family-centric (blood and found family), outspoken/brazen, confident, passionate and kind

most people hc her as an avid quidditch fanatic (wants to be a professional player when she grows up, becomes either that or a healer)

these three shared a dorm at hogwarts and made up the foundation of the friendship between the marauders era girls

(either peter or remus is often hc-ed as being brought in as an "honourary girlie" in some of their hangouts because of their quietness and respect)

they are called the valkyries specifically because valkyries in norse mythology are beautiful female warriors who bring fallen soldiers to valhalla ("heaven") -> a poetic take on who they are

they are close friends with the marauders, depending on your hcs

i for one believe that marlene and james are childhood besties (because wizard families and quidditch) and lily and remus instantly connect (because of similar personalities and views), so the friendgroups are kind of merged immediatley

it also makes sense that the two gryffindor groups are connected to some degree -- i don't like the idea of them splitting up into "genders" so divisively, i view the different friendgroups as originating from their dorms and then mixing from there

where and how the slytherin skittles come in, usually depends on your hcs or the fic (as in, you go with what suits your story)

the obvious connection is regulus and sirius as brothers, so in fics where they are close, it makes sense that the friendgroups merge

other than that, the friendgroups usually merge through different ships: james/regulus, marlene/dorcas, lily/james, lily/pandora, remus/regulus, etc.

most people nowadays (ESPECIALLY ME) consider dorcas and (sometimes) pandora as either parts of the valkyries or at least good enough friends with them that they are together a lot

while i see dorcas and pandora as slytherin skittles/emeralds first and foremost, i will usually also include them in chats about the valkyries and will list poly!dorlene and poly!pandalily under the valkyries tag in my masterlist

they become integrated with the three valkyries at some point during their time at hogwarts; the original trio expands

i usually consider the shift to have happened around fifth year, but it's flexible

(if you want to know more about dorcas and pandora, i have a lot of headcanons about them under the slytherin skittles part of my masterlist)

i personally am an avid dorlene (dorcas/marlene) shipper and don't really entertain other pairings for either party, though i know some people are fond of marlene/mary

marylily is a huge other ship within the valkyries and is often considered "complementary" to dorlene

pandalily (pandora/lily) is also growing in popularity from what i've seen

if you want any headcanons for any of these ships (either on their own or poly x reader), i am more than willing 🥸

there are also wider friendgroups and other characters around at hogwarts that are sometimes mentioned or integrated into fics, either to serve a purpose or just for the vibes

some of these that i occasionally use are: the black sisters (reg&sirius' cousins andormeda, bellatrix and narcissa), amelia bones (hufflepuff), emmeline vance (ravenclaw), alice fortescue & frank longbottom, rita skeeter, ted tonks, the Bad Guys in slytherin lol (severus snape, rabastan lestrange, lucius malfoy, mulciber, avery, etc.)

i hope this gave you a better idea of who they are bubs! let me know if you want any more details or to chat about them<33

since any lore is essentially entirely based in fanon, it is very much up to everyone's personal preference and is even subject to change from fic to fic, but all in all the valkyries are lily, marlene and mary + other potential girlies(gn) they drag with them along the way 🤍

[twst-charity]

I'm not altogether knowledgeable on how to bea mod but I want to help in some way. Is there anything I can do?

Hello! First off, thank you so much for your interest and for reaching out to us! Both our mod and contributor applications are currently closed, but there are still other ways you can help, both with this charity and with the situation in general!

The first is by submitting fanart and fic requests (once those forms are open) here with us (@twst-charity) by sending a screenshot/receipt of a donation made to one of three charities (Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, Medical Aid for Palestine, or Anera).

A very quick, easy, and free way to help is also by visiting this site and clicking the big, red, help button. If you’ve ever wanted to hit a big red button, now is the time to do so. This generates a donation to UNRWA to help Palestine.

Unfortunately, as many have heard by now, even these charities have been struggling to deliver resources to the people of Palestine due to blockades and frozen accounts, etc. Anera seems to continue to be successful in still getting resources where they are most needed, but the situation is constantly changing. We will be continuing to help raise donations in hopes that, as soon as there is an opportunity to do so, those charities will have the means and funds to make a difference.

However! There are still other ways to help Palestine and show your support. The first – and most important - is spreading awareness. Learn what is going on now and has been for the past 75 years. Be aware of propaganda and misinformation, whether purposeful or accidental. Archive tweets and posts and videos so that they cannot be scrubbed from the internet by those hoping to erase evidence of the genocide in Gaza. The importance of spreading the truth cannot be underestimated, especially with Netanyahu and the IOF increasing propaganda. Popular tags to do this include: #CeaseFireInGaza #CeasefireNOW and #FreePalestine!

Signing petitions and contacting representatives is also a good way to show your stance. Unfortunately, this does have some risk, due to organizations like c4n4ry mlssl@n (censored for safety) doxxing people who support Palestine.

Boycotting is another method that has been showing signs of success! The boycotting effort is being directed by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), which is the Palestinian leaderships of the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement. Frankly, far too many brands and celebrities have shown support for Palestine for the average person to avoid all of them. So, a certain few have been picked to have the most impact.

Boycott: Starbucks, McDonalds, Disney+ (which means no TWST microtransactions, y’all!), Domino’s Pizza, Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, Burger King, AXA, Puma, Carrefour, hp, Siemens, Ahava, sodastream, and Israeli businesses. (Note from Mod Ryuu: This does NOT mean a general boycott on all Jewish businesses! Don’t be that person. You’re not helping.)

If you want to proudly show your support of Palestine IRL – and are safe to do so – a popular method is by wearing a Kufiya, the iconic scarf of Palestine. You can order an authentic Kufiya from Hirbawi at kufiya.org or from Kufiyas Australia at kufiyas.org.au If you’re not in a position where that’s possible, there are two other popular methods. The first is simply by wearing the colors of Palestine: Red, Green, White, and Black. The second ties into those colors and the history of colonialism in Palestine, where once it was illegal to fly the Palestine flag. Instead, people used the watermelon as a symbol to represent the flag. If you need a subtle means of showing support, the watermelon is the way to go.

Resources on the history of Palestine:

Netflix films: Born in Gaza (2014) dir. Hernan Zin, Farha (2021) dir. Darin J. Sallam, A World Not Ours (2012) dir. Mahdi Fleifel

YouTube films (FREE!): Tantura, Killing Gaza, Roadmap to Apartheid, Gaza Fights for Freedom, Born in Gaza, & Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh

Other films: The Present (2020) dir. Farah Nabulsi, Tale of Three Jewels (1995) dir. Michel Khleifi, Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996) dir. Elia Suleiman, Omar (2013) dir. Hany Abu-Assad, The Time That Remains (2009) dir. Elia Suleiman, Ambulance/Gaza (2016) dir. Mohamed Jabaly, Five Broken Cameras (2011) dir. Emad Bumat, 200 Meters (2020), Salt of This Sea (2008) dir. Annemarie Jacir.

Twitter link with these and more for those who still use the bird app:

Other threads (largely from the bird app) with information on how to help and what is happening:

THINGS NOT TO DO:

-Break the boycott, including doing things like ordering a bunch of food and then ditching without paying. You are only making life harder for the minimum wage employees doing their best, not the billionaires behind them.

-Do not spam the tags with posts not related to Palestine, etc. Keep your fandoms in their fandom spaces and so on. Unless, of course, you are doing a charity drive or something similar through your fandom.

-Be antisemitic. DO NOT harass or accuse Jewish people of being responsible for this genocide. Jewish people across the world have been protesting in defense of the Palestinian people even before this latest war began. More than 2/3 of people in Israel disagree with Netanyahu and the IOF based on recent polling.

[goatpaste]

Do you think P7 is actually good or is it overhyped? I think too many people considering it the best part overlook loads of its flaws and how badly a lot of characters arcs ended by the end (Soundman and HP being the most egregious)

Personally, its not my favirote part

If I had to rank? P8>P4>P6>P7>P3>P1>P5>P2 (not ranking P9 as it is not in completion at this time but I really like it and probably would but it floating around P7s slot)

Like, its got some great bones (no pun intended) With a generally fun concept and world/story set up. With a few icks (ie Lucy Steel's deal) I was a fan of what Araki was cookin.

I really really love the main four, I think Araki did a great job giving Gyro and Johnny character plot while not totally overshining either one like he tends to struggle with in other parts. I wish he had done much more with Hot Pants and Diego, truly i mean this. I think those two, ESPECIALLY Hot Pants had such potentially to be a really deeply rich character. Everyday I mourn my head world were Diego, HP and Lucy travel togeather as a B plot for SBR.

BUT its about the halfway point of the story where Lucy and Funny Valentine get introduce that i feel like the story falls apart. Like FV is a character that on basic knowledge of him that he was 'a jojo flavored nationalistic american president' I was like that sounds hilarious. But after getting through the part i find him one of the least interesting villians. Like beyond how poorly handled Lucy Steel is and his interactions with her, I just find him extremely uninteresting. The only saving grace he has is that his stand is interesting in design and power.

And yeah the ending is kind of a mess imo. I think... SIGH see i feel very mixed for the ending. On one hand i love a tragedy, i think the fact that they all lost in a way is so bittersweet but so good for sbr general vibe. But i dont think like it always feels like it works. For Gyro it works best, he's winning in his lost because he doing it for johnny. But then you tend to forget why he was doing this in the first place until they do their wrap up at the end where the Zeppeli's are gone, the country is gone, and that little boy died of the sickness anyways. Like idk, it just feels silly at that point.

And HP and Diego would have hit SOOOO hard if we got to let their shit marinate throughout SBR....GODDD if the anime allows them more screentime im gonna go ape insane... Like i know we know their tragedy and their place back in the front through right before their end but.. idk i wish HP's ending wasnt so.. idk empty? Diegos is closer to satisfying, this is the final act of a desperate man who i s dying to get victory. He dies thinking he has won. that means something, its tragic but its something.... then they bring in the alternate Diego who sucks and is just Normal Diego but worse. its a version of Dio and Diego that is just worse.

Then Lucy gets thrown around the story to be a half dressed sex object. like man... She coulda been so much more

I love the first half of SBR, and the second half has some stuff in it when its just johnny and gyro that i still like. But its kinda of a mess and really its like

If you like this part, that is fine i can understand why. But almost 60% of the time SBR fans love to talk about how good it is and then never mention the problems with it especially when reccomending it to other ppl... OR LORD the amount of ppl i've seen jump to defend it is insane.

How everytime i've gone 'hey yknow its kinda weird how Lucy is married to a 50 year old man' and everyone immediately jumps to

'it was the way things where back then!'

The part literally starts with someone commenting on how weird her age is for their marriage. Also its jojo's this whole part is full of inaccuracy for the time, the horses and also theres magic ghost.

'its just a pretend marriage!'

Then why are there that weird scene of her and Steel kissing? why they did that? what was the point of that? also there is still Mountain Tim, Funny Valentine, Scarlet Valentine, and Alt Diego.

or when i talk about how Araki goes from drawing her like something i could believe in 14 yr old girl to drawing her like an adult woman half dress like shes popular slut club

Ppl got mad at me for that saying 'thats just puberty!' which yes puberty can act really fast and you can develop wildly. but like... doesnt sbr take place over 3-4 months and this doesnt change her outfit to suddenly be less clothing puberty didnt undress her.

but anyways. I get really grumpy about Lucy's treatment, and how SBR fans often love to not see an issue with it. Its a fine part, i dont hate that part in full. Its frustrating! it really is frustrating. What's good its fun and good. but what sucks really sucks

[felassan]

Just poring over some of the new images. ◕‿◕

Combat shot, with the Ability Wheel open. Elf sword and shield Warrior Rook (cape and flowing hair!!!), Harding and Bellara fight a red lyrium ogre. Compared to early game, like here, more abilities and parts of the ability wheel are unlocked. The display advises that the ogre is vulnerable to fire damage and resistant to what looks like necrotic[?] damage, which we know is a thing (and it makes sense why that wouldn't affect darkspawn much). The purple and bronze color theme of the game is evident in the display. The bottom three icons must be Rook's current skills. The icons on the right are Bellara's, the left Harding's. I wonder if the bar at the bottom is Rook's 'special resource' bar? (the one that is Momentum for rogues) Then, in the bottom left, I guess the green bar is Rook's HP, along with notification that Rook currently has three health potions[?]. It looks like right on the d-pad consumes a health potion, while down on the d-pad could maybe be swap weapon set? We can see that both Harding and Bellara have access to a healing skill. In the bottom right, we have the option to navigate, change target, select, close and cancel.

It's interesting looking at the buttons for different skills and actions and trying to figure out what they are based on what the symbols could represent. ^^ Highlighted is a skill of Harding's called "Shred". The display advises the damage amount, cooldown time and general effects applied by that skill. It staggers enemies and looks like it sunders armor. I wonder if in this shot, the player has hovered over Shred on the wheel (purple light highlighting it, info popup on that specific skill). Then, the system helpfully auto-advises what other skills the party have right now that would make a combo with Shred (amber arrow, top skill of Bellara's being highlighted in amber) - a handy suggestion. It also explains why it makes a combo, namely that a certain effect of that skill of Bellara's combines with the sunder effect of Harding's Shred. With the symbol and name of Shred, I guess the idea is that Harding fires a shot that shreds through an enemy's flesh. :>

As for where they are fighting in.. the growths on the walls and black tentacle-looking things could be rubble and roots, but they remind me of Blight corruption in general and such as we see here, and well, there is an ogre. The gold on the floor and the shape of the gold patterns on the wall gives ancient elvhen ruins. There is also a plinth of some kind in the middle of the room. I wonder if this could be this area and battle mentioned in the Game Informer cover article:

"After a few more combat sections, including against a Frenzied sentinel, we reach the center of the temple. In there is an artifact called the Nadas Dirthalen. Bellara knows that this means “the inevitability of knowledge”. Before we can progress, a darkspawn ogre boss attacks, hitting hard with unblockable, red-coded attacks and a massive shield that you need to take down first. It is weak to fire After defeating it (it’s a climactic arena fight), Bellara uses a special crystal to power the artifact and remove it from the pedestal, which destroys the Veil Bubble."

This ogre has a shield next to its HP-type bar and this room could feasibly be an 'arena'-like area. The plinth in the room could be the pedestal. Bellara is present at that point in the game as here, and the aforementioned temple is an ancient elvhen space.

Btw, Bellara's backpack is so cute.

Harding's party icon has her staring off to the distance, scout-like, ever looking forward, while I feel like Bellara is looking into my soul!

Combat shot. Mage qunari Rook, Bellara and Neve. The Ability Wheel is not opened. It looks to me like Rook here has the same overcoat on as qunari Rook here. The party are fighting red lyrium darkspawn. In the bottom left, the possible 'change weapon' button has a different symbol; where previously it was a sword and shield because warrior Rook, here it looks like a staff (for mage Rook). At the bottom, in the possible 'Rook's special resource' bar, where previously in the prior shot it was empty, for this shot it looks to be fully charged. (and here it would be mana as Rook is a mage)

It looks like a meteor has just struck the earth, sending darkspawn flying. Rook, here a mage, has an ability where its symbol looks like an asteroid or meteor. I think this Rook has just cast the new spell Meteor, which was mentioned in the June 14th Discord Q&A:

"Fireball and Cone of Cold do not specifically return as spells in this game, but their successors do: Meteor and Frost Nova. These two abilities serve the exact same combat role and function as the previous two, only “with quite the glow-up”, especially Meteor. It is “so satisfying nuking a group of darkspawn with a well-placed Meteor”."

And in this screenshot, we can see why. :D

It also looks like there is a skill that can only be cast when Rook has two 'blue bubbles'-worth full on their Mana bar. And, I wonder what the purple bird symbol skill is?

To the right, next to the wagon and crates, it looks like there may be a chest we could loot. Crates and wagon left from previous Veil Jumper excursions?

The enemies here just have plain old HP bars (red color), no armor or barrier or anything on top of it. Compare the ogre in the previous shot which has an 'armor' bar with a yellow-orange color.

Location: This is Arlathan Forest. In the distance is ancient elvhen ruins and architecture, the floating rocks in areas with Fade 'warping', and trees, some which look to have the orange foliage of that area. The pink iridescent hazy light gives a whimsical feel like Game Informer described, and recalls the iridescence you see on soap bubbles. It makes me think that 'wall' of light is the edge of this particular Veil bubble. I think this shot is set in the opening four hours of the game, after the gameplay reveal video and in the section following that described by Game Informer. In the distance is the elven temple that the team are fighting towards (inside there would be Nadas Dirthalen and the ogre fight).

One question I have is is what is the blue orb thing in the distance, just beyond the fiery arc of the meteor? A piece of ancient elven tech? Part of how Veil Jumpers navigate around?

To reach it, we must remove the floating rock rings, and Bellara’s unique ability, Tinker, can do just that by interacting with a piece of ancient elven technology nearby

I wonder if this orb thing is one of those pieces of tech Bellara can perform tinker on. ^^

Combat shot. Human rogue rook and Harding fight in the streets of Minrathous in the opening section of the game. Look at the water effects of raindrops hitting the ground, and the reflections!! They are fighting demons, which are redesigned in this game. You can see the raw veins of their exposed 'nervous systems'. Maybe these are what Shades look like now? ^^ their lil swords are new.

Looking at the arrangement of five skills in this shot and the last one, I wonder if the button on the bottom left is the 'auto-attack' one? Here it's just some arrows (archer Rook), in the previous shot with mage Rook it looks like it could be a mage staff or a mage staff in the process of doing a basic attack.

In the upper background in the center of this picture, that blue light icon is the Inquisition hairy eyeball. What does this indicate? The critpath we need to follow to progress?

The vases and hanging pots make this street feel lived in. The height of the buildings and slant of them make the streets feel closed-in and claustrophobic. It's a neat vibe, living in Minrathous if you aren't one of the upper classes probably feels quite hemmed in and oppressive like that.

The team has taken the lore and art direction seriously and with care, you can tell. :) down to things like the shape of Tevinter doorways and the shape and red glow of Tevinter windows. It's very cool!!

Arlathan Forest, known from a file name. Qunari Rook (looks like a mage), Bellara, and Emmrich explore an overgrown ancient elvhen ruin. Beautiful golden light, sun dapples and beams through leaves, branches or vines hanging down, crumbling cobbles, broken walls, the shiny gold patterning and curving shapes and arches of ancient elvhen architecture (even the cobbles were laid in curves). This shot is beautiful, the game looks beautiful. ^^ I'm so looking forwards to exploring ancient elven places in this game and finding out more elf lore, and I can't wait to hear what insights and thoughts Bellara has to offer in these locales. Emmrich looks so polite here hh.

In the foreground is a statue of a hart or halla. As with here, it looks to be an asset from DA:I (example of one in Ghilan'nain's Grove in that game).

Arlathan Crater, known from a file name. A beautiful scenic shot, no party visible. (If Photo Mode does indeed end up being a thing in this game.. think of the potential :D) Ancient elven ruins and two halla, in a way that reminds me of the elven ruin Bellara appears in during the character trailer.

Mage qunari Rook, Davrin (yayy!!) and Bellara. I'm sounding like a broken record here but just look at all the fine details. Scratches on Davrin's shield, detailing on clothes like textures, patterns and stitches.. how cool Rook's staff is (could this staff be a Warden mage staff? the feathery design reminds me of Davrin's Warden griffon shield), Bellara's many pouches, the magical particle effects lighting up Bellara's gauntlet-bow. ^^ The team here are in some dark, overgrown, ominous and twisted looking place, and they are threatened again by the red lyrium darkspawn. To the right of Bellara's head and behind her bow, you can see pustules of Blight/Taint corruption. It also looks like there is a lantern near Bellara's head hanging from a post, a lantern with grey metal wings. Maybe this shot was taken in a Warden locale, like the outskirts of Weisshaupt or something?

A beautiful shot of Bellara using her magical gauntlet. Comparing the vegetation here (with the red patches) to that in the 'two halla' shot, it looks like this shot is also taken in Arlathan Forest / Crater somewhere. I wonder if this shot shows Bellara in the middle of using her ability "Tinker"? She's looking at something and the gauntlet is lit up like its magic is interacting with something.