#it can of course develop to something else heck yeah!

[darabeatha]

  /  What if this was strictly (from my end) a very simple dialogue starter call- (pls do specify if not im skipping 😳👉👈 )

muse list for ref! : Constantine XI (rider) ; Ashwatthama (archer) ; Vlad III (slighty canon div) ; Jason (saber) ; Camazotz (temp. assassin) ; Odysseus (rider) ; Daybit (crypter) ; Tezcatlipoca (grand assassin) ; Charlemagne (saber) Moctezuma II (Avenger) ; Caeneus (lancer) ; Oberon ( - ) ; Medb (rider) ; morgan le fay (berserker) ; kukulkán ( - ) ; tlaloc (pretender)

[ranahan]

i've been pondering how mando'a-as-first-language speakers might tend to parse [θ] and [ð]... we know <x> = <sh> thanks to ryan kaufmann (which i'd say must be canon enough since traviss didn't contradict it) and [f ~ p] and [z ~ s] from Traviss, (and maybe <vh> = [f] at least dialectally a la Vhett -> Fett, but I'd prefer to think that's more a matter of Basic speakers parsing [ɸ] as [f] than [ɸ ~ f] being widespread in mando'a) but I don't think we have any data on how they'd tend to parse [θ] and [ð]. I like the idea of th-fronting where [θ] becomes [ɸ] and [ð] becomes [v ~ ʋ] (Kiwi English is allegedly developing this phenomenon), but since mando'a phonotactics don't seem to allow [ɸ] outside of a syllable-initial position (of course since vhe- words are the only example we have of <vh> the data is a biiit limited, but if we assume it's true) I do wonder how likely mando'ade would be to parse, for example, the [θ] in "cloth" as [ɸ], or if they'd be more likely to parse it as [t] or [s]. Tho I do also like the th-fronting bc I wanna distance <vh> from <f> as much as possible :') Not a cipher! 🗞️

On the other hand I'm a bit charmed by [θ] -> [s] as well, mostly bc I associate it with the Askie pronunciation of ת‎, historically [θ] which has in different regions either remained as such or become [t] (Modern Israeli) or [s] (Askenazi). But then the lack of [z] for [ð] (since [s] and [z] are not readily differentiated among mando'ade) makes it less ideal imo. I mean ofc they could be mismatchy, it's not like [ð] and [θ:] were replaced with other sounds neatly and evenly in Finnish (and there's that variation across dialects, which of course would be a thing among mando'ade as well--) But yeah, [ð] could be, if not [v ~ ʋ], then [d] or even [ɾ] or [l]... for obvious reasons I find the idea of the [ɾ] realisation pretty charming :')

anyway, uh, thoughts?

(yes i am thinking abt this bc loan words mostly)

(also. while generally i prefer [f] -> [p], ~kevhe [or whatever final vowel would be best...] for caf is much nicer than kep, lol...)

I’m afraid your ask is going to be better thought out than my answer!

I did think about the same thing, then thought about the option of ð being loaned as dh in Mando’a, and then got hung up in determining what the heck Mando’a phonology even is, and what do the dh etc. spellings stand for. And then never really got back to loanwords.

But now that I’ve found an answer that satisfies me, I do have a whole bunch of things I’d like to loan to Mando’a actually, because I for one don’t buy that a language of an empire, itself a creole (if you subscribe to that headcanon), does not have many loanwords. You know that joke about English mugging other languages and riffling through their pockets for loose vocabulary? I think it would be more realistic for people to make similar jokes about Mando’a, and how Mandalorians plundered half of the galaxy and half of the dictionaries too. (Yes, this is the hill someone else will die on.)

Anyways, yes I do have thoughts. Sorry this is going to be very long and rambling because these are more of immediate thoughts rather than something I’ve formed a considered opinion on.

Like you, I’ve also noted that vh only occurs in syllable initial position in the Mando’a dictionary. But! There’s a Mandalorian world called Ceravh, which as far as I can tell comes from Traviss. I’d give that even odds of being Mando’a or being (perhaps a Mandalorianised version of) a native name of the colonised world, which could indicate that Mando’a could use syllable-final vh in loanwords at least.

But anyways, another option I have thought about is that a word-final φ could get loaned as v. Even if Mando’a doesn’t allow a syllable final φ, the voiced counterpart v is very common in that position. So e.g. caf > kav. Or heck, how about h? > kah. Idk how sensible h would be, it just popped into my mind as something that could sound similar and is allowed in the coda.

Another option of course is that Mando’a could insert extra vowels into loanwords, like e.g. te reo Māori which basically keeps all of the original sounds and adds vowels until the word conforms to te reo phonotactics. So e.g. caf > kavha or kevhe or whatever the vowels would be. There’s this quote, which has a different context, but be used as a precedent if you wanted? “Pronouncing terminal consonants varies in songs. They often become extra syllables. For examples, tor becomes to-rah and tang becomes tan-gah to maintain rhythm and meter.”

On the other hand, loanwords, especially old ones, could also be subject to Mando’a’s habit of contraction. Which tbh seems as much fanon as canon to me in that canon shows some contraction and elision (especially in compound words), but fanon has observed that pattern and taken it as a licence to go an extra mile. I kind of love that kind of an emergency and it’s what got me interested in Mando’a in the first place. I digress, but I’m trying to say faithfully borrowing every single sound is not necessarily the way I’d go for Mando’a. Maybe borrowing syllables as the closest equivalents would feel better? Idk, maybe I’ll try a couple of different approaches with some test sets of loanwords and see what happens.

I do generally like f > p, but… Idk, the results don’t always compel me? They don’t sound unlike Mando’a, but also not exactly like Mando’a either? I mean kav feels more like Mando’a than kap to me. Same for vhervhek vs perpek (although for obvious reasons, perpek does appeal as a curse). But on the other hand, fan > pan vs van vs vhan? Not much of a difference. And Fi > Pai, Felucia > Pelucya/Pelusha, even Falleen > Palin/Paliin do sound good to me. This is probably because while there are words that end in p (like kotep, taap), they are pretty rare. While words ending in v or beginning with a p are a dime in a dozen.

I agree that Vhett being spelled as Fett is a transliteration from Mando’a to Basic, and not necessarily indicative of how Mando’a L1 speakers would adapt loanwords from Basic to Mando’a.

Re: θ/ð, I’ve previously considered t/dʰ, but I like both s and th-fronting better! Those would be the closest fricatives, wouldn’t they.

Mando’a doesn’t seem to have /z/, which seems to be an allophone of /ts/ rather than /s/, if you go by Traviss’s recordings. Or maybe it’s an allophone of /s/, if you go by some comments. Heck, maybe it depends on the dialect. So perhaps you could go with s/ts, or level them both as s? I guess it would depend on whether z gets loaned as ts or s?

Or go with th-fronting (θ > ɸ, ð > v) in syllable initial positions, and for the coda, either voice the θ > v, or add an extra vowel after it, or allow φ in the coda for loanwords. I think that at least for dialects that realise <v> as [β], th-fronting sounds really close. I like it!

And since some Mando’a dialects seem to have [b ~ v] (or perhaps more likely [v ~ β], or maybe some dialect has /β/ which is heard as /b/ in some others…), after making the rounds in Mando’a dialects, a loan word might even end up with ð > v > b.

Full disclosure, I also like how either would make loanwords a little less immediately recognisable. But on the other hand, loanword phonology is also affected by the speakers’ understanding of the donor language, which might bias e.g. /t/ over /s/. Idk though how much we need to nitpick realism in an artlang though. Enough to ground it, not so much the art goes out.

And then we of course have the loan words Traviss picked from English:

besom /ˈbiː.zəm/ > besom /ˈbɛ.sɔm/

Bergen /ˈbəɹɡn/ > birgaan /bɪɾ.ɡaːn/

TAB /tæb/ > taab /taːb/

hyem /jɛm/> yaim /ʝaɪ̯m/

charva /ˈt͡ʃɑːvə/ > chaav’la /ˈt͡ʃɑːv.la/

chebs /tʃɛbs/ > shebs /ʃɛbs/

scran /skɹan/ > skraan /skɾaːn/

scunner /ˈska.nɐ/ > skanah /ska.nah/

(Geordie) way aye /ˈwaɪ.eɪ/ or (Pompey) weee /wiː/ > wayii /wa.jiː/

dinny /ˈdɪ.nɪ/> dinii /dɪ.niː/

jack /d͡ʒæk/ > jag /d͡ʒaɡ/ ?

(I’m not counting mhi and kando from that linked post, since they—or at least kandosii—are pre-Traviss Mando’a.)

Bit of a guess at the pronunciations because I’m not a Geordie and Traviss doesn’t do IPA, but I’m getting the feeling that the vowel qualities don’t match up that well. I might have loaned Bergen as *bargen or *begen instead. Besom i > ɛ I can excuse as levelling the vowels to the same height, which seems like something Mando’a is prone to. ɛ > aɪ̯ is interesting. But generally, I’m not sure what I’m looking at here? Maybe just artistic licence?

Of course if actual historical loans, we’d have to consider that those words might’ve been loaned from a dialect or at a time when the pronunciation differed from modern/RP pronunciation. Plus I at least like to think that Mando’a itself has many different dialects, so I’d be willing to excuse a degree of artistic licence and inconsistency, especially when it comes to vowels which are more fluid to begin with. Afaik it’s also not weird for natural languages to exhibit even considerable variation in loan word adaptation.

Ch is loaned both as ch and sh. Syllable-final r seems infrequently loaned (birgaan) or not (chaav’la) or loaned as h (skanah)—perhaps this reflects the (non)rhoticity of the dialect from which the loans came from, because Mando’a does have syllable-final r’s. Otherwise the consonants in these words seem unremarkable.

Talking about r though, I think there are some words in Mando’a where n > r in certain environments (or at least that could explain some etymologies). I guess it wouldn’t be too much a stretch to extend that to d and maybe ð. You can hear [kote], [kode] and [koɾe] or the Republic Commando OST. Imo this is simply the effect of singing on pronunciation (I was a trained singer once upon a time, I could go on about this), but Traviss seems to have taken it as t and d being interchangeable, or /kode/ being the archaic pronunciation and /kote/ modern.

Also as an aside, I kinda want to work out the phonetics of Huttese, because clearly Huttese (or trade/pidgin/creole Huttese, whatever they speak as a lingua franca in the Outer Rim) has lots of Basic loanwords, and I think that many Basic loanwords would probably arrive to Mando’a via Huttese rather than directly from Basic.

tldr: You have seem to have thought more about this than me. Do you have more thoughts? I’m not sure how much sense my reply made; it was bit of a brain vomit. I’ll probably go read some things and come back to this later with hopefully more sense, but I wanted to reply now because I’m not sure how busy I’ll be in the near future.

P.s. you wouldn’t happen to remember where you read about <x> = <sh>, [f ~ p] and [s ~ z]? I mean I remember reading some of those same things, but it was at least a year ago and I don’t seem to have saved the source (whoops). I can probably look up the source myself if you remember where it was. Might it have been this forum thread? “So, Xaga might have been "Shaga" (incorporating that "sh" sound the Mando like) and Zuka could've been Suka.”

[evelhak]

Confession time.

I don't care if you have "talent" or dance "correctly" (as long as it's safe). Of course I notice people who I think dance particularly well, but I have zero judgement or negative feelings about the way someone dances. That's morally neutral, and everyone is allowed to exist just the way they are, and take space, regardless of what their dancing goals are, and this is not a mindset I ever had to particularly work on, because what makes a person interesting to me is always that they are "them", whatever that means at the moment, not something they aren't. Standardised measuring sticks never interested me much, I care about individual journeys. So no matter what you do, you are good enough in my eyes.

As long as you're a nice person.

Yeah. The moment someone talks to me or anyone else as if they're above others, focusing on other people's mistakes, never returning compliments or encouragement they get, especially if they're acting like they know what they're doing while actually they don't have a clue, it's like my evil twin comes to visit. 💀 Suddenly the fact that their technique objectively sucks, annoys the heck out of me. Or how they confidently dance wrong, completely clueless that they aren't the most talented person in the room. How they have no sense of symmetry, or rhythm, how their proprioception sucks even worse than mine, how they jumped right into artistic variation without learning the basics that would allow them to do it without compromising the principles of the art form, how they seem to have no clue that they're taking a class miles above their skill level, undermining the years it takes to develop a solid foundation for a sport as complex as this.

*sigh*

I don't act on these feelings, and never will, because I could never take the fun away from someone, even an asshole, but oh man do I feel these things. I'm not proud of it, and I'm low-key pissed at myself for feeling this way. But I can't pretend I also don't get some satisfaction from thinking, yeah, I don't pretend to be a talent myself, or to know everything, but I've done this nearly two decades and can confidently say almost everything you're doing is wrong. And a very small immature part of me is annoyed that I'm not at liberty to be enough of an asshole to let them know that. 😂

Lol. Confession over, I guess.

[itzpris]

The Zinnie not Zinnie thiiiing

So the way this scenario would go, let's say that Zoe currently does not have a crush on anyone, and she's kinda not happy with it >:(. She likes having a crush because then she gets to date that person most likely and you know, she craves romance.

So after a while, she decides on what to do. So she goes to Vinnie (who she knows also does not currently have a crush on anybody) and just casually asks "Would you like to pretend date with me?". And Vinnie's just befuddled cause since when does Zoe pretend date? Why? And why with him most of all? He's pretty sure he's the furthest person from her desired romantic partner. So he asks because at this point he doesn't understand if she's serious or if Pepper has finally rubbed off on Zoe and she's playing a prank, a pretty cruel one if he does say so himself.

So Zoe explains. Basically, she's bored but she does not have a crush on anybody at the moment but she does want the thrill of dating somebody. However, she wants it to be non-committal cause she's sure she will sooner or later develop a crush and want to date that other person. He's right, he's not exactly her ideal type (she says it more, you know, delicately) but because of it he's perfect for being casual plus the whole not dating anyone at the moment, and they do already know each other so she can skip all the introduction stuff etc etc.

Still a bit confused but Vinnie agrees. Zoe's clearly willing and he has nothing against it, so why the heck not? And so they pretend date. If someone asks, no, they're not a couple, no, they don't have a boyfriend/girlfriend, Zoe is still very much actively trying to find someone to fall in love with.

But they do coupley stuff. I imagine Zoe would take charge of that cause well, Vinnie's still not 100% sure she's serious and of course, she's more experienced. So she takes him on dates for example, going all out of course cause she's Zoe. Expensive restaurants, movie premieres, maybe balls, parties? Lots of stuff! However, since she knows it's non-commital, she in a way soon starts getting more comfortable with him. She doesn't need to try so hard, she does not need to impress him. So while they are close, they're much more casual than she ever was about dating. They basically just hang out but there is also lots of affection involved. Again, Zoe took charge of it cause she wanted it. She started giving him kisses, hug him, as more time passes many other things. She never thought she'd be the one to have her partner on her lap, not the other way around, and yet with Vinnie is just so natural because she doesn't try to be all seductive. She can just hold him and kiss him without thinking too much about it when she craves to shower someone with kisses and all that.

As for Vinnie? Well, once he really gets in this mindset that they're really doing it he gets really comfortable with her too. He wants those kisses, those hugs, all this affection and compliments, why wouldn't he? And he gives her those too, especially when it comes to verbal affection cause he's like that. He's more shy with touch but soon he does start like laying his head on her lap she she leans down to kiss him or not so casually exposes his neck for her to play with.

And yes, I imagine they do the kissing on the lips. They're both okay with it and they do like it, so why not?

My point is, they're having fun with it, Vinnie gets his fix of affection and Zoe gets her dating thrill. Yeah, "dating" him is different than anyone else she ever has, but it's nice actually.

It can end in many different ways. The more lighthearted ones like Zoe finally wanting to really date someone else and they end it but in result become better friends, or they could both realize that "You know what? I like that actually, so why not just continue? Take the pretend out of pretend dating and become official." Or maybe the angst way, Vinnie does actually end up falling for Zoe which is something he never expected. But Zoe is too good for him he fears. So either he says nothing and just lets her go when time comes or he does say something and she has to tell him that she meant it when she said pretend dating.

Or the fun route. Vinnie has been aromantic this entire time and has been doing it all to be close to one of his friends in a way that is usually unattainable to him cause no one wants to act like that without the title of "romantic partners" being attached to it which is not something he desires.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Idk just Zoe and her short not-boyfriend who she can not-love all she wants

After I texted you that first message, it was taking a while to get a response, so I thought “Oh… maybe they didn’t want to send it anymore? Mkay.” But then I see the length of this and go “Oh. That’s why.”

*Buttercream voice* AAAAAAAaaanywho-!

That’s such a cute scenario! I can totally see where you’re going with this. And I like the ways it can end, too.

It benefits both if them, clearly. I like the idea that Zoe tries act like a “proper” girlfriend (stemming from her consumption of romantic media, I imagine) even if she wouldn’t really like what that entails. So the fact that she has this outlet to just be herself without worrying about “ruining” or “losing” the relationship is awesome. And y’know, Vinnie just basking in the attention. Like, he enjoys Zoe as a friend, but the fact that he gets kisses and cuddles as a bonus? Sweet.

I dunno about you, but I kinda see this (and Zinnie in general) as a QPR thing. Kinda why the aromantic Vinnie ending is my fav one. They’re not really boyfriend-girlfriend, but are still super close to the point that they’re kinda mistaken as one. So, kinda, not really. They’re not, that’s just how they are. And good for them!

I’m so sorry that this reply is so short, especially in comparison to what you just wrote 😭 But idk… I don’t have that many extra things to add for them. It’s a cute not-ship, but to me they’re just those two people in the friend group who knowof each other’s existence, but barely interact.

[loveridden1999]

hey it's me! well you probably don't know who i am but i know you. tho, that's not really the point of this anon. the point is, i need some advice and idk who else to go to and you are like a big sis to me. i know i could have just directly come to you but it just felt rather embarassing especially this particular topic. so here we are on anon.

anyway, so this is about this guy i used to have a crush on back in high school... imma give you some background story and thrn come to the my current situation.

and also, to avoid confusion, in case i come back here with an update to this story, i shall use 🍋‍🟩 as my identity.

alright, so this started back in 2021. i was in 11th grade and prep-ing for my dream college and had joint a coaching institute like any other desi kid in this nation. and one fine day, 6 months into the foundation course, there was this boy, a new admission in my batch. and he was hot. well not exactly, at least not at first. he was this entitled asshole who thought that the world revolved around him.

and well, in a way... it kinda did. cuz like, almost every other girl had a crush on him. heck, i did too. and i, for the love of god and the life in me, COULD NOT TELL WHY. like yeah, he was an entitled asshole WHO WAS HOMOPHOBIC (i am bisexual), he was still yk charming. like not in a flirty way. but yk, in that playful cheary boyish way. and he was also considerate. i was an absolute introvert, hated talking. well, initially... and he made and effort to talk to me. to include me. like he didn't have to, yk cuz who even was i? i wasn't even nearly as popular as him, but he still did. and just like that, we were friends. but that's all we ever were. cuz he had a girlfriend. or, more like, a girl he had an on-and-off thing going on and i obviously had no place in it.

and then came the time I like to refer to as "The War". yk entrance exams? it was 2023, and now since entrance exams and boards were all finally over, we didn't really have a reason to go to coaching anymore, did we? the only thing we could do, was wait... and wait... and wait... and wait we did. until the results came out. i got in, he didn't. so he chose to go to a private college while i went to our my dream college. and then we grew apart... we only talked like twice a year when we went back home and our friend group met up for a reunion after every semester. we still followed (and still do) eachother on our instagrams but we hardly ever talked. but every time i met him, i could tell he had changed as a person. he was cool now. like not in the popular hot guy kinda way. i mean obviously, but also yk, like he'd grown as a person. yk, homophobia who? like he was wearing black nailpolish the last time we met and trust me when i say, pre college me would have laughed in your face if you had told her he wore nailpolish and pre college him would have called police on you. and me, i... well i won't say i'm not an introvert, but i do talk now, amongst other things.

what i'm trying to say is, we had both had grown into different, more accepting people (he's also developed an alcohol and weed addiction but that's pretty much everyone ik these days).

and we reconnected recently... which brings me back to my current situation... which is... that i may be developing a crush on him again, except he's a mature 21 year old man now, who's hotter. and i like talking to him. like yaar samajho na, wo saamne se baat karta hai every time 😭😭 like we live states apart, but he still makes concious effort to talk to me... not every day cuz it's barely been a few weeks since we started properly talking again... but he's always got something to talk to me about. and ik that's bare minimum but i really enjoy talking to him. and i don't feel judged. and the best part? HE DOESN'T HAVE ULTERIOR MOTIVES— okay idk maybe he might? but i highly doubt that. (this is the traumatized-by-dating-apps part of me speaking, you can ignore this).

anyway so yeah, i don't think if i wanna fall down that rabbit hole again but... 🦋🦋🦋🦋 this is a cry for help

you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, I'll understand.

- 🍋‍🟩

bhai bhai bhai listen okay i get it he improved & you think you're attracted to this improved version of him but he loves states apart you guys have busy schedules ofc it's great that he's changed but you don't know how much how he acts everyday ++ you cannot keep falling back on same person again & again if something were to happen it'll happen you're attracted this idea safer farther away version of him ok love will always find you over & over again take it from me long distance can & most definitely will fuck you up the waiting for calls the rare meetings not being able to tone on texts sometimes people get tired they don't want to call everyday all those doubts. it is just a crush it'll pass always remember to remind yourself that no man worth losing your sleep over & most of them have ulterior motives sadly yeah ++ he still sounds iffy to me. this is your that feeling single & fixating on one person phase trust me give it few months & you'll look back at it realising how stupid & doomed it was okay DO NOT LET HIM SWEET TALK YOU INTO LDR

[terrence-silver]

How would Terry deal with a teething baby

---

Pays attention to the whole process.

Like, (perhaps?) an uncomfortable amount.

More than whoever the secondary parent is.

Or, more precisely more than anyone in the history of anything ever did.

Tooth grew by a millimeter? The tiny tip of a baby tooth is peeking through the gentle pink gums? Is it malformed? Is it immaculately perfect? Is it straight? Crooked? Can the shape of it be controlled? An insignificant changed occurred that nobody in their right mind would notice but him? Is it all to Mr. Silver's satisfaction? What does the team of (long suffering) doctors and private specialists he has on stand by say? Not enough to please Terry? He'll check personally! Literally plays dentist and smiles gleefully as he tracks his child's progress multiple times a day and he'll drop everything to do just that --- go as far as rush back from the office, the dojo, from Dynatox, meetings, Galas, wherever he's at, during whatever era, purely because it's time and it's scheduled and his kid's teeth need to be checked. By him. Of course. Who else? If it's the 80's, he'll have Margaret give him (unnecessarily descriptive and) full reports on the matter (while that important business conference from overseas is on hold) and he'll call in purely so she'd tell him in obnoxious detail how Silver Jr. is teething right before he attends to the matter personally because this interests him like few things do, sauntering back home like he's rushing to the most meaningful event of his life --- and to him, it is. Cancel everything!

Present day?

Heck, he'll have his kid on camera and he'll have the development shown to him and recorded for his personal interest if need be, immortalized forever. It's been found very likely that Mr. Silver will order himself chauffeured halfway across the city, country and even the planet at a drop of a hat purely because, well, yes, this matters to him and whatever matters to him takes precedence. Fuck if it's wasteful! Whoever cared about being wasteful! Again! This is important to him and he cannot be talked out of anything he sets his mind to. God knows why. His kid could be there bawling because toothing validly hurts and Terry Silver will be there, smiling and proud, like he's cheering on the whole phase, fidgeting around the mouth and watching what he sees there, never even blinking as he examines the newly growing teeth and sitting out the whole process for hours, because yes, yes, growing pains are still growing pains. That's how a runt becomes a man. How a tiny garden snake becomes a King Cobra with fangs worthy of a King Cobra. He's witnessing his kid develop and he's there to influence it. Control it. Revel in it. Observe it. His curiosity is endearingly bizarre. He's much like a child himself watching something that was never seen before by anyone else. The hatching of some rare egg, constantly checking if the shell cracked already.

Is his interest partially sadistic? Perhaps. Yes.

Is it genuine devotion in the development of his kid?

Fanatical devotion that goes way beyond any commonplace boundary?

Also yes.

Is he likely to keep his kid's milky, primary teeth once they, eventually, as nature demands, fall out, collecting them almost as a trophy? Also very likely. But, understand --- he shows his love this way and it would, hilariously enough almost be more commonplace if he was an uncaring, uninvolved, aloof father (because there's almost this expectation for fathers to be just that), but he's quite the opposite. He's energized. Smothering. Manic. Dedicated to a fault. And he's so overinvolved he'll know and understand precisely how each of his child's teeth developed like he knows the palm of his hand. Like he knows the pressure points of a body during a fight. He can passionately list it all off from memory in a stride with no effort. Yeah, Junior's third molar grew about an inch this week, Margaret and the central incisor is a bit crooked, but we'll work on that! It'll be perfect when I'm done with it! So perfect! Now, that the important is out of the way, transfer me to that call from Borneo! I wanna know how the delivery to Java is doing!

Slaps his hands together as he excitedly saunters to his study, followed by his ever so patient staff because he wants to get this over with so he can get back to what he really wants to get back to --- and that is, meticulously focusing and micromanaging the baby's teeth growing.

[real-total-drama-takes]

i saw the "I want to see trenterra" ask and that just intrigued me so here's my immediate thoughts on how that cld even work.

Obviously they'd know each other before TDWT because Drama Brothers.

Because Trent's so into what the fans want (to the point where he's chill after they tie him to a bus), I can see him still being genuinely friendly to her even after she does some over-the-top stuff like breaking into their tourbus.

And I don't think Sierra's really had that many fulfilling relationships, she grew up in a house where her mother obsessed over Chris Mcclean, and that's very obviously had a large effect on her. It's mentioned at least once that she didn't really make friends in her childhood. I feel like she followed her mother's actions and turned to the parasocial in its place, forming a deep disconnect that spiralled out of control.

So yeah, having those first few strings of genuine could be good for Sierra in helping her recognise how unhealthy her behaviour is, and what she can do to be better. And Trent's a fairly good person for that, he's sincere, patient (especially in responding to really.. idk how to say it.. intense stuff? i.e. bus again), but still able to put his foot down. He'd be more readily able to sympathise with Sierra because he screwed up in Action in ways that are along similar lines.

And Sierra would be very open to his issues too, I can't see her immediately jumping to harsh judgement when his OCD causes him to act in ways she can't immediately understand, and I can see her as very happy to listen, which I think is something Trent needs a lot.

So yea they gradually develop to allow themselves to be fully open to each other, in a way they haven't really done with anyone else and then eventually they start dating boom trenterra

...okay the dating would actually probably take a fair bit of build-up, I think beforehand these two would be quite eager to jump into relationships due to idealism, but with their relationship shaking them up so much I think they'd kinda be hesitant. I can see Trent worrying he'll make the same mistakes with Gwen. I can see Sierra worrying if Trent truly likes her, or whether she's fallen back into bad habits and is fictionalising his emotions.

It'd be a kinda bizzare romantic relationship (definitely not fitting previous Trent's idealizations of what a romantic relationship should look like), of course they'd play into some of those romantic concepts, I think they're both very into that thing, big gestures, sappy romances, but ultimately the relationship is stable due to that openness and communication, the hidden part of the iceberg.

It probably ends after a few years after they develop enough in their external lives to realise that they no longer need the romantic relationship, and can just go back to friends.

ok after writing this whole thing i went from curious trenterra neutraller to mild trenterra liker. Heck, now i'd want to see Trenterra too.

.

[doublegoblin]

Hi, happy STS~!

As I get closer to finishing my current WIP's first draft, I'm having trouble dealing with the large amount of exposition I need to do before the end. Have you ever run into this problem? How did you deal with it? What's the best way to handle exposition, in your opinion?

(from @tisiphonewolfe)

Well howdy howdy, sorry for the delay in getting back this one had me thinking for a bit.

Like probably everyone else writing a thing; I have of course ran into the issue of exposition. Especially with a world that runs on some differences to our own fundamental rules, new rules entirely, and like this whole structure there have had to be times when I just set down and go "okay this is going to need some kind of explanation."

This kind of issue is compounded by having the POV character being someone who has existed in this reality for a reeeeally long time. Like they have been around for so long, doing the same thing, talking to the same people, that they fall into that fun category of co-worker who knows exactly what needs to be done but they are unable to train anyone well because it's just became so second nature that they go "Look I know how this is done, but I don't think I can walk you through the process" or "Yeah there is a rule about that somewhere but I can't explain why we have it, just, ya know, follow it I guess." Also this said character is disenfranchised with the whole shabang and so they just kind of go through the motions. Like it's fun as a writer because I have to think, is this something they would dwell on or think about? And most of the time, the answer is a no, so the information is there but it isn't brought up in the text because it's a first person narration.

Luckily I sort of have a baked in solution to go. I have what could be considered an audience stand-in with Peter. Fresh faced, head empty, and willing to ask so many questions.

Which leads me to my advice for how to deal with exposition (even without an audience stand-in). Now this isn't a solution I came up but I can't remember where I saw the advice specifically! However, that advice is to bake in the exposition so it feel natural. Like readers are smart and will notice when the info is just kind of dumped on their laps without rhyme or reason other than "this is info you have to know!" First stop and ask yourself, is it really though? Could a reader come to this same understanding given the context clues you put through the story? What sort of ramifications would come from this info being left out? Is it even realistic for your characters to know or feel the need to share? Why does the reader need to know this?

Often we as writers want to make sure we put as much of our blorbos in the text as we can, from the biggest of wars to the tiniest of defect on a mass produced coin. Not everything needs to be fully explained though, hell, in our own lives things are rarely fully explained to us. So sometimes it is better to omit some things in lieu of the holes in logic that may appear scary and "bad" but can make a narrative feel even more alive. There have been entire chapters I have torn to shreds because the info dumping was real and I could feel it.

That brings me to this though, if this is information that is imperative to be known by the reader. Make it feel natural. Like this isn't just have a character who is lacking knowledge ask or something. It could come from a casual conversation where the two parties find a mismatch in historical events, both sides thinking their version is the true one. Or like someone brings up a random little fun fact that is related to the information tangentially. Or heck, if you need to do a massive lore dump, more developed places sometimes have museums or libraries or just somewhere where those interested could learn some history.

Now this is all easier said than done, and the solution can/will change depending on the story you are telling. And like, end of the day to, sometimes you just need to exposition all over the page and as long as it's done very sparingly a reader is likely to forgive it. But the best thing, try to weave it into the story as natural as you can, it not only adds depth to the story but also to the characters themselves.

[moviemunchies]

My dad seems to think that “character development” is code for “a really boring movie” and that the Equalizer films don’t have any of that nonsense.

Hm.

Robert McCall is back! This time he goes to Sicily for a mission, but gets wounded. On his escape he crashes by the coast side town of Altamonte in Naples, where he slowly recovers thanks to the help of the local doctor and friendly townspeople. But it turns out that the town is being harassed by a criminal empire, so Robert is back to equalizing the heck out of some douchebags. On the ride is Collins, a CIA employee who picked up when Robert called in the Sicilian operation, and she’s trying to figure out how all of this–the criminals menacing Altamonte and the drug operation in Sicily–connects together.

Considering that I’ve seen this advertised as the final installment in the series (which is disputed–the director has admitted that he isn’t against making sequels or prequels), I thought that this one would ultimately prove itself to be more complex and nuanced than the previous two movies. Not so! The movie is basically like the previous two in tone, but with less side character arcs, and this time it’s in Italy. 

The result is not bad at all, of course–you get exactly what you’ve paid for. You want to watch Denzel Washington be a nice guy who treats everyone respectfully until they prove themselves to be evil douchebags? And then watch him mow through those douchebags like it’s nothing? Yeah, Equalizer 3 has got you covered. 

That being said, I can’t help but think that because this movie is just more of what you’re expecting, it’s a little anticlimactic? It isn’t as if Robert struggles with most of his fights. And it’s not just that, it’s that the final fight with the big boss of this gang is over pretty quickly. I kept thinking that we’d get something else afterward, and we just… don’t. It’s over after that. It’s cool, I only thought it could definitely be cooler.

So no, it doesn’t feel final. It’s not a bad place to end the series; however, nothing about it screams that the series has to end here. Or even that it particularly wants to. 

It’s fun, but it’s also safe and it’s not going to challenge anyone’s ideas, or provide any meaningful outlooks on life. Which can be fine, but recognize that it’s sort of a power fantasy about being able to hyper assassinate villains without any real risk to one’s personal safety, because he’s just that much of a badass.

And so yeah, I had an enjoyable experience watching this movie. But even more than the last two Equalizer films, it feels like junk food. A morally righteous mega super warrior takes out the gangsters bothering the good townspeople without any hindrances because he’s just that awesome. It’s fine for entertainment, I guess. I don’t find it particularly memorable though, especially compared to the first two. The first one has Robert come out of his retirement to wreck vengeance on evildoers. The second has a ton of unnecessary subplots, that still develop Robert as a character, helping people in ways other than killing their oppressors, though in a heavy-handed way.

It’s fine, but it’s forgettable compared to the last two. The most memorable thing about this film is its setting. You’ll be happy enough with this movie if you liked the last two, I suppose.

[zaiban2989]

BNHA S2 Ep12 - Todo/Baku Pre fight? & Fight

Yeah I know I already made a post somewhere about TodoBaku Sports Festival Final Fight but I am back to it because this ep is just so fucking good.... for bkdk! lol

I'm actually gonna watch bit by bit and comment along because there are some gems in different scenes of this episode.

Let's begin!

First of, Katsuki is such a fucking PUNK for real lmao the way he fucking kicks the door of the waiting room open?! 🤣 That idiot is acting like a fucking gremlin without even knowing there's someone in the room, i.e. he seriously doesn't give a shit about manners at all in all aspects of his life lol (also that "Huh?" and dumbfounded face he has when he realises he's in the wrong room? Fucking priceless lol)

THEN, Todo gets out of his stupor when Kats asks him (more like blasts him) "Where the heck you're looking?" and Todo goes on a ramble about how Deku said the same thing, acted recklessly to blow away his personal issues and shit, and of course, he ends with "You guys were childhood friends, right? Was he like that too when you were young?" and what do we see? Katsuki's fucking twitching from being asked that and before he can even really 'think', his subconscious provides him with flashbacks of Deku saving him during the Sludge Villain accident and the damn river childhood memory (lmao I think the next time I'll binge watch bnha, I'll be counting how many fucking times Kats has been thinking of that particular scene man). THIS IS BIG PEOPLE. Kats has "that damn nerd"'s face in his mind so fucking much (lol) and by being shown those flashbacks, it's clear that we're supposed to understand something else than "I just fucking hate this guy so much". Hori and Bones are showing us those memories over and over again throughout the series, and yeah at this particular moment when Todo asks about Deku, Kats thinks of Deku saving and helping him and he clenches his fists, pissed by it because at this stage of the story, he's still not 'understanding' what "Save to Win" means (to put it plainly, he knows something seriously ticks him off when he thinks of Deku and how he never hesitates to come and help/save people even while being a useless quirkless nerd, but he's so stuck to being angry about it, he's refusing to take a minute and truly think of what other feelings are lying underneath that anger... I guess that's why I found his character development so beautiful 🧡)

(his upset face is just the best dkqmdqmd)

Anyway I digress lol

Back to the Todo/Baku scene, Kats blows up his fuse saying "Who the hell cares about that damn nerd" and then orders Todo to use his flames on him before storming out of the room and walking to the stage with anger written all over his face.

Like I know people would take what he's saying literally: "I'll win indisputably and be at the top!"... But honestly? After what just happened? the conversation between him and Todo and Kats having flashbacks of Deku, it's rather clear that all is thinking about is more along the lines of "I'll beat the Half & Half Bastard in the same type of fight he had against Deku and win and I'll be above Deku because of it!". Todoroki here is literally just a roundabout way for Katsuki to feel (finally) superior to Deku again (the nerd beat him twice already lol). That's also why he's so pissed at the way he won the tournament.

*taking a huge breath because of the next scene*

I'm not gonna talk too much about it cuz I already made a post for it (will link it later if I find it lol) but yeah. Just reached the actual battle on stage. First of, Sero's comment about Kats coming out of the ice like a mole is so fucking hilarious, can someone please draw a mole!Kacchan deojzfremfe

More seriously, time for some appreciation for Kat's fucking fighting skills man (pic below), I mean... the fucking mobility, reflexes and smartness he has when it comes to combat are so fucking amazing!! That precise explosion to propel himself to Todo's left and avoid the ice attack while still being in the air? Like damn, my boy, you're hot!

Aaand we get back to his inferiority complex in full bloom when Todo grabs him to block his attack but instead of using his flames, simply throws him away. (Endeavor should have shut his goddamn mouth I swear lol)

You know what comes next, right?... His full anger is back and of course, he's got to mention Deku again djsmekdldle "There's no point if I can't get higher up than Deku" ARE YOU SERIOUS LOL

This is literally screaming Katsuki's fucking obsession with Izuku, again lol the only thing I find missing here? The fact that based on Deku's face, he's probably heard this, yet we don't hear his thoughts at the moment nor later during the series (well up until Deku vs Kacchan part 2, a little). It's a real shame.

And we finish off with Deku shouting at Todo "Don't give up, do your best!" which triggers Todo to actually get his shit together for six seconds (lol) and what do we see? Kats running to the dude but with enough time to spare a quick glance at his nerd lmao I can't man, somebody kill me already please 🤣😭💚🧡

He's actually fucking happy! lol Why? pure conjecture but I think it's because he knows that Deku's words will have some sort of impact on Todo and lead him to push himself to have a proper fight too. (That or he's just happy to hear his baby shouting? lol ok ok I'm shutting up)

And yeah, first time launching his Howitzer Impact, he doesn't have the time to notice that Todo pulled his flames back and he's stunned when he realises that it didn't happen (before getting pissed and put to sleep by Midnight)

Honestly, I've been listening to Kats' voice when he's holding the passed-out Todo by the shirt and shouting things, and that dude really gets emotional and on the verge of crying when he's frustrated man it's something else. I mean that happen in s1 when he lost to Deku (Bakugo Katsuki's Starting Line ep) and he's actually crying in frustration. It's just the same here.

Look at his face, my god...

I'm sure if Midnight didn't actually put him to sleep, it would have happened. (There's so much emotion in his voice omg I wanna hug that baby)

Last pic I'm putting cuz fuck me that guy is beautiful lol 😭🧡

Anyways, like I said... lots of bkdk gems in that episode alone. Can't wait to get to the other episodes lol

Thanks if you've read the whole thing!

[demigirlboss2girlrotboogaloo]

I have this Ars Technica article pinned in my clipboard now because of how often I've had to cite it as a sort of accessible primer to why the oft-cited numbers on AI power consumption are, to put it kindly, very very wrong. The salient points of the article are that the power consumption of AI is, in the grand scheme of datacenter power consumption, a statistically insignificant blip. While the power consumption of datacenters *has* been growing, it's been doing so steadily for the past twelve years, which AI had nothing to do with. Also, to paraphrase my past self:

While it might be easy to look at the current massive AI hypetrain and all the associated marketing and think that Silicon Valley is going cuckoo bananas over this stuff long term planning be damned, the fact is that at the end of the day it's engineers and IT people signing off on the acquisitions, and they are extremely cautious, to a fault some would argue, and none of them wanna be saddled with half a billion dollars worth of space heaters once they no longer need to train more massive models (inference is an evolving landscape and I could write a whole separate post about that topic).

Fundamentally, AI processors like the H100 and AMD's Instinct MI300 line are a hedged bet from all sides. The manufacturers don't wanna waste precious wafer allotment on stock they might not be able to clear in a year's time, and the customers don't wanna buy something that ends up being a waste of sand in six months time once the hype machine runs out of steam. That's why these aren't actually dedicated AI coprocessors, they're just really really fucking good processors for any kind of highly parallel workload that requires a lot of floating point calculations and is sensitive to things like memory capacity, interconnect latencies, and a bunch of other stuff. And yeah, right now they're mainly being used for AI, and there's a lot of doom and gloom surrounding that because AI is, of course, ontologically evil (except when used in ways that read tastefully in a headline), and so their power consumption seems unreasonably high and planet-destroying. But those exact same GPUs, at that exact same power consumption, in those same datacenters, can and most likely *will* be used for things like fluid dynamics simulations, or protein folding for medical research, both of which by the way are usecases that AI would also be super useful in. In fact, they most likely currently are being used for those things! You can use them for it yourself! You can go and rent time on a compute cluster of those GPUs for anything you want from any of the major cloud service providers with trivial difficulty!

A lot of computer manufacturers are actually currently developing specific ML processors (these are being offered in things like the Microsoft copilot PCs and in the Intel sapphire processors) so reliance on GPUs for AI is already receding (these processors should theoretically also be more efficient for AI than GPUs are, reducing energy use).

Regarding this, yes! Every major CPU vendor (and I do mean every one, not just Intel and AMD but also MediaTek, Qualcomm, Rockchip,and more) are integrating dedicated AI inference accelerators into their new chips. These are called NPUs, or Neural Processing Units. Unlike GPUs, which are Graphics Processing Units (and just so happen to also be really good for anything else that's highly parallel, like AI), NPUs do just AI and nothing else whatsoever. And because of how computers work, this means that they are an order of magnitude more efficient in every way than their full-scale GPU cousins. They're cheaper to design, cheaper to manufacture, run far more efficiently, and absolutely sip power during operation. Heck, you can stick one in a laptop and not impact the battery life! Intel has kind of been at the forefront of these, bringing them to their Sapphire Rapids Xeon CPUs for servers and workstations to enable them to compete with AMD's higher core counts (with major South Korean online services provider Naver Corporation using these CPUs over Nvidia GPUs due to supply issues and price hikes), and being the first major vendor to bring NPUs to the consumer space with their Meteor Lake or first generation Core Ultra lineup (followed shortly by AMD and then Qualcomm). If you, like me, are a colossal giganerd and wanna know about the juicy inside scoop on how badly Microsoft has screwed the whole kit and caboodle and also a bunch of other cool stuff, Wendell from Level1Techs has a really great video going over all that stuff! It's a pretty great explainer on just why, despite the huge marketing push, AI for the consumer space (especially Copilot) has so far felt a little bit underwhelming and lacklustre, and if you've got the time it's definitely worth a watch!

I don't care about data scraping from ao3 (or tbh from anywhere) because it's fair use to take preexisting works and transform them (including by using them to train an LLM), which is the entire legal basis of how the OTW functions.

[destinygoldenstar]

In defense of Noah.

So I got noted quite a bit in my Owen post (which blew up A LOT more than I initiated. Wow.) that I did not mention that Noah was... not the nicest person in the world to Owen in RR, and yet I claimed they were friends. 

I wanted to say my thoughts on that.

Will this be bias because I love Noah? Yeah. Probably.

I’m not gonna act like Noah was traditionally nice to Owen. Not ever, actually. He did laugh at Owen’s milk snot in World Tour, and a couple times I’m too lazy to recall right now, but not much else that can be deemed as ‘friendly.’

Really, has Noah EVER been traditionally a friendly person? To ANYONE?

He deals with his interactions with a smirk and a rude demeanor. With the exception of Emma, who I will get to later, he talks in the sarcastic tone we love about him. 

I understand where that criticism comes from. Despite becoming good friends with Owen and staying with him on multiple reality shows, he doesn’t really show that much kindness towards him. Heck, he doesn’t really show that to anyone and constantly forces people to do the hard work for him. Dodgebrawl? The Tyler stretching incident? That’s not OOC. 

But... I honestly liked it. And here’s why.

It was just really wholesome to see this stone faced lazy guy get slapped in the face with sincerity and make a much healthier life for himself. Better than working for Chris anyway.

Noah’s someone very introverted and, lets face it, spoiled. The game might actually be the first time he was rejected ever. After Island, he became Chris’s little assistant, and that says all, and in World Tour, he actually does try to dodge hard challenges first (remember the pinball challenge?) And who forces him into a position to always be on guard? Owen. Mostly because Owen is probably gonna (accidentally) kill Noah. And Alejandro, who is sus.

I See London is the first episode where Noah legit takes charge in something. He’s not nice about it, I don’t expect him to be, but they had to win the challenge. It’s not the rules were gonna change on them at the last minute- oh wait.

(I mean, it’s Total Drama. Hosted by Chris McLean. So... I’m not as mad about that as you think I would be.)

But let me ask this: If Noah had no care for Owen whatsoever, WHY would he even stay with Owen for so many reality shows? 

I’ll wait.

Of course Noah isn’t gonna outright say he cares about him, or even be good at encouraging his partner. “You’re about as picky as a raccoon”, is essentially his poor way of encouraging that he can do it. Unlike Emma, who only saw Kitty as an asset to winning the money at first, Noah knows who Owen is, and tries to help them both. Could he be nicer about it? Yes. But that’s not the point. The point is ‘how would this be an in character way for them to deal the situation?’

“Hold on, but he developed all these feelings for Emma and constantly tried to impress her” -The reblog section

Here’s the big case.

That whole thing is only proof that Owen’s good nature DOES rub off on Noah. Better yet, being forced into situations where he has to actually TRY to make it and survive. 

And a crush? Yeah, that’ll let that all out at once. It’s basically, Noah recognizes that he legit WANTS something that’s hard to get. Of course he’s bad at dealing with emotion and struggling with something that seems so... sappy. This is a whole new experience for him. 

And as much as you may want to deny it, Noah is NOT just an emotionless sarcastic machine. If that were the case, he wouldn’t laugh at Owen’s milk shake at all, which that too, could’ve easily come across as unconventional for him. 

(I don’t want to talk about the ‘But there were hints that Noah was gay, and yet he becomes straight’ stuff. I don’t hate it, and that’s coming from someone graysexual. Total Drama is bad at representation. The fandom just wants to ignore the facts because they love the show and the characters anyway. If I wrote Total Drama, would I have made Noah gay? Coin toss. But what’s canon is canon, write a fanfic instead of whining to the writers. Over.)

For me at least, I just found it really wholesome to see this brainiac become way more understanding and better at relationships as the show went on. 

With Emma, it’s understanding her boundaries in order to properly be with her. 

With Owen, he does actually get better at showing his care for Owen as RR goes on. It’s Owen who helps him in the air guitar challenge, and from there, the bossiness towards the big guy becomes way less frequent. 

Total Drama doesn’t have it’s characters blatantly say, “I’m sorry I treated you badly” or “I’ll try to be better” or “I care about you and I want you around”. Some shows do that, in my writing I do that, but that’s never been this show’s style. So of course Noah isn’t gonna blatantly apologize or say “I need you.”

Would I have liked for Noah to have said this sort of stuff out loud? Yeah.

Would I have liked for Noah to have more screen time to flesh out what I’m talking about? YES.

But for what we have, I still love Noah as a character. He’s not the best written character in the show, but sometimes you don’t care.

Who knows? Maybe I’ll make a Noah centric fic that takes place in an alternate timeline of the show. where he DOES get the screen time to flesh out what I’m trying to say. No promises though. 

[showtoonzfan]

(A lil rant about Stella, I just want to share some thoughts)

I don't get why HB fans said it's good because sometimes villains are just assholes, female or male but like, this would work if the protagonists are on the same level of complexity but there's clearly a different, heck look at characters like Griffith or Odalia, they're horrible but they're complex enough to pair with the protagonists and let us wonder what they're planning, but Stella?all she does is screaming and mocking, to the point we all know what she'll do next, she's just abusive and angry, literally that's all she is, I wouldn't have mind it she was a minor villain, how can I enjoy a show where our protagonists work through their trauma and emotion when the villain is just "I hate you>:(" Like fr, why do people justify lazy writting because it's "representation" when the representation drags everything down? Yeah, bad people exist and a lot of them are just assholes but realistic=/=satisfying, like when people complained about the s*xual assaults in a lot of movies, yes it's realistic but is it lazy and is just there to add shock values? Also yes in a lot of cases, that's how I feel about Stella currently, especially with the pattern of under developed female characters in HB, I really don't buy into the representation thing.

Agreed with all of this. Also, the problem with Stella is that when I call her character “lazy writing”, it’s not because I’m shocked that she’s a bad person, I just wish she was LAYERED. Not all villain characters have to be layered of course, but for a show where you have a bunch of demons who are flawed people and layered themselves, why make their villains one note? Not only does that make the character journey the protagonist has to go through be boring and shallow, but for a character like Stolas, a person who has done horrible things HIMSELF, it insults me how Viv writes her as this one note bitch and nothing else, because she’s clearly doing it to excuse the cheating, and make the audience feel bad for Stolas when our sympathy for this character should be EARNED, not because something bad is happening to them. It’s the same with Angel Dust and Valentino. You have a horrible character, but then you pair them with someone who is worse and one note, automatically making that said OTHER character look good. And people can get mad at me all they want, but the hypocrisy in this fandom is WILD. Y’all will say the meanest nastiest things about Stella and Valentino, because one is a bitch and the other is an abusive pimp, (as well as getting on people’s case who simp for them) but then characters like Alastor are applaud and simped over when he’s LITERALLY a serial killer, and Angel is a murderer. And yes, I get that we’re supposed to LIKE the protagonist and hate the antagonists, but the problem is that the fandom will argue over which character is worse, when it shouldn’t be a competition. They’re ALL bad, yet most of this fandom will have a cry fit if I say that. Stella is bad, but in her character’s case they could have made her layered, but of course no. We have to make her a bitch so the audience can feel bad for Stolas, a person who treated his partner like a sex slave and nothing else, as well as was more focused on getting his bird dick arise then mending to his daughter in Loo Loo Land. But yeah, Viv really needs to up her game in the writing department. I’m tired of her desperately trying to make her heavily flawed characters look good while the universe works in their favor for the sake of the plot, as well as her female characters being fan service bait, and not developed at all.

[eyrieofsynapses]

Redemption Panel Highlights and Reactions

GATORS

i.e., Beth Riesgraf and Christian Kane (mostly Beth) talking about filming the scenes in (what I presume is) The Rollin’ on the River Job, where they’re pulling some stuff out of the water, and finding out the next day that there was an absolutely massive alligator pulled out of the same place just a little while after they filmed it

Beth’s impression of the wildlife folks warning them about the alligators

Beth scaring the hell out of Noah Wyle by yelling “GATOR” at him just after he finished his scene

seriously that was an absolutely WILD part of the panel

Everyone showering Aleyse Shannon with literally all the love!

Aldis Hodge in particular big-brothering her, and also the older actors calling her out for not giving herself enough credit, and Dean Devlin talking about how she blew him away at the auditions with her ability to turn on a dime

Seeing Kane with his glasses off wiping at his eyes, momentarily thinking “you okay dude?” and then realizing that he was laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes

(same)

The The Bucket Job clip! I’ve been a bit meh on a lot of Redemption, just in how it didn’t feel quite right, but that is possibly the absolute closest I’ve seen it get to the original in the best way. Brilliant

Which comes as no surprise since BETH RIESGRAF directed the episode!!! And apparently put an insane amount of effort in!

Beth’s utter delight and joy at both directing the episode and having the crew behind her

THE CHAIR

So apparently she and Christian went to town on the fight scene and he winds up tied up in a chair somewhere along the line and there’s a whole wild scene, which I am really looking forward to

Beth knowing how insanely particular he’d be about things like zip ties vs rope and what kind of rope e.t.c. e.t.c.

Apparently this is also tied into a VERY DEEP scene with Eliot? It sounds like they’re going to go super hard on his backstory, which is terrifyingly exciting

Just. Beth and Christian going very hard on that episode together

Speaking of: the panel’s going amazingly, I’m laughing so hard my stomach hurts, things are relatively light, and then, of fucking course—

Kane hitting us over the head about Eliot being a mass murderer who can’t be redeemed, is trying to stay static so that he can maintain the place he’s in, and is thus LIVING VICARIOUSLY THROUGH HARRY

What the FUCK. This is of course incredibly insightful and perfectly on point (because it’s Kane) but also, EXCUSE ME, OUCH, why would you DO THAT to us?

Everyone talking about having their families on set and their kids!

Beth’s son growing up on the original Leverage set and now going into being a director himself!

Gina’s daughter also growing up on set!

Noah Wyle’s daughter is playing Harry’s daughter I REPEAT NOAH WYLE’S ACTUAL DAUGHTER IS PLAYING AS HARRY’S DAUGHTER

Gina Bellman remaining relatively stoic throughout much of the panel (seriously, this woman, how the heck does she do it) and then losing it when they’re asked about running/inside jokes

A lot of them are, of course, apparently not appropriate to be spoken on-panel

(A lot of the others are the little inside ones that are special enough not to be ones they want to share, which is sweet!)

Everyone collectively losing it over having LeVar Burton on for The Bucket Job

Devlin and everyone laughing about collecting the various Star Trek people on Leverage

Beth talking about Burton coming over while she’s getting ready and asking her if she’s living on coffee and water, her laughing because he was absolutely right, and then him gently reminding her to remember to eat, which is the sweetest thing in the world oh my gods

Kane apparently choreographing an intense scene with Burton and being scared out of his mind, because Burton really wanted to go for it, but to Kane it was like he’s a figurine that’s not to be messed with because he was so worried about hurting him

Kane choreographing a massive amount of the show, which I knew already, but seriously, this guy blows me away

Gina and the crew talking about how he’d be away for a day of shooting a fight and all of them would be missing him and thinking about him

Family Vibes

Everyone talking about how they’re very noisy and loud together on set and it’s a bit like walking into a group of people having Christmas dinner (or something to that effect) because they’re just Like That together

Aleyse being the most surprised by Beth when she met her because she was like a little angel of light during the auditions but turned out to be an absolute ball of wild energy on set

Gina going “wait you were a MODEL” at Beth

Aldis talking about how much he loved how Parker and Hardison’s relationship had developed and grown!

Also, Aldis apologizing when the New York (iirc) background noise got loud and everyone going “no no we get you”

His outfit is ON POINT today

Gina saying that Christian is the goofiest and wildest out of them in terms of humor

(she goes “some of you may not know this,” which, fair, but also, if you’ve seen more than ten minutes of this guy outside of character you know he’s an absolute ball of sunshine)

Gina, Beth, and Christian talking about how they’d challenge each other to stay off sweets back on the original set, because they knew they needed to stay in shape and also just because they’re competitive (apparently all of them are major sweet tooths) and hide brownies and things from each other, while Aldis is just. doing pushups. eating all the healthy stuff. and then wanders into the room with a literal cupful of chocolates

(and Aldis going “well yeah I have to work off the sweets SOMEHOW”)

Beth explaining that sometimes they’d order a “Kane burrito” from Christian and he’d alter it slightly

Like, you know, chopping up hot jalapenos super fine and mixing them in, and Beth practically not being able to talk after the first bite

Apparently Aldis still went back a lot even after that

(Christian just seems very pleased with himself over it)

(THESE PEOPLE)

Gina goes “hey we should have an episode where we all swap roles,” Devlin going “WAIT FOR SEASON ONE TO BE DONE,” and then somebody (maybe the moderator?? I don’t remember exactly) going “uh actually. We did that”

Cue immediate scramble of “WAIT WHICH JOB WAS THAT”

(paraphrasing) “Yeah you remember the bit where you put on Parker’s harness and went off a building?”

Turns out half the cast had actually forgotten that that existed and only remember when reminded

The original cast all think of the episodes as “jobs”!!!!

Everyone talking over each other, Devlin going “it was with Sterling when we blew up the offices,” deciding that it was the season one finale, and then trying to figure out what episode title it was (eventually they figure out it’s the David jobs)

Moderator and Devlin accurately commenting that the fans know the show much better than they do

Noah Wyle very correctly explaining how Electric Entertainment is like a family and Devlin just. Keeps people

Aleyse and Aldis talking about typing when they’re hacking and going “WHAT THE HECK DO WE TYPE”

Aldis goes “yeah I just type all the bad words that we’re not allowed to say”

Aleyse saying that she’s always a little worried they’re hiding a Word document behind the blue screen and they’re going to pull up what she’s typing at the end of the day and print it out and put it in her trailer going “what the HECK is this”

Noah talking about filming The Golf Job and just getting to direct Jason Marsters and Christian together

Apparently their dynamic in that episode accurately mirrors the one with their characters in Angel!

Which promptly goes straight to the comment that it was very hard to make Marsters look like a golfer (pfft)

(Also apparently Christian plays golf for fun with his friends? Not necessarily something I would’ve thought of!)

Aleyse happily talking about how she loved the dynamic on set and it was very different from what she was used to

Also Aleyse talking about doing stunts and everyone else praising her for going whole hog

Beth especially praising her for the bit where she’s hit with the paralysis injection (I don’t remember which ep it’s from) and her acting for it, because it was incredibly hard to drop off screen in the particular way she did

Aleyse promptly answers that she was terrified with some of those, especially one where she had to keep a clock from falling and breaking

Everyone discussing how they see a new aspect of Breanna’s character in The Train Job

Also, to get serious for a moment, Kate Rorick in particular talks about how Breanna’s part of Gen Z and how we didn’t get the “days of yore” where everything was chill. We’ve basically been living in a world of hostility the whole time. It’s something I deeply appreciate, as someone who’s part of that group, and I love how they emphasize that for us.

This panel was pure chaos and I loved every moment of it! My stomach was actually hurting from laughing so hard, I swear. They had me cackling well over half the time. I would happily take panels double or triple the length of this, this was amazing. I also adore how the second you drop these six people in a room together, they immediately take off and literally just run and give you everything you wanted and more. (It is also evidently very hard to get them to STOP talking.)

I’m also just going to stop and take a second to fawn over the effects for the 3D room. It’s gorgeous—I love how they replicated the headquarters, especially with the stained glass ceilings! Super impressive, especially with all the photos, and I just love the whole thing. Kudos to whoever put that together.

Anyway, I’m definitely missing some stuff too; seriously, there wasn’t a second wasted in this thing, they were cracking some kind of joke or dropping some really interesting piece of information practically every thirty seconds. (And I haven’t even gotten into the clips OR the bloopers. I miiiight do a separate reaction purely for those.) It’s still up right now if you missed it and you want to watch it! I’ll probably watch it again, honestly.

[ferusaurelius]

I’m a bit of a meta nerd and since my natural mode is: “AU the heck out of it” and “what would it take for this kind of system to actually function in a society with 2000+ years of cultural development, different waves of space exploration, and ranges of preferences and values ... and what would be the causes and consequences” ... part of me thought of the following (in rough summary):

Giving turians more freedom with the surface area and style of colony markings (everything from minimalist to “full-face” covering depending on personal preference)

The limited options we get in-game are pretty much just based on development time and I’m the school of thought that goes for ‘okay but what options would a culture REALLY invest in?’ rather than the kind that goes ‘okay what reasons can I concoct for the game canon to be true?’ which is a personal preference, neither group is right/wrong

Making remarks about what wearing each type of style would tend to connote in turian society and expanding those possibilities

Why do the above? Because it expands the possibilities for being “barefaced” and also allowed me to expand on turian merc culture marking practices, of course! Because I write some turian mercenary meta, and fic based around some of that meta (because it was useful to me as a writer)

We look at “barefaced” in general as a stigmatized choice because it implies a lack of connection (other folks with more defined opinions than me have fastened on to the idea of Hierarchy and merit as central to turian culture -- which is substantiated in canon, and which is something else I tend to expand into a larger spectrum of possible viewpoints)

OPs ideas do fitly neatly into the “there is a stigma about this action or a cultural taboo in not wearing markings”

To which I would add, on the meaning and presence of markings -- perhaps markings are chosen at the age of majority and there’s a certain ritual about that? In expectations of individual maturity and choice? So that it could also imply “less commitment” in the form of “not yet ready to settle on a final form of public affiliation” -- as the commitment and place that markings signify would also be an assumption of full and public responsibility in some way in political or civic life

We don’t get any info on changing markings, so perhaps, if that happens at all, there could be a period of time where being ‘unmarked’ is part of the process for w/e reason...

Yeah, obviously I could brainstorm for hours on this.

Don’t mind me rambling, thinking up stuff about turians is part of my writing process lol

LISTEN i'm mostly a salarian type of guy but i recently got some ideas so i wanna ask: what do you think is the reason some turians might be barefaced? we see some examples in the games, but we're never given an exact reason. some of my theories include:

- politicians get them removed to avoid being accused of bias, especially around election season. joram talid, the politician you meet in thane's mission, might be barefaced because of that ("barefaced" is even turian slang for a politician). the same might apply to some public servants like spectres.

as a counterpoint, keeping your colony markings while campaigning can make for great publicity in a "look how patriotic i am" way.

- turians who are just born outside of the hierarchy for whatever reason. they might get citizenship later and get markings then.

- maybe it's done as a form of punishment, especially when the punished is exiled from their colony/place of residence. i imagine that in older times, sometimes those marks were transformed into some sort of tattoos reserved for criminals.

[fungal-wasted]

The Great Knights Are OK AU

Right so, some disorganized ideas about the AU because I'm in the mood for it. This is just me being purely self indulgent btw don't expect high quality.

The first part with some backstory on each of the five is here (click the link)

So of course this starts out because of the Pure Vessel

Dryya is the main one tasked with training PV.

This is mostly seen as an act of discipline, to develop the vessel's ability to defend itself and strengthen it

So the thing is that the Sealing Day was just announced, but it's kinda far still.

But PV is conflictedm whcih by itself is a big deal because its supposed to have no mind.

One day Dryya is tasked with escorting the White Lady somewhere out of the Palace it's Isma's turn instead and she immediately notices something's wrong with PV

(More under the cut)

Isma sees this as alarming so she tries to call out someone else to inform the situation and PV, unprompted, stops her.

Which really settles for Isma the idea that it is not hollow.

But also the don't want anyone to find out.

So Isma goes "shit PV could feel threatened".

If PV is not hollow, that could ruin the plan. But if they're not hollow then they definitely have thoughts and will.

She struggles to communicate so she gets the local bilingual on the team, aka Ze'mer, to try and sort this out.

I think in general she has the easiest time trying to communicate with Vessels tbh

ANYWAYS now two of the five are on the know. The other three find out by the end of the week.

And it's kind of a mess of opinions but the resolution is to protect PV. They can defend themself pretty well but they have to be cautious.

At least, the Hollow Knight as a person becomes common knowledge, so they use that on their favor to have them not disappear but instead be integrated into the ranks.

RIGHT, part 1 is over.

Now things are still a mess, and the only solution people had is not there.

And one day out of the blue Ogrim shows up with a child, a vessel, he found on the sewers.

That's Ghost. I guess in this AU they take a while to get out of Hallownest, the place is still full of people anyways and they feel the need to hide.

Ogrim thinks at first it is a wrongdoer but how could it when it's so small.

Yet they can still pull off one heck of a fight.

He brings them to the Basin and asks the other five (counting PV).

And there's a moment of recognition between the vessels. It happens for Hollow first tho because Ghost looks the same, while PV has changed.

And they're... full of regret. But they refuse to talk about it (they learnt some sign language as time went)

Things do get better between them with some time. They keep Ghost out of sight of the King, just in case. Isma offers her own place in Greenpath.

When Isma walks in with Lost Kin by her side, who she found while in charge of patroling Kingdom's Edge it's just obvious Something's going on with these children.

Holly shows them the Abyss door and this is a turning point, becuase it starts clicking for everyone else. "There are more"

They can't even go inside.

But yeah it is... kind of late for everyone that never left the Abyss.

And what exactly can they do? They have no proof beyond what the supposedly mindless beings have to say.

I do think it would be good if they started researching about it, maybe ask the dreamers and such. Have someone who doesn't raise alarms poking into the Archives.

Anywyas, Lost Kin actually lives with Nailmaster Oro. Like the last nailmaster anyone would expect. But it is safer for them over there so it is fine. They still pay visits.

And that's not the only thing going on I guess.

Things get a little heated up near the surface, but usually just guards deal with it. It's probably an effect of Radi making her moves anyways

One day Hegemol uses some time while on duty to visit his old workplace and when he's back a maggot stole his armor.

He finds them in an empty side of the market.

But Hegemol knows his armor better than the usurper, so he takes them down.

He wants to turn them in for their crimes but... it feels wrong.

Maggots are frowned upon in Hallownest, they're the lowest of the low and honestly get the worst treatment by bug society.

And how could this be? How can the most civilized kingdom be this vile to its own denizens? Yeah fuck that.

Hegemol is already distrusting the Kingdom. And here he brings up another candidate because for someone who knows nothing about the amor, this maggot is pretty determined.

And it is just really angry.

Hegenol makes an alliance with it.

He brings it up to the other Knight and thus marks the time where they start changing where their loyalties lie. It's super difficult, but they're strong as a group and want to stick together.

Ze'mer is as gay as ever and although I'm not sure how to fix her storyline.

If she starts making alliances with other folks and being more critical of Hallownest she has more of a chance of making things work out

But still, mantises still have a lot going on by themselves and are very wary of Ze'mer so, good luck I guess.

I do kinda like the concept of either Ze'mer wanting to challenge the Lords on behalf of her fellow knights or the Traitor's Child also wanting to join the Knights as a way to make an alliance, at least part time

But everyone else is just like "This can go wrong in so many ways"

Love wins though, I really don't want to kill them off.

Biggest issue with this whole thing????? What happens to Radi?

Answer: No idea

I mean, maybe PK is forced to use more direct means of action against her.

Maybe he has to open up the Abyss or else this guys will start a revolution.

Maybe they learn about the Dream Realm from the Seer and go "shit we're doing this ourselves". Or who knows askjdskjda

But yeah that's it for now KFDKJJDGK

I'll gladly accept questions to help me figure out more things about the timeline