#it's history nerd vs fantasy nerd

[stalebagels]

[paopuofhearts]

Being at a convention this weekend, I actually had a kind of aha moment.

It's because people start to focus on empathy for a character - which, in turn, begins to erase what a character has done - and begin highlighting parts of a character that make them sympathetic - to the point where the character is no longer the same person.

The example I've gotten from this convention is a pretty cruel guy who's hell bent on colonization and conquest being reduced to "misunderstood scientist who creates wild and wacky things but became an outcast in his family". People focus heavily on inventing things and the emotional turmoil of being rejected by family - easy to empathize and sympathize - and the cool things he builds - easy to redeem and make look good. Then they COMPLETELY IGNORE THE FACT that these inventions were used to torture and kill people in his work to colonize a place, and that his family worked against him because he's, you know, murdering people in a whole bid of conquest.

So I had to watch as people dressed up in uniforms *based on the Confederacy* and do all this "praise _ / hail _" as a joke when like. Holy shit I did not expect to get the sudden feeling of 1940s Nazi Germany, or how this leads to people literally saying (and therefore thinking) "it totally doesn't matter that he oppressed people to commit genocide, *that happens all the time*, what matters is that he's hot".

NOW GRANTED plenty of people *don't do this shit*. But there are enough people who *do* where, in an online space? Yeah I'd be wary as *fuck* talking to people who might share those sentiments, because they might be the kind of people to say the reflections of humanity in the story don't matter anymore, as long as the character can be reduced to an object found appealing - because that mentality leads to a lot of fucked up arrested development and trashes your ability to actually acknowledge different perspectives and experiences with real world issues. (You stop treating people like people and instead view them as objects as well).

Again, it's not as big of a thing in the general sense, but damn - you can enough of that over and over again, and it's just exhausting to bother with, so you stop bothering with it. (Which, reducing stuff to that is a problem in itself - opposite side of the spectrum and all).

*On this fandom particularly, it's been a *huge* shock, because it's a tiny and niche fandom - but the fact that I brought this up at a Q&A and several people applauded me because they never thought of that before, when the creators have discussed it and it's blatently written and openly talked about by the character? Fuck off. Because don't get me wrong, this guy really *is* the most fascinating character, and I like digging into how he reflects a lot of dark shit about humanity that, in turn, teaches us things like "how to not let kids get caught up in new age faacism" and the like. But *very few people* seem to give a shit about that over "uwu family problems" that aren't really canon problems [like, if I had a family member that became a neo-Nazi and refused to listen to reason then attacked me? Fuck yeah I'd ditch them]. So yeah; having to parse out who is *that* kind of fan versus who is a *reasonable* fan takes a lot of effort and energy, and sometimes it's worth exploring to see which is which, other times I'm just gonna write people off and ignore them. It's the internet. I don't know you, and sometimes, I'm not going to have the effort and energy *to* invest in determining that, so - oh well.

How fandoms came from “villain is literally the most interesting character in the story” to “anyone who likes the villain supports real life crime” is truly beyond my comprehension.

[caparrucia]

(This is assuming you played FFXIII, so if you didn't, then you can ignore this) This is a weird ask, but after seeing the "broody male vs broody female" character comparison, I remember that there was one broody female character that people loved: Lightning from FFXIII. Why do you think she was loved?

Oh god, you have triggered my trap card. I am FFXIII's number one feral defender.

My super extra spicy FF opinion is that the XIII trilogy is amazing. To truly trigger the FF nerds in the audience, FFXIII-2 is in fact my favorite final fantasy game in the entire history of the franchise. (I have played all FF games to date except XVI and the MMOs, because I cannot do MMOs due to mental ferret reasons.)

Lightning works as a character because she was written like a man.

Lightning works because she is the emotional driver of the entire trilogy and she's flawed. She's deeply unlikable at the beginning of XIII, prone to violence and overreactions, and she's the central screw keeping the tension in the Snow-Hope-Lighitning knot of emotions, feelings and relationships.

It is very clear her anger towards Snow is misplaced: Lightning is angry at herself, because she was the one who didn't listen, she's the one who alienated Serah, she's the one who was proud and stubborn and refused to bend even a little, despite the fact Serah and Snow were visibly and obviously working very hard to meet her on her terms. It's not her fault that Serah was turned into a l'cie (in fact, the whole overarching argument of the trilogy is that the fal'cie and l'cie system is flawed and broken and needs to be torn out from the roots to allow for a just, better world), but it is her fault that she found herself powerless to do anything about it, because she made the choice to prioritize her own pride over her sister's attempts to communicate.

And this crucial, because as Lightning comes to terms with the fact Snow did not do anything wrong - at least as far as Serah goes, you could argue about the effectiveness of NORA vs PSICOM trying to save the people being purged, etc, but I still think, in universe, we're primed to see Snow's actions as morally correct, because his whole deal is to be a callout for complicit inaction in the face of facism and genocide, which is totally not relevant in this year of our lord 2024 or anything, anyway! - it creates a lot of tension in her relationship with Hope.

See, Hope is fascinating, in XIII, because surface level, his bone with Snow makes sense. Snow got his mom killed! Hope wants revenge over that! He's an unstable, emotional teenager dealing with too much all at once! He latches onto Lightning because Lightning seems to be the only one who sees Snow for what Hope thinks he is: a loud, obnoxious try-hard that will get people killed in pursuit of his miopic idea of "good."

But Hope is wrong.

Demonstrably!

It wasn't Snow that killed his mother, it was the PSICOM and on a larger scale, the government that ordered innocents to be Purged. Snow acknowledged and enabled his mother's agency, but she made the choice to stand up and fight. She picked up the gun. Snow didn't throw a gun at her and told her to go kill people for the glorious revolution. Snow and NORA showed up to try and save people being unjustly and, one could almost say, unlawfully, executed for the grand crime of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Snow and NORA are there to do the fighting, and they enable people who decide to fight back themselves to do so. That was a choice Hope's mom made. She even cracks a joke about it. Hope is doing the teenage thing where he projects all of his rage onto Snow, because Snow is right there. Snow has a face and a name and was conveniently right there when Hope's mom died. Worse, Snow suffered similar injuries to her, but he survived, while Hope's mom didn't, and Hope is stewing on the perceived unfairness of that, as if survival was a tangible, physical thing that Snow had snatched away from Hope's mom to save himself.

So having Lightning acknowledge that it Snow wasn't in the wrong about Serah and come down from the murder-driven high leaves her purposeless and saddled with a volatile teenager that just wants to make the world make sense. Hope wants to kill Snow and pretend that will in fact return everything to normal. But it won't. It can't. It's an observable fact. Killing Snow won't fix anything and will in fact make everything just that little extra worse, just for kicks.

Here's where Lightning shines. Lightning is written like a man. Lightning does not take on a motherly role and sacrifice her own narrative to coddle Hope and teach him the power of forgiveness. Lightning doesn't defrost into a moe blob of soft, kind fluff and she doesn't get in contact with her femininity in the traditional, arguably stereotypical ways.

Lightning goes: New plan, which is Same plan, New target. Lightning is still going to fix the problem through tremendous amounts of military violence, because she is a soldier and that's how she fixes things. What she has gained, as her character arc progresses, is not thawing into non-violence, but rather, clarity of purpose. The game says, in every possible way: Lightning is good at violence and violence is what she's good at, and this is a good thing. The thing she had to overcome was being obsessed with the wrong target, blinded by her own unregulated emotions that did not allow her to see her real enemy and the true path to what she wants.

And this is further reinforced as she grows throughout the trilogy: in XIII, Lightning fights to save her sister, in XIII-2, Lightning fights to save reality, and Lightning Returns, she fights to preserve what she's come to understand as the essence of humanity: those bonds that would drive you to pick up a fight with god himself, and the myriad of complex, contradicting emotions that make life worth living.

Lightning works because she's right. Because no one ever looks at her and goes "oh boo hoo, little girl trying hard!" and there's no very special episode where we learn she's secretly very girly or that the true power is her soft femininity. Lightning is a broody bastard and she fixes all her problems with her sword, which, and this is true, is also a fucking gun.

When Etro hires her as a bodyguard, I promise you, it wasn't because she was uwu waifu material, it was because she looked at Caius casting Meteor at her and went: bitch, I've got a SWORD, that is also a GUN, and then parried that shit out of orbit.

Lightning just works, man.

And you know what's great? She's still no the coolest of the Farron sisters.

*gestures excitedly at Serah*

[bentosandbox]

The museum collab outfit?

so glad you asked now i can finally dump all the info i gathered for a good reason

during the LNY stream, a few minutes? after they revealed the biker chen skin they dropped this along with my jaw: a collab with the Nanyue King Museum that lasted not even 2 weeks lol (prob because LNY started from the 10th this year aka everything closes)

tl;dr historical museum/mausoleum in guangzhou (the closest china has to HK) with a lot of artifacts, and the collab highlights a few

the original PV for it if you want to hear some guy say how the tiger hook perfectly covers up the broken part of the jade dragon ornament and it looks like theyre fighting like a certain two and that they complement each other

i typed out a transcript so i could tl it and the lin commentary in..due time also here's a vlog from bili to live vicariously through

what lin commentary you ask. incidentally i also saw people asking 'why is Lin even in this the PV just kept mentioning tigers and dragons' well ok remember how her profile mentions she's a Yanese art history nerd enthusiast... there are qr codes on-site you can scan that will being you to a microsite? and they got her CN VA to narrate the descriptions!!! with comments!!!!!! here's a quick TL i did the other day as an example

so yea... she's basically the tour guide 🥹🥹🥹

chenswire and linchen photospots, why did they put swire all by her lonesome at the mausoleum

so. they had a small merch lineup for those who couldnt make it (half/ 3/4 body acrylic stands like the mooncake collab) but there is also a notebook....

WITH CONCEPT ART? OF THE OUTFITS INSIDE... they mention it in the video but they incorporated the artifacts into the design which is so so cool (their outfit silhouettes? are also based on tang-dynasty clothes iirc) BUT ALSO SEE... CHEN WITH PANTS.... i think she could lose one of the twintails but that's not important here so yeah cool historical-fantasy outfit with baggy pants vs cop outfit with funny tied up shirt and skin tight pants... no contest

[houndsofcorduff]

WIP Series Intro: The Old Gods

Intro Post Last Updated April 2025

Series Title: The Old Gods

Genre: Fantasy

Books:

Book 1: The Shadow of Gods

Book 2: The Vengeful Gods

Book 3: The False Gods

Book 4: The Destroyer of Gods

Book 5: The Vessel of Gods

Book 6: The Warring Gods

Book 7: The New Gods

POV: 3rd Limited

Content Warnings: Violence, Death/Trauma, Mild Language, Emotional Themes

Magic System: Magic is a manifestation of the soul; some people are able to tap into the magical energy inherent in themselves, while others aren't. The reservoir of magic inside a person is a renewable but limited resource, like a battery; it can be drained but will recharge over time. Special crystals can store magical energy and can be incorporated into objects, devices, and even people. These crystals can be infused with magic and then used by people who can't use their own magic. Since overuse of your own magic can lead to illness, these crystals are a safer and easier way to use magic. Crushed crystals can be incorporated into tattoo ink, allowing non-magic users to use magic without a "device", but they must be replenished by crystals or a magic user.

Overall Plot: The Old Gods follows a character named Em'het who is a rare magic user. The series follows him through ten years as he discovers more about himself, magic, and works against the "gods" who use magic. He begins as a child trying to hide his magic to protect himself, and grows into a fierce young man determined to use his magic for good and not be corrupted like the old gods. He has a solid group of non-magic users who support him and teach him throughout his life.

Themes/Tropes:

Found Family

Growth and Discovery

Identity

Self-Determination

Duty vs Morality

Child Prodigy

Survival and Resistance

Coming of Age

Youth and Innocence

The Price of Magic

Main Characters: (Just for Book 1)

Em'het - 10M - brilliant, curious, inventive, loves taking things apart to discover how they work, messy, resilient, resourceful, eager, explorative, observant, funny

Danhal - 29M - passionate, academic, linguist, history nerd, just wants everyone to be cared for and happy, idealistic, jumps to conclusions, but has good instincts, so he's usually right

Jax - 38M - charismatic, leader, almost never serious, pragmatic, quick-witted, protective, strong, physically skilled, sarcastic, sometimes gruff, tough exterior but a caring heart

Mac - 25M - dedicated, confident, upbeat, optimistic, loyal, determined to prove himself, impulsive but quick to learn from his mistakes, wants to help create something bigger than himself

Ana - 28F - intelligent, serious, the problem solver, often the smartest person in a room, focused, disciplined, often clashes with Jax, compassionate, caring, vulnerable

Sha'tel - 27F - strong-willed, always takes care of everyone, great cook, sharp, analytical, remembers everything about everyone, a confidant, empathetic, resilient, gentle, brave

Quotes That Inspired This Series and May or May Not Appear:

We are not alone

The most important thing in life is have the courage to follow your heart

It's not the years in your life, it's the life in your years

The path we choose to walk is what defines us

There is no way to know what happens next

Sometimes the things we do for love are the hardest things we'll ever do

We don't get to choose our destiny, but we do get to choose how we react to it

In the face of the unknown, it's not about knowing the answers; it’s about trusting the people standing beside you.

It’s not about the plan, it’s about the people who believe in it.

History is not just a bunch of events; it's a reflection of who we are, and who we have yet to become.

True strength is not measured by the weapon you carry, but by the wisdom you wield.

To resist the influence of others, knowledge of one's self is most important.

If logic alone could save us, we'd have solved every problem by now. But sometimes, it takes a leap of faith.

The universe may not be fair, but that doesn’t stop us from doing what’s right.

A scientist doesn’t stop searching just because the answers are difficult; she searches because the truth is worth finding.

Every new discovery opens up more questions. But isn’t that the beauty of exploration?

I'll never give up, not until I'm dead, and maybe not even then

Images:

Status: First Draft about 14k words

Playlist: Spotify Link

[stranger-rants]

Billy antis loving Gator feels like proof if Billy had been in a any other show, he'd be a fan favorite, and I just can't wrap my head around what exactly makes st different that people are not only instantly willing to jump on Billy but anyone that likes him

Fargo and really any Coen Brothers work or inspired work have always been really character driven, and those characters - good, bad, whatever - interact organically in very human ways. It doesn't operate in false dichotomies of Good vs. Evil. It operates with the understanding that people are victims or circumstances. History echoes across generations. Our fates are decided long before we were born. We can choose to escape it but our natures pull us back. So, do we defy our nature? We're creatures responding to a dynamic world. Your worst enemy has a story to tell. Sometimes that enemy is you. Etc.

Stranger Things is built upon the premise that you're a victim if your interests are outside of the norm and that everyone else is a bully. You are inherently good because you're not them, and everyone who is not you deserves to be punished. It's a power fantasy created by "nerds" who felt persecuted for being nerds. It doesn't inspire empathy. It is mean spirited. Fargo looks at abused people and gives them a complex story of cause and effect regardless of their moral character. Stranger Things divides abused people into Good and Bad. Tells us good people deserve to recover, and bad people deserve to die not because of the tragedy of their circumstances but because they're not nice enough to survive.

Characters die in Fargo for a number of reasons, but they're always a result of a logical cause and effect. It is not because they're not good enough to live in the narrative. It's because their death and the circumstances of their death says something about the character. Whereas someone like Billy can have a meaningful death in the narrative that is then stripped away by the show runners who act like his death didn't speak volumes about him. It's the complete brain rotting hyper consumerism self victimizing extreme fandomization of it all that really ruins Stranger Things.

TL;DR - Stranger Things attracts an audience that views themselves as both the victim and the hero in their own lives. It doesn't encourage critical thought. It purposely sabotages any meaning that is put into the show. Fargo shows us numerous flawed people and goes "We're not so different from them." It is to be experienced. Not turned into a juggernaut for capitalistic gain.

[doyouwanttoseeabug]

Ok, Lantern reading headcanons:

Hal reads literally everything, he will just go to charity bookshops, grab ten of the cheapest paperbacks available, and earnestly devour The Thursday Murder Club with the same laser focus and critical attention that he devotes to Pale Fire. The only thing he doesn't read is political non-fiction, because he has vague and angry feelings about the government that roughly translate to "dishonourably discharged from the circus, no longer my monkeys." He is TERRIBLE to talk to about books with because he'll be comparing the presentation of love vs class in Trollope and Collins and then he'll somehow transition to ranting about Twilight in a point-by-point takedown with quotations and fucking page numbers. Also to be clear he has no conception of when these books were written/the personality of the author/any context. He has thoughtful comments on both Dickens and Shakespeare but he gets the Elizabethan and Victorian periods mixed up all the time and wouldn't be super clear on the dates.

Guy loves horror. Ghost stories delight him, the spookier the better. He occasionally takes a dip into spatterpunk and can sort of enjoy the nastiness with a grim chuckle but he has to space those out or he ends up getting depressed. He also reads self-help books (derogatory), like he genuinely thinks that shit like The Four-Hour Workweek and The Five AM Club is life-changing good advice instead of Just The Opinions of Some Huckster. He keeps trying to tell John "one weird trick to improve productivity" and John keeps having to dive away.

John obviously loves reading really weird science non-fiction books, like 600 page deep-dives about the history of sand or paper or cancer. He also loves sci-fi, like he's a MASSIVE space opera nerd, and really grimdark fantasy in the vein of Joe Abercrombie. I think he's probably one of those people who conscientiously reads whatever the FT classes as the "politics/business/economics books of the year" in order to be Part of the Conversation, but he frequently finds them extreeemely irritating.

Kyle is.... ok a few days ago I went on a date with a guy and when we were talking about what we were reading he said, "I like to read really strange indie authors no one's ever heard of. Like, do you know Camus?" That (and I say this with love) is Kyle. He also does read a lot of genuinely interesting indie novels and novellas just by virtue of being part of a creative scene. Also obviously a massive manga nerd.

[lorekeeper-backset]

Since my Legend of Zelda hyperfixation is coming back, I think it's kinda interesting the difference between my Pokémon hyperfixation vs. my Zelda hyperfixation. In regards to Pokémon, I like the characters. Yeah the world's fun but it's all about my favorite little guys and their fucked up interpersonal relationships. I have a spajillion posts analyzing my favorite characters or just shitposting about them.

Meanwhile, for Zelda, I like the world and the stories. I Don't have a favorite Zelda character. If they weren't in Ocarina of Time or Breath of the Wild I probably can't name them. But I love Hyrule and the surrounding countries. I love how alive everything feels. I love the fucked up, nonsensical history. I love the neato fantasy races. I wanna do a ttrpg game in the Zelda universe but I also Don't want to GM so that's a nonstarter. I am the quintessential Zelda lore nerd.

Heck, this even reflects in my fan projects. For Pokémon? OCs all the way down. So many OCs with complex backstories and interwoven character arcs. For Zelda? Worldbuilding my own Hyrule. There are OCs involved by necessity but it's more about the history, world, and politics than it is about the individual characters.

It's interesting, I think.

[salted-anime-takes]

Sword Art Online (S1 & S2; dropped after that)

Author: Reki Kawahara, originally light novels

Studio: A-1 Pictures

Genres (Listed by MAL): Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Romance (vomits), Love Polygon (kills you)

Premiered: Summer 2012

Anime vs. Manga?: You couldn't pay me less than $100 to consume additional content to this series. I'd also need a large margarita.

Salted Genres: stereotypical teen boy fantasy, loser cardboard male mc, harem of women too good for him, jesus christ they had a torture dungeon for main girl in S2 by some grown man obsessed with her???, jesus FUCKING christ they gave Kirito a cousin who is into him but reasoned it off not being totally blood related, why did we let this series get so popular

Major Trigger Warnings: that weird sex dungeon thing in S2, almost incest, shitty writing, shitty love polygon garbage

Can I Watch It Around My Parents?: Just don't watch it. The cultural context isn't worth it. Do yourself a favor and stop thinking isekai will be family friendly when the main audience is incels.

Artstyle: That moe-esque style without any personality and makes all the main characters look 12, and many side characters look ridiculously older.

Personal Review: I will never forgive SAO for kicking off the isekai genre in anime so hard. Fuck yourself, Kirito. Every other anime lead in isekai is just you. Fuck this garbage pile for the isekai boom. Fuck my life

Context: This is the real reason you're here, aside from the scathing remarks you've probably heard a billion times. Why the fuck is this show even relevant? Let's go back to the early 2010s, before half of tumblr could pretend to read. (This is mostly from the Western perspective, so please add anything else happening in the world with this wild popularity jump, because I'd LOVE to hear additional takes.) Several factors were going on. Firstly, Netflix was finally a full streaming service, and most people were starting to subscribe. You didn't have to hope it was on Toonami or go to whatever sketchy websites had anime illegally available (and get every virus known to computer-kind) to get your fix anymore. Well... for a small starting selection. Secondly, while the isekai genre was already a fully developed thing, it hadn't broken into the majority Western anime viewership circles, which barely ventured outside of Toonami at the time. Then along came SAO. Netflix got the rights to the entire first season, and suddenly, it was not only insanely accessible but also something most Western fans had never seen before. You die in the game, you die in real life?! Incredible!!! (Sorry Tron, you weren't high fantasy enough for this crowd.) Thirdly, gaming was finally mainstream, and watching streamers was a new norm. The timing couldn't have been better for its release. And what with the insane levels of ignorance and assumptions most Western anime watchers had at the time of anime tropes, most red flags discussed were merely looked over. We let too much slide in the early 2010s, and SAO was one of the biggest culprits. Fourthly, if you needed a gateway anime? SAO didn't require any sort of understanding of Japanese culture to get, which appealed to a lot of people who didn't want to think outside their box, as was the early 2010s. Despite it all, SAO was easy merchandise. Hot Topic (apologies for the American chain drop) was venturing into nerd culture and including some nice trinkets for the little nerds that hung out with their goth besties, and anime merch- including SAO- was some of the first big hits. After that? It's history. I don't know if anyone who still claims to like SAO actually is banking on nostalgia or just never gained tastes beyond a lameass horny 15 year old boy, but that boom it created gave so many light novel writers the ticket they needed to get isekai as a major genre in today's seasonal anime lineup.

Favorite Character: Asuna deserved better you motherfuckers. She actually did stuff until you get thrown into the most unnecessary slice of life arc where they begin the Sexualization. S2 cour 2 they gave her a genuinely interesting opportunity to be a lead, AND Kirito wasn't there. Still not worth watching.

Fandom: you couldn't pay me ANYTHING to check this.

[vmures]

I was tagged by the lovely @keldjinfae and asked to list my top 10 movies. It's always a struggle to pick a top ten, but here are my current top ten in no particular order.

Sliding Doors - Fantastic movie with a great soundtrack. I love the way it explores the ideas of parallel universes and the what ifs around our daily choices and experiences. It's just so damn good.

Spirited Away - I'm a huge Alice in Wonderland fan and this has very similar vibes. It's also so much more than a trip through a strange world. It's a story of growing up, of loss, of finding yourself, and figuring out who you are. Miyasaki's films are always so beautiful, but this remains one of my all time favorites out of his works.

The Princess Bride - there are very few perfect movies out there, and this happens to be one of them in my mind. It's a wonderful blend of romance, humor, adventure, whimsy, and fantasy.

The Last Unicorn - while the Red Bull terrified me the first time I saw this as a kid, the movie itself remains one of my all time favorites. The art is gorgeous, the soundtrack so beautiful and fitting, and the story is such a good one.

Lilo and Stitch - this is just such a great movie. As someone who was a weird little child, Lilo resonated deeply with me. And the whole theme of family, both blood and chosen, gets me every time.

Star Wars (the original trilogy) - I enjoyed the prequels and sequels well enough, but it's the original three that remain my favorites. Such a huge part of my childhood and just so much fun.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy - these were such a love letter to the books and it shows in ever aspect. The cast was perfectly chosen, the locations were amazing, the set, costume design, special effects, and soundtrack were all crafted just right to suit the film and the story. Like the books, it is a powerful story and in some ways I think the movie version hits a bit harder. I still love the books, but I love the movies just as much.

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil - I tend towards comedy-horror and dark comedy over pure horror in general. This one is both an amazing horror film and a great comedy. It's also a very sweet story in a lot of ways. My all time favorite thing about it is that it turns the whole scary redneck/hillbilly/country folk think on its head. As someone who grew up in the rural south and whose kin are very much country folk, I really appreciated that aspect a whole hell of a lot.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire - I tried to avoid listing too many Disney movies, but this one is such an underrated Disney film. Cute archeology/history nerd plus band of misfits plus otherworldly and amazing woman plus well done villains and a great adventure backdrop just make this just a fun film. If you've never seen it, I highly recommend giving it a chance.

The Martian - this goddamn movie makes me cry over potatoes. That said, it's a great film filled with science, snappy jokes, heartwrenching scenes, and a fabulous cast. Plus Sean Bean gets to live! And he gets to explain a LoTR reference, which always delights me.

[kozykricket]

some ramblings, appreciating deltarunes "layers" of story/lore

I might have already written something about this before, but something that I really love about deltarune is that it's a game that (from what we can tell) has several different layers to the story that are all enjoyable, for different... levels of players to enjoy! Like, you have the upfront stuff, about oh, dark worlds, the knight, and kris' soul (protagonist vs player and such) but its mostly just some young teenagers goofing off going to fantasy worlds and learning some self improvement then you go a tad bit deeper, still things most people may ask and you have... well what the hecks up with dark worlds logistically, why is ralsei, and what dark worlds represent (escapism woah), and for some, secret bosses expanding on the whole free will + kris' soul shenanigans thats where it may end for most people, and i think thats great, that if you arent someone in extreme brainrot about the history of gaster then... i think the game will be very enjoyable without having to think about meta elements! and of course, as good writing tends to be, hints about one "level above" are slowly dropped to those who are below, to help them understand, but you get what im saying, right? its like, big nerds get thinking about the gaster shit earlier, before the game really is gonna start probably hammering in like hey whats up with that voice at the beginning

I do question whether dess will end up being about as secret as like, jevil is, or as secret as the man behind the tree and the mystery of the eggs is. but i feel like shes also a realy good opportunity for being a mystery thats almost entirely deltarune, without needing prior-context of who a random vaguely mentioned character in ut is. still, a lot of vague info is hidden in the files, so perhaps... hmm, well, there was that one abc_123 file where toby was like "don't share stuff from the files, thanks. you cant have secrets nowadays" and then.. i feel like when he changed it to just be laughter, that was his way of saying "alright, i see the game you want to play. ill play along" and thats why... for some people, hes playing the game of hiding mysterious stuff in the code. he knows what hes doing, of course. he knows people love looking in the games code, so hes trying to make it interesting even if people do that overall though i just like how theres different levels of enjoyment of the story so far. im sure the game will end up telling everyone about dess and gaster and such, in some way, but... for most people? itll be a game about the fun gang and their friends learning to become better people, and having some fun wacky adventures on the way there! tldr toby fox does "having different layers to your story" in a fairly interesting, enjoyable way. EDIT: yeah, ill make a v2 of this post. i more specifically am amazed at how you dont NEED to know the deeper layers than you want to, and its. cool !!

[scifri666]

Why The Great Wall (2016) is great

Preamble

It might be exaggerated to say that this movie set me on the path I’m on today, but it is not entirely untrue. I first watched in the tiny cinema in the town I went to school in, when it was released. I had free admission because I wrote critiques for the local newspaper, which at that time cooperated with our school newspaper. (Between us: I wasn’t even a member of the school newspaper). I watched The Great Wall all alone in the movie theatre, and I enjoyed it a lot. I then send my critique to the newspaper and didn’t think about the movie again, until I applied to university two years later. Wanting to impress I included the critique I wrote about The Great Wall in my application, because in it I discussed the costumes and now wanted to study textile culture. My application reached the department’s film nerd, who furthermore was passionate about Asian cinema (though I won't go so far as to say that The Great Wall can be counted as Asian movie, it's a Chinese-American movie, or an American movie with chinese influence). I got accepted as a student. My critique of The Great Wall probably was only a small part of why I was accepted, but I keep rewatching it and still enjoy it almost seven years later.

The Main Part

Some of you will now ask why I keep rewatching it, because at best it’s a mediocre fantasy-history-action film and at worst it’s a prime example of a stupid plot with a cherry of white savorism on top (that topic requires a different kind of brainpower than I have available right now) . I hear you and you’re not wrong, except that there is more to the movie:

The costume design is striking. The colours, the flow of the cloaks, the animals worked into the individual units’ uniforms. Furthermore, the characters clothing is used for storytelling and consistent within the world. Matt Damon’s character William for example starts the movie in a worn down, roughly woven shawl, which General Lin Mae (played by Jing Tian) removes, revealing the soldier’s uniform underneath. In this moment Williams lie of being a lost merchant is revealed by his clothing. As for world consistent clothing, Williams wears the same undershirt for the entirety of the movie. At one point it gets washed, but it is never changed, even at the end, when he wears an archer’s armour of the Nameless Order over it. This seems like a basic thing for a million dollar production to get right, but once you start paying attention to it you realise it not.

Though not very subtly the movie makes a good point of discussing themes of greed and individualism vs. loyalty and collectivism. William’s motivation at the beginning of the movie is to get as much black powder as possible and get rich by selling it. Once he encounters it and is helplessly trapped in the explosions black powder weapons cause, he realises that black powder is powerful weapon and needs to be used only in the direst circumstances. The Nameless Order keeps the secret of black powder to protect the world from the destruction careless use of black powder would entail. The conceptualise Black Powder not as a commodity, but a necessary evil. Furthermore the members of the Nameless Order are never unnecessarily cruel or violent, not even towards their prisoners. This negotiation of necessary violence vs. violence to establish dominance (as often seen in other American Action movies) is one that I greatly enjoy.

Connected to the last point: ✨TEAM WORK✨. Everybody in the Nameless Order has an individual skill and they work together to help each other. It’s nice to see, because there isn’t one leader that always calls the shots and everybody’s expertise is respected and used. There is a whole division of female soldiers, whose smaller stature and lighter body weight, allows for them to kamikaze dive down the wall and kill Tao Tei in a truely athlectic way.

Zhang Yimou (the director) had clear vision and he executed it. Scenes mirror each other and they connect the Tao Tei story line to that of the captive westerners trying to steal black powder and escape with it. In one scene you see the tunnel the Tao Tei dug through the wall, the following scene opens with a shot of a hole in a wall where Sir Ballard stashed his stolen black powder for his escape. Again this is not necessarily subtle, but it is well made and consistent throughout the movie.

The sets are cleverly used. I’m sure the same corner staircase was used in three different scenes, but I can’t be sure, because every time the camera angle is different, so the space looks unique very time.

The score is amazing. It was composed by Ramin Djawadi, the same guy that did the sound track for Game of Thrones and Pacific Rim (that’s an amazing movie too, go watch it after you listened to the sound track of The Great Wall). There are some amazing choir sequences in the score and a lot of the melodies is played by a cello, which is a highly underrated instrument. There is also bombastic orchestra drumming and mandarin singing. I love it and it makes every grocery store trip epic.

Also there is a dude in full armour doing the dishes. Baby.

The End

[notenoughmuses]

Okay but.. modern AU headcannons.

Rhaegar: Eldest son and child. Somehow organized mess. Aesthetic is def academia aesthetic (dark+autumn+musical(

Viserys: Second to last. What some would call a rainbow baby. Is tired of being compared to the golden boy over-achiever brother that he does the opposite if he can. Aesthetic: Golden hour, medieval fantasy (he's a dragon nerd I cannon he's a medieval and fantasy nerd in modern au. He thought dragons were real until 10 years party animal/ stoner aesthetic

Dany: the sole daughter, the youngest child. More like Rhaegar, perfect but not, succeeds well in school and is the popular girl and hangs out in a mixed group of outcasts and popular kids. Suprises teachers for her "good-girl" behavior due to association with Viserys as recent student. Aesthecamp core, bohemian, cottagecore, campcore, that girl

Vacations and camping is chaotic and they didn't go camping until Rhaegar got custody of his siblings and they both enjoyed it. They all graduated school, viserys barley despite him being smart and capable enough, he started to get better grades (F-D to D-C+). Dany takes community College courses in specific courses like ancient history, POC culture/history and women's studies. Rhaegar has a BA, Major in English and Minor in music. He wrote a long essay about the fall and rise of people when dealing with prophecy, like Alexander vs Nero nad the effects on those people, history during ans after and how we should treat those cautionary tales.

Dany convinced Vis to do Van Life and go backpacking in Essos for two years. Rhaegar did not like it but Elia insisted he let his siblings go, learn, and grow outside of their home.

[monriatitans]

Ta-Da! List: Friday, June 21st

The image was made in Canva; check it out at the [referral] link here!

I share my “Ta-Da! List” every day so everyone gets a daily update and I have a reminder of what I’ve accomplished.

To learn more about “Ta-Da! Lists”, and other ADHD life hacks, check out @adhdjesse’s book Extra Focus: The Quick Start Guide to Adult ADHD.

Abbreviations

- O&T: Opinions & Truth Blog - NRL: The Neverending Reading List - WGS: The Weekend Game Show - COTMQ: Cause of the Month Quote - ASO: Artist Shout-Out - IG: Instagram - BMAC: Buy Me a Coffee - TDL: Ta-Da! List

Ta-Da! List

✧ throughout the day: - kept emails manageable - loaded the dishwasher - filled out today’s TDL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ✧ on the mobile phone: - IG/Hive: shared today’s NRL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ✧ on the bedroom setup: - Movies: watched The Nightmare Before Christmas - O&T: shared today’s TDL to the WGS Ko-fi

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ✧ on the office setup: - WGS: finished preparing drafts for July’s COTMQ posts; prepared the drafts for July’s ASO posts; prepared the ASO for tomorrow, June 22nd - O&T: shared today’s NRL, The Secret of Clouds, by Alyson Richman, on social media; added dates the NRL posts were shared to the Tumblr page and BMAC post; shared today’s TDL - Gaming: played Final Fantasy XIV - YouTube: watched and/or listened to: 1. Jim Sterling (The Jimquisition)’s videos “I’m Not Saying Emulators Are Cool, BUT…”, “Roadmap To Nowhere”, “Football Jock Games vs. Drama Nerd Games”, “Roadmap To Nowhere”, “Fear & Fury: How The Rockstar Sausage Is Made”, “Look After Your Workers Or Get Out Of Games”, “Article 13 And The ‘Meme Ban’”, “Ubisoft And The Division Of Content”, “Tellfail Games”, “The Social Shitshow Cycle”, “A Frustrated Post-Mortem Of Lawbreakers, Radical Heights, And The Culling”, “A Spicy Anthem Hot Take”, “A Video Discussing Whether Or Not Hello Games Lied About No Man’s Sky”, “YOUTUBE DEAD!? AD-FRIENDLY CENSORSHIP $$$$ IN CS:GO!”, “Content Divided: Death To Pre-Order Culture”, “Steam Refunds”, “Arkham Shite”, “The Silent Hell That Is Konami”, “A Bitter Post-Mortem Of Modern Warfare Remastercarded”, “Shenmue Is The Waterworld Of Videogames”, “Prepare For Titanfail”, “Sky Hype”, “Ten Worst Types Of DLC In History”, “Game Not Included”, “The Deadly Spiral Of Live Services”, “Yakuza’s Open World Is Biggest And Bestest”, “So Are “AAA” Loot Boxes Done?”, and “The Art Of Being Awful” 2. illymation’s video “Video games that haunted my childhood” 3. Listen2Kristen’s video “Stop mistreating women for plot: a controversial opinion (somehow) | Blood at the Root Review” 4. Upper Echelon’s video “Sweet Baby EXTORTING Black Myth Wukong? — I Dont Think So” 5. Robert Reich’s video “How Legalized Bribery Works in America I 10 Economic Myths Debunked #4” 6. Philosophy Tube’s video “Should Politicians be Honest or ‘Electable?’”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ✧ chores and miscellaneous: - Food: had coffee for breakfast; had leftover Extra Crispy Chicken Thighs with Potatoes for lunch and dinner; had hot cocoa - Chores: started, then unloaded the dishwasher; checked the mail

—

Well, these are all the updates I had for today! Thank you for reading!

May every decision you make be *in the spirit of fairness* and may the rest of your day *NOT go to $#!7*!

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[alistonjdrake]

Since you're writing a [Fantasy!]Historical project, I wanted to ask how you navigate writing fantasy!historical texts and any advice you may have for people wanting to do the same? I've seen it in books a lot and have been curious about doing it myself, but have been struggling to... make it feel like a real historical text one could find if only the world was real... if that makes sense? Please teach me your ways!

Hello anon!

I think it helps that I'm a huge nerd and I spend most of my free time reading historical nonfiction so I frame a lot of the "documents" in No Importance with that context (something that's either being used as a source for another historian or something that has been translated) and I think that has helped reframe some parts of the story as looking more "historic" since there are several voices pouring over it with you and telling you that this happened a long time ago. I also chose to be annoying and have used a varying degree of archaic words/older spellings in order to convey when something is older/from the perspective of a "historic" character vs whatever version of modern I'm working with. I guess it helps that I'm using a lot of real documents and events to help when I'm trying to figure out how the people in this world would record these events and what they would say about them. But also, of course, how they would say them. Writing a book from the viewpoint that this is already history gives me a lot of room to inherently make everything the characters say/do seem outdated, so I have the historian character point out how ideals or opinions on any given subject have since changed or for them to examine why a reaction or thought made sense at the time given the cultural context of the "period" that's being studied. There's a lot of potential creative wiggle room when writing history and historical documents because it's so easy to conveniently leave holes and contradicting perspectives.

I guess I don't know how I make it feel like a real document otherwise? I just try to think of ways that readers can get information and what people would keep that others would find. So I have some letters, a land deed, I'm writing a will, diaries, court reports, and it's been a lot of fun to find out how to frame events outside the main characters' perspectives in this way.

It's important to know when writing these documents (for me) whose side of the story I'm trying to tell, who they expect to see it (if anyone at all), and how they want themselves to look. Or what purpose this document serves/what it's being made for.

[desertg]

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