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dreamersleeps · 4 years

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Todoroki Enji and the Egyptian Sun God Ra

(Part Four: Mythological Influences in Boku no Hero Academia)

Note: ok, so I’m kinda nervous to post this. . . but here we are

So how did I get to comparing the Egyptian sun god Ra to Endeavor? To sum it up, this is the fourth post in a set of analysis and meta about mythological influences in BNHA, so a lot of this builds on top of the info and connections I’ve made previously.

There are quite a few references and influences to Greek mythology in BNHA and personally I was very intrigued with the Hawks and Icarus parallels that kept popping up. In the myth of Icarus, the sun melts the wax off of Icarus’ artificial wings which causes him to fall and drown in the ocean. I saw Endeavor as one of Hawks’ metaphorical “suns”. While I sat on that, I began looking at Tokoyami, since he has a mentor-student relationship with Hawks, and found how he has Egyptian influences in his character design which I wrote about in a post here.

I began researching and reading through ancient Egyptian myths and information. One of the figures that caught my attention was the ancient Egyptian’s most important god: Ra, the sun god. (He is the falcon headed figure depicted below.) I quickly found some similarities between Ra and Endeavor.

This image is from the expereince-ancient-egypt website.

Before I begin, I’d like to say I am very much aware that BNHA is a Japanese manga series and that the story is greatly influenced by Japanese culture and society. Unless there are very explicit examples (such as the case of Tokoyami) this post is not me saying that Horikoshi intentionally wrote certain characters and aspects inspired by Egyptian mythology. I just like like finding interesting similarities whether they were intentional or coincidental and writing about it.

That being stated, let’s begin.

Ra: The Egyptian God of the Sun

The original source of the image above is unknown.

So, who exactly is Ra?

Ra was the Ancient Egyptian sun god. The sun had a special place among the ancient Egyptians, they considered it the source of life. He was... the creator of the universe, one of the most famous deities...

Ancient Egyptians believed that Ra created himself, and his tears created humans. The setting of the sun means the beginning of the daily journey by Ra, in which he travels by his holy boat to the underworld every evening, to fight the forces of evil represented in a big snake called Apophis, and then returns to a brilliant triumph in the heights of the sky every morning on a new day. The ancient Egyptian saw this as a sign of human resurrection, and also evidence of Ra’s victory over the forces of chaos and evil (cleopatraegypttours).

Throughout all the websites I went through, Ra was very closely associated with the themes of the sun, life, the underworld, resurrection and victory over chaos and evil.

Let’s focus more on Ra’s journey through the underworld.

During his life he was required, as the incarnation and representative of the sun god, to maintain the cosmic and social order (ma’at) established by the god of creation. He had to repel the forces of chaos which constantly threatened the order of the world.

After his d/eath, the king united with the sun disk and his divine body merged with his creator. In his new role he continued to perform the task of subduing the powers of chaos. This active role of the king and sun god necessitated a detailed description of the d/amned, who represent the forces of evil.

Perhaps you may be starting to see the similarities and connections I began to form between Ra and Endeavor. If not, it’s okay. Sometimes II have to sit on a lot of the information I’m taking in before I see anything.

Endeavor’s Powers

Endeavor’s fire-based quirk is called “Hellflame.” The list of his named moves are: Flashfire Fist (Jet Burn, Hell Spider, Hell’s Curtain), Karmic Raze - Hellfire Storm, Raging Assault - Hell Minefield, Vanishing Fist, and Prominence Burn. As you can see, there’s a lot of mentions of the word: Hell.

While we can connect the “hell theme” back to Ra’s connections to the underworld, I would first like to point out what the Egyptian underworld was. We associate fire, suffering and other things with hell, however, this is a depiction that comes from the Abrahamic/Judeo-Christian religions.

The image above depicts a section of the Egyptian Book of the D/ead with Osiris on the left and the Weighting of the Heart taking place on the right.

There were many sources that described the extensive processes of the underworld and afterlife so I’m keeping it simple here. Anyways, the ancient Egyptians did not really have a concept of this sort of hell. Instead, after death, a part of the soul would travel through the underworld which was also known as Duat for judgement. They underwent a judgement process that had two parts and if they passed, they moved on to the Reed Fields which was Paradise. Those who failed simply ceased to be.

The “hell” that is probably being referred back to with Endeavor’s quirk and powers most likely was influenced with other cultures, again more specifically those with Abrahamic/Judeo-Christian religions. Despite this difference I do still think that there are other interesting similarities between Endeavor and Ra.

For example, I’ve already established in a previous post that I like to associate Endeavor to the sun. A lot of this post will rely heavily on what happened during the High End vs Endeavor fight. The move he is using above is called “Prominence Burn.” According to NASA:

a solar prominence (also known as a filament when viewed against the solar disk) is a large, bright feature extending outwards into the Sun’s hot outer atmosphere

This is the finishing move that helps Endeavor defeat the High End and this is very significant because it is the only move with a name that relates back to the sun.

In Chapter 188 during the High End fight, Endeavor is even depicted as a fiery sphere of fire and light high up in the sky, very visually similar to the sun.

If you need more evidence for sun related themes surrounding Endeavor, Ending, the criminal who kidnaps Natsuo describes him as “A fierce solar flare that shines bright.”

One of Ra’s main duties is to keep order and defeat the “forces of chaos and evil.” Endeavor and the heroes in general sort of view themselves as this force of good and see the “villains” as enemies that have to be taken care of. I don’t agree with the ideas that “all heroes are good, and all villains are bad” and that is definitely not the message that Horikoshi is trying to send. It is because that sort of belief exists that hero society is flawed. Typically, when reading through mythology or religious texts, the themes of absolute good and absolute evil are common. Those are the contexts in which gods and other figures that exist. Humans are flawed and tend to stand somewhere in the in between.

That being stated, Ra and Endeavor are similar in their ties to the sun, underworld and sense of duty that they must defeat the “forces of chaos and evil” for the sake of everyone else.

High End vs Endeavor

Endeavor greatest ambition in life was to become the number one hero. He may act like a hero in the public’s eye but he does not have a “heroic nature” or “character.” He failed and broke his own family for the sake of his ambitions, and arguably, the Todoroki family came in to existence to serve a certain purpose. If he could not become the number one, then he’d make sure that someone with his blood and name would achieve that one day. However the unexpected happened. All Might had to retire and Endeavor was given the title as number one hero. He didn’t earn it. He was given it purely because he was the number two hero.

Let’s revisit the High End fight. This conflict happens shortly after the Hero Billboard Chart event. Japan is uneasy as their symbol of peace has retired and they do not know whether they can rely on the new number one hero. His family also is conflicted with his new position and how it was given to him. Throughout the fight we take a step in to Endeavor’s thoughts and inner monologue.

The manga panel above is from Chapter 188.

The High End is incredibly powerful and even with his powerful Hellflame quirk, Endeavor is having a hard time fighting against it. One of the weaknesses with having a fire related quirk is that it overheats his body so he’s had to rely on using his flames properly and cooling down afterwards. Because of this, he thinks about his family. The family that began because of this very weakness. His memory goes back to Rei when she is young, perhaps at the beginning of their arranged marriage or shortly before. Touya, Natsuo and Fuyumi are young as well. Standing far away and unhappy, maybe even nervous. And lastly, Shouto, the child he wanted to continue his legacy in, activating both his ice and hellflame quirks. He is the only one depicted in his actual current age.

On top of the very next page we get a scene with the High End Nomu speaking as seen below.

This Nomu came to fight and defeat whoever was the strongest. Despite it’s ability to speak, it is still mindless, declaring on and on about its power and strength. It does not care about who it is fighting and the destruction that is occuring along the way. The High End has multiple quirks that were chosen specifically to make it as powerful as it could be. Perhaps it was in this moment that something clicked in Endeavor’s mind.

Soon after, the High End strikes Endeavor multiple times, with one strike later leaving him with the scar that runs down the left side of his face. He falls to the ground and in to the rubble. Chapter 188 ends on this page with the manga panel seen below and everyone is left to wonder whether Endeavor is dead or alive.

In Chapter 189 we see the effects of the void All Might left due to his retirement.

If the “villains” can’t be kept in check the public becomes chaotic with fear. A quiet night fell over Japan after All Might retired. People felt like the light was taken away. Then Endeavor gets up. With Hawks’ help he rises in to the air with wings on fire.

And in Chapter 190 he defeats the High End Nomu with Prominence Burn.

Endeavor and the Dawning Sun

There’s a lot of things going on here. Endeavor basically follows the journey Ra takes every single day to complete his duty. Similar to how Ra “dies” as he travels through the underworld, at one point we are led to believe that Endeavor has been killed by. As most of the battle took place up in the air, Endeavor physically falls when he “dies.” Leading up to the fall, he is thinking about his family and the past.

While Ra and Endeavor “resurrect” at different points in their journey, they both rise back again in order to fulfill their duty to bring back “order and balance.”

I’ve already written about the falcon/hawk headed Egyptian god Horus and Hawks, however I have yet to address the relationship between Ra and Horus. At some point, Ra was combined with Horus and became known as Ra-Horakhty which means “Ra, Horus of the Horizon.” Ra-Horakhty is most often thought of as the god of the rising sun. It is in this form that Ra rises in the sky to bring the dawn when he arises from the underworld.

The original source of this image is unknown.

There is a deity (seen above) that appears a lot throughout architecture from ancient Egypt called “Horus-Behdity” who is depicted as a winged sun disc:

The winged sun disc is highly symbolic representing the Union of Horus the falcon God, and Ra the sun god, the union of the Two-Lands of Egypt, and becomes a symbol of rebirth for the kings (British Museum).

Although it is Endeavor who ultimately defeats the High End, it is with the aid of Hawks’ quirk that he is able to land the finishing blow. He rises in to the sky like the winged sun disc: Endeavor as the sun, and Hawks as the wings. I think the depiction of Hawks with his back towards he audience and Endeavor burning them with his flames on the cover of Volume 21 says a lot of things (including the Icarus parallels!).

Taking a couple steps back, the wording on the pages where Endeavor addresses the nomu and then before uses the finishing move Prominence Burn on the High End is important.

“Modified human... Noumu! Manufactured one. . . Holder of multiple quirks. . . Obesessed with the pursuit of strength!” (Chapter 190)

“You are... Just like me! From the past, or perhaps from an alternate future. Now burn, and rest for all eternity!” (Chapter 190)

Endeavor is a controversial character that because of his past and the horrible things he did to his family. However, we can not ignore what has been written in the manga. I’m not going to argue or talk too much about my own thoughts and opinions here, but I think it is important to address what happened during this High End fight.

He identifies himself with the Nomu: the power hungry and mindless creature. It’s interesting that he uses the phrases of “manufactured” and “holder of multiple quirks,” and “pursuit of strength” which are words that are heavy with meaning to him: the arranged marriage he purchased, the children he neglected and the “perfect” child he sought after for the sake of strength.

The train of thoughts that had begun in his mind is expressed outwards. He shouts them out in to the sky. He acknowledges the past (however to what extent is debatable), and even addresses the future. I’m not sure if he’s acknowledging that he may fail to change or that he hopes that he can change what he can.

He then defeats the High End. Endeavor had been given the number on hero position but this victory is what “establishes” him with the title in the eyes of the public. With the bright light of All Might gone, the public is inspired by a new light, the sun that Endeavor represents bringing a dawn to the night. His victory pose is reminiscent of All Might’s however it is with his other arm that is in the air, he’s slumped over and his legs are barely keeping him up. The flames that usually cover his face and body are gone as well. This is the victory of Endeavor the hero but it could also be Todoroki Enji as a father making a statement.

I’m not sure if this is him symbolically k/illing the monster he was, or if this is symbolic as to where Endeavor’s journey will ultimately head towards, or if its a representation of hopes that never come true later on. I’m not trying to paint this piece from a pro-Endeavor stance or an anti-Endeavor stance but merely trying to explain how I interpreted the events of the High End fight and the thematic meanings it had as it unfolded. At the end of the day, we all have different opinions and interpretations and you have all the right to disagree with everything I’m writing in this post.

(The case with Endeavor is very complicated and I don’t want to get to deep in to it here however) We definitely should not forget what Endeavor did in the past but at the same time we should not ignore the efforts and progress he has tried to make. While we must hold people accountable for their actions, it is not wrong for someone to want to change or become better. Endeavor may “fail” or he may be able to “succeed,” whatever either entails or looks like. However even though we do get the depiction of a rising sun, you have to remember that the sun also sets.

Anyways, what has been established was that this fight is where Endeavor explicitly expressed his acknowledgement of the past (maybe not in its entirety but it is a big first step). And it is directly after this step that we take a deep dive in to what facing the past will look like for Endeavor.

#endeavor #todoroki enji #hawks #takami keigo #bnha analysis #mha analysis #mythological influences #bnha meta #mha meta #dabi #todoroki touya #todoroki family #todoroki shouto #luna writes #my post

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notfeelingthyaster · 4 years

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Imagine (inspired by the incomplete fanfic Son of Underworld) (1/5) (Son of Hades!Percy AU)

Hey! Check the masterpost after reading this - there's a whole collection after :))

TW: Racism, anxiety, social isolation

Percy is a son of Hades

His mother was charmed by both Hades and Persephone, so he has the goddess' blessing.

Percy has deep black hair, and dark skin that's darker than the night. His eyes are like looking at the abysm - even so, a hint of green appears beyond his irises, the shade of Persephone showing itself slightly.

Every year, they don't go to Montauk: They go to a subterranean little house in the middle of the woods that Percy has no clue how his mother has money to afford renting.

His mother reads him the Hobbit - its a hole in the ground, with a little round door. He is sure he is a Hobbit.

Weird things happen to Percy. His eyes go all black one day and his mom freaks out. He explodes a bus. Once, he makes a mess of the Egyptian section of the museum he is in - he has no clue how.

People don't like touching Percy. Only his mom hugs him, and sometimes, Percy feels so alone he thinks he will someday merge with the shadows around him.

His ADHD gets worse every year, but misteriously, he can read anything if it's related to history. He is the best at history and geography and math.

He does math instinctively. He know earth, he feels the dirt in his fingertips and knows, he just knows.

He feels history being whispered in his ears by people that aren't there.

Percy goes to Yancy Academy. He is not a irredeemable case. No. He gets a scholarship on math. He never got a grade bigger than a E+ in English bc of his dyslexia, and he will never get more than a C- in Science, but he is good in math.

Pre-algebra is easy, and his teacher is kind. It's the first teacher that passes her hand in his head and say "Here, honey" when he misses home.

Professor Brunner is cool, but he feels uneasy at his presence. Like the man is just waiting for Percy to do something, and it doesn't help that, weirdly, Percy is not awful at Latin.

Nancy Bobofit picks on him once. She touches his skin, but it feels like touching something dead. She never looks at him again.

Grover is a good roommate. He is a good guy, a good friend, and they spend lots of time together. He doesn't creep Grover, no. They share a love for flowers.

He doesn't touch Grover. He is afraid that if he does, he won't have a friend anymore. Percy gets used to sweaters and gloves, all blue.

Because Percy may be a child of Hades. But he loves blue and soft tones of pink. He has soft sunset fluffy sweaters and loose washed-out jeans.

Percy is twelve when a guy in his class turns out to have only one eye and a javelin. His algebra teacher saves him with a black sword.

Mrs. Dodds, or Alecto, tells him everything. Or everything she can. She tells him he is in danger. She tells him there are powerful beings in the world. She tells him he is the son of one of them, but more than that and he would be at risk.

He sits through his finals earlier at her urging. Grover does too, and Grover sticks with him.

Grover is, perhaps, his only friend, and Percy is desolated to discover that Grover wasn't really his friend - he was just a guy, a satyr, tasked to protect him. Grover insists that they are truly friends, but his fatal flaw this time is holding grudges, and it takes a part of his heart.

He doesn't turn his back to Grover though. He is bitter, and he wants to punch him. But it still is everything he has.

Apart from his Mom. So they go talk to his Mom and get his things, and she cries at his shoulder and insists on going with them until the borders.

It goes badly. Sally "dies" in a flash that looks like thunder, by the hands of a Minotaur. Grover says Hades is sending his monsters after them - But Percy knows where thunder comes from.

Percy doesn't break one of the monster's horns - he breaks both, and carries Grover through the barrier, doing his best to not touch the satyr.

Nectar tastes like his mom's blue cookies. He cries after Grover leaves the room.

Mr. Brunner is Chiron. Alecto is a Fury. The greek gods are the powerful beings she was talking about.

Mr. D looks at him once, and for a second, pity flashes in his eyes. Most people forget that before he was Dionysus, he was Zagreus.

They play in silence. Percy doesn't make difficult questions. The blonde girl looks at him once, and she opens her mouth to say something, but she just closes it with a conflicted expression.

People look at him weirdly. Some regard the horns he stuck at his belt, some look at his skin with disgust (he heard it all before, the slurs). Some regard his soft appearance, and names are thrown, Demeter and Aphrodite and Persephone and Eros, and Percy want to scream and melt into the shadows.

He has a mother. No one knows his father.

He meets Luke. Luke is everything he aims to be - he shines with warmth, like a beacon. Percy doesn't touch him. He is afraid he'll drain him empty of light.

Annabeth and he are cold towards one another - the girl doesn't like his aura, he doesn't like her snobbish behavior.

He settles at Cabin 11. He doesn't mix up with the Ares children, he steers clear of Clarisse. He spends his time studying greek, listening to whispers in his ears, and trying new things.

Percy isn't very good with a sword - not one of them is well balanced to him. He is good with daggers - but horrible at close contact because he doesn't get very physical. He is okay with a bow, but it still isn't his thing.

He tries the spear - definitely no. The javelin? No. Mace? Too close combat, not enough balance.

Turns out his weapon of choice is a giant Warhammer, and sometimes a fierce-looking ax on the other hand, and everyone starts looking at him again, questioning and questioning.

Canoeing is not for Percy. Two minutes, and he got water sick. They are in a river for gods' sake!

Pegasi hate Percy. He doesn't try again.

He likes running with the dryads, and they like him. He likes the strawberry vines, he can make them look shinier, flowers bloom, even though he can't raise vines or produce anything.

He tries to deal with metal. He is good at it. The metal feels like water under his hands: he can do anything with it. Metal, stone, gems. He ignores the shadows curling at his feet, the flecks of green in the midst of the red fire.

Hephaestus, they say. He is not muscled like some of the other Cabin 9 children, but again, he is probably a legacy of Persephone or Demeter or some minor harvest god. He looks a little like Charles - it's not only the skin.

Everyone is willfully blind. Percy Jackson must be a child of Hephaestus. He deals with metal and fire, he put Clarisse on the floor with his Warhammer last week, and the girl was impressed instead of pissed. What if he likes the shadows a little?

Charles takes him under his wing, almost part of the cabin.

Percy uses a long-sleeved orange shirt under his camp shirt, being the sun, or rain.

He doesn't touch people, and everyone is used with each other's little quirks, so no one questions him.

Some Apollo and Demeter children steer clear of him like the plague, the ones who work in the infirmary, the ones that tend to the gardens and create life.

Some Apollo and Demeter children stick to him like glue, the ones that can sing someone to madness and induce sickness, the ones that destroy and kill.

Some children in his cabin still give him glances. Alabaster, Ethan, Clovis. They feel in him what's inside of them.

Luke is glued to his side. Luke basks on the power.

He burns food. To Hermes, for letting him sleep in the corner of the floor. To Dionysus, he is doing what he can, so far away from his dominion.

He doesn't burn food to his father. He burns it to Hephaestus.

He makes a silent prayer that he won't be an unclaimed child. He wants a family, he wants someone, anyone to come and be and love him because the only family he had is gone now.

In his dreams, he sees a somber man with a crown of bones, skin just like his. He sees a dryad so beautiful, she must be a goddess, with her pale green skin and hair like a thousand vines, flowers sprouting beneath her barefoot feet.

He confides in Luke about Alecto. The boy looks ready to explode of happiness, but Percy doesn't understand.

Percy stays unclaimed a month. Then Capture the Flag happens.

It's not a hellhound - this time? It's a sea serpent. A Cerastes.

They get the flag. Percy gets a helm of darkness over his head, a dark glow around it.

Luke thinks he is the only one who saw the sweet green glow behind it, the soft smell of pomegranates. He is wrong.

'Hades,' said Chiron. 'Earthopener, The Silent One, The Rich One, Lord of the Dead. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Underworld God'

Percy does not have a family. He does not have a cabin. Percy has nothing, and he is alone.

Not much changes. People steer clear of him. The only people he talks to are Annabeth, reluctantly on his part (even though she seems equal parts resignated and scared, like it somehow affects her), Luke, Charles, Alabaster and Ethan.

Some children of Apollo, Demeter and Hermes look at him curiously. Pollux and Castor spend more time in his vicinity.

A lot of gods are connected to the Underworld one way or another. Ares can call upon skeletons. Athena can drawn upon years of forgotten history. Aphrodite has a son in the second coming of Eros, so she knows - she knows - that before he was his son, he was a son of what is under even the Underworld.

Percy is afraid. He doesn't know his powers, what can he even do? Can he make the earth tremble, can he raise the dead, can he kill people with a touch? Or does his powers relies solely in metal?

He doesn't touch anyone. Not even through gloves - he has a jacket now.

Dionysus calls to him and offer to transform him in a pomegranate tree - but his mom is somewhere, and if he is capable of raising the dead, he wants her back.

The prophecy is the same, and their journey is not that different.

He doesn't think his father stole anything. But he might - who is Percy to know? The man has never once spoke with him. He doesn't know who his father is, and no one is giving him good impressions.

Their bus is exploded by hyperboreans, who, in the end, like all creatures who have ice in their hearts, answer to Poseidon.

They kill the Medusa. Percy sends the head to Olympus. They follow a poodle, but this time, the attack of the Echidna is not in an Arch. Is in the Chalk Pyramids in Kansas, and Percy falls off a cliff only for the earth to welcome him with open arms, as he raises an army of skeletons to do his bidding.

They still meet Ares. Percy swarms the aquatic park with skeletons - and it's the first time he tries shadow travelling. It works - but they end up, all three of them, in Wyoming.

At least now they can prove Wyoming is real.

He ignores the televisions. He ignores the stories. He ignores Gabe - because if there is someone he wouldn't mind strangling with his bare hands, it's Gabe.

Ares meet them there - their ride this time is an abusive circus caravan, and Percy sleeps the whole day of the travel, he doesn't even remember Ares or the suspicious backpacks. They free the animals and flee in Las Vegas.

The Lotus Hotel is much harder to resist this time around, seeing Percy sleeps what looks like two hours but feel like two days, but someone touches Percy, he freaks out and gets the three of them out of there (without shadowtravelling this time).

They pass Procrustes. They go to D.O.A. Percy insists - he has to do this alone. It's his father, his home turf.

Grover and Annabeth became loyal friends. They won't let him go alone.

They pass Charon easily. Percy keeps producing money everywhere - and Charon folds. Cerberus wants to play, and Percy plays with him. It's just a doggy. Percy vows to come back. Annabeth doesn't cry alone.

Luke's shoes betray him. He thinks that's the last betrayal of this mission, because it hurts somewhere deep in him.

The confrontation with his father is the worst. Hades has no regard for him. Calls him a liar, a cheater. Says he shouldn't ever have claimed him. That he stole Zeus' bolt for hubris, and his Helm for vengeance.

Alecto looks at him sadly. She knows he didn't do anything.

"You know nothing about me"

Percy shadow travels away with his friends. Its easier, in the underworld.

He fights Ares in the Mojave Desert instead of the beach. The god bleeds gold, and the helm is his.

"Tell my... my father, to expect my visit"

Alecto looks apologetic. He, although, is not.

He makes a sob story for the police. Is difficult, because people look at his skin and see a delinquent. They look at his skin and sneer, but Annabeth is just tanned, and Grover is a ginger.

Percy gives back the Master Bolt. Zeus looks like he would be better as a puddle on the floor - Percy disagrees.

Poseidon looks less - less angry, less probable of smothering him on the floor. He claps a hand on his shoulder, and it sounds like an apology (or the best he is going to get).

He feels tired. He goes back to camp for the last bonfire - but he isn't sure he is coming back next summer. Some people like him - but he hated being looked at and proded. He wants to see the Underworld. He wants to find his place.

He hates the Cabin 11. It's humiliating. It's degrading. Nemesis turns the tides of wars. Hecate controls the Mist. Morpheus can drive someone crazy - they aren't gods, they are feelings, things above nature, sons and daughters of Nyx.

He feels detached. Luke asks him to a walk.

Perseus hate some of the gods. Perseus hates Zeus, who took his mother. Perseus hates his father, who called him a liar and tried to deny Percy's place. Perseus hates that they don't have more cabins. Perseus hates that they have cabins for gods who don't have children.

But Perseus loves Annabeth, and Grover, and Charles. He has dreams - dreams of Persephone that mingle with his dreams about Kronos. He wants to meet her, even if she hates him.

He doesn't go with Luke, no. But he doesn't say no. He teethers the line this time - half his friends at one side and half at the other, and he wants to scream.

Alabaster and Ethan leave, and he doesn't blame them. Luke doesn't poison him, and doesn't blame him for staying. He probably thinks Percy is going to sway Annabeth, and he can't fault him.

He leaves a golden drachma in his hand - for him to call when he makes a decision.

And Percy truly doesn't know what it will be.

Zeus gives back his mother and Gabe is now a statue at Persephone's garden - but he holds a grudge.

Perseus is only twelve, when he discovers he is Percy only to his mother, Annie, Charles, Grover and Luke. To the world, he is Perseus, the one who destroys.

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littlemisssquiggles · 5 years

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Another question that has been floating in my mind for quite some time now: what do you think is Oscar's Semblance (aside from Magic since I consider that one something different - I mean, Raven is able to wield Magic and a Semblance after all) or in which direction could it go? And another question on top of that: since Oscar's soul should be the combination of many different souls after the merge, do you think he might be able to wield multiple Semblances? ... Okay, that was long, sorry :x

Hello Mizu! Believe it or not, another FNDM fam member asked me this type ofquestion before and I created a Pinehead headcanon from it. For the sake of not repeating the same answers (since it was a long answer XD), I’m going to link you to that response post right here.

But if you’re looking for the nutshell version:

What do you think is Oscar’s semblance?

For a while, my main choice for Oscar’s semblance was Nullification—the ability to cancel out the effects of another’s semblance and/or prevent them from using their semblance for a period of time. I had based this theory on information shared about Princess Ozma from the Wizard of Oz series in ThatKaitoDan’s RWBY video essay on Oscar’s Great and Powerful Semblance. It was stated in Dan’s theory video that Princess Ozma, being a powerful magician and rightful ruler of Oz, possessed the ability to relinquish abilities from others.

Going off of that, I came up with the theory of Oscar possessing a similar type of power. The power to stop another from using their semblance for a short period of time and/or in more serious cases, even take away their ability to use their semblance permanently via doing something with their soul or something to that liking. I figured this would’ve been a cool power for Oscar to have, not to mention a very powerful one.

And as highlighted back in V6, it is possible for a semblance use to wield that kind of power. Mercury mentioned that his father was able to ‘steal’ his semblance away. If it’s possible for others to share the same type of semblance then it would be great for this to be something Oscar can do. Another reason why I think this power could work well for Oscar is because I have this theory where Oscar would be the one to restore Mercury’s semblance. And in exchange for helping him, Mercury will become an ally of Oscar’s. After all, if Oscar has the power to take away one’s semblance then surely, with practice, the reverse could be possible too. I dunno. If I had to pick an actual ‘semblance’ for Oscar, nullification is my top choice.

However, as you’re already aware of, this squiggle meister has moved away from the idea of Oscar eveb having a semblance. This ties into my answer to the next question.

Do you think Oscar might be able to wield multiple semblances since he is a combination of many different souls?

On the contrary, my answer is the opposite. I think Oscar CAN’T have a semblance BECAUSE he is a combination of multiple souls. One’s semblance is described as the projection of their aura into a more tangible form. One’s semblance is said to be unique to them since it’s a power that is a reflection of their soul. Their very being.

To me, I now think it might be impossible for someone in Oscar’s predicament to possess a semblance. Semblances are abilities born from one’s soul basically and is meant to represent who they are, so to speak (according to what Ren said back in V4).

But in Oscar’s case, how could that be probable? He’s NOT just onesoul. He’s one soul plus many more. He’s another life in a culmination of many different lives destined to serve humanity.

Ozpin himself mentioned that both his and Oscar’s souls are currently combined. So…how would Oscar be able to have his own unique power that isprojection of his very soul when he doesn’t have one soul. Not anymore.

As sad as it is to say, Oscar isn’t his own person. He’s not just one person. Not one soul.

I actually dislike the thought of Oscar wielding more than one semblance due to his many lives. As OP as that sounds, I feel like that’s a bit of cheating. Sure it’ll be a power unique to Oscar and it’ll surely make him powerful, yes. However, I find that to be boring and honestly not what I pictured for Oscar.

I mean…if the show manages to take that and run it in some kind of heavy plot-driven way where Oscar is some kind of human semblance storage device. Like he’s basically One For All from My Hero Academia. He’s able to possess and control multiple semblances.

Like if the show did it in a way where Atlas has been illegally using their auraexperiments to steal and traffic semblances—steal the powers of viable candidates to be sold to the highest bidder on the black market for those seeking high powered semblances or something like that.

And Oscar is seen like some major key to that since he can hold more than one semblance so he’s tricked and kidnapped by whoever is running this semblance-trafficking circle among Ironwood’s ranks without his knowledge to be used in continuing their operations. This actually makes me think of an old thought I once hand about RWBY making a homage to Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood by introducing a subplot where Oscar is abducted and used for his aura as the Boy with More than One Soul. So he’s basically turned into a human aura battery by some rogue Atlesian scientist to create an army of solders bent on taking over Atlas. Like the Mannequin Soldiers.

If this idea is used like that…then…okay? I guess it could be kinda cool. Still not what I want to be Oscar’s true power, though. Sorry. No.

I want something that symbolizes Oscar possessing a power that only he can wield masterfully while simultaneously being something that was shared by the other Wizards of Light to give Oscar an incentive to be more fully accepting of his role in this fight against Salem. If that makes sense. I don’t buy Oscar being completely complacent with the Merge. As a matter of fact, Oscar is behaving just as nonchalant about his true feelings as Ruby was in V5 and I honestly pray she is the one to call him out on that in a similar way he did with her.

This is why I like the idea of Oscar having no semblance at all with his true strength coming from the power he shared with his fellow wizarding brothers. This is why I really want Oscar’s power to be magic.

When you think about it, Oscar may be the one character in RWBY who I think doesn’t need to have a semblance. Someone once made a point about semblances being only a remnant of magic. They are meant to resemblemagic but never come as close to being what it truly was. The gift of the Gods.

They didn’t say it in those exact words but this is what I derived from that analogy because I agree with it. Semblances are a by-product of ModernRemnant while magic was the original— its more powerful predecessor used by the First People of Remnant during the Era of the Gods.

You can almost even say that one’s semblance may be limited by its wielder. Magic, on the other hand, is the power of the Gods. It is a power of infinitepossibilities. With magic, Oscar would be able to do more than anyone else on the team especially it he learns to master control of it.

I really think magic is going to be Oscar’s thing. It’s a power that’s his and is destined to be only his since it’s an intricate part of his legacy.

Out of the three fairy tale characters who influence Oscar’s story, two of them were powerful magic users including one who was practically the embodiment of magic in her world. From the get-go, magic has always been a power unique to Wizards since it represents their origins. Their past with First Remnant. It is what connects them to the Gods, Salem and all other magical things still retained in Remnant.

I cannot see Oscar having a more fitting power than magic.

And do you what’s also great about that? Even if Oscar has magic, he’d still be able to perform all those feats that folks were speculating to be his semblance. To the folks who believed Oscar’s power to be something to do with plants—Oscar can do that in the form of earth elemental magic. To the fans speculating that Oscar’s power would be some kind of teleportation ability, Oscar would be able to fly using magic as demonstrated by the Maidens and Salem and Ozma during the Lost Fable.

And to folks like me who thought Oscar’s semblance could be Nullification—Oscar would still be able to do that with magic. There is so much that can be done with magic. If Ozma was able to create the Maidens from magic while the King of Vale allegedly used it to create the Vaults to house the Relics while Ozpin blessed the Branwen Twins with avian shapeshifting through magic, then imagine what Oscar could do should he tap into that same power.

And if Oscar is anything like his inspirations, both in RWBY and in fairy tale, then only greatness is to be expected of this budding young farm boy. Semblance ornot, I strongly think Oscar is destined to become a great and powerful magic user. Even more powerful than Salem. That’s my theory.

With that thought in mind, it makes me consider something interesting. Here we all are thinking that Ruby Rose is going to be the saviour who finally defeats Salem when the possibility of the show making her the one destined to protect and/or fight alongside the actual ‘chosen one’ to stop Salem is also in the cards.

After all, not all protagonists in stories have to be the hero of the story or saviorof the world within the story. Nomad of Nowhere sort of did something like this in its first season where the Nomad, our main hero, is revealed to truly be the protector of our key player—the last magic user and probably the one person besides the Nomad with the power to put an end to El Rey. A little leeway to theorize about Nomad but the idea still remains.

It’d be interesting if the one or ones destined to defeat Salem as our two smaller, more honest souls— Ruby and Oscar working together to put an end to Salem’s dark reign. And they’ll succeed together, not by destroying Salem, but by cleansing her of her darkness, reverting her back to her former form before she dove into the Grimm Pools through the combined light of Ruby’s Silver Eyes and Oscar’s magic.

Salem would still be immortal. And she would still be bitter and wanting revenge against the Gods. However this time Ruby and Oscar would sever her ties to the Grimm Pools entirely by getting rid of them all, practically relinquishing the Land of Darkness. A feat once thought impossible since only the God of Light could repel his brother’s power. But Ruby and Oscar would be able to do it together since they share the God of Light’s power running through their veins.

That could be so cool if turned canon. Again, it’s just another theory in my plethora of headcanons. Buuuut…y’know it’s one I’ve come to really like in recent days. And with that, that concludes my answer.

Whelp…so much for the nutshell version XD Oh wellll….I hope these answers were satisfactory to your liking Mizu. I guess you’ll let me know.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#squiggles answers: rwby #oscar pine #ruby rose #rwby salem #rwby theories #ruby and oscar #mizuike #squiggles answers #pinehead headcanons #squiggles pinehead headcanons

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salvatoreschool · 5 years

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‘Legacies’ star Jenny Boyd opens up about landing the role of a lifetime and the unique way she connects to her character

MEAWW spoke with Jenny Boyd, one of the stars of CW’s hit series ‘Legacies’, and got the inside scoop on her love for the franchise and her special relationship with the cast.

CW’s ‘Legacies’ is a spin-off of a spin-off and its first season is already off to a flying start. ‘Legacies’ came from CW’s ‘The Originals’ which ended last year, and ‘The Originals’ was a spin-off of the beloved ‘The Vampire Diaries’. It isn’t often that there’s a “spin-off of a spin-off” but creator Julie Plec knows this world like the back of her hand and also knows what her audience wants to see.

‘Legacies’ takes us back to the town of Mystic Falls and follows the students of The Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted. MEA Worldwide (MEAWW) got the chance to speak with one of the stars of the show, Jennie Boyd, who plays the seemingly aggressive but vulnerable Lizzie Saltzman. The character of Lizzie is certainly very similar to ‘The Vampire Diaries’ fan-favorite character Caroline Forbes, played by Candice King. While King is yet to appear on the series, she is spoken of often and is the mother of both Lizzie and her twin sister Josie. Boyd spoke on the similarities between Lizzie and Caroline and how the parallels actually happened very naturally.

“It's interesting because especially early on, there were so many similarities between my character and the character of Caroline. I don’t think that was necessarily the plan to do that but it actually came really organically because the character was written in a way that was quite similar. Lizzie is very fast paced like Caroline and I also learned very early on in the development of the show that Lizzie really identifies Caroline as her one and only mom. So it makes total sense that she would then emulate her as much as possible. So in a way, I took what Candice King had done and worked off of it,” she explains.

Something that many people likely don’t know is that Boyd and King knew each other before Boyd landed the role of her daughter on the series. While there are a million acting classes in Los Angeles, it is quite the coincidence that this is how the two first met and then developed a mentor/mentee type of bond. Boyd dished on a funny story of how she was able to share the news of landing the role with King herself.

“This is a really crazy story. Candice joined the same acting class that I was in like a month before I got the role so she and I were seeing each other every week and were friendly, and then I got cast to play her daughter. Literally the next night I ambushed her in class, I basically jumped out of the bushes and was like, ‘Candice! I’m playing your daughter!’ Ever since then she has been such a great mentor, I go to her for advice, it’s just been really wonderful having her as a contact and as a friend.”

While the character of Lizzie is beloved by many, she is also a work in progress, to say the least. These students all do have supernatural abilities, but most of them are still kids dealing with issues way beyond what most teenagers will ever have to deal with. That said, at the end of the day, Lizzie is still a kid trying to find herself in this crazy world but is also dealing with issues beyond her control. Boyd expanded on this and spoke on the ways she is really able to relate and connect with her character as well as the parts that are a bit more challenging for her.

“The thing about Lizzie that I connect with the most is her vulnerability, I really understand that. I think I went through a lot of similar feelings when I was Lizzie’s age. That feeling of uncertainty self-consciousness, trying to compensate for being young and lost and not really knowing who you are. But the fact that they say Lizzie is bi-polar on the show, I really needed to make sure to get that right because that isn’t something I can necessarily personally connect to but I feel a big responsibility to get that aspect of her character right. I mostly relied on the writing of the character to try and portray that but that was definitely the element of her character that I felt pressure to get right,” Boyd reveals.

The writers threw fans a curveball when in the second to last episode of the season Lizzie’s twin sister Josie proved to possibly be the stronger of the two, which could result in her killing her own sister during the ever impending “merge”. Boyd herself was surprised by the twist but was also excited for what that would bring to the story.

“Josie coming out as possibly the stronger of the twins was definitely a really cool and interesting twist. I really enjoyed that because she obviously allowed Lizzie to be in that power position and kind of walk all over her, but it’s so much more interesting that Josie is just as powerful if not more powerful than Lizzie.”

The second season of ‘Legacies’ currently doesn’t have a release date, but the actors will be getting back to work sooner rather than later. While the actors don’t know much about what to expect from the next season, Boyd told us that the writers are already looking for input from the actors.

“I hardly have any insight for the second season but the writers have been really great because they asked us to pitch any ideas or thoughts for where they want our characters to go. There were talks of maybe a romance for Lizzie next season, but I really don’t know much about anything.”

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celestialallstars · 5 years

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Episode #1: “This cast, fuck me, fuck them.” - Rhys

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Ok so my pregame thoughts. It seems like there are a lot of contenders that were threats in their original seasons just based off of placements. I’m really gonna try to use this to my advantage because in my season, I don’t think I was very threatening. Unfortunately I’ll miss the cast reveal, but I’m hoping that doesn’t put me in a bad spot. This game is gonna be tough, but I know I can do it. At least make merge. You need small goals in order to achieve bigger ones. Cast assessment coming up next :)

Y'all I am ANXIOUS! I've had a bad run recently and for the most part I never really care that much. But if I flop on this season I'll die of sadness. Okay but for real, I want to do well this season and idk what kind of people I'm going to be up against, and I couldn't even get my intro to send like i'm such a joke. Ugh y'all how can I be this stressed already.

Just roughly 2 hours before we're gonna really dive into the thick of things. There are so many things I wanna say and so many things I'm just beyond excited about. I really think this is gonna be a Top Tier Season.

I'm vowing to make the most of my stay no matter how long or short. I'm gonna try to drive the pessimist in my mind away and do my best to avoid being that early boot just because I'm a previous winner. Y'all better watch out!

This is gonna be FuCkInG LiT!!!

Getting ready for this season, I'm honored tbh. I feel like it's my first fully-legit-no-strings-attached All-Stars appearance. I was on EMBB All-Stars, but only because I was an alternate for Jake and he decided to be a host instead. Being invited back on my merits exclusively feels amazing, I just hope I can live up to my own expectations in this game and take home the win.

Hi I’m super excited to be brought back to play this game. I’m gonna play maybe a little harder but I’m hoping to keep my gameplay very similar to last season cause it did me well I just need to not freak out. I’m really looking forward to seeing who I’m playing with and I know this season will be fun.

So. This cast, fuck me, fuck them. Like they all seem so much more capable than me. Like bitch bye.

My tribe honestly idk yet. They seem cool, haven’t talked to most of them yet. So I’ll get back on that.

The only person I’m not happy is cast is Michael. Bitch hated me for no reason last season. So bitch best watch his back cause I’m bringing this hatred back this season.

Also one world can fuck off

So I am meeting everyone and honestly so far this is a nice group. A mixture of old faces like Zach and Loris and new ones like everyone else! Everybody is radical, but I am gonna try and give it a short moment before giving an assessment. Having that said, im gonna get dragged and murdered by this cast....call the police.

Hi so the game has just started and I feel like already so much has happened it has been intense. This cast? stacked. One world? intense. Me? crying.

This entire cast is so iconic and so loved I honestly don't know how to feel rn I am scared as all hell but I'm ready to fight for my fucking life. I'm also quite glad for the one world because I love the idea of being able to socialise with EVERYONE since that's such a strong point of my game for me considering I'm horrific in challenges. I just really hope I can pull things off this season and actually have someone like me and prove that I am in fact worthy of an all star title.

Being on call with people from the one world chat is honestly so fun and I can tell this is going to be a great season and we're literally only like 2.5 hours in. I really wanna make it to the end so I can experience it in it's fully glory.

amazingly, i don't think me being an admin is going to be to a problem??? i wanna thank you three beauts for giving me a wonderful tribe. i love matt, bodhi's hilarious, alyssa intimidates me but she's cute and i love allying strong women, tobi forced me to keysmash, and mo and karthik are kind of blase but its ONLY NIGHT ONE. all in all, think i can survive on this tribe. just get me to merge baby i cannot go premerge in this org if annas not gonna play then I CANT LET US DOWN

So we've officially landed in this ORG, and immediately smacked in the face with a flaccid twist that is One World. So instead of trying to balance 6 relationships I have to balance 20. I'm of course already a mess trying to keep track of it all.

Bodhi and I already have an instant F2, we'll see how that works out given we aren't even on the same tribes. Meanwhile I'm already in love with Bryce as a person and trying to possible Corral all the winners together. Obviously we need to make sure the Winners make it to merge.

I think on my tribe specifically I'm probably getting along best with Mitch, I think Rhys has a similar sense of humor as me but he went to bed too early for me to figure out more. There's a ton more sweet people on the other tribes too I just don't have time to delve into all of them, nor do I have enough substance to any of them to develop opinions anyway.

I have an idea as far as connections go for this tribe but I'm not sure yet if it is strong. Loris is sleeping though I did talk with everyone else. I have a feeling Chloe/Zach would be safest but also that Chloe/Michael might be together. Regardless I think I'll be sticking with Zach if I can help that. Drew seems nice too and Sharky seems it too. Not sure how things will go but I do have to be smart since I would be the easy choice as winner if we lose. I'm gonna be optimistic about it all though :) as for the people on other tribes I'll get to them later. This is going to be fun!

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Now that I can see the actual twist (am dummy) I have to try and make some alliances between and in the tribes. I mean making one with the winners shouldn't be too hard but I am gonna want something with a few member here and there from each. I think things are about to get much difficult because I can tell lot of these people are more familiar with each other with their histories and I am just like "hi..." so I def need to wedge myself on in there some way..I've got my work cut out for me

HI ASDDASJKLASDLJK I was so nervous but like.. I feel my victory coming.. I'm pulling my weight in the challenge I think and our tribe's pretty cool!! It's all stars.. so like.. it's no surprise that I like everyone. Sharky seems to be busy so like.. if we lose that could be a good scapegoat.. ALSO?? i was on the blog and i was like wow jones' fairy drawing is so pretty.. so i hovered over it and accidentally clicked it.. and.. i found my legacy advantage again ADSALKDKLJASKLD. and anna said to make sure you search the blog to learn about people and i didnt even see that......... im so lucky :)

So this is so exciting. I’m trying to get to know everyone. Theres one person i was effy about on my tribe and that was Jared. But he’s been talking to me and been nice. But i still have my eyes 👀 on him. Its been nice catching up with Bryce. And been talking to Mitch Rhys and Kori. I hope i can get myself in a good social position where even if im not in their alliance, that im not someone they want to take out. But this time im gunna use my bonds to my advance and hopefully it gets me to the end.

Hi i don't really know what to say right now I just know I wanted to put down some thoughts. So far I'm so fucking in love with this entire cast I'm pretty sure I've spoken to every single person in one way or another which is great, I love to see people fully invested into a season they're playing. I also really love this first challenge, although scavenger hunts stress me the fuck out because i find so many items are so hard to find, I'm just hoping my tribe can pull out a win for us and I'm sure they will cause they're all so iconic and I love them all with my whole heart already.

So I've spoken more to people thusfar and like currently I'm speaking more to people I've spoken to before which like isn't great, because i hate relying on past relations. Like i am speaking to others who are new, its just a bit awkward. So lets push by that and hopefully they aint boring af.

Well so far I've gotten a few items on my list done. Progress is slow but steady. I'm a bit worried about this tribe given it seems like all of us being on at the same time might be unlikely. (That and we're halfway through and only 2 of us have added items to our list.)

I might just be too uptight though, we'll probably be fine. I haven't gotten to talk with people today as much as I wanted as a result of balancing the other ORG and this one as well as apartment hunting and scavenging. I'm beginning to think I planned poorly and have too much on my plate at the moment...

BUT I WILL PERSEVERE! YES SIR'RE I WILL!

CAST ASSESSMENT TIMEEEE Let me start with Orfero Chris- So chris is someone who I think can either go really far as an UTR threat like he did his first season, or be an early boot. I think him and I have a similar playstyle, but he is much more poetic and structured. I am really looking forward to play with him again! We dominated in afvv and im glad he won, but I won't let that happen again. He's too good. ioris- Honestly I see ioris as more of a goat. Maybe that's false perception, but I could easily see him latching onto someone for the long haul and not being respected later on. As of now, I don't think I would work with ioris, but if the situation arises, I wont hesitate. Drew H- OK I LOVE DREW FIRST OF ALL. I am actually SUPER excited that we are finally playing a game together. I really want to work with him, but unfortunately I think he is too threatening to the point where he wont make it far. Michael- Ok so this was definitely a wildcard. I think Michael is someone to watch out for. I don't know how he'll fair in this game, knowing that people recognize his gameplay. He could either go mid merge or permerge, but I dont think he has a shot at winning. Sharky- Sharky is someone I'm unfamilar with, and for that reason alone, I am guessing he makes it deep by flying UTR while winning challenges. Zach- Zach is another sneaky player. I really would love to work with him after our relationship in emvv4 where I voted him out at f10. He is definitely not someone to brush under the rug though, because he is also very threating. I predict a mid merge boot for Zach. Clohie- I personally don't see Clohie as much of a threat, but I hope she proves me wrong. We have had limited discussion, but I can tell she is here to play. I predict she will make FTC this time, but only time will tell

Alignments: For Orfero, I can see Chris ioris and Zach on one side, Michael Drew H and Sharky on the other with Clohie in the middle

Tuatha Kori- I've been itching to play an org with kori too and im glad we are on the same tribe because i know how well he can perform in challenges. He is probably my closest ally right now, so I really hope he gets far. My prediction is early merge for him. Rhys- Rhys seems so sweet. We havent had much conversation due to timezone issues, but I'd love to work with Rhys. He is super charming and I think he can go far! My prediction for rise is late merge. Maynor- Maynor is probably the person most difficult to talk to. I have discussed with Kori and he says that his weakest relationships are with Maynor and Jared, so i think its telling that maynor might be an early boot. Jared- I think jared is super cool and he's been a player I have to watch VERY carefully. I do see myself working with him because our convos have been good so far, but I feel like he can be a good talker. We'll see how it turns out but i predict Jared being a premerge boot. He claimed to be a crackhead in confessionals though so we'll see :). Stephen Z- Man i really wish I had better conversations with him!! I think he is super cool, but he does not seem to remember who I am. If our convos improve like I hope they will, I could see Stephen going early merge. Bryce- I really like bryce too but he is soooo unpredictable and sketchy. I think his cast reveal intro shed bad light on him to other players too, but I know from experience. I see bryce being a premerge boot, but I hope he proves me wrong. I just dont feel like I can fully trust him.

Alignments: For Tuatha, I see myself aligning closely with Kori and Jared. I dont know what the dynamics would be, but I feel like Maynor is already on the outs.

Cyrena Mo- I LOVE MO SO MUCH. What a gem. I met him in TS Montenegro and he considered me one of his closest allies and saved me from elimination at f9 only for me to vote him out at f8. I still feel bad but im hoping we can mend our relationship and go far together. I actually do think he could make a deep run and definitely get to finale by laying low. Tobi- Tobi and I in games USUALLY don't end up on the same sides. That being said, I'd love to work with Tobi and I hope he makes merge unlike in emvvas. Matt- Matt is another mystery for me. On one hand, I know he is not only a host favorite but a fan favorite as well, but on the other I dont really know what he brings to the table. Another wildcard for me that I see going early merge. Jack- Jack and I have a history for sure LOL. It feels like we play every game together. I think Jack is a super nice person, and I'd love to work with him again. We dont really mesh on a personal level which makes it difficult, but I learned my lesson of trying to avoid Jack in emvvas (he got me out) Bodhi- I've seen bodhi around a bit, and can be the hero or the villain. He is quirky in a good way. I see bodhi as being the comical relief that goes mid merge for being too likeable. Alyssa- honestly alyssa seems kind of annoying. I dont want to speak too soon but i dont get good vibes from her. I think she might be an early boot on her tribe. but i truly hope im wrong about her. Karthik- I know karthik from em and i really think he could make a loyal ally. His win was well deserved but i dont necessarily think he is a threat. My predicition for him is still prejury because of his timezone. It's unpredictable when he has power and when he doesnt.

Alignments: For Cyrena, I see Mo Alyssa Tobi in one alliance and Matt Jack and Bodhi in another with Karthik out of the loop.

I'm excited to see how accurate my predicition are! I didnt bother including a winner because i still think its too early to tell. Game ON!

Wow a discord call this early in the game!! Strategy? Nope! It's... Alyssa explaining tarot cards to me. Gotta do what you can for social game ig (its ok now we're talking about romcoms)

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iz me beech

what a gift, hi im mo. a dumb bottom who treats himself like shit so no one else does.

IM AN ALL STAR ISNT THAT INSANE. I cannot express how excited I am to be playing this game, plus I fucking love this cast. Like my tribe? Fantastic.

Alyssa - The sister I always wanted. I love her she’s so great.

Matt - New good friend and probably who I’m closest to at the moment I get happy when he gets online cus he gets me and my shit.

Jack - He can rap and he’s nice, what an icon.

Rhys - SUCH A SWEETHEART, I’m so excited to play with him again.

Karthik - Also super sweet, he seems like a genuine guy and I’m looking forward to playing with him.

Tobi - I love that I get to play with him again we haven’t talked all too much but we’ve talked a bit. (I definitely have my guard up around him just cus of something he did in Muxloe)

Bodhi - Kinda inactive unfortunately but he seems nice.

Mo - Dumb bitch.

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sits. hi. so like. just like elara im gonna do a countdown to when i can play my legacy because yall CRAZY if you think im willing it to someone else... uh...WAIT.. I JUST REALISED... I THINK I COULD'VE SAVED BIG Z WITH MY LEGACY?? if only i knew he was going... sorry big z... you wont read this.. anyways. ok so. it is final 21. so. 15 (or 8 i guess...) people need to be voted out before i can play it.. i can DO IT. and this time i am not telling a SOUL about it. like. NO ONE.. and the beauty of the legacy is that people shouldn't really even suspect it exists.. heehee!

ANYWAYS! let's talk about the game. so. my tribe is a mess. i love zach and chloe... chris is a king.. i played elara with drew h and he's a babe so there's that. michael king. and sharky hasnt been on much because he's busy which is like awful timing n i feel bad especially if we lose because i think he might go? :-(

as for the other tribes.. bryce asked to be allies i said shure. i love rhys.. thats all bye

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UPDATE!! i love BODHI!!!!!!!!!!!! like..... wow. hes such a king. no words at all.

Our tribe has lots of stuff done on our sheet. I hope we are able to get it done. I hope we can win immunity, first tribal will suck.

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Omg. 3 minutes until sheets are locked. Im kind of nervous. I really want us to be immune.

My tribe mates- Rhys: he is amazing and i feel like we get along pretty well. We have been talking. Mitch: also very nice. Was the first person to message me and i really like him. Kori: we talked a bit. Is someone i need to talk to more. Bryce: my marmoreal f3. ❤️ Jared: amazing guy and really like talking to him. Would work with him. Stephen: the person i least have talked to but i need to talk to more.

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I’m am extemely excited that we won immunity. It gives me more time to talk and bond with these people. Im really liking my tribe. I hope we can keep winning immunity. (Knocks on wood)

We won! Yas! It's unfortunate that we couldn't snatch the reward, but we came close and I think that counts for something.

Chloe and Drew definitely carried the Orfeo tribe to their reward, meanwhile Karth practically killed Cyrena himself. I'm pretty happy being that perfectly middle score on my tribe. High enough to be a contributor, low enough to like not be a threat for try-harding or something.

I'm gonna hopefully take this time to get to bond with people more. Chloe and I are getting married apparently which is cute. She's honestly pretty sweet so I'm already a hardcore stan.

Gonna enjoy the time off, and see what this idol system is about. Maybe I'll get lucky this season.

i am OVERWHELMED like ok so most the cast i feel like doesnt like me. my tribe has ppl who arent super active (this is literally marmoreal flash backs) kori is so.. much idk JKFADSHFKJ like he just is rly.. there! jared is my new fave i love that man so much we are going so far KNOW that. rhys.. an angel i LOVE him i just get him and he gets me. maynor? doesnt reply idk its off. stephen.. not here. mitch? ignores me for long time. so ya that sucks but wooh jared and rhys! also LOVE chloe, loris, zach, maybe tobi!!!

YAAAAAAAAS safety is so important right nowwwww, having safety is crucial bc I wanna keep my friends in this game and keep building bridges. I also have a little advantage to help me search for the idol and nobody needs to know about it except me so hopefully soon I’ll have an idol in my back pocket!

The first few days of this game have been fun. I always enjoy getting to know a new tribe of people. Still, all of these people are essentially new to me. I've been in VL's with Kori and Mitch, and I helped host Jared in Wakea, but playing with people is a totally different ballgame. Still these 3 are probably the relationships I'm most interested in investing time in right now.

As for people off of my tribe, I feel pretty good about my old Komnata castmates. Alyssa, Zach and Karth all worked well with me in the pre-merge and I can definitely see myself working with them here as well. Chris is also my BFF I would literally die for him. Jack is also someone I know well and I know he's a good ally, but we're also playing another ORG together at this very moment (SBBB7) and I just made a move there knowing he wouldn't approve of it, so that's something I have to keep in mind as well. I think as long as I can set myself up well on this current tribe, I could be in it for the long hall!

Looking at the challenge results, it looks really bad for my bro Karth. It's gonna suck if he goes first because we instantly connected back in Komnata, but hey, I don't think I have the clout to save him here. It's the first tribal council and there's no basement to hide in this time.

Today is gonna be a big day though. Before Cyrena goes to Tribal Council, I'm planning to reach out to Mitch and Kori about formally becoming allies. Just like my first season, I'll use the idol search as my opening statement!

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SO lots to discuss. First off, we got fucking demolished in immunity. Fucking embarassing. Matt Alyssa and I showed tf up with 100+, and Mo and Bodhi weren't far behind. Tobi did not have a good showing but FUCKING. KARTHIK. TWO POINTS? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? That's disgraceful this is god damn all stars you're a WINNER and you give 2 god damn 1 point submissions. Get the fuck out of my tribe. He should be the easiest first boot in history but of course everyone wants to pussyfoot around for the first 12-18 hours of tribal and not throw out a name. But there's no avoiding this. He's inactive, he has a bad timezone comparatively, and he did diddly poo in the challenge. He's. Gone.

Luckily I find myself with 2 quick alliances right out the shoot, a trio with Alyssa and Matt and a duo with Bodhi. I found myself gravitating to these 4 a lot the first couple days, Mo and Tobi are a bit quieter so I like these 3 allies for me moving forward. Sidenote, BoJack has got to be the greatest alliance name in Celestial history. I'd go back and look to compare but I'm lazy.

One World is still kicking my ass, a lot of people want to talk to me and I don't have the energy for it but damn it I guess I have no other choice, I can't just not respond to them.

Ok so fucking karthik made an alliance with Me, Mo, Matt. And spilled his heart out to us. But we left him on read and now he’s super lonely. Hopefully he doesn’t have an idol or whatever.

Also this game started!! I’m very busy with school but I have things to say. I’m close with some people from before, I really like Loris and Tobi and Alyssa. I’m feeling pretty good about my position right now.

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Fuck yeah, not first boot!!! Although I would’ve loved to win as were so close, but can blame that on my tribe mates cause me and Bryce pulled through.

So right now, my closest ally I feel like would be Bryce. Primarily cause were on the same tribe and then I speak to him most on our tribe, and most of the other cast. Then would be jarred, so I want to make hopefully an alliance between them, maybe another, just to confirm my spot in the tribe.

Feel like my main goal is to make connection, as it seems like everyone else has some with other people. So like if it comes to me someone they don’t know, against someone they've player with before just looks bad for me. So I’m trying to make up with Michael, just so that’s one less target in my back.

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Also I talk to Zach a lot. But don’t trust him at all. We have been “dating” since the cast reveal. But he asked Mo to be in a showmance too?! Plus Bryce said he talks to zach the most but Bryce wasn’t in who Zach talks to the most.

This sounds like Tween drama but it’s so much more.

Am I being flirted with?????????

https://youtu.be/GBCr-tAsKTc

My slow self. In regards to the other castmates- I didnt realize how much I talked to the members of Tuatha. Bryce, Rhys, Kori all are red but I've probably done most of my talking with Jared and Stephen who I really wanna get together with at some point. I've reached out to other people like Jack and Alyssa and Mo. I may be forgetting some people but I'm just gonna keep talking up a storm with everybody! If I had to pick my closest people so far, it definitely would be Jared, Stephen, Zach, and Michael.. stay tuned!

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I FLOPPED at this challenge hard. Drew and Sharky I am sorry for sharing you peeps on the low for being MIA when I was here and performed worse! I am happy we won though because I like my entire tribe and honestly I see a lot of good from them! And so the game begins!

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I am just putting gears in motion! I've made it clear with Stephen, Kori, and Jared I want to work with them. I want to get a cross tribe alliance going and it seems Tuatha is my in though I have to see about other people. As for Orfeo...I talked with Zach on starting a majority alliance with Chloe and Loris, we'll see how it goes and if it is legitimate but I definitely hope I can trust Michael enough to keep him. I still am gonna not get comfortable because I can see myself being targeted but yeah

https://youtu.be/ia3DTwLWMi8

So we’re going to tribal... and honestly I’m terrified bc I was one of the poorer performers in the challenge but the thing is that Karthik got a whole ass 2 in the challenge... a challenge where you get 8/9 points for drinking water... so I would think he’d be the easy vote but everyone was SUPER quiet yesterday and no one wanted to give names but today is looking a bit better but I swear if I go home over karthik.... I. will. call. out. all. of. them. Not only was his score tragic but I don’t think he’s been social at all... people from other tribes think that karthik is definitely going so maybe I’m just crazy paranoid for no reason but idk I’ll have to talk wayyyy more to everyone just to be sure

well here is my first real confessional of the game! Sorry its late been busy.

So firstly my tribe is like super cute. I'm glad i don't know everyone cause then i would be worried, plus i do genuinely like getting to know new people so that is definitely a yay moment. I am also really liking this cast, though more wahmen would be nice but this is all stars, we r not casting wahmen for the sake of it. - anna jane 2k19.

The first challenge? selfie scavenger. a classic if i have seen one. a surprisingly difficult one at that but im glad how well i performed. top scorer on my tribe so i'm really glad about that and how I will be perceived as an asset for a while at least (we will see how that pans out longer down the line). but yay go me! Unforunately, we lost though so like UGH.

During immunity i approached alyssa and jack about a trio, who could control the tribe as i knew we would be high scorers and i genuinely like the two of them. also made sense becuase i sense we are the 3 most active. Karthik, who scored only 2 in the challenge, is probs the target due to inactivity LOL. tobi and mo i also like, but bodhi remains a mystery to me. might be a timezone thing idk but still. a tad worrying that i dont know him as well as i would like.

One World does my head in but im trying to talk to everyone. i've learnt though i need to make connections on my tribe first and foremost as they r the ones who vote, not people on other tribes. god i do hate one world tho. i want to be napping, not messaging people

think im gonna be in an alliance?? on day 3? is this a joke? literally winning................... wow....

I usually make videos but today I am lazy so hello. So One World is ass because I don't want to talk to everyone but these people are crackheads so like I guess. Uhhhhh I'm in an alliance with Jack and Matt because I adore them both greatly. Mo is on my tribe which is so nice because we have played together before and he has such fun energy and is just a ray of sunshine so I'm very happy (although he makes me nervous cuz the last game we played together I killed him for no reason basically.... But I don't think he's the vengeful type). Tobi makes me nervous because I think he is a social king and I mean like... Idk I guess there are a lot of very social players which makes me nervous that I would be pushed out for maybe not being as social? Idk if that makes sense.

But anyway Karthik is also on my tribe and I was like OF COURSE. Because this is the man from my season who I cursed out via DR video for flipping on me LOL He is a sweetie though. I recently looked and saw he was rooting for me a lil in a game I was in which is really nice of him, especially seeing as I didn't vote him to win our season. I think he's going to be first boot. He was on vacation this weekend somewhere where there's no wifi (that's what he told me) and only sent in two things for the scavenger hunt, dooming us to a first tribal. I feel somewhat bad but have told people on my tribe that if not for Komnata's twist of the season he would've been out pre-merge easily because his overarching challenge performance is not great. So basically just reiterating to people that I'm not so sure that this was a fluke and overall I think it's probably just best for us to cut him.

Yeah that's it. I have so much crackhead energy from the games I've been playing as of late I feel like I majorly need to chill the fuck out. Here's to praying.

so everyone’s kinda agreed on voting out karthik due to him only scoring two points so I’m like ok cool i’m down but then karthik made an alliance chat with bodhi, matt and myself asking to be saved and

https://i.imgur.com/AxCzqxd.gif?noredirect

Sooo im making this last minute confessional to tell ya that I THINK im in a good spot. Im sharing my idol guesses with Stephen Z and Jared which is helping me build trust with them. I also have mutual trust with Kori. Maynor and Rhys are kind of boring tbh so hopefully they go soon. Bryce and I never seem to have good conversations so idk where his head is at. IM JUST HAPPY THAT MY CURSE OF ALWAYS GOING TO THE FIRST TRIBAL IS FINALLY LIFTED. I WONT BE FIRST BOOT YAHOO

Short and sweet, glad to be back, beast moded another selfie scavenger hunt. Got a good tribe, I think, couple of good friends, couple new people, at least one I think obvious boot should it come to that, but here's hoping it won't. Not a lot of players from my season so hopefully there won't be too much bad blood coming into this. Shoutout to Chloe Bryce and Tobi who are apparently contractually obligated to be in every fucking game I play on Facebook and associated communities for the rest of my life. 21 people is a lot to get through so I'm just hoping for merge, then we can go from there.

Well let's give confessing on my phone a try.

So far I feel like I've been making decent strides conversing with everybody. It's kinda weird how much I like everyone on this season. Its gonna make being a snake harder but I cant afford to blind myself I'll have to do whatever I'll have to do to hopefully win again.

I've made a sort of trio deal with Bryce and Chris as we're all former winners. I'd have included Kavish but we're all predicting he's more than likely the first boot alarm Tina. I'm growing closer to Zach and Clohie on the outer tribes. Also obviously still have my Bodhi connection. I'm talking with just about everyone a bit. Though I cant shake the feeling there is someone I've missed.

I am concerned not being in any sort of majority alliance on my tribe, so if we do lose that's worrisome but still not being the first boot is a huge relief for me, and hopefully there is only good for me going forward. (I say as 4 people probably plot my demise.)

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Karthik is voted out 5-1-1.

#episode #shinebright

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trulycertain · 7 years

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All right, so I’m reading Iron Man: Legacy, after having three separate people rec it to me ("It’s got him trying to build his way out of depression after his parents died! It’s got that panel with the winged horse! It’s got the roller skates!”), and I’m currently on Issue 7. I’m enjoying it immensely, and still sad it got cancelled before its time. However, it’s also making me a bit worried for the upcoming run on IIM.

...I should probably explain that, huh?

I'm still hopelessly endeared by Tyree helping Tony solve a problem with the solar cells on a new prototype, and "The way Tony describes tech, he makes it easy - like it was already inside your own head the whole time." And that's because Tony knows it was. It's a much smaller thing with the MCU version, but 616's Stark... his faith in people and his refusal to patronise anyone is a defining character trait. It's one of my favourite things about him. He absolutely has his moments and he does tend to take his wealth and power for granted, but in general, he's never intentionally patronising or trying to hurt unless someone has really, really pissed him off and done something awful. You see it most often with supervillains, or with interfering government execs, or when he’s using it as a persona thing to cut down rival companies. It’s not his default mode.

And connecting to that, I love how this issue contextualises the class thing. He runs off with a hundred from Tamara’s hidden stash, saying that "as soon as my company’s re-capitalized, I’ll pay you back at a thousand percent interest!” Tony's not trying to hurt anyone, but he doesn't get what it's like to panic at someone getting your rainy-day fund when it may be the second-to-last money you've got. But at the same time...he then goes and gives them a controlling interest in his company, because they’ve helped him out and he wouldn’t be able to get it back without them. Because when he says a thousand per cent interest, he means it. That's just who he is. It's not pity, it's not charity, it's just "you did me a favour within your bounds, I'm repaying it within mine.” He does it again and again through his character arcs. He doesn’t see the point of hoarding money to show off rather than to do something useful with it - with some exceptions. OK, a lot of exceptions. But he tends to lavish it on other people instead of himself, rather a lot.

In 616, if he is being an eejit, it's often because his brain is working a million miles a minute and someone else hasn't quite got used to the careening-car way of thinking he has.

There was a shift with Civil War, and partly because Millar has a certain, uh, style of writing characters, but during his own solo storylines, and the issue where he’s in the hands of Bendis... well, that quiet compassion and trying not get in anyone’s way while they’re doing their jobs is still there. When he’s in public, he shows off and grandstands and plays the playboy. When he’s in private and being himself, he’s quieter and more considerate. Both of those come from a place of truth. Heck, this arc I’m reading now is from 2010, explicitly refers to Iron Man 2 coming out, and has kept that.

And that’s my point, I think. I’m reading this and thinking it exemplifies everything I love about 616 Tony and gets him right, in a very real way.

And then I wander back to Chrome and get to an interview with Slott about the next run on IIM, where he’s taking over.

They asked, “What would your take be on Iron Man?” I was like, “Cutting edge technology, Robert Downey Jr. in the armor. Except we’re telling stories out of Black Mirror.”

OK, so that on its own is probably a cool idea. But in the context of 616... It’s not really a 616 idea. There’s also a line about making Tony “cool again” rather than “pained and sad”... Yeah, that’s. Hmm. Again, interesting, but not very 616. Heck, I’d argue MCU is still pained and sad, he’s just a little better at hiding it than 616. And kind of hilarious about it, often.

Many of the newer writers have been importing dialogue wholesale from the MCU without thinking about it or seeing the intent behind it. But while that allows for some cool one-liners, and comics are inherently adaptable in the way all longform stories with so many different tellers are, this just... hasn’t worked, and still doesn’t.

The MCU writers kept a lot of 616 Tony’s traits, they just contextualised them differently and put a whole other slant on it. It's also worth noting that MCU and 616 had rather different childhoods and kinds of abuse to deal with, too, and MCU has had far fewer on-screen struggles with addiction. He also got kicked out of his own arrogance (and OK, we can talk about whether or not that’s a fair descriptor of pre-Afghanistan Tony in either ‘verse and how differently he’s been characterised from writer to writer, yes, but run with me for this sentence?) at a far later age than 616, who has been a superhero trying to help people and putting his life on the line since he was 21.

I mean, I love the movie canon. It's what got me into the character. But 616 and MCU Tonys are different Tonys and I love them both equally. It's like picking a favourite child. Trying to merge them... it doesn’t always work. Much like 616 Tony is different again from Ults Tony, though there are a lot of similarities (and yes, in a lot of ways, MCU is a combination of them both).

616 is an alcoholic, and that fundamentally changes his worldview. MCU may drink a little much and resort to it in times of pain, but it’s never been confirmed he has a drinking problem, and it doesn’t seem to be a fundamental trait in the same way. (It’s just kind of... wrong to see 616 with a cocktail, and yet that’s happened in several issues. And no, those weren’t mocktails. *sigh*) 616 plays the playboy, but is actually pretty monogamous and a bit of a romantic; it’s MCU that does the whole “playboy with a different babe on his arm every night” thing. 616 is very quippy and snarky (he used to be less, but he was always one for a bit of jive talk, and I think this is partly due to styles of writing changing through the eras), but is drier about it and sometimes less obvious than MCU, and his sense of humour, when it isn’t nerdy as all hell, runs towards the darker and sadder more often. 616 cares about his business and actually kind of loves the day-to-day responsibility even when he hates all the paperwork; MCU falls asleep in meetings on paperwork (but still probably takes care of things when he’s not handing them over to Obadiah and then to Pepper, he’s just less obvious and would much rather be the one-man R&D department).

A lot of writers seem to be taking a really superficial “arrogant manchild” read of MCU, which is a misread of him too, and then trying to apply this to 616. It’s like all of the superficial cool with none of the conscience. I mean, the most obvious instance of this is Superior Iron Man, who was meant to be “pre-Afghanistan Tony,” and I just... uh. No.

In general, I’m not one for “the canon writers are doing it wrong!” But this is fifty years of canon, it’s really hard to catch up on and make into something consistent and yeah, and sometimes I see writers who don’t seem to have read the source material before they’ve started writing for it. I don’t mean the whole thing, just... not even the fundamental arcs. Sometimes that can lead to new and refreshing takes, and sometimes that can just lead to confusion and flanderisation.

I’m trying to keep an open mind, but... I’m worried. And I keep thinking I’m really missing the kind of Tony we saw in Legacy and bits of Michilinie and Bendis’ runs.

...Anyhow. Open mind, Tru. Open mind. And if things don’t work out, just wander off and find some more back issues to read for a while. Right.

(I just want to mention: Legacy also gives me Tony getting shoved into a shopping trolley and being carried back in that, chestplate silliness, and Tony in a kind of hideous canary yellow football shirt. Thank you, Legacy. I love you, Legacy.)

#this blog isn't usually very #marvel critical #616 tony stark #invincible iron man #iron man legacy #tony stark #marvel #just... i swear this isn't ranting #take it as mild worry that comes from love?#because that's usually what i do on this blog #go on about the bits i love #which include this guy #who is one of my favourite characters in pretty much anything #anyhow #meta #ie me rambling #616 #tru reads comics #sad beardy dudes full of tech

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survivemiddleearth · 6 years

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Rites of Passage

Crow- Bruh. I thought we were going to be friends/allies in this game but then I hear you were telling the entire tribe how I was not to be trusted and as much as you mock me for my lack of a social game, it sure saved me there! But still love ya and hope things have gotten better, and hey, maybe you were smart for targeting me from the start :P

Dennis- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmc21V-zBq0

Roxy- runaway with me noww oh its come away with me fuck

Dylan- king of first boot

Well mine was short lol. but I think Crow has played an amazing game and def deserves this dub :)

Crow- Although I personally trusted you, you were just unfortunately the outsider from the start and with having proof of Drew/Zach sparing me, I didn't want to risk reaching my neck out for you and getting labeled as trying to play both sides. You were robbed though, it was just because our tribe was so garbage at comps...

Dennis- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2WWrupMBAE

Roxy- We didn’t meet in this game

Dylan- king of second boot

Crow- Legendary flop! You were hilarious and completely messy and if there's any way to bond with me, it's that. Unfortunately flops are always targeted for some reason pre-merge (maybe cuz they wreck their tribe average??? no shade, but) but I would have KILLED for your commentary from post-merge onwards cuz I felt completely alone being the only one constantly hogging the spotlight :/

Dennis- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfHHv7yOYX0

Roxy- skinny legend

Dylan- you would have killed the lip syncing comp but these losers flipped the vote

Aah, what a fun time I had during this game (from the little I remember). I still would like to say it was a wonderful tribal, 8-0? wow so great. COuldn’t do it without people hating me <3 jkjk. Anyways! It was fun while it lasted and hopefully was fun for everyone that was in it too.

Crow- Okay, truth be told, I really thought you were like the social queen of your tribe but when tribal came around and people said your name, I felt powerless, as the only person from Pikachu, to try and sway it, and especially when you seemed okay with it. Thank you for having a graceful exit, not many people can do that nowadays....

Dennis- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CID-sYQNCew

Roxy- http://sketchtoy.com/68755176

Dylan- queen of having crazy fast internet. accepted her defeat which was iconic

This game seemed very fun and I loved the opportunity to play, I wish I didn’t get so busy so I could’ve backstabbed Roxy like I planned. Ah well. Congrats on getting so far I hope the game was fun for you all!

Crow- I know I'm a big reason why you were cut just shy of merge but it was more of a move to solidify Sammy/Johnny (and supposed to be Eric...) and break apart the potential trio I saw in you, Roxy, and Dennis (I mean, now I'm sitting next to both of them in f4 so can't say I regret it :P ) You were a very intelligent, brash guy and I hope you know that your placement was not indicative of your game. Hope the novel turns out well!

Dennis- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1tAYmMjLdY

Roxy- MY AUSSIE BUDDY UGH/ I wonder how this game wouldve gone with you here. You were fun to talk to and play with and i loved chatting about the shows we both loved together/

Dylan- king of being blindsided. second season where I watched you get blindsided from a different tribe.

Crow- Thank god you didn't try in this game. I didn't even want to get into the ring with you again and go for Round 3. Thanks for making this one easy :P

Dennis- You freaking stole my tom bombadil to just be inactive -.-

Roxy- L

Dylan- making it to merge without doing anything ? queen

That damn bitch Beyoncé got me again huh. I swore I wouldn't let her after last time but she always has to have the last word. Thank god she's been outed as a satanic black witch!!! Thank you to the brave former drummer for walking in the light and exposing her depravity. I will expect my reparations settlement money in the mail.

Crow- Okay I literally feel so bad like comforting you in that round but know that I was completely blindsided by it myself so I really hope that wasn't misunderstood as me trying to make sure you were blindsided asghsgsho but thanks for taking the bullet then! Love a good shiel- bodyguard.

Dennis- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdCslA8xs98

Roxy- nnnn I remember when I saw you in merge I was hyper excited to play with you. I never really allied with you or met you in games so finally getting to play with you finally a familiar face from your tribe was refereshing and welcoming. I told you to f2 me or im quitting lmfao. That lasted long ... rdfc Your vote off was a mess of flipping multiple names thrown and idols. I feel like we drifted during the day or 2 leading up to the tribal and we didn't really talk game that round which was sad. I really wanted to have you as a clsoe allly that game but it ended up the way it did since I saw jg as a closer ally.

Dylan- literally actually the most robbed person in this entire game. you were missed

This game was pretty fun. All of the people I was close to voting me out and losing on a twist was pretty shitty. I’d just never do these challenges ever again. :P

Crow- You're honestly just a mess. P.S. My beard is now gone because of you.

Dennis- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRh_vgS2dFE

Roxy- hahah hi hi johnny. “Daddy”. You are always a great blast to play with even though we have yet to truly get somewhere together. ALthough in hos we were close it was just a diverging of end game interests that tore us apart. I remember the jokes we made about applying for this org. I had no idea when I was applying that I would make it this far and when I applied for you as a joke haha. My biggest regret is not telling you about the vote and what was going down. Our relationship this game was sort of foggy but it was great while it lsted.

Dylan- voted for me but you’re so lovable

Crow- We were never on a pre-merge tribe together, then you made the big-ass move to blindside Drew at the first vote (without telling me, which no hard feelings) so when it came down to our mini-tribe's tribal, I felt like it was too little too late for both of us to try and make something happen together? I'd say we just fell on opposite sides rather than being enemies. But I hope you've been watching because I know you're an analytical guy who's obsessed with Survivor so I would love to hear your input as a juror.

Dennis- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YShWLjj1TO0

Roxy- UGH SO ROBBED!!! We had so much potential to play a fun game together but the unmerge robbed us of that T_T im glad we got to play together for one round at least

Dylan- you and I have a lot in common, we both put our trust in the wrong person.

Hey y’all! This was game was fun and fresh and I did better than last time so I definitely achieved my goal! There really wasn’t anything shady going on until the night I left and I’m sure that was aired out so I have nothing to spill. Tbh I was just bored and wanted to be messy and have fun. It was a fun last night! I had a great time playing with everyone and good luck to the final 4!

Crow- Truth be told, I really didn't see myself voting you out so soon. I thought we were working together, sorta, but it always felt like you had better allies? Which I don't fault you for, I know I was not the most critical ally, for like, anyone in this game, but that's purely the reason I decided to vote you out over Eric. I might regret it though since Eric pretty much shunned me from there on out and I know you would've really appreciated me saving you.....but it is what it is. (also you didn't swipe on my tinder so im kinda insulted but dats fine!)

Dennis- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWlot6h_JM

Roxy- Hey zach!! You seem like a really sweet person. We didn’t really hit if off and we never clicked together. WE had different allies and diff groups so us allyining was never really an option. I recon its just how the game unfolded and you were loyal to your allies while i was to mine and i respect you for that despite the mess of how you left.

Dylan- why didn’t you give me the legacy idol. I’m kidding I would’ve misused it

I really didn’t know what I was getting into here, and I REALLY liked it!! Who knew performing arbitrary semi-public tasks with complete strangers could be so much fun? I wish each of you the best, in the game and out of it. May Manwë smile upon those who walk the world; may Mandos rule with steady hand those who rest in his hall.

Crow- Literally, you were the only one I was just like, hey, he's probably not going to lie to me. And so it's ironic that we also never talked game other than the casual vote here and then....you were a very interesting person though so I wish I hadn't got caught up in the game as much and really tried to connect with you as a person, and for that, I take the blame.

Dennis- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE-1RPDqJAY

Roxy- Ford!! When I first saw you in the scvanger hunt I asked "are you single ?" nnn you seem like a cool dude and you were fun to play with despite the fact we never really talkde game and we werent really aligned this game/ I still promised you to be honest to you and I think i pulled through on that. It was amazing fun to play with you and i hope you luck in yoru studies.

Dylan- you were amazing sweetie as a newbie you made it so far omg

Hey guys! Like I said before I quit, I have no regrets about the game and how I played it. If I stuck around the community I would have loved to be friends with all of you! Best of luck to you all and may the best player win!

Crow- Hope everything is okay in your real life and I hope you were never offended by anything I did or said. I completely understand your game decisions and you don't ever need to apologize for them. You were a chaotic mess, but genuine and real, so you have my respect. You also proved what I've always thought you were (even back in Great Lakes) as a really go-getter type of player.

Dennis- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrcMMyNeJJs

Roxy- rip gl with life

Dylan- I loved how we found middle ground during the F7.

hiii yes i don’t have much to say. i had a blast and made some amazing friends and just goofed off a lot. No hard feelings, you are all icons...I’m rooting for one of you but i wish you all good luck!

Crow- Okay I love you as a person, but like, you also betrayed me for no reason so I'm a little confused as to why or how we stand now, but just know that whatever your reasons for doing so, it doesn't change how I see you as a person. And even through my bitterness in the betrayal, I will admit, you didn't deserve to go out like that.

Dennis- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSvFpBOe8eY

Roxy- Sammy!! Weve had a very varied ride in our org careers and this game was no exception/ I feel like timezones really got to us this time round and early on our games diverged when I tried to save stephen and you tried to save Eric. During merge and then unmerge i think you bonded more with jay and that tribe so we never really played as allies. Howveer i think the way you left did not give you justice. Jay letting you get idoled out after you were one of the few who stuck with her and then her quitting just because people were voting her out. You did NOT deserve that. And I was honestly mad at jay for doing you dirty.

Dylan- cirie who ? Jay shoulda used that idol on you you were the second most robbed queen

Crow- Well, I had your back. I knew of multiple of your misdeeds in previous rounds and I think you knew that? But game-wise we were very compatible in playing styles (not similar, but definitely compatible - you were the strategic one, I was the......other...one) so although your exit was less than glorious for me, I do hope you find comfort in your gameplay and know that you were really impactful on the game, for better or worse.

Dennis- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXzDu071RdQ

Roxy- nnnnnn she snapt

Dylan- there’s not enough space to describe anything but the takeaway is that I hope you know that like I actually genuinely care about your well being

We just want to say a sincere thank you to everyone who came to have fun and played to their fullest extent. Jo and I have worked on this game for months and like we’ve said all along: the goal for this was for everyone to have fun in the chaos and the world of LOTR and Survivor combined. There’s a lot of drama and toxicity in the org community and in the world right now and if this game provided you with any sort of reprieve from either that’s all we could ever hope for. We hope you had a great time, we know we did, and we want to reiterate again: thank you all for bringing this game to life and for participating. Good luck to our final 4!

Love,

Olivia and Joanna <3

#outwitoutplayoutrunthewitchking

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survivormontenegro · 5 years

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Episode 4: "My meat shield cannot go to the butchers shop just yet." - Tom

Okay HI I’m home from Georgia and I thought oh maybe I can relax SIKE. Now I have to meet 4 NEW PEOPLE. Ugh. I really hope we got whoever voted in the minority over on the other tribe, that sure would make it easier. I’m happy I’m here with Jules and JJ, they are 2 of my closest allies. I trust tom as well, he just doesn’t talk very much. This sounds bad but I really hope Alex gets taken out, he’s SUCH a good player. Anyways Johnny is playing champions and I hope you guys have a great night!

UM HELLO.

Okay so first: I felt so bad voting out willow she was such a sweetheart. I even asked her if there was anything she wanted to do last minute but she didn't have a plan so we really had to let her go. I wanted to be her ally but all in all the connections I made outside of her paid off in a much more tangible way.

SECOND: THE SWAP. I aint about it. I think the newbies are gonna be fine or whatever.... but I was in SUCH a good spot in my tribe. Like lowkey I had an alliance (that lets be real was probably doomed to fail anyways lmao but thats fine) and then also I won that individual immunity. I think people really wanted to work with me no matter who they were!!! AND I WAS GONNA MILK THAT. But nowwww I have to make new relationships and win people over. PLUS the tribemates I am still with I didn't talk strategy with as much like Mo and Jones. They like me sure sure but we never talked about who was voting who, even though Alex and I helped each other.

Lastly: I don't have strong impressions of the newbies. Mitch was the first to say hi so thats sweet of him. Benj hasn't said too much to me. Noah seems fun (?) but also god knows he doesn't seem all that loyal oof

Well, the Willow vote went according to plan. I knew she was voting me, she's such a sweet girl but everything was impossible to plan for when she wasn't around to talk about the comps. She kinda got defaulted into everything she did for the competitions. So, she had to go.

As far as the tribe swap goes, I'm really mad that I have to start all over on the new tribe with the idol search, so it kinda spooks me that I'm in a brand new tribe, with new idol information, and I probably don't have much of a chance.

Ali is someone that I was excited to be with, his meet the cast video was super endearingly messy and I just think he's so cute and wholesome. I love it. I've talked to him the most so far, and out of everyone from OG Budva, I think he's my guy. I enjoy him the most. Julie seems cool, I haven't talked to her much with the exception of calling her fucking GORGEOUS. (Sidenote, literally why am I so fucking shallow that the pretty people get the best edits in my confessionals?!?) Anyways, Julie seems super fun, she gave Jules a Tarot reading on call that was super cute. Jason & Ian haven't talked much, but they seem cool as well. Ian is into gaming, and it sounds like we play similar games, so I think we can bond based off of that really well.

Tom scares me, he's really cute and really fun to talk to, and I know he's with me 100%, but he doesn't want to work with people from our tribe. I might be forced to do things to appease him, or kick him out earlier than I'd like to. I remember us briefly talking about my plan I "jokingly" suggested throwing the comps if OG Durmitor was in the majority, and he was saying he didn't want to because he'd be stupid to work with OG Durmitor in the long run. So I think I need to start building game relationships with OG Budva fast so it gives me options on what I'd like to do.

I spoke briefly with Julia (Wow I got her name wrong every fucking time during my last confessional I'm so sorry sweets.), when I asked her about who she thinks the other person who voted for Mitch might be, she mentioned Ali's name. Who is somebody I'd really like to work with anyways, and I find him really cute. I'm going to have a call with Jules, and see where her head is at, and spill some of this tea as Brigade members. Let's see how things go.

Okay SO much has happened and I'm writing this on my phone, on the bus so get ready for messy grammar eek!

My game got a real ego check last round. Like I really thought I was doing #that and had a chance of winning immunity, when I really was out second. Like... idk what good game I thought I was playing but it was defo non-existent. Jared went home which was ugly but necessary and I swapped away from Michael/Mitch/Noah which I wanted since they were the bottom 3 of my list HSJDKDK. I feel bad for Benj tho, stuck with them eek! I really hope me and him reunite ahh!

Okay so my tribe. I have so many thoughts, like so many. I'll break it down person by person.

Ian: I like 100% dont trust him. I've been confessing for ages about how much I think he is the biggest threat and the immunity challenge totally confirmed that. He has not gotten as far in games as he has for no reason, I've been onto his game for a while and I'm totally over his shenanigans.

Jason: this ties into julia and ian too, but I'm sure the three of them were and are in an alliance. Like 100% sure. Which is worrying for this swap tribe because i think I could easily be the most expendable for the Budva people so yikes. I am scared of him too, like him and Ian are so scary it's really worrying

Julia: I dont know what to think of her. Like I really trust her and really wanna work with her, but I feel she has allies (i.e. Ian and Jason that she values much higher than me). I really want to work with her, like so bad. I want Ian and Jason out so I can make that happen. I LOVE her tho.

okay now we come onto the dormitor (spelling?) people where I think I have real, real options.

Jules: A LEGEND ON EARTH. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH AND AM SO HAPPY WE ARE TOGETHER. I AM SO EXCITED TO WORK WITH JULES. I think between me and jules we could get a really cute cross tribe thing going, the future is BRIGHT.

Evan: he seems SO sweet, like I've probs spoken to him the least, but he seems SO nice and wholesome. Jules holds a super high opinion of him and what jules says, goes.

Thomas: I was SO worried about swapping with him... but I think it could work? Like I really really want him to vote me out and get revenge for legacy, like that would be SO karmic and good. But he seems to want to work with me and I'm down! He is a king so I'd love to stick with him

JJ: he is... wild. He was super nice to me so I dont wanna be that guy that is negative, but he is a LOT hsjssksk. He reminds me a lot of Jared, like a lot of crackhead energy and I could easily see him try and play everyone. It sounds like from Jules he could be the one that dormitor would vote out so that's a good sign.

Anyway my plan? to vote off Ian and then JJ. like if I had to rank the tribe, I'd say:

Jules > Julia > Thomas > Evan > Jason > Ian > JJ

like I actually get a much better vibe from most of the dormitor people, and like... I think I'm down the flip, since I dont trust Ian at ALL. there are two ways I could see it working, either I convince Jules/Evan/Thomas to flip on JJ if we lose sending him out, and then work with them to vote Ian the following round. Or... and this plan is cracked. I think Ian and Jason could be willing to sacrifice me tbh (and Julia too unfortunately), so... I could get Jules to get them all to vote me too, so its 7-1 and then I idol out either JJ or Ian, probs Ian so that I could hopefully get the rest to flip on JJ the following round? idk yet shsjdk

but in general? Last round and the swap gave my game the kick it needed. I was playing really passively and had let myself be an outsider who delusionally thought they were central to the game. I have a fire now. I dont trust anyone from OG Budva really except for Julia and Benj, and it's time for me to put in work and gain control of the game.

The dream is a cross tribe alliance of me, jules, thomas, julia and evan but idk how feasible that is tbh. I just dont ever want to feel as passive and not in control as I did last round. That's never, ever happening again.

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*SWAP STRATEGY*

- Can I just say I don't get a good vibe from ANYONE that swapped to Budva from Dirtmitor (I know I'm spelling it wrong) - There's no way we're winning this challenge since we don't even have a song yet and our editor... doesn't know how to edit - SO, my plan is to have one of two things happen: 1. Convince someone on Dirtmitor to flip so the vote's 5-3 2. Create paranoia about an idol and convince Dirtmitor to split the vote so it's 4-2-2 - If can can get either of those things to happen, we throw every single challenge and wipe out the remaining Dirt people and head into a 12 person merge with an 8-4 advantage - Also... this stops any Budva at the Dirt tribe from trying any funny business (flipping)

I'm still desperate for an idol btw. For some reason I think Jared had it and now it's rehidden back at the end of the bridge.

I need to start picking my game up. Up until this point it's been solely about maintaining the relationships I've had from day one. This swap worked out kind of perfectly for me in terms of who I swapped with. All 3 of the Golden Girls stuck together and Ali and I have been fostering a good relationship game-wise that I want to keep going. I can see myself being a target for the Dirt people but I don't see any of the OG Budva flipping yet, let alone on me. So now I feel like I need to focus more on setting up my game for the merge and ideally? I go in with as many near-guaranteed numbers as possible. And the best way to set up for that is taking out numbers I know I don't have now.

okay JJ is annoying me now. he is like... threatening me? he is telling me someone is saying stuff that makes me look super shady, but not knowing details. he is telling me it could get gross for me but he is looking out for me.

like... i'm not gonna be super negative, because like... maybe its true and someone is spreading dirt about me. but alternatively, this is.... a really blunt and see through attempt to cause divisions and i'm not gonna tolerate it. like i'll reserve judgement till i hear him out, but like...

i said this in my host chat, but like I really really do not appreciate someone threatening me and lauding the power they have over me the way he is, like he thinks he is being super super subtle, but this is just a blatant attempt to cause distrust and a mess.

i'm in my feelings and i don't know what to do. I don't trust JJ or Ian, and wanna reclaim power by sending them both out of here.

(This is about to be like 4 confessionals in a row, just separating them into paragraphs)

Okay so first off wtf is with that challenge results we just posted. Like okay sure i kinda knew i was near the bottom of the tribe but definitely not fucking second last.... anyways i also have no clue how fucking caeleb like caeleb really?! he came second?! and EVAN WON.....like evan is kinda pissing me off on how good of a social game he is playing because of his "I'm only 15, im cute innocent and i want to be your little brother" like bitch no you can step back for a second if you are going to play it like that. I wont be letting him slip through my fingers that easy!

Anyways now onto the tribe swap im kinda happy with the people i ended up with i feel like if i ended up with alex, mo, caeleb i would've most likely cried. Anyways i am really glad im on a tribe with ali right now because we have played pretty much a full season together before and we worked very well until he got sneaky sneaky and voted me out to win the game but thats okay ill keep a close eye on him. Jules and Evan arent people that im too excited to be on a tribe with however this could be my time to take evan out now whilst i have the chance.....

Okay so like JJ is being a fucking idiot right now, like please put some tape on your mouth, shove a goana in your mouth i dont care. This man thinks he is fucking houdini or something, please sit back down and stop trying to manipulate Ali and Julia to flip on Jason and Ian..... like sure we can try to subtly make them flip but this man says he has a whole shit tonne of tea that he is going to manipulate and "put an ice inbetween that 4" like girl no you wont you will just make yourself threat number 1. My meat shield cannot go to the butchers shop just get, i would like to be the butcher to cut him further into the game.

Also like honestly Jules, JJ and Evan are ridiculously stupid if they think I, ME, TOM, THOMAS ALBERTS is going to rocks for ANYONE in this game. I am happy go lucky about this original durmitor chat but i will not be risking my game for any of them....

Ok so Jared went home 7-2 which is kinda sad because I do think he trusted me and all but he really dug himself a grave that i couldn’t help him get out.

Things that were interesting for that tribal. Mitch thinks me, him and Noah are on the bottom because I acted that I only heard Noah was the vote. Second there was another vote for Mitch and I thought it was Noah, and when I talked to him, he assumed I was the other vote and he switched his vote the last minute. I didn’t have time to tell him that I voted Jared too because we fuxking swapped.

I AM LAUGHING AT THIS SWAP. Who do I got remaining on the new Budva tribe? Jason? Julia? Ali? UGH FAVES!! I am close with Ali and I’m aligned with Julia and Jason. Jason worked hard on Ali to flip on the Jared vote and Ali like shares me info that I already know ahsjdjd so I’m just going to continue playing dumb and sidekick because literally it’s what got me far in this game. BUT OF COURSE I AM CHANGIING THINGS UP BECAUSE LIKE I’VE LOST 2 TIMES WITH THAT STRATEGY SO SOME CHANGES ARE NEEDED.

Anywho we get newcomers JJ, Jules, Evan and Tom. We all went on call as a new tribe except Evan because he sleepin and discussed sun signs and astrology.

Jules - barely talked too but she seems sweet?? Evan - umm he’s kinda weird asking about facts about myself lol JJ - he seems funny to talk to ON CALL. Through messaging, idk he seems shady? Tom - I’ve just started talking to him but I am a slave to Aussie accents so hopefully I can get in with him.

Right now I’m feeling there’s a huge chance we will lose immunity because hello Alex on the other tribe and Jules, who is the only one who have at least a background on editing is unable to do it atm. So yeah, my plan rn is try and become close with Tom because he and I on roughly the same timezone. Worst case scenario is we do go to tribal and we end up 4-4 and boom rocks. Not very ideal rn.

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Ok I’m a bit pissed that they did not stick with Fergie songs?? I was ready to bust out a suit for the glamorous.

I won’t be shocked if we end up loosing this challenge because umm hello Alex is in the other tribe. We’re just gonna be unique with our presentation and hopefully Tom and Julia can make it pretty enough to win.

Honestly this new tribe is SO deadzzz. These new people are probably weary of us 4 og budva or they’re just so quiet?? Julia has JJ telling her he doesn’t want it to be Budva vs Durmitor but idk y’all being so deadzzz that it may go that way.

Jason wants to like throw the upcoming challenges if we survive this deadlock and like I’m not all for it. It’s risky but the merit is it weakens og Durmitor but there’s still the risk of an idol. I mean I can’t say that idea never occurred to me but these new people (mainly JJ and Evan) are just a bit difficult to talk to lol

I have not even have a long convo with Jules so I can’t say much about her.

I have become a bit close with Tom. And I wanna work with him, but I checked that list challenge and judging that it looks like he is close with JJ? And like I might wanna target jj because he really shady with Julia. I just wanna say to Tom I wanna work with you but like ugh it’s quite difficult really. I JUST WANT AN AUSSIE ALLY OKAY.

I feel like we lost immunity so rn og budva baes needs to come up with a plan to get one of these Durmitor out. Preferably Evan hehehe

Apparently JJ likes Julia for them to go on call and tell stuff to one another. Right now, JJ says there was this big majority alliance on og Budva that had me and Jason as the head of it. Wow I can’t believe I’m in an alliance that I had no idea about. Well I am aligned with Jason but literally there was no big ass allianceon og budva, it was just mob rule or whatever. Apparently Evan told JJ about this info so like where the fuck did Evan get that crackpot idea lol

I came up with an elaborate plan in which Julia goes along with this majority alliance on og budva that supposedly had me, mitch, Jason, Michael, benj and Ali. However, Ali was not really into the alliance at all so Julia and Ali act all wish washy and willing to flip to get Durmitor to split there votes because Julia told jj that the budva idol was already found.

So rn I’m acting all shady towards Tom telling him I’m all alone, with the hopes of him already knowing about this supposed big alliance on og budva for him to think I’m shady as fuck. Jason is also acting shady as fuck to JJ so they think one of us do in fact have the idol and they do split their votes. In doing so, we budva baes collectively vote either Jules or Evan out.

That’s assuming the plot fucking works. I literally don’t know if it works, or we fucking tie or go to rocks or someone on my team fucking flips. I don’t know what’s gonna happen and honestly I’m just waiting for this round to be over. If Durmitor calls our bluff and ties our 4 votes then may the odds be ever in Budva’s favor. If they actually split the votes woot woot and if someone flips on og budva then big fuck you.

Okay so like how did i get onto a tribe with an astrology freak in jules, and an actual crazy person in JJ... like idk what i did in my past tumblr survivor life to deserve this. Julia has put a hex on me in this game to be trapped with them...

Ok so I just got off call with Evan ahsjdiff

Like first off I fucking messed up with lying lol Evan asks me who do I think was the other vote for Mitch. I told him it was me and he said he thought it was Ali. LOL MESSED UP. So I immediately backtracked and said I misheard him and tell him it was Ali. Lol idk if it was believable but whew I’m a flop.

Here’s the hot tea tho. Evan tells me that he wants me, tom and Jason to come together because he thinks jj, jules, Julia and Ali are forming a foursome. He tells me that Julia told JJ that the Budva idol has been found which I knew. And that JJ is targeting myself and Jason.

Right now, the picture the Budva Baes is trying to paint is working?? Durmitor thinks Julia and Ali are on the outs of what was a majority alliance on Budva. Now here’s the bit tricky part, Evan wants us four to vote for either Julia or Ali because that supposed foursome is splitting the vote on me and Jason That’s a red flag because it would be losing a Budva Bae. Now Evan also added if Julia and Ali are just bulshitting JJ then JJ would be voted out.

I don’t know what to make of this convo. This could be Evan luring me into a trap or what but right now this is interesting.

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(again with 7 confessionals in a row and Tom not condensing his thoughts....)

Okay so this music video challenge is generally really exciting however my tribe chose TIK TOK?! has the song, like okay thats just fucking stupid y'all really want a chance to win this damn challenge or not....YOU CANT DANCE TO THIS SONG IDIOTS. This is going to be filled with seizure dancing and sober dancing in a club aka awkward

This is honestly such an effort, i hate being a marathon running player like why cant this be 3.9 days worth of survivor and i can sprint my way to the winners club....jokes im already in there

Okay so I just called JJ because like whatever i need a social game and he is a mess so he will be my meat shield but like his mum starts coming on call and interrupting saying like how she loves my accent, how she wants to hug a koala and like talking about australian slang like please woman step aside! I am talking to your lunatic son i cant deal with two of you. THEN HIS BROTHER OR DAD IDK WHICH ONE DECIDES TO COME ON CALL AND TALK ABOUT DORITOS LIKE PLEASE STOP. It was a 58 minute torture call So Ian just sent in his music video clip and i... just cant... poor ian like he looks like his hands were having a seizure through the whole video and a broom up his ass because he was so stiff please stop.....but i guess good on him for giving it his best shot.

Ugh this is honestly just depressing what are these music videos, not even if we had alex on this tribe we would fucking win...I told them that it wasnt a good song to pick, so far we've seen Ian and now we see Ali who is fliming a music called Tik Tok featuring Ali's Giraffe Neck.... sweetie we dont want to see your fucking roof, youre supposed to be dancing!

I surely cannot be a straight male on this tribe and be the most extra person for this music video challenge

Ian is so controversial he told me we have a straight person connection and straights are a hate crime in this community. love him but OOOOOOOOOF

So im on a new tribe, its kinda a disaster idk what I said here last time but to recap

Ali found the idol, which is cool I trust him the most so I hope its like sharing I wont tell a soul but still a lil bummed since I got sooo many more steps than him haha. being swapped away from him is terrible :((( miss him and I hope hes doing well over there... king

For the last vote it was so awk cuz we didn't want jared to expose our alliance so we had one of us vote mitch (me) thinking noah would also vote him, and then it was 7-2 lmao and I come out of an exam on a new tribe so cant ask ali what happened, I have no clue if mitch knows it was me im just acting clueless. and I feel terrible cuz hes one of my og favs from that tribe

so im swapped with the person I voted, the person we were gonna pin that vote on noah LMAO, and Michael who I barely talk to wish I got ali and ian kings ughh I feel so lonely lol

and on top of that the only person I knew prior to the game willow got out, im devastated ugh we never have gotten to play together properly before so that sucks

BUT.... I have one saving grace.... guacamole jones. I had a small connection w her cuz I hosted her on a fb org but she was the 1st boot lmao so we barely got to talk and im so happy shes on this tribe I love her omg. I also really like caeleb and alex both are cool so far

so honestly? I kinda wanna work w the other tribe more than my original ones LOL. none of them even talk game w me until 1 hour before deadline so ya ill flip idc. but idek if that's possible cuz I think jones and mitch are friends from kochang, and she hosted noah in Algonquin, so maybe that just leaves Michael? I also needa talk to mo more cuz ik they were friends in celestial. yes ive done my stalking of the cast LMAO or atleast tried.

SO YA. Im just gonna approach jones and say I wanna work w her and.. hope it works cuz probably the other old budvas will vote me or smth

Okay so for this vote its pretty 4-4 honestly like old Durmitor vs Budva, and JJ thinks this game is easy enough that he is going to split budva against each other and pit ali/julia vs jason/ian.... saying how he has this master plan and i literally responded with such a sarcastic comment that he took seriously "Why r u so smart".

He proceeds to tell me his whole history online, "I've been doing this for 8 years, 2 years on ROBLOX (FUCKING ROBLOX), 6 years on TENGAGED (FUCKING TENGAGED) and first year as an orger.

WELL SWEETIE YOU HAVE A LOT TO LEARN QUICLKY IF YOU THINK ROBLOX AND TENGAGED ARE GONNA HELP YOU IN THIS HARD ASS GAME PLATFORM

Someone please tell him that, roblox is like preschool, tengaged is like year 3 and tumblr survivor is UNIVERSITY....

So I'm sitting here, Ke$ha's face on my titties. Doing this music video challenge, a bitch like me really worked up a sweat. And I only sweat, on one side of my head.

As far as the game is going, this twist is really activating my inner demon, and I'm causing so much buffoonery. Everyone is talking about rocks, so I'm trying my best to make sure that doesn't happen. I know for a fact that I'm outplaying everyone this round. First, I prevented a gross game of telephone from occurring between Ali & Julia, Julia claimed that Ali might have voted for Mitch, but she very obviously didn't care whether he did or not. I felt like that could have easily been twisted by a diff OG Budva, or a OG Durmitor, into something where Ali would go after Julia, so preventing that has built a semi stable gaming relationship with the two of them. The goal here is to flip them over to our side. Julia has also told me that the Budva idol had already been claimed when she reached the end of the bridge. While Ali spilled to me that there's a large Budva alliance that he wasn't invited into. Using this as leverage, I'm going to attempt to have my old tribe, plus Julia and Ali split our votes 3-3 on Jason and Ian. Jason has also hmu, talking about the vote. We came to the conclusion together that the vote would come down to rocks, in which case. We'd like to be safe, so we agreed to tell our alliances to vote for each other, OG Budva votes JJ, OG Durmitor votes Jason. Which becomes a test, because if Jason tells Ali or Julia to vote for me, I would hope they'd come talk to me about it, if they don't? 4 votes go on Jason. If both of them tell me about it, we proceed with the 3-3-2 split idea, if only one tells me about it, we vote 5-3 on IAN so Jason doesn't have an idol played on him, and if neither of them tell me, we split 4 on me 4 on Jason. To keep me safe. Big risk, big reward baby.

So there is a chat consisting of Jules JJ Evan and Myself "OG Durmitor" and JJ the puppet master decided to organise a team meeting which i couldnt attend too but ok, anyways they went on call and i asked JJ what the plan was he told me;

1.) Bring Ali & Julia together 2.) Bring them to me. 3.) Split the votes 3-3 on Ian & Jason

Like cool but why are we bringing them to you? like sorry im not playing your game here but the real thing is

Evan messaged me being like can you call... we need to discuss what happened on that call because he is sketched out. He said that there was more to it than JJ said in the chat, and thats why he wants to talk to me. He says he has a bad feeling and he will explain it over call.....so i get home eventually and it turns out he is asleep and that he will call me in 7 hours

Oh hi I’m anxious as all fuck. Since it’s 4 vs 4. We may not even be going to tribal. All it takes is one person to flip and I’m planning on staying loyal to my og tribe.

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okay so i have a lot to confess about, i'm in my feelings all over the shop and wanna vote everyone out except for Jules, Julia & Thomas.

i'm like really embarassed about this round. like this is so dumb, but i looked so stupid in our video, like i look like an actual robot and i hate myself NNNN. I'm like insecure at the best of times so i'm like... ahhhHhhHHh about the video, i literally can't even watch it, i hate myselfffffff. i look like a gremlin because i tried to like... rough and post party stuff but i just look ugly and disgusting nnn. i'mma stop this here because its gonna be a lot of self negativity but this challenge does not play well with my insecurities NNNNNNNN

in other news. my tribe are all trying to do 4 vs 4 and its driving me crazy. Thomas seems to be the only one on this planet. I really want to get a cross-tribe alliance going of some sort, but Julia is reluctant (because a) its risky, b) she is evidently closer to ian and jason than I am. Im also facing an unexpected difficulty, which is Jules. I wanna work with them SO BAD, but like... the tribe dynamics are like... weirdly getting in the way? Like Thomas/Evan and Jules/JJ are becoming the two pairs which is SO wild to me, and I want JJ out of here, while Jules is seemingly quite expendable to Thomas?

My dream alliance would be Thomas, Jules, Julia & I, but I don't know if I can make that work, Thomas and Evan are too close grrrr. In other news, I'm like... really trying with JJ, because he means well, but... I'm finna snap KASJDFLASFLJKSA.

like... i have never met anyone who plays the game like he does. and like... i know i'm a crap player, probs the worst on our tribe but the level to which he underestimates is like...oof. Like he thinks he has done this mastermind manipulation to get me onside, when it was the most transparent thing I've like... literally ever seen. I'd like... lowkey love to write his name asap.

for tonight's vote... there are a couple of potential plans:

- Split Votes: Either 3-3 or 4-2, but splitting the votes between Jason/Ian, with maybe Jules, JJ or Evan getting their votes. The plus to this is it potentially removes Ian who I want out of here so badly because he is playing too well. The minus is it makes me and Julia super reliant on Thomas/Evan, or even JJ/Jules, whoever tries to pick us up. I think if I could convince Julia... I'd probs be down, worst comes to it, I just play my idol the following round

- Fake Vote Split: We tell them me and Julia will split votes with them, but then vote with Jason and Ian making our 4 versus their divided votes. Problems with this is it alienates Thomas/JJ/Evan/Jules (whichever three stay), but it puts us in the majority and in a comfortable spot. I don't know if I'm down for this plan really?

- 4-4 vote, either Thomas or Julia & I flip on the revote. This... could be an idea. I feel like its the kind of vanilla option, and I don't care who I flip on.

My ideal bootlist for the tribe would be: JJ > Ian > Jason > Evan if we do have to go to four tribals. I really like Thomas for having his head screwed on, Julia for being iconic and Jules for being a legend.

Summary: I'm tired, this challenge made me feel ugly, gross and like a freak, if JJ threatens my game again I will snap, people need to risk more, this vote is going to be a mess.

I don't like how ~quiet~ it can be before tribal. I'm already a scaredy cat person don't push my ANXIETY buttons.

First, here's how I am hoping tonight might go down (if we go to tribal ofc). I am hoping that the Durmitor OGs all vote Noah; I think Michael is voting Noah if Alex is being trustworthy; I kinda spilled it to Mitch because I thought Jones was talking to him so he might vote Noah. That leaves pretty much everyone voting Noah except Benj, and he's in my pocket so I don't think theres any conspiracy from him trying to do something crazy. He told me that I might be his saving grace and he said he wants to vote either micheal or Noah and I said that sounds good. I don't want to make it tooooo obvious that he's in my corner so I didn't tell him that Noah is the vote. That leaves: 6-7 votes Noah, 0-1 votes Micheal, and then whoever Noah wants out which might honestly be me because I haven't talked to him much.

Second, here's what I am afraid of. Everything that I just mentioned above is what Noah wants to do but to me, using my own tribe. If he can get Michael and Mitch to vote me and then also Mo and Jones to vote me (which could happen because sadly they got to see that they were at the bottom of that immunity list) then thats already 5. Alex might be told just so he's in the loop and Benj, who I think I can trust, might not even be included because he's already said he's on the outs and therefore I never catch wind. OR AM I BEING PARANOID?

HEHEHEHEHEOGHSOND all in all both make sense to me so my best hope is for immunity.

okay im on call with Jules, JJ and Julia. TOO MANY J NAMES, the crackheadery of Js is still around...

I... want to vote JJ out, but I want Jules on side. I just wanna vote out Ian and JJ, and I truly do not care about the order. Maybe if we vote Ian with them tonight, and then... ugh.

I just want to vote out Ian, JJ and Evan. All three can go. I want an alliance of Thomas, Jules, Julia and I. THAT'S ALL I WANT BUT JULES TRUSTS EVAN AND JULIA DOESN'T TRUST THOMAS.

ugh... we NEED to win challenges, like 100% I wanna avoid tribal as much as humanly possible. I just wanna merge with Tom, Julia and Jules. other four can go byebye.

i need to like... de-fibrillate thomas, he needs to like connect! to! Julia!

he is such a king but i'm worried he is gonna end up being the vote in upcoming rounds, like MESSSSSSS. in other news, me and julia are gonna call about the vote and figure it out because we are in a really tough spot AHH.

i just... wanna... vote JJ... out HNNNGH. like its enuf. can the universe just intervene and let me leave this swap tribe with jules, tom and julia on side? that's ALL I WANNTTTTTT

Omg so my tribe finally made an alliance chat

a little too late I already made deals with jones and caeleb so

I mean they are all nice but I don't talk to them much except mitch and hes not the vote so

time to flip? I think so JKDJF

I loves jones and caeleb already after 2 days so idk it feels right but maybe dumb but idc ive never been much of a betrayer in orgs before so this is a fun change hehehe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4iBErzviNU <-Video Would not Embed

Apparently Noah threw my name out which is making me anxious of course. I’m not ready to be voted out yet, I still have stuff to prove to myself. So all I can do is hope that either we won the challenge or people keep their word.

VL: I like how one person throws out my name and I’m already packing my bags and screaming. If this is my last day I had a lot of fun and I wish I got to play more.

This may or may not be my last confessionals because I’m in danger lol

So I went on call with Tom, he told me that Evan is wavering on the idea he told me and I’m not shock tbh. He also told me that I’m going to be the one getting the og Durmitor votes. FUN. He did told me that he was going to flip on the revote. However he was still on the assumption that we were voting for Jules, so after discussing it with budva baes, I told him we were voting for JJ. He was shocked but he still said he was still going through with the flip. I’m really putting my trust on Tom here and I’m scared tbh. From what I heard while he played Socotra and MB he was sneaky but I really hope he fucking flips. I HOPE NO ONE FUCKING FLIPS ON ME. Except they’re maybe coaxing me to believing I’m getting votes to misplay my supposed idol which i don’t have and they throw their votes at Jason.

Ugh lol I did not imagine getting votes this early but it is what is and It has been a crazy ride tbh. Tom you better flip or I’m going to scream. No one better flip on og budva or I’m going to cry :((

Here’s some extra tea, Ali told us that Jules is really sketched out of JJ so there’s also that potential flipper??? Honestly I just want this round to be over! Ugh please let this vote work in our favor

VL I like how one person throws out my name and I’m already packing my bags and screaming. If this is my last day I had a lot of fun and I wish I got to play more.

okay lay dees... i think i did something!

JJ is (99%) outta here!! Jules owns this ENTIRE ass, like... Jules. is. a. LEGEND.

What's tough is like... I really don't know if this is even in Jules' interest? Like I love her, and am going to FIGHT to protect her, but JJ LOVES her and is on her side? Like I don't know if this is smart for her.

I feel like... I finally did stuff, I helped convince Jules to flip (and Tom if we had to revote) and got our vote off Jules despite Julia wanting to not vote JJ. Like... me and Julia were in a swing spot, and we carved our own option.

I really. really. really. want an alliance of me, Julia, Tom & Jules. That would make all my dreams come true. I want that + Benj to be the final five to be honest. I haven't confessed about Benj in ages but I MISS HIM, I hope is surviving with all the crackheads from the Budva tribe.

I have a cracked hope. I kind of hope JJ pulls out an idol, and idols out Ian? Like then he is the obvious vote the next time, and me/Jules/Tom/Julia can keep it pushing.

im just... omg that this is happening. JJ, if you are reading this post season, my confessionals about you haven't been like... the nicest and I am genuinely super sorry. Its undeniable you have good intentions and mean well, but as people... idk if we vibe as much as you think we do, and like you somewhat overplayed your hand, which is why you are going home.

i mean its possible that you are just playing us all, and I'm outta here, which good for you woo! i'm not a threat at all woo, but congrats on the blindside. also idk if i ever confessed about this, but i asked Tom if he is related to Caeleb and they aren't (even tho they still look related).

also i'm telling tom jules is flipping on 5 mins, i don't want him left out since he is an AUSTRALIAN KING AND I WANNA STICK WITH HIM EVEN THO I'M HNNGH.

next round... i might have to persuade julia to flip on ian and jason... EEEK! stay tuned...

Budva tried to pull some cracked ass shit while I was getting my bread

More to come

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_nIjIQaTFE <- Video did not Embed

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daresplaining · 8 years

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Iron Fist Countdown: 7 Days

Danny’s Superpowers

Danny is the most powerful member of the Netflix Defenders team. Or at least, he has the greatest power potential. In addition to his mad kung fu skills, the uses for the chi of Shou-Lao could (and, in fact, do) fill an entire book, and the vast power it grants its wielders is ever-evolving. Even Danny hasn’t yet learned everything he’s capable of. Here are some of the highlights of what various Iron Fists have achieved over the years, and of what we might possibly see in the show.

To start: This post is going to give the impression that Danny is really, really overpowered, so we’re going to stick in a little caveat: the Immortal Iron Fist Power Upgrade Factor (IIFPUF). Speaking generally, 616 Danny has had two major power levels (so far, anyway-- his upcoming solo series is going to explore another, but that is a very special situation and probably not relevant here). Before Immortal Iron Fist (BIIF) Danny was still very powerful, but his power had frequency limits. Using the chi of Shou-Lao left him drained, thus preventing him from summoning it more than once-or-twice per day and prompting him to only use it in dire situations.

Danny: “Can... hardly... move-- By the silver dragon, what have I done? Heartbeat’s racing almost too fast to count... feel flushed, sweating... system overloaded... Power has a definite limit-- remember that! More I use, more it drains me...”

[Iron Fist vol. 1 #6 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Karen Mantlo]

In Immortal Iron Fist he acquires the Book of the Iron Fist, which was stolen by his predecessor in an ill-conceived attempt at ending the Iron Fist legacy. This book contains techniques for, among other things, not getting worn out by using the chi of Shou-Lao. Having gained this knowledge, post-Immortal Iron Fist (PIIF) Danny now uses his powers all the time without suffering any ill effects.

In the Netflix show, we know that Danny will be operating at a BIIF level-- which makes sense, from a storytelling perspective as much as a worldbuilding one. The less frequently he uses his powers on-screen, the more dramatic they will remain. However, the actual range of abilities he might possess in the show remains to be seen. Here are some of the exciting options...

The Iron Fist

[Power Man and Iron Fist vol. 1 #67 by Mary Jo Duffy, Kerry Gammill, and Ben Sean]

Iron Fists are, of course, named after their big signature move. Summoning the Iron Fist involves focusing the chi of Shou-Lao into a concentrated spot (usually a hand), thus imbuing it with temporary super strength and invulnerability. A few writers have suggested that there’s an actual molecular shift involved, which causes the limb in question to literally become “like unto iron”, but generally the actual iron aspect of this technique is treated as a metaphor. Wielding the dragon chi in this way allows the Iron Fist to strike with immense force without suffering any damage themselves.

[New Avengers vol. 1 #59 by Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen, and Dave McCaig]

With this move Danny has-- to name just a few feats-- obliterated giant robots, sunk ships, blown up trains, taken down a helicarrier (see above), and he once sucker punched 300-pound Luke Cage through a wall, across a street, and into a building that then collapsed on top of him. (Don’t worry, he was fine.)

Obviously, we know Danny’s gonna be chi punching things to awesome effect in the show as well.

(Aw yessssss...)

Accelerated Healing

[Immortal Iron Fist #9 by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, and David Aja]

The chi of Shou-Lao can also be used as a healing force, enabling Iron Fists to perform what is essentially epic-level reiki on themselves and others. Take it away, Danny...

Danny: “Your doctors did most of the hard work weeks ago... All I’m doing... is focusing your chi a bit.. to speed up your natural healing process.”

[Daredevil vol. 2 #111 by Ed Brubaker, Clay Mann, and Matt Hollingsworth]

This is a versatile skill that works on more than just cuts and bruises and broken bones. The chi can be used to burn out harmful infections and substances within the body. It is, for example, difficult to poison an Iron Fist. Danny also once used the dragon chi to cure cancer, and has managed to break himself out of mind control with it on occasion. It can be used to grant prolonged life. And it works quite well for combating demons who have possessed your friends.

[Shadowland #5 by Andy Diggle, Billy Tan, and Victor Olazaba]

This is one power that was drastically impacted by the IIFPUF (see above). When Danny first learned to use the chi in this way, it was a difficult procedure that actually caused him immense physical pain. PIIF, however, he is able to heal rapidly, almost without thinking about it.

Resurrection

[Iron Fist: The Living Weapon #12 by Kaare Andrews]

Chi is life energy, and so it makes sense that there are high-level Iron Fist techniques that can be used to bring dead things back to life. This isn’t a skill that Danny has mastered in the comics (it requires a level of spiritual awareness that he hasn’t achieved yet), but given the link to the Hand mythos in the MCU, and their tendency of bringing people back from the dead, we wonder if it might come up in the show...

Lightning From God (chi projection)

[Immortal Iron Fist #7 by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, and Khari Evans]

This is a move trademarked by former Iron Fist and all-around badass Wu Ao-Shi, the Pirate Queen of Pinghai Bay. She developed a technique that allowed her to project her chi out of her body and into her arrows, thus making them extra lethal on impact. Orson Randall, Danny’s direct Iron Fist predecessor, was able to do the same thing with bullets, and it’s a skill that Danny has mastered as well.

[Thunderbolts (2006) #137 by Andy Diggle, Carlos Rodriguez, et al.]

Hypnosis

[Immortal Iron Fist #2 by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, and David Aja]

This is one of those Iron Fist powers that rarely comes up, but there is a technique that allows the chi of Shou-Lao to be used to plant mental suggestions, and to control people against their will. It’s not entirely clear how (this is one of those That’s Not Really How Chi Works things) but it’s very cool, so we’ll buy it.

[Mighty Avengers (2013) #6 by Al Ewing, Valerio Schiti, and Frank D’Armata]

It’s probably related to this next ability....

Illusions

[Immortal Iron Fist #24 by Duane Swierczynski, Jose Angel Cano Lopez, and Edward Bola]

One neat aspect of the chi of Shou-Lao is that, because it is such a versatile power source, it can be shaped to suit the talents and tendencies of the individuals who acquire it. Li Park, an artistic Iron Fist with a powerful imagination, used the chi in a way that enabled him to draw others into his fantasies. All evidence suggests that this is the Hypnotic Fist technique (above), enhanced to its most potent level.

Energy Absorption/Manipulation

[Iron Fist vol. 1 #7 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Bonnie W.]

Chi is energy, as we said, and the physical fact of having absorbed a giant dose of highly-volatile dragon chi seems to enable Iron Fists to do the same with other such energy sources. Danny has shown immense tolerance for radiation bombardment and magic, seemingly by absorbing the energy without being harmed by it. Along these same lines, he has found ways of connecting to and manipulating magnetic fields, and he once plugged himself into the chi of every single person in K’un-Lun for a final ditch-effort power boost. He didn’t enjoy it, but he did survive the experience, which is saying something...

[Iron Fist: The Living Weapon #9 by Kaare Andrews]

Perfect Strategy Mind (mental enhancement)

[Immortal Iron Fist #15 by Matt Fraction, Khari Evans, and Paul Mounts]

Developed by master tactician and former Iron Fist Bei Bang-Wen, this technique seems to enhance mental performance and focus. We’ve never seen Danny use this-- but he’s made enough poor judgment calls in his life that he probably should. (Just kidding, Danny. Love ya.)

Vulcan Mind-Melding

[Iron Fist vol. 1 #6 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Karen Mantlo]

We doubt this one will be used in the show, but anything is possible! At a certain point, Colleen is kidnapped and mind controlled into trying to kill Danny. After failing to snap her out of the mind control by conventional means, and desperate to avoid either being killed or having to kill her, Danny takes a wild shot and attempts to merge his chi with hers. This allows him to break through the brainwashing, but it’s an extremely unpleasant, violating experience for both of them, and he never does it again. This literal meeting of minds results in a transfer of memories, emotions, and knowledge between the two. Afterward, Colleen is able to pull off some advanced K’un-Lun kung fu techniques that she didn’t know before.

[Iron Fist vol. 1 #14 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Janice Cohen]

Levitating (Ack!)

[Iron Fist: The Living Weapon #12 by Kaare Andrews]

It’s not clear how, or why, or wherefore, but Iron Fists can levitate! (Kaare Andrews, if you’re reading this, please explain.)

Increased Energy

[Immortal Iron Fist #16 by Matt Fraction, David Aja, and Matt Hollingsworth]

Danny is able to successfully go without sleep for long periods of time (or, at the very least, to replace sleep with periodic meditation). Of course, most superheroes don’t get much sleep, but Danny has an advantage in that dragon chi is a slightly more powerful stimulant than coffee.

And finally, uh, whatever this is...

[Immortal Iron Fist #17 by Duane Swierczynski, Travel Foreman, and Matt Milla]

We’re not sure what this move does, since Danny never actually completes it... but holy moley, it should be on the show.

One more week!

#Iron Fist #Danny Rand #Orson Randall #Wu Ao Shi #Li Park #Bei Bang Wen #Pei the Tiny Monk #IF Countdown

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anthonywashrosado · 5 years

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Dr. Jada Benn Torres - Triniricua

“Use the tools that other people have taught you, and make them work for you. Create these narratives that seem a little more reasonable, given what you know about people in your community.”

Dr. Jada Benn Torres is the most revolutionary genetic anthropologist of our era. Her work intersects the operationalization of race, anti-racist methodology, and indigenous Afro-Caribbean cultural exchanges. Of Trinidadian descent, Jada and her Boricua husband raise their Triniricua family in Nashville, Tennessee. Progressing from the first and only molecular anthropologist at the University of Notre Dame to the department of anthropology Associate Professor at Vanderbilt University, she is leading multiple projects that will bless future generations with knowledge of ancestral lineage and antiracist genetic research. Jada is a kindred spirit who deserves ample support, exposure, and resources for the awakening she is unraveling.

“Genetic Anthropology is interested in anything that has to do with making us human and how we have adapted, culturally and physiologically, to our environment. And understanding the genetic basis of that. I look at ancestry and study how various social practices/strictures have shaped genetic variation.”

Acknowledging the eurocentrically western medicinal methods of racial identification to deduce diseases that are prone to some “races” and not others, Jada challenges the lens at which western medicine enforces the operationalization of race. As an example, women of African descent develop uterine fibroids more than women of other backgrounds. Albeit used over-excessively, race is an unbiological factor that does not affect their susceptibility to fibroids. However, mitochondrial DNA within women of African descent tells a story of matrilineal lineages from regions of the African continent. DNA samples Jada and her husband retrieved during their four month honeymoon traversing the Caribbean have produced an impeccable revealing: undoubted Afro-Caribbean cultural and genetic exchanges that have directly affected the modern-day Afro-Caribbean population.

DNA is a material is encoded with instructions for who we are and what we pass on to our offspring. Genetic Ancestry uses DNA to look at various lineages. Mitochondria has its own DNA, which is separate from the DNA within the nucleus of each cell. While one inherits DNA in the nucleus from X and Y chromosomes, mitochondrial holds DNA only from the X chromosome. Mitochondrial DNA holds our maternal lineage. Portions of mitochondrial DNA are organized into genetic families known as haplo groups, made of individual haplo types. Each haplo type is as different as two siblings within one family unit. Haplo groups are continent and region specific, some genetic families more common in Africa and others in Asia. The same is done with the Y chromosome, which carries the paternal lineage.

Y chromosomes and mitochondrial DNA are unilinear markers, tracing one line of ancestry. Torres’ argument is, “for groups of people that have been systematically denied any knowledge of their history and past and where they came from: it is a lot. It is a lot to know I can trace my lineage back to an ancestor that traveled across a huge migration in Africa, something that shaped the way the continent is today. From a population scale, it is really informative to use unilinear markers because they tell you where people were going. In the

Caribbean, you see specific patterns of inheritance from African descent. There is also, within the Caribbean, maternal ancestry from the Americas. Indigenous American women contributed to these communities as well. However, you don’t see European women contributing to these communities. Thats says something about the strictures that made it dangerous for European women to be in non-white communities. On the flip side looking at the Y chromosome, you can find paternal ancestry connected to indigenous American men. Because the unilinear markers for indigenous American men are so few, we know that a lot of paternal lineages were lost. There weren’t many indigenous American men left to contribute to modern Caribbean society. So if you’re gonna colonize someone, you go after the people that you think will fight back and that was the men. I don’t think they’re lost, I think we’re not looking in the right place.”

In addition to ushering medicine closer to ethical uterine fibroid prevention and treatment for women of African descent Jada works toward the intersections of genetic anthropology, politics, and art. Collaborating with artists to relay their individual responses regarding Afro-Caribbean genetic data, Jada is cross-pollinating her scientific activism with non-scientists. Refuting eurocolonial claims of population history in the Caribbean, Jada is filtering “official history” to unveil true stories. The impact of her work transcends obstacles of racial inferiority complexes. Knowing where we come from is of the utmost importance to our success as children serving our Mother Earth. If we know where we are from, we will know where to go and who to be. If not, we are vulnerable to eurocentric and heteronormative misinterpretations of our identities, as well as having no sense of home nor belonging. Knowing where we are from ensures we feel inherent connection to land. Dismantling the colonial notion of “ownership”, Jada invites us to theorize the ways genetic markers (mutations in DNA) influenced migration, cultural exchanges, and biology. Biologically, her research highlights the development of diseases and immunity in the Afro-Caribbean population (of ancestors and descendants).

Co-authored with her husband Gabriel A. Torres Colón, in Racial Experience as an Alternative Operationalization of Racethey “propose an operationalization of race that is attentive to both racial experience and human biological diversity—placing [the two] within the same ontological sphere. Furthermore, [they] argue that this approach can more effectively advance antiracist pedagogy and politics.” Her intersections span from genetic anthropology to genetic epidemiology, which is the study of disease distribution. “Gene hunters look for the genetic basis to disease. I have interest here. Moreso, how environment and cultures shape patterns of disease. With a specific focus in women's health and why so many women of African descent have fibroids I am doing research now on that at Vanderbilt, understanding how women have dealt with this. I’m getting under the genetic underpinnings that have merged biology and culture. Why are fibroids more common in African American women? I am cross culturally looking at different ways people deal with it. The current cure is basically a hysterectomy. All the organs and the uterus are removed. That is the cure. For a lot of people there is a greater meaning to that organ. It makes them women. Taking that away doesn’t just cure fibroids. You are taking a major part of their being away. Many women stay with fibroids and deal with the consequences to avoid losing what to them is their womanhood.”

Torres is also working in collaboration with Afro-Puerto Rican artists on the island to commission art of the artist’s interpretation to their genetic ancestry data. Torres is

revolutionary because her work values, grounds, and supports ancestral legacy. Her projects validate genetic variations and exchanges. All that makes us us, made our ancestors them. She is a bridge. Her bridge is the shape of a sextile, merging disciplines across varying fields that study the human being and body.

“The idea that race is biological is wrong. For the most part, most mainstream anthropologists don’t subscribe to those ideas anymore. Idk if we have the best terminology yet to talk about human variation. We know it exists. You can look at me and you. There are differences between us. How can we talk about those differences? How can we talk about what those actually mean?

Working with Afro-Puerto Ricans who established that 60% of [Boricua] women have matrilineal lineage from Tainos. Some Afro-Puerto Rican communities felt they weren’t adequately sampled. Given my passion for African ancestry in Caribbean, I sought out these communities. I am looking at the way the transatlantic slave trade dispersed families. Genetics can potentially change then. I’m working with these Afro-Puerto Rican communities to ask musicians, sculptures, performance artists and et cetera to interpret their genetic results. There are beautifully connections made in how we understand and interpret our identities. I mean I can sit here and show you pie charts and allele frequencies and get all excited cause that’s what I like. It’s really cool to explain something to someone and see how they perceive it through their eyes and their medium. As a science that is interested in learning about human experience, there is a lot of overlap with artists and their artistic ways of interpreting the world.”

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gaminghardware0 · 6 years

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The greatest moments in World of Warcraft history

Blizzard launched World of Warcraft all the way back in 2004. Despite being the second longest-running MMO in history, WoW still has the highest player count among its competitors – a phenomenal achievement. This month sees the release of its seventh expansion, Battle for Azeroth, just in time for the game’s 14th anniversary in November.

The reasons for WoW’s continuing success are numerous, but at its core sits a combination of welcoming gameplay, a huge range of activities, challenging endgame content, and organic social achievements. There’s nothing quite like defeating a difficult raid boss after weeks of failed attempts and then joining in with the cheers of victory from your fellow guild mates.

To help you celebrate the upcoming release of Battle for Azeroth – and the game at large – we’ve put together this list of the greatest moments in World of Warcraft’s long history. It’s hard to boil nearly a decade and a half of experiences down to just a few choice favourite bits, but damn it, we’re going to try.

January 2005 – Onyxia falls

She was the first great threat: Onyxia. The matron of the black dragonflight and master manipulator of the petty politics of humankind, brooding inside her fiery cavern in a dark corner of Dustwallow Marsh.

With her legion of faithful dragonkin and many, many whelps, Onyxia presented a substantial challenge for the great heroes of Azeroth. After many epic struggles, Onyxia was defeated for the first time, and the first ever WoW raid was completed.

For a long while, Onyxia’s Lair was the only raid available in WoW, and she went undefeated for a full 69 days. On January 28, 2005, Horde guild ‘The Chosen’ became the first to best her, in the process marking a seminal moment in WoW history – the first ever World First endboss kill.

September 2005 – the great blood plague

In September 2005, World of Warcraft heralded the arrival of a new raid: Zul’Gurub. In this den of danger, teams of 20 banded together to take down the blood god, Hakkar the Soulflayer. The brutal deity had, among its many other accursed abilities, the power to inflict a deadly disease – the Corrupted Blood Plague. Little did the brave adventurers know that the plague would escape the confines of the temple city of Zul’Gurub, and wreak havoc upon an unsuspecting Azeroth.

Carried out of the temple by adventurer’s animal companions, the plague spread rapidly throughout the world – sometimes by accident, sometimes deliberately through the actions of virtual biological terrorists. Skeletons lined the streets, large cities became no-go zones, and shopkeepers and guards were transformed into asymptomatic carriers of the deadly plague.

The powers that be at Blizzard came down hard to try and stop the plague, organising quarantines and running server hard resets. The plague ran rampant for almost a full month, finally coming to an end in October when a hotfix was issued that made player pets immune to the debuff. This finally prevented the infection from spreading outside the raid.

The Corrupted Blood plague was so accurate to the real-life patterns of epidemic, it’s been used in scientific studies of real-life disease outbreaks and the psychology of terrorism (no really, look it up).

January 2007 – the Dark Portal reopens

You can’t keep a game going for nearly 14 years without switching it up occasionally. Blizzard has achieved this through expansions, other big content updates that further the ongoing story of Warcraft, improvements to the graphics and mechanics, and by introducing new areas and endgame challenges.

Nowadays, expansions are routine for WoW players – there have been six so far (soon to become seven). But over a decade ago, when The Burning Crusade was released, it was a novelty – certainly, the opening of a whole new continent after three years of vanilla WoW was something worth getting excited about.

Naturally, when the Dark Portal to Outland was opened, there were some teething problems. Requiring every player to congregate in one area in the Blasted Lands may not have been the /best/ idea – it caused server instability as well as pitched battles between the Horde and the Alliance on PvP servers. Whoops.

March 2010 – a new king in the North

Wrath of the Lich King is easily one of WoW’s creative peaks – a flavourful expansion with interesting quests, tons of significant lore, and a great soundtrack to boot. Wrath of the Lich King’s raids were no different. From the atmospheric and difficult Ulduar to the epic scale of Icecrown Citadel, there were few missteps for endgame enthusiasts.

In March 2010, the The Lich King – one of WoW’s most iconic characters – was taken down for the first time by a Horde guild known as Paragon. It was a long and gruelling fight (over 20 minutes with a 25-person group) that culminated in an emotional cutscene wherein Arthas is confronted and defeated by the souls of those he murdered – including his father, Terenas Menethil II.

To prevent the undead hordes from swarming uncontrolled over the entire world, Bolvar Fordragon took on the helm of the fallen Arthas and became the new Lich King. That probably won’t come back to bite us, right?

September 2012 – new freedom

Up to this point, WoW had a small design flaw: all the cool loot you collected was bound to the character that acquired them. This seemed like a small issue but it did much to restrict player freedom.

You might want to play a Paladin instead of a Druid in the next expansion, but all of your cool gear is on your Paladin – darn. Some players resorted to repeating long grinds for rare items on multiple characters, just so they wouldn’t focus all of their time and effort on one character.

Mists of Pandaria changed all of this by making the rarest collectibles – including mounts, pets, items, and toys – shared by all characters on your account, even those on the opposite faction. It seems like a small change but it’s one players will likely notice when Blizzard launches the WoW Legacy servers it’s building.

November 2014 – a home of my own

WoW characters are basically murderous hobos. They drift from town to town, sleeping in taverns or sometimes just on the floor of a capital city, doing odd jobs for strangers and pilfering anything that isn’t nailed down. Until a legendary character from Warcraft history comes by to corral them together and throw them at the most recent cackling villain, that is.

Warlords of Draenor changed this state of affairs by introducing Garrisons, a personalised base that each player could build and customise. This was a popular feature and made it into the next expansion, Legion, in the form of Class Halls.

August 2018 – bigger and better

Ok, we’re cheating a bit here as we haven’t seen this play out yet, but that’s how excited we are for this upcoming feature. For Battle of Azeroth, a new social tool has been introduced: cross-realm, cross-faction groups for organising players.

Ever been frustrated that you can’t chat to your Horde-playing pal while leveling your Alliance character? Now you can. It’s basically Discord, but built into WoW’s interface, and potentially allows multiple guilds to stay connected without having to merge into one giant, unwieldy blob. This has the potential to revolutionise the social experience in World of Warcraft.

from https://www.pcgamesn.com/world-of-warcraft/world-of-warcraft-greatest-moments

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kim26chiu · 7 years

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St. Louis and the Consequences of Consolidation

Anheuser-Busch’s offices in New York.

Brian Feldman’s piece about how consolidation killed St. Louis got a lot of attention when it came out last year. He argues that a rollback of anti-trust regulations that allowed industrial consolidation was the silent killer of what were once key regional business capitals like St. Louis.

Interestingly, his focus was on something you may not know ever existed in St. Louis, major advertising agencies.

If there is a living embodiment of the St. Louis advertising industry, it’s Charles Claggett Jr. The former creative director at D’Arcy, long one of the city’s largest agencies, he retired in 2000, two years before the French firm Publicis acquired the agency. One of his many claims to fame is that in 1979, he and his team penned “This Bud’s for You”—the slogan widely credited for helping St. Louis-based brewing staple Anheuser-Busch eclipse Miller during the 1980s beer wars….Another claim to Claggett’s fame is his father, Charles Claggett Sr., who led the city’s oldest and largest agency, Gardner, in the late 1950s and the 1960s. During his tenure, the elder Claggett oversaw accounts such as John Deere, Ralston Purina, and Jack Daniel’s.

…

And it wasn’t just Gardner and D’Arcy—whose twelve offices now fanned out across North America, as far as Havana—that flourished in mid-century St. Louis. With its ample supply of locally owned businesses as potential clients, the city supported a vibrant start-up ad agency scene. These new firms trained up-and-coming talent, developed cutting-edge campaigns, and often grew to become regional or national in scope, enriching the metro area by bringing in revenue from outside of it.

…

By the 1960s, St. Louis’s advertising industry had effectively developed into what economists call an “industry cluster.” Though the city’s agencies competed with each other, their sheer number created citywide competitive advantages: a deep bench of talent that moved in and out of agencies, spreading ideas and transferring know-how; a network of experienced, low-cost suppliers (printers, recording studios); and a reputation for quality that attracted national and international clients. All of it was built on the foundation of locally owned companies. These firms provided a steady supply of commissions facilitated by personal connections: account executives at the agencies and the senior executives at the corporations knew each other—from charitable events, from rounds of golf, or from attending the same high school.

…

D’Arcy followed a similar trajectory. In 1985, it merged with NYC-based Benton & Bowles to become DMB&B, a deal that saw the headquarters and executive decision-making shift to New York. The St. Louis office still handled long-standing accounts like Mars/M&M and Anheuser-Busch, but NYC now made “above-the-rim” decisions. As Claggett put it, “The agency slowly became just a branch office competing for accounts.”

The turning point came one day in 1994, when, unbeknown to the St. Louis office, the agency’s NYC-based media-buying unit signed a $25 million deal with Anheuser-Busch’s archrival, Miller, then lied about it. Anheuser-Busch’s volatile owner, August Busch III, immediately cut ties with D’Arcy, costing the agency $422 million in billings. One D’Arcy copywriter quipped, “When you lose Bud, you’ve lost it all.” Two years later, the office lost its $140 million Blockbuster account to New York. The agency closed its St. Louis doors in 2002.

In the years since the St. Louis advertising cluster disintegrated, the entire industry has taken a major hit as the Internet has disrupted its traditional business model. U.S. ad agencies today have fewer employees than they did in 2000.

One of the companies that got bought out in St. Louis was Anheuser-Busch itself, a company so synonymous with the city that its name might as well be “Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis, Missouri.” The buyer was Belgium-based InBev, which was controlled (and still is I believe) by a group of Brazilian investors. Three years after the 2008 deal, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch looked back at the consequences for the company and the city.

They still make big decisions here, the kind of big-spending, imaginative deals that made this place so envied. But now executives in New York City sometimes sign off on them, too….Three years out, some things are clear. A-B is a diminished but still huge, powerful presence. The worst of the cost-cutting appears over. The brewery and some executive functions have remained in St. Louis. But the corporate culture of the old A-B — tradition-bound, perfectionist, focused more on dominating the beer market than making money — has given way to an aggressive austerity.

The extensive cost-cutting has squeezed more profits out of A-B, but questions remain over whether the company’s new bosses can grow brands and sell more beer. And St. Louis is no longer the center of the company universe. A-B is now the U.S. subsidiary of A-B InBev. With that, old assumptions — and wistful illusions — about the relationship between the company and the city have changed, too.

This is pretty well known, I believe. What’s less known, perhaps outside of St. Louis, is that in 2014 Anheuser-Busch announced it would be moving brand management and other functions from St. Louis to New York City, opening what it termed its “commercial strategy office.”

Today the A-B commercial strategy office employs about 400 people in a very cool modern office in Chelsea. While the firm is still technically based in St. Louis and employs a lot of people there, including a lot of management people such its supply chain leadership, this represents a significant loss of high talent positions for that city.

Why did A-B open an NYC? Well, InBev was already there. Chicago, the most logical place for a consumer business like A-B, had already landed the Miller-Coors HQ. I don’t have any insights on that, but would speculate it played a role in the choice of New York.

But what’s most troubling for St. Louis and many other similar cities is that A-B’s main reason for staffing up in New York was to be closer to its ad agency partners. In other words, we are seeing knock on effects from previous consolidations and the rise of global cities as key financial and producer services nodes.

First consolidation wiped out St. Louis’ national scale ad agencies. Then the loss of those agencies make it hard to keep ahold of corporate marketing and other functions.

This was one of the key things I honed in on back in 2008 when I first wrote about the trend of HQs moving back to the global city. Saskia Sassen’s work on the revival of the global city noted the growth in specialized financial and producer services (like advertising). The rebirth of the global city was not built on traditional corporate HQ growth.

But then down the road, corporations started to restructure their HQs into what I term “executive headquarters”, with only top executive functions – generally only 500 at most – now part of the HQ. And that the HQ was now being drawn back to the global city in order to take advantage of the services infrastructure there. I noted how Mead-Johnson Nutritionals (makers of Enfamil baby formula) had followed this formula when it moved from Evansville, Indiana to Chicago. Here’s what the media said at the time:

Working in a large city will make it easier to conduct business throughout the world. Mead Johnson makes Enfamil and similar products and about half of its sales come from overseas. Having offices near Chicago, for instance, will place executives in close proximity to global-business consultants, leaders in the field of nutrition and an international airport.

Today we see that proximity to services providers, international airports, and the ability to recruit top global talent are all drivers of this. To date I’ve mostly noticed that the losing locations were clearly subscale cities like Evansville or Peoria. Now with Connecticut losing GE, it’s affecting larger business markets as well.

A-B’s New York office isn’t technically an executive headquarters, but it has some of the same characteristics. This isn’t about anything nefarious. It’s about companies doing what they think they need to do to address market realities. Mass market beer brands like Bud Light are in decline industry-wide. These kinds of moves are part of trying to stay market relevant. (A-B also just changed CEOs in response).

This is definitely a trend to keep an eye on since it will have a big effect on whether or not legacy business cities like St. Louis in the 1-3 million metro area range will be able to continue conducting business as the same level they’ve been used to doing. I think there is a ton of risk here in many cities, especially in the Midwest.

from Aaron M. Renn http://www.urbanophile.com/2017/11/21/st-louis-and-the-consequences-of-consolidation/

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barb31clem · 7 years

Text

St. Louis and the Consequences of Consolidation

Anheuser-Busch’s offices in New York.

Interestingly, his focus was on something you may not know ever existed in St. Louis, major advertising agencies.

…

First consolidation wiped out St. Louis’ national scale ad agencies. Then the loss of those agencies make it hard to keep ahold of corporate marketing and other functions.

from Aaron M. Renn http://www.urbanophile.com/2017/11/21/st-louis-and-the-consequences-of-consolidation/

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mobileexpressnow · 7 years

Text

Happy Tenth Birthday, iPhone: Then and Now

Apple’s iPhone just completed 10 years and in a befitting tribute to Founder Steve Jobs, unveiled some spectacular product demos- AR Kit, A11 bionic chip and iOS 11, to name a few. The phone that brought us the touchscreen, on-the-go apps, digitized music libraries, fun mash up of games, emojis, calendar, contacts and so much more, showed off its unmatched capabilities in high-fidelity visuals that left spectators agape. Here are the highlights of the birthday celebrations and the iPhone’s journey from a glamorised iPod to a smart gadget that ruled the market for nearly a decade.

Highlights of the Event

The biggest draw was Apple’s AR Kit that aims to bring Augmented Reality to mainstream by integrating it directly within the newly-launched iPhone X and iPhone 8. Directive Games’ demo on the AR game “The Machines” and virtual spaceX rockets landing in backyards, showed off the technology’s power even on machines lacking the same camera and sensor hardware. Unlike Google’s Tango AR that was a niche product, Apple’s production can reach millions with a recent iPhone model. Since Apple’s announcement, Google has come out with a new AR platform, AR Core. Clearly, a war is in the making and our bets are on Apple for its tight software-hardware integration!

We gave you the scoop on iPhone X; now we’ll let you know the rest. The newly-launched iPhone X is a USD 999 bundle of iOS 11, bezel-less OLED screen, wireless charging, stainless steel body and more. Some unanswered questions are bubbling about the new addition- How good is the swipe interface? Are Apple’s claims that Face ID is superior to Touch ID, true? Will the glass back stand the test of time? Is the hefty price tag justified given the more fragile hardware and interface?

iOS 11 has a revamped Control Center; Calculator and Phone apps have a new look; text is bolder; the 3D Touch integration is expanded so you don’t need to open Settings; Lock screen has been merged with the Notification Center; Siri has a more natural voice now and can translate English to foreign languages.

The new animated emojis, Animojis, are now available in iPhone 8 and X. The Face ID feature will allow users to scan their faces and create custom Animojis resembling themselves.

The event was not only spectacular but also ground-breaking in a number of terms- Apple’s show of supremacy and an open challenge to mobile makers worldwide.

The iPhone’s journey till now

Apple released the first version of iOS in 2007. It was based on OS X of Mac fame. Safari, Mail and Messages were the only apps that were permitted and the phone gave the feel of a PC. Overtime, Apple did a complete redesign and gave the world, iPhone OS 1 with menu options like Mail, Messages, Photo, Safari, Phone and more. But, iTunes and Appstore were still not included and no customization of the background was permitted. In 2008, iPhone OS2 launched alongside iPhone 3G and had an exciting addition, the App Store that is now worth USD 31 billion and houses 1.5 million apps, in Apple’s estimates. Alongside, Apple also released SDK that is used by app developers. High-speed connectivity was news in 2008 which is why it was called a second-generation phone. The App store model became so popular that it was integrated in every device from smart TVs to laptops.

iOS 4 changed the look and feel of the entire OS in 2010. It allowed users to multitask between apps and change the background image on the Home screen. This was also the first OS to run on multiple devices, the other being the iPad which was also launched in 2010.

Next came iOS 5 with deep social media integration, the iCloud and iMessage. iOS 6 introduced a new row of icons on the 4-inch screen. It harbored a new Apples-made Maps app and the Passbook app for storing tickets. In iOS 7, new flatter icons took birth and multitasking view also changed to focus on panels rather than apps. All indigenous apps were given a facelift.

Widgets, such as Weather, came to be integrated in the Notification Center. Apple introduced Continuity, a feature that lets you open apps on an iMac and iPhone, in the same state.

How the iPhone’s look changed

On September 9th, 2007, Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone. In his own words- it combined three devices-a mobile phone, an iPod and an internet communicator, When Jobs claimed that it would lead to a revolution, Nokia, Blackberry and Motorola sniggered in disbelief. Remember, 2007 was the year when Blackberry Curve debuted and people were raving about Nokia 95’s dual-sliding display. The original iPhone was nothing like them! It vaguely resembled an iPod with a rounded aluminum body, a plastic back and a few buttons. It’s 3.5 inch screen had a 320 by 480 resolution, 2MB camera and 4GB/8GB storage. Third-party apps were not yet allowed on the iOS. Moreover, it was way too costly at $499 and $599 for 4GB and 8GB internal storage, respectively, than its competitors.

The iPhone 4 had a major step-up in appearance with a new flat design, an integrated antenna, a high-resolution display and a 5MP camera. Apple responded brilliantly in face of tough competition and it was heartening for Jobs to see buyers queuing to buy the pricey model.

After six handsets, in iPhone 5, Apple decided to seriously tweak the iPhone screen size and aspect ratio. The new handset was 20% lighter and had a 4-inch screen.

By the time Apple launched iPhone 5C, the strain of competition was already showing. Plastic-backed body of 5C made iPhone comparable in price to Androids and was Apple’s attempt to capture the busy middle markets.

Both the iPhone 6 and 6 plus ditched the industrial design that had been Apple’s hallmarks. It was replaced by an ergonomically-designed body and an advanced 3D Touch technology. By gauging the touch of your finger, it allowed a glimpse at an app without actually opening it if you tapped it lightly. If pressed harder, it opened in a separate window.

With iPhone 7 and 7 plus, Apple embraced waterproof technology. They come with IP67 rating that means even if you submerge the phones in water, you don’t have to worry! Another landmark improvement was ditching of the 3.5mm iPhone headphone jack, indeed a brave decision!

How the User Experience of iPhone Changed

From 3D touch to the voice-activated Siri, Apple has given birth to a mobile-friendly ecosystem. The App store is one of the ways in which Apple brought a whole new world of applications to users. From fighting Angry Birds to learning Swift, a language used by app developers, iPhone users can access information through the app store.

Siri, Apple’s Personal assistant that was introduced in iPhone 4s, had the world in awe. Now you could interact with your mobile as with a real living person. You can ask it to set your schedules, remind about coming meetings, ask for troubleshooting guidance and even make it tell jokes! Siri is found in most Apple products and continues to delight users.

iPhone’s 3D Touch allowed users to interact with the loaded pictures; they actually moved when touched. Brought back the memories of days gone by!

Apple Pay integration has made transactions clutter free and secure. No bank cards or cash required when running errands!

Putting things into perspective: iPhone isn’t perfect

Let’s face it..Apple is facing hard times with Androids claiming the lion’s share of the middle market. Despite its excellent support and security, it faces issues with customisation and affordability. It’s still a niche product and tight budgeted consumers consider it way out of their league.

Let’s take a look at Android Vs. iPhone basis Hardware and Software:

Hardware assessment

Internal storage can be tricky with not all iPhone models offering 128GB

Micro SD cards costing as little as $13 can be used to boost storage, but it impacts speed

Since iPhones come in fewer models than Androids, it’s certainly easier to pick one if you’ve made up your mind to buy an iPhone

Software assessment

Homescreens can’t really be customised with iPhone. With Androids, there’s more freedom. You can hide all apps in an app tray and leave the home screen blank for your favorite display picture.

Both phones have Digital assistants, Siri and Google Now. Google Now has limited capabilities but Google Assistant is at par with Siri.

Android OS offers great functionality. Plug it into a PC and it acts like a hard drive. You can manipulate documents just like a flash drive. With an iPhone, you can just access the photos and videos. You can import softwares in Android from unknown sources, but iPhone allows only apps from app store in your country.

Downside of so much flexibility is that it takes a toll on the learning curve. Sometimes, manufacturers change the look and feel of the OS so much that users have to re-learn using the phone.

Buy an iPhone and you can access any Google service- Gmail, Google Maps, Google Calendar and so on, seamlessly. Conversely, very few Apple services are available on Android phones.

Bringing it all together…

iPhone started the tidal wave of smartphones that has engulfed everywhere. And the legacy lives on…Some may argue, iPhone sales are dipping year-on-year, yet it bears some thought that hours after iPhone 7 was launched last year, its complete stock was sold out online and Apple had to push back release dates to cope with the staggering demand!

The post Happy Tenth Birthday, iPhone: Then and Now appeared first on AppInventiv.

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