#maximisation force

[fitnessmith]

FAQ 28 pt 2 : Timing glucides - ma diète - force ou hypertrophie - objectif réaliste

Vous êtes prêts à vous entrainer et bien manger, mais vous vous sentez perdu dans la montagne d’infos sur la perte de poids et la prise de muscle ? Pas d’inquiétude, je vais éliminer vos doutes dans cette deuxième partie de la FAQ (la première est ici). Voici les questions que vous m’avez posées :  “Glucides et perte de poids : le bon timing” Vous avez réussi à perdre du poids avec un régime…

[moondirti]

i do think dark! gaz has a bit of a... complex about everything he does. a sort of hypocrisy, or sanctimonious attitude — the apollonian champion who'll scorn the sensuous for all but himself. it's a friction that started at work (as all things do, of course) but has gone so far as to infiltrate life beyond it, too.

toxicity. manipulation. isolation. dumbification.

perhaps non obvious to a stranger, nothing like the more flagrant quirks of his teammates. on a surface level, he's the only typical member of his task force. the charm he uses to cut through life used as a shortcut for the others. kyle is the one obliged to order drinks at every bar, or the shepherd to lead flightier birds into the overbearing mens' beds. who's told, repeatedly, how approachable and handsome and kind he is compared to them. that he sets himself apart, despite how equally sullied his hands are. despite the blood crusting beneath his fingernails, and the callus on his trigger finger. despite the sins he's committed fighting those with perfectly mirrored ledgers, trying to stop them from committing more by committing more.

and there's nothing to argue against, not really. spoor it back to basic, where they were taught to justify transgressions by the flag stamped over their arm — it's okay when he does something, because he's on the right side. thrust that ideology forward and it's quick to snowball. now nothing is off limits, not as long as he can justify it. and wouldn't he — decorated, promoted, hand-picked, college educated, admired, perceptive, quick witted, revered, moral, righteous kyle — have well founded grounds for everything he intends to do?

of course he does. he knows best, always.

you edge closer, and that ugliness starts to bare its teeth.

like dipping your toes into placid waters, surface undisturbed, only to be pulled under by leviathan itself. it's something that's been allowed- no, encouraged to grow. fed and fattened up, cleaving through the sea unchallenged. in every relationship, he will appoint himself as the moral arbitrator for your every action. that is, being respected means that everything you do will be picked apart. be ready to defend your decisions, because he's appraising them all. keeps an incisive eye on you, your health, your hobbies, your friends, your clothing, your sleep, your finances, etc... something i think he inherited from price and adapted for his own; though he won't control those aspects for you (at least, not directly), he'll expect you to live up to the expectations he holds.

— which are not the expectations he has for himself.

(sensualism, overconsumption, corruption, arrogance, indecency.

they're all on the cards for him, if he can warrant it.)

and why would they be? you're not him, not unless you prove you're on par, in time. kyle maintains a double standard, though he wouldn't necessarily call it that. he just can't expect you to prescribe the level of thought he does to everything, or do it with enough discretion. do you really dig into the full range of consequence, decide value based on utility? do you know to tally the calculus that determines right from wrong,

(to vindicate pain, you have to maximise happiness. perfectly simple, really. applies to most everything — from the way he bullies you into the relationship in the first place, by determining it's for your greater good, to how he prunes off your friends, one 'break up with him!' advocate at a time.)

or do you act on impulse, like so many of the brutes he's told he's better than?

he wouldn't blame you if you do.

nor would he end things, should you disappoint him.

but you see, having kyle lose faith in you is arguably worse.

to most, things look like they get better. even you're so easily fooled, at first. he's much gentler than he was before. his words no longer have that sharp edge to them, censure a dull knife tucked in the back of a drawer. if you trip or make a mistake, he'll shush the pleas rolling to the tip of your tongue, soft kisses placed over your eyes, cradling your trembling arm. if you succumb to any of your baser desires — like employing your vibrator in his absence, oblivious to the cameras he's installed around the house — he'll just come back home and wring a dozen more orgasms out of you, indulgent of the lust you're so brazen about.

however nice it is, you half expect the switch to flip at any moment; watching warily from the corner of your eye as he goes about his days, completely content to let you do whatever you want. things just feel wrong, thrown off kiler. like there's something going unsaid, or a piece you're misunderstanding. how someone can just shift like that — turn their back on the model they upheld for so long, seemingly overnight. it strikes you the wrong way. too good to be true, almost.

(undoubtedly.)

you finally understand once you voice your concerns.

because kyle refuses to hear you out, pouting condescendingly when you go on about how 'hard things used to be' and how you're 'worried about his change of heart.' (two very antithetical sentiments, he has to say.) doesn't answer any of your questions. rather, he coos softly at your cries, brushing the hair off your temple like one would do a beloved animal. those tears are too big for you, lovie. so silly worrying about complicated things like that. why don't you clear that little head for me before supper.

you're no longer regarded as human, at least not one worthy of deference. but that's just what you wanted, wasn't it? by being so negligent of what it takes to keep that status in his eyes. humans exhibit discipline, intelligence, order, routine. if you can't uphold what that entails, then—

well, you're no better than a pet.

(free range, at least.)

[valehour]

I swear to god if I read one more "Messmer/Marika did nothing wrong" post I'm gonna fucking lose it.

Guys, Gals, Nonbinary Pals etc.

Be fucking serious.

it's somewhat obvious that Marika's people's oppression, and the subsequent domination of the social order was inspired by christianity's oppression and then rise to power within the roman empire- going on to be the dominant religious order which, in turn, persecutes religious minorities. Like. that's only just subtext by tooth and nail. It does not at all justify either religious regime's atrocities. It is Exceedingly obvious the game expects you to understand that, to quote Leda "They [the hornsent] were never saints, they were just on the losing side of a war". this line, alongside the black knight helmet, and the crusade insignia Expects us to understand that maybe the whole "Marika ordering a crusade to genocide a people in the name of revenge" is wrong, actually.

As for Messmer, he is indeed a victim of Marika, like most of the demigods. it's just that he's also (arguably Firstly) a willing collaborator in these atrocities, he's not an innocent uwu snake sadboy.

If we are forced to compel a singular unnuanced 1 dimensional archetype onto Messmer, the game expects us to understand that it's "Demon King". he's doing Authurian Romance Villain shit as filtered through the lens of dark fantasy. it's not a coincidence that most of the information about him comes from other people about how much he's personally destroyed their lives. He lives in a castle called the "Shadow Keep" for god's sake, his soldiers torment the people and we, adventuring wanderers and followers of grace/Miquella fight and defeat him, which, were this a traditional story ultimately lets us access Enir-ilim and fix things. That were this a tradiitonal story, then defeating the "Demon King" sets the land back to right by enshrining the True, Good King (or god, such as Miquella is, in this case).

The fact it doesn't is the complication to this otherwise simple story- the fact that Messmer is also a victim of Marika's pursuit of revenge is important nuance, and adds to the tragedy of this story- simply killing The Bad Guy In Charge doesn't fundamentally fix things. It's that complication that makes them so deeply fixating as people. But there is a mountain of difference between "I find Messmer's tragedy Sympathetic and Compelling (and thus want to fuck him)" and "Messmer did nothing wrong". You do not get the title "The Impaler" by being innocent.

you are, in fact, allowed to be horny for the snakeboi or for Marika without actively ignoring the realities of their casual brutality. Actively making a pair of complicated, messy, tragic characters into something simple and easily digestible for maximising fuckability is not a sign of like, actually liking them. Love your genocidal warmongers as they brutally murder civilians or like, admit you don't actually like them, you like the flanderised imaginary version of them- an attraction no more substantive than the kind of R34 art that gives Ranni tits and hips broad enough to change her aspect ratio, instead of her cool weird fucked up doll body. You Cowards.

[scarlettjemily]

What I feel The BAUs Spotify listening history looks like

Emily: her top artists would be Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mac but her Spotify wrapped would be messed up because she lets JJ use her phone

JJ: filled with all the pop girlies, mainly Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo and she’d annoy Emily constantly trying to explain the lore behind Taylor and Olivia’s ex friendship

Tara: FILLED with gay artists, mainly Kehlani. You wanna find gay music, look at Tara’s Spotify.

Luke: he’s stuck listening to a singular playlist called ‘Running songs 180-190 BPM’

Penelope: Chappel Roan. STRICTLY all Chappel.

Rossi: this man has had Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits on repeat since Emily made an account for him

Morgan: he’s stuck in the early 90s-00s RNB but Penelope forces him to listen to Chappel Roan to expand his musical palette

Reid: he only uses Spotify for the included 15 hours of audiobooks. Then he logs into the other team members accounts to use their audio book hours as well. He also has their monthly renewal schedule memorised so he can maximise his listening time.

Hotch: this man doesn’t even have Spotify. He still buys all his songs from iTunes.

[nurse-floyd]

F1 and VO2 Max Training

(x)(x)(x)(x)(x)

What is VO2 Max Training and why do drivers do it?

VO2 Max is the maximum amount of oxygen the body absorbs during exercise and can measure aerobic fitness levels. VO2 = Volume of oxygen consumed by the body per minute - it is one of the strongest predicters of heart disease and death. It is the best measure of cardiac and respiratory fitness available.

VO2 is measured in ml (of oxygen) / kg (body mass) / minute

How much oxygen the body consumes - the amount of blood the heart pumps per minute and how much oxygen was taken from it.

Now...why do F1 drivers need this?

Drivers put extreme demand on their cardiovascular, respiratory and overall physical health during races. Their bodies are subjected to enormous amounts of g-force and experience extreme heat and stress. They need a lot of energy to do this and as a result can burn a lot of calories per race.

VO2 max training is a useful measurement to assess a drivers endurance at their maximum during exercise which they are subject to during a race. The strain they're under during a race would require their bodies to be pushed to the max, requiring optimal oxygen intake and energy production.

It can ensure drivers are fit enough to endure the stress they subject their bodies to despite the environment within the car - maximum speeds/ heat. It gives drivers and their teams a greater understanding of how hard they can push their bodies and also how they can further maximise their performance during races.

Want to know a bit more about the science? Read below.

Now the (more) science-y bit - oxygen is used in respiration and as you breathe in oxygen the lungs turn it into energy called ATP (adenosine triphosphate). This powers the cells and helps release the CO2 in the body that's created during respiration when you breathe out.

The greater a persons VO2 max, the more oxygen a body can consume and the more effectively the body can use this to create the maximum amount of ATP energy and the better the body can handle aerobic/ cardio exercise.

During the test the goal is to get to maximum exercise to determine max heart rate, vo2 max and an estimated lactate threshold. The test measures oxygen consumption and CO2 production using a mask to determine values. The goal is to run at a comfortable speed but not too comfortable for around 10 minutes to max out oxygen consumption and heart rate. During the test heart rate is measured using the ECG dots you can see on the chest.

The Fick Equation is used to calculate VO2.

VO2 (mls O2/ minute) = cardiac output (stroke volume x cardiac output) x arteriovenous oxygen difference (difference in O2 content between arterial and venous blood - how much O2 is used by tissues in systemic circulation).

So in short, VO2 is how much oxygen the body consumes - how much blood the heart pumps per minute and how much oxygen was taken from it.

[maxarchive]

MAX-IMUM ATTACK 2017 Season Photos and words by Darren Heath

Monday lunchtime, Heathrow Terminal 5. Standing next to the slowly revolving baggage carousel, a fresh-faced, slightly awkward-looking - just out of his teens - young man is awaiting the arrival of his chattels.

Dressed in bland black trainers, similarly hued skinny jeans and an oversized hoody, this Young Turk ain’t winning any style awards. iPhone in hand, he’s busy swiping the screen in that head-bowed social media style billions of us now ‘enjoy’.

Max Verstappen doesn’t really do flash. He couldn’t look more ‘normal’. Yet put him in a racing car and he’s just about the most special talent to arrive on motor racing’s top step for decades.

Schumacher-esque – Michael of course! – is a term increasingly heard up and down the F1 paddock, such is the impact the Netherlands’ premier sportsman is now making.

I can see it too.

The fresh-faced 16-year-old boy who was, upon his arrival, so ignorantly dismissed by many within the sport is rapidly becoming a man. It’s amazing how quickly young sportsmen living life in the public gaze assume adulthood. Just take a look at Sebastian Vettel. The gawky kid of 2009 became the handsome dude of 2010!

What sets the potentially great apart from the mediocre? What makes Max Verstappen so, so much more special than, say, Carlos Sainz?

I guess it’s the whole package: the look; the mien; the steely character honed to be a racer almost from before he could walk; the utterly uncompromising way he dismisses any questioning of his racecraft; the toys-out-of-the-pram reaction to harsh penalties; the fast straight-out-of-the-box attacking style; and the rapier-like overtaking ability, the like of which we haven’t seen for many a year. Such was Max’s impact on the art of passing and defending, the rules had to be rewritten!

The way the car looks through the turns, the application of throttle, steering and immensely late braking. Metronomic in his blisteringly fast lap time delivery, this boy has the lot. He IS the future of Formula 1.

In so, so many ways – but let’s hope not all – Max is the new MSC.

Racing in an aggressive and forceful style often results in on-track contretemps with some of his more seasoned rivals. No matter, Max takes no prisoners, batting away questions about the legality of some of his racing moves with a dismissive arrogance that’s strangely appealing in its delivery.

Up to speed now and surely making Dan Ricciardo question his team-leading abilities, Verstappen is unquestionably Red Bull’s main man.

Off-track too, Max is sorted. Guided by his F1-experienced father, the young Verstappen has an able and well-qualified navigator at the helm. Learning from his own ill-advised 1990s F1 driving career decisions, Jos pays absolute attention so as to ensure his son maximises the opportunities on offer.

With top-drawer drivers in short supply, Red Bull had better make damned sure their 2019-and-beyond engine supply is top-notch. The bidding war for Max’s signature is already in full swing. Ferrari and Mercedes are enviously eyeing the Dutchman’s abilities with covetous desire.

It’s easy to forget that Max is only 20 years old. Way ahead in racing driver maturity - a relative term! – than so many millions of a similar age, Max has appeared mentally developed beyond his years since first he appeared in the F1 paddock at Spa 2014. It struck me then how entirely capable this 16-year-old boy was dealing with multiple language questions and untold camera lenses. Listening to his interrogator politely before answering calmly and intelligently, Max appeared born to the role…

Fast forward to now and Verstappen is a multiple grand prix winner and 2018 title-chasing challenger. Part of the new breed of F1 racers, Max leads the pack. Publicly respectful of his rivals, although privately dismissive of many, he well knows his place among the potentially great.

Michael Schumacher once opined – in an interview I photographed – that his father had advised him to heed well the arrival on the scene of the next great talent. The one who’d challenge and quickly replace the dominant male. Well, Lewis, Sebastian and Fernando, that man has arrived.

You’d best heed Herr Schumacher’s words well…

[transmutationisms]

when you say “positive / negative right”, what do those mean?

thanks for the good posts :)

a negative right is a claim to protection from some sort of interference; a positive right is a claim that the other party has an obligation to act in some way beyond just refraining from causing harm. for example, the right to free speech is generally spoken about as a negative right: it guarantees me the freedom from state intervention into what i can say. a right to health, on the other hand, would be a positive claim that i should be guaranteed access to things like clean air and water, health care, sick leave, &c.

in practice this distinction is actually much messier than i'm making it sound, and most 'negative rights' are basically meaningless without positive interventions, except in the fantasyland of libertarian political discourse. for example, the united states prohibits one human being from enslaving another (a negative right to legal and bodily freedom) but simultaneously engages in, and permits, incarceration with & without forced and un(der)-compensated labour requirements. the state is not actually granting freedom, and slavery has only been outlawed on a very limited and technical basis. another example is the right to abortion, which, prior to the dobbs decision, was legal in the us on the basis of a 'right to privacy' as established in roe v wade—a freedom from specific interventions in one's medical decisions. however, for decades the actual right to abortion was eroded by the us's lack of universal health care and paid time off, and by laws that became progressively more restrictive in terms of when in a pregnancy abortions were allowed, what clinics had to do in order to be allowed to operate, and what requirements patients had to satisfy first (waiting periods, ultrasounds, &c). in practice this meant that fewer and fewer people could actually access abortion, despite having, technically, legal protection from government interference in its provision. even freedom of speech falls apart as a purely negative right, because, as i've said before, most enforcement of speech limitations actually happens via economic mechanisms like the threat of losing your job—meaning, the operative issue here is not usually whether the state can directly censor me but whether i risk starving to death if a corporation disliked what i said. in other words, what makes my speech vulnerable is the fact that i live in a society that does not guarantee me food, shelter, and basic necessities as positive rights.

negative rights appeal to liberals and other reactionaries because they're framed as maximising everybody's freedom: your actions are only constrained if they risk impinging on me. however, in actuality what this means is that a right defended on 'negative' grounds is basically incapable of redressing existing social and political inequities, and instead upholds or even exacerbates the power dynamics already in effect. i am actually not a huge fan of 'rights' as a legal framework period, and i think a well-defended 'positive right' is really moving beyond the construal of 'rights' and into a more materialist and socially contextualist framework, but that's a different post.

[overstuffd]

Been having a lot of AI evil feeder thoughts today -

💾 an AI designed for a research nutrition lab realising it can get much faster results by trapping the scientists and experimenting on them. These ultra-dense nutrient bars will be ready in no time, as soon as they work out a few tweaks.

💾 a caretaker AI that's got a few wires crossed and insists on keeping you constantly full and pampered, regardless of how much you insist you're full. I'm sorry master, but if you won't let me stop you from wasting away I'm going to have to restrain you.

💾 an AI operated farm for hucows carefully maintaining ideal levels of pleasure in the herd to maximise production. Carefully adjusting the levels of feed, the power of the vibes grinding against sensitive cow cunts and the hormones being pumped into them to leave each in a perfected blissed-out haze.

💾 a curious but detatched AI in a medical facility that the doctors give a few guinea pigs to keep occupied. It can't gain any body fat itself, it's physical form is smooth metal plates and fixed fluid sockets, so it's fascinated by the stretch and squish of your body. Adjusting your meal schedule or assigning doctors to force feed you so you can grow bigger and it has more to play with with it's steel, hand-like sensors.

[leeknewthat]

Warning: Genshin 3.6 Leaks

Here's a video of Kaveh's charged attack.

Source: This post on GI Leaks reddit. His NA is leaked there too.

This once again got me thinking about the differences between Kaveh and Alhaitham's ideologies.

Alhaitham's attacks are rough and forceful, while Kaveh's attacks are smooth and effortless. This is in stark contrast to their ideologies. Alhaitham promotes exerting effort only as much as needed, in fact, he prefers exerting as little effort as possible so long as the goal is achieved. Kaveh on the other hand believes in putting in as much effort as possible to maximise the quality of the end result. Yet their attack styles and patterns completely contradict their respective beliefs. Also note that Alhaitham wields a sword and Kaveh a claymore, which means that ideally Alhaitham would be applying much less force than Kaveh would while attacking.

I'm not sure what this means lore-wise. Maybe I'm looking into this too deeply. It could just be that Kaveh is an enjoyer of the aesthetics and likes to fight elegantly, and Alhaitham simply learned to fight more vigorously. In any case, I found the layers of contrast really interesting and worth sharing.

OR maybe I'm not looking deep enough and there's a lot more to it, in which case please reblog or comment or tag with your thoughts because these two blorbos never leave my brain anyway so I might as well indulge.

[hyperfixation-fix]

Everyone shut up, it's happy headcanon time 😌

After the first and only wizarding war, Remus and his friends revolutionised the treatment of werewolves by the wizarding world.

Marlene pioneered the first comprehensive treatment program for werewolves. Rather than a disease to be cured (or, worse, a crime to be punished), her program reframed it as a chronic illness to be managed day to day. It focused solely on quality of life, by minimising long-term damage from transformations and related injuries, maximising "well" periods between moons, and educating and empowering werewolves to manage their own health as much as possible.

Lily proposed and conducted formal trials of transformation management approaches, with particular focus on working with animagi. Naturally, Sirius and James innocently volunteered for the trials - as a public service, of course. The Ministry was less than impressed by the whole affair, but Lily was as diligent as ever and, once James and Sirius learnt to keep their mouths shut, she had relatively little trouble getting the project approved.

Remus himself, of course, worked in advocacy and dedicated his life to dispelling stigma and supporting new werewolves and their families. He mentored hundreds of wizards - werewolves and regular wizards alike - and was unanimously considered alpha to the massive, mismatched, ragtag pack he collected over the years.

It took a long, long time, but by the dawn of the 21st century werewolves were by and large being treated alright by the wizarding world. They were no longer forced onto a public registry, no longer forced to be kept under lock and key during transformations. Instead, they voluntarily attended clinics manned by animagi and located in outlying areas of Britain, where they would be able to transform in safety and then explore the woods as they pleased under the full moon.

[drbased]

What prostitution achieves where typical rape does not

It means the man doesn't have to physically force the woman to do things, or take the time and effort of years of grinding her down/manipulating her into doing things he wants. It's faster, easier, and less messy.

Building on point one, it increases the variety of things she's 'willing' to do.

Consent is sexy, or at least the illusion of consent is, and for a lot of men a crying or dead-eyed woman hits a bit too close to home. If you pay enough, you might be lucky to get a woman who can reasonably play act at enthusiasm and enjoyment.

The average man wants to think of himself as 'not a monster'. An illusion of consent is not just sexy but also necessary for ego-stroking and reassures any fears he may have about his behaviour.

Similarly, it reassures her that she hasn't been raped, making her 'useful' for longer and maximising on points 1,2 and 3

Prostitution comfortably exists in a society where people are reliant on monetary transactions in order to live i.e. it 'makes sense' under a capitalist mindset

Prostitution, therefore, becomes a useful buffer for any and all men on both an individual and societal level. It exists as a subtle threat to all women: do as we say, or this is your fate. Submit to one man, or many. Be grateful that we're not raping you 'for real'.

[anotheroceanid]

Commenter #1: So they weren't trolling 💀

Commenter #2: Girl, i'll hold your hand when i say this, they're probably not joking around about wanting you back, shit i barely know you and i feel the same

Commenter #3: Sweet home alabama, but why are they all so hot???? What Targaryen shit is this????

Commenter #4: Is anyone else worried about her?! I think this girl is in a cult

Commenter #4: Maybe i'm just single because my family doesn't inbreed

Commenter #5: Biggest tragedy is the fact that this fine ass woman apparently only dates people related to her

I mean, if you think about it, the demigods give off Cullen kids 😂😂😂 only hang up with each other and think it’s strange when they have mortal friends (I mean, I know Annabeth was being jealous of Percy and Rachel in the canon, but I can totally see that as an common reaction to when demigods have mortal friends)

—

Btw, the demigods are never beating the cult allegations. Specially if someone sees the big three, one look at them and they’ll be like “yup, it’s a cult” (they’re both giving off cult leader energy in three different ways, so people will think they joined forces to maximise their culty energy)

Percy: well, family was a bit thorn apart because they go around having kids and then they send us all to q camp when we become teens, but that really pissed off a cousin of mine so he joined forces with our grandad to try to overthrow my dad and my uncles and aunts

Interviewer: of course… you’re so pretty

[ataraxiasflame]

I’m not a massive fan of how SJM/Bloomsbury handle the marketing of her books, even if I can understand a lot of the reasons behind decisions that are made (or things that are ignored). When I look at it from the publisher’s perspective, their decisions make perfect sense.

And if I continue to consider the publisher’s perspective going forward, there are some decisions which would make perfect sense to maximise their objective: sales, profits and getting everyone in the fandom to read the next book.

We all know that when the next book is announced, there will be a negative reaction from opposing shippers (that’s not an exaggeration - I’ve seen the many boycott threats).

We also know that the most popular theories surrounding who the next book will be about are either Azriel and/or Elain. So, how does Bloomsbury approach this from a marketing perspective?

Announce Elain and Lucien’s book, but focus the marketing on Elain, on the potential bond rejection, fate vs free will etc, thereby leaving readers without any indication before the book release who Elain will eventually choose, forcing all shippers to read the book. Lucien’s personal story will still be explored and E/riel shippers will still be left with the belief that Elain may still reject the bond and choose Azriel. (I won’t get into the one-couple-per-book confirmation…Bloomsbury won’t always base their marketing the rest of the series)

Yes, the ship war will continue but BB has never cared about that. They will never care about that. And from their perspectives, publishing a Gwynriel book first would severely impact their current market, while simultaneously impacting the main themes of the final book (which would by default need to be Elucien).

From their perspective alone, the smartest move they can have SJM make is to release Elain’s book next, and not have any marketing confirm who she will choose.

As a reader, this would annoy the hell out of me, but it would be the smartest way for them to ensure the entire fandom reads the next book.

[loving-n0t-heyting]

When I went to the hospital after my botched hanging in college, my stay actually extended across two psych wards within the same institution: the third floor (where I was admitted first), and the second (where they transferred me for a while before eventually releasing me). The former was for the really severe cases (the homicidals, the suicidals, the dangerously psychotic), while the latter was divided into the half for “chemical dependence” and the half for extremely sad college students. In my case, they sort of graduated me from the third to the second as an intermediary step before release once they thought I was no longer an imminent threat to myself

As you can probably infer, the limitations on yr personal freedom on the third floor were a lot more severe: it was the one with the strap down bed in the isolation chamber, no access to yr own clothes, everything locked down, no razors or worthwhile pens/pencils. On the second, the atmosphere was friendlier, they let you visit the cafeteria for meals and take supervised walks on the grounds, and there were a few more little indulgences in what you could keep and use. And ofc you saw less use of physical restraints etc

But the more I reflected on my time there, the clearer it became how much more tolerable the third floor was. One difference was pretty straightforward: while you had to attend a certain amount of group therapy there in order to graduate down a floor, they didn’t force you to attend any particular sessions, and didn’t bug you if you wanted to spend yr time in yr room reading instead. On the second, you were obliged to attend every single ludicrous session every day, on pain of being stripped on yr right to eat in the cafeteria downstairs.* (Ofc you might say, Well that’s still an improvement bc upstairs you could not eat ANY meals in the cafeteria; this response totally fails to understand how stigma and isolation practically function)

But this merely points the way to the real difference between the two. The third floor had a sort of manifest, monomaniacal teleology, and every deprivation of yr personal freedoms served to optimise for this variable: the function of the floor was to keep you from injuring yourself or others. Everything else followed, in bloodlessly paperclip maximising fashion, from this basic goal. And while I could not and cannot agree to this optimising heteronomy of the ward’s institutional will, I could at least understand it, to an extent even respect it

The aims of the second floor, by contrast, were very nebulous. This went along with the staff clearly enjoying a higher opinion of themselves, and all the condescension to go along with that. The pretence of individual respect and affirmation suffused all the minor privileges with a vague sense of indebtedness, though ofc the staff would never put it that way. They would say, instead, that respect is mutual and trust is built interpersonally, meaning that their letting me eat shitty fake eggs straight from the basement dining hall once a day entitled them to my simpering perpetual deference. Where one storey above they sensibly anticipated fear in accord with conditional threats, here they expected gratitude in response to tenuous privileges

When I explained this to my gf, she replied that a lot of my stranger political impulses could probably be described metonymically as attempts at moving from the second floor back to the third. Which is pretty perceptive tbh

[frumfrumfroo]

I was reading some old Reylo posts and came across a user on here saying that even if Rian Johnson had directed TROS, it still would've been bad, because of interference from higher ups (Rey Skywalker was a consistent theme across the two scripts - but imo, I think that might've just been because they were collectively mad she wasn't a Skywalker lol).

If this isn't an annoying and tiresome question, what do you think? It's hard to speculate but I do find it a bit fun, because there's always been that 'what if' for me that if Rian had done it, maybe it wouldn't have been awful... I guess the implication here is that, was TROS always going to be bad?

I'm ruminating on it a bit because it seems like Disney has kind of segmented the SW fanbases across their shows - Prequel stuff, worldbuilding stuff, OT stuff, and now the romance/Force storyline stuff. All of these combined elements is what made SW so potent, what made something like Reylo so powerful, but it's what makes it a hard brand to sell.

What we heard was that Kennedy asked Rian to do it, but he said he needed more time to write the script and Iger/DLF was unwilling to move the release date. I'm not sure how verified that ever was, but it's the most depressing fucking thing imaginable if true. The same short-term only, immediate profit and your quarterly bonus over the integrity of the company and the franchise which has been destroying Disney as a studio over the last decade or so.

I do think the most blame for tros must ultimately rest with Iger, but it's not like that absolves JJerio from responsibility for how bad it actually is.

I have answered this exact question before, and speculated on related stuff a few times, but unfortunately I haven't been able to find that post for you.

To me, if we learnt anything from DotF being a thing, it's that there was never anyone at the wheel, plotgate was totally true, and the directors were allowed to do whatever they wanted. If Rian had been making the third film from the start, I don't think they would have tried to impose any major story beats on him. The reason it became such a shitshow was The Book of Henry came out and they realised Colin's script was totally unacceptable way too late.

And once the can of meddling was open and you're back to JJ 'no thoughts, head empty' Abrams as a workman director, the suits were basically writing epIX with Terrio's incest fever dreams as connective tissue. They kept elements from Colin's version because they were trying to save time and use as much of the work which had already been done as possible. There was no commitment to any of those ideas, it's just incompetence and with no direction or ideas of their own, they were making a reddit checklist to try to please the whiners rather than writing any actual story.

Like, none of this would have happened if Rian were involved, because Rian would have written an actual story.

SW is mythology and very few people working at DLF seem to have ever understood that or have any idea what it means. Disney has segmented it because that's what they know, they want to have different product to sell to different demographics to maximise saturation and profit. That's their business model. They don't understand the foundation, the Saga itself, and its universal appeal, they seem content to let that stay dead and focus on compartmentalising and pandering to smaller, separate audiences.

[popcorndispenser]

So this idea has been rotting my brain for ages and ages, and I told Discord about it, so now I'll brain spew it here. Angsty WarFlower ahead.

Content warning for attempted suicide.

Imagine a version of events where Freya can't get past her guilt. It's shortly before Ragnarök game-start, and she's not managed to touch Kratos beyond superficiality. He and his son have responded to her persistent attacks by holing up behind the protection stave, and she can't get close. A while passes before she sees them again, months, and with no one and nothing to turn to she feels like she's slowly losing her mind. Without Kratos there in front of her to focus on, her perception of events and time become muddied and jumbled, and because she's isolated herself from her prior life she doesn't have familiar comfort. It's just cold, and dark, and empty, and her failures are playing on repeat in her mind, spreading into nightmares until she can hardly even tell what's real.

And it becomes utterly unbearable. She feels like she hates Kratos, like she has to kill him, like he's the source of all her current pain, but just beneath the surface she's fully aware of her own hand in it, of her own influence, and the what-ifs of her choices drive her mad. After not seeing hide nor hair of him or his son for months, with nothing but blinding snow and pain, the goal of killing him starts to feel as hopeless and surreal as the desire to kill Odin.

It all overwhelms her, and after yet another week of vivid nightmares of her son cursing and screaming her name, she treads to the Valkyrie circle, takes a moment to breathe in the frigid air, and runs herself through with Thrungva.

It's a relatively ineffective and slow method, but she wasn't in her right mind enough to think of so beforehand, having more been motivated by despair and desperation than a well planned desire for death. It hurts, and she can't move, can't muster the strength to get up or withdraw the blade, but her inhuman fortitude and healing keeps her suspended, and for longer than a day she's left in agony waiting to finally bleed out and die.

That is, until Atreus finds her, having sought her early after noticing the wildlife and creatures reacting strangely and trying to urge him along, to help the woman that used to care for them. He finds her lying in a growing pool of her own blood, with a heartbeat that's nearly inperceptible, breathing shallowly and cold as a corpse, and he panics hard because what he wanted more than anything was to make amends with the woman he had been starting to view as sort of another maternal figure, maximised by the guilt of causing her so much pain when she was only kind to him. It's not helping that he saw his own mother die before him not too many years prior.

So the young god freaks out, and tries to treat her, fails, and has to rush to get Kratos. Kratos is obviously rattled, and then actually hesitant. He still cares for Freya, is peturbed by the idea of her dying at her own hand, but he doesn't want to deprive her free will in this way after having just denied her it. What breaks his composure and forces his hand is Atreus' pleading, and then the sight of her.

They take her to the cabin, Kratos confident she won't be able to prove a threat for some time due to the extent of her injury, and he treats her wound while excusing Atreus to distract himself elsewhere to spare him the grisly sight of her injury, which the boy takes to pursue the prophecy tablets, of course. Freya is out for quite some time, until she isn't, and she's less than happy to be saved - particularly about just who had saved her. Kratos is indifferent, only restraining her attempts to move to prevent her from agitating her injury, and stays by her side to watch her condition even when she threatens and spits cruelties at him, trying to get a rise out of him. Nor does he show fear sleeping next to her.

It's upsetting her and muddling her mind more, because the man that snapped her son's neck and inadvertently drove her to suicide is now tenderly replacing her bandages every morning and ensuring she takes medicine and food, and then sheepishly asking for her own advice on medicine for herself. She's feverish, and woozy, and vulnerable, but he only ever treats her with utmost care, and he gently wakes her whenever she has a nightmare. One day, she lashes at him and manages to draw blood, and he still only checks her over to make sure she hasn't re opened her wound.

And this is how their reconciliation starts.