#this is not a measurement of merit

[chatte-noire]

Light bringer x scheming

an appreciation and condemnation of the schemes, moves and manouvers in light bringer. who served them the coldest, and who was bamboozled? This is only about stunts, not about morals or likability.

Lysander:

Lysander's scheming took a whole new level and I was really surprised at the little coup he staged with atalantia in the collosseum. In the first half of the book he really had the monopoly on well placed and daring maneuvering.

I think his best stunt was the compromise on the dockyard of venus, managing to keep apollonius, and win the carthii and julias block while simultaneously showing up atalantia, reinforcing the alliance with the rim and starting the attack on mars.

I wouldn't have expected him to be able to hold the alliance with applelonius for even a few weeks, now its been a whole book, I'm exited to see if Darrow can use the minotaur against lysander in red god.

yes in the attack on phobos he wasted ships and men and money and copied darrows helldiver strategy.. but he also surprised virginia with his strategies and finally took enough of phobos to have the upper hand in negotiations, something I wouldn't have expected him to be able to do. esp. after atlas called phobos impregnable.

Darrow:

in the first half darrow honestly took the scheming L. when I read the excerpt 2 weeks before buying the book I was CONVINCED that they didnt just land in apollonius obviouss trap, like pls let this be a trick. Darrow is such an experienced schemer, he must have expected a trap? but no he was like, tattoos look right, must be my bestie in this easily accessible prison. Its especially naive because he broke apollonius out of deep grave and so knows that apollonius knows how he would plan a prison break. and that backup plan was also flimsy, I expected better from him haha

on Europa Darrow had a nice scheming comeback, like recreating the Dead Horse strategy and beating Fa? Iconicc. bringing both obsidians (with a vote) and rim (with diomedes' oath) closer to democratic values? inspiring. Brokering collaboration between Rim, Daughters and Obsidians? A strong feat. that speech with the daughters was nice too.

but.. (and I'm not saying it didn't cost him a lot and will probably keep costing him dearly in red god) lysander still kept his scheming level established in the first half of the book. so much trickery, let's see how long he can keep it up before he drowns in it. He was backed into a corner by atlas but managed to trick both Atlas and Cassius, defeat the rim and gain a horrible weapon with one move.

It cost him the Rim Alliance and his humanity, but we already know his morals and ideology are a feeble construct held up by delusion and wanking off on silenius. and the rim armadas were destroyed by atlas so to lysander it probably only seems like a temporary loss until they come crawling back to society when hunger defeats them.

Sevro's stunts were refreshingly constant and awesome. Like.. escaping apollonius and fighting him in his own house?? rescuing his bumbling saviours? and the most bestest move: convincing the Daughters of Ares to work together with them by holding such an iconic speech like.. wish we would have gotten to see that in first person. just like Volgas ascension as obsidian queen. They both had such iconic and smart moments off screen. pierce doesnt want them to steel the stunt limelight me feels.

Aurae was able to follow her goals throughout the book, while managing the boys, the daughters of ares and diomedes. she had an emotional and moral bond to each one of them, but managed to stay true to her own values even as the parties were conflicting.

honorary mentions:

Lyria smuggling herself unto the archie, she knows how to take advantage of her size, even more impressive because darrow had the same experience with rhonna and still didn't realise (or didnt care?)

Apollonius snatching up Darrow and Cassius

Virginia having an informant in the Society (her clone bro?) and her making a pact with and freeing the obsidians. I would have loved to see more of her, she always delivers top tier schemes (except for when she is outschemed by society rats).

they were outschemed, honorary mentions:

Volga following Fa: even if he wasn't Atlas puppet,,, he's still such an obvious upholder of Gold values and tyranny, but volga didnt want to see any of it. this makes her following him so horrible, I hope it doesn't all get blamed on Atlas, I mean Volga was fine with everything except for atlas' involvment. I don't know if she was naive or blind or ignorant or greedy but that was some top tier delusion.

Lysander bedazzling himself: this is the most hilarious and complete trickery. That guy just believes every fucking excuse he can give himself, he just gobbles them up. He might have freed himself from his AA Puppetduo, but the real puppeteer in his life is his delusional ideology and hybris.

Atalantia: she had such a good and safe plan, she just didn't realize that lysander doesn't care for his friends enough. now she is some ships and influence poorer, lost her watchdog, her nephew/lover (ew) and the grip on Lune's heir

Diomedes: Lysander had him wrapped around his lying finger and he did nott see that dishonorrr coming. Cassius didn't see it either, but I think he would have tried to save lysander anyway. The himbo bamboozlement lost them the garter and Cassius was murdered, at least he could kill Fear on the way.

[jethroq]

btw, protestant who claim to be ”just Christian” are so funny to me, because you then go look at their church and lo and behold, they do in fact hold specific views that differentiate them from a number of other sects

[randomnameless]

One thing I realized when it comes to the meritocracy proposed in CF/SB is that you kind of have to get rid of crested people and Nabateans. Like Dimitri is regarded as a powerful warrior due to his crest and training‚ he would dominate any physical career (‚ not to mention Hilda as well since in GW she blocks his strike). And while I don't know the exact process of getting crests‚ first gen (non-Nabatean) crest-bearers live a really long time (Willy‚ Jeralt‚ and Yuri) with no perceived (1/2)

That's what I've been saying since day 9 lol

Crested people skew the "meritocracy" angle because, even if the game did its best to curb down the ludonarrative experience - unlike FE Jugdral where HB means an unit is better than a non HB unit - it still exists.

Flayn with her crest will always be able to heal a fractured lung by clapping in her hands, when Ignatz would need to use all of his magic because he doesn't get the "boost to healing spells" Flayn's crest gives her.

Same with extended lifespans - let it be training martially, being "wise" or even being a polyglot, by sheer virtue of having at least 200 years on "regular" humans, first gen crest bearers and nabateans would... have more knowledge than Leonie's grandma.

--

Jerry questioning Rhea about bby!Billy is one of those things that, even if the 10 years of lore existed and were revealed, would never be developed because it was done at the cost of that world's consistency.

As you mentioned, regardless of Jerry knowing what Sitri was or not, Jerry knows he "oddly" older than everyone else and might have the same longevity as the Elites, he should have seen people like him around (cardinals), he lived through the Alliance's birht and Nopes reveals he was around when Rhea faked the death of the "blonde archbishop who was painted by an Adrestian and loved birds".

So unless Rhea indeed called the baby "mother" - which would not match with all the later interactions she has with Billy - there is so much "weirdness" going on with Jerry and/or around him that... suddenly being afraid of Rhea and ditching everything to become a merc with a newborn is either stupid, or plot contrived.

[hermitshell]

I think we should rate hermits bases on livability more often. Like nice structure you got there fellow- where is your kitchen and bathroom

[brionysea]

this man is pissing me off

[mariocki]

Parasite (1982)

"That thing on your stomach..."

"A new strain of parasite. I deserve it, in a way. I created it."

"For the Merchants? Why?"

"I thought for the government. They're so mixed up with the Merchants now, they work for one another. This 'thing', as you call it, is growing. It's dormant now but it will soon grow larger... and kill me."

[saltyfilmmajor]

I know in my heart of hearts that they were not going to give tom that best acting nom but by god it makes me sad

[labyrynth]

i don’t feel like bothering some random person abt a comment from several months ago so can someone tell me what i’m missing here

unless everything is in relatable units, a cup is always different

a cup is always a cup tho;;;?? like based on the context it’s very obviously Cup (culinary unit of measurement). the cup IS the unit. what am i not getting here.

[familyabolisher]

palm tree

palm tree ⇢ do you have a fictional villain you shouldn’t like but love regardless?

perhaps boring of me but i have no idea how to answer this because like, to say that i 'like' a fictional villain is to describe my relationship to their in-text effectiveness rather than to pass judgement on their morality or to describe an imagined social relation between myself and them, because like ... they're not real. like, to say that i 'like,' say, humbert humbert is to say that i think he's well-written, succeeds in fulfilling particular expectations set up by the narrative, conveys a measure of useful discursive material, &c. &c. i don't really have a cohesive framework of what a villain that i 'shouldn't' like but do would look like - like, these aren't real people. 'villain that i shouldn't like but love' is somewhat paradoxical, because like, if i 'shouldn't' like them than that's because they're not successfully constructed characters; if i love them then they are successfully constructed characters.

i don't know! i don't know how to like, make sense of this framework in a way that doesn't default to treating fictional characters like they are people you know in real life rather than devices employed to agitate a narrative.

[aaaaaaaadhd-studying]

27/01/2023

aough okay it is Very Late and I don’t think I’ll be doing very much more tonight, but here are some tasks, both outstanding and completed:

Admin & misc.

Duolingo (Spanish) (Japanese)

meeting with lecturer

create and send out survey for next DnD session

voting paperwork

update my calendar (also got the preparation/planning sorted for an event in March that I’m really looking forward to)

Creative Writing Class

type up Snowdrops draft

fiddle with The Calf draft

read A Disaffection

Ecotheory Class

Bates text

Bates lecture

Wordsworth text

finish translating Erlkönig

[unproduciblesmackdown]

also speaking of being autistic and the immediate encompassing social rejection / ostracization because of that; realizing a shorthand for that interpretation of like, people could accept themselves if they could accept winston just being like he is (an autistic person even if inadvertently as per the writing) and that’s fine actually, being like oh i mean people are Projecting on him lol. and not in the potential positive way of like, consciously relating to him in a sympathetic manner lmao, but in the way of like, someone can’t deal with [xyz] about themself so baselessly or not they project the trait onto some Other person and reject them for it. e.g. here the way that would mean like, what if i could be deemed cringe & unmeritous. but that’s unacceptable to confront b/c there’s no reconciling it with any good outcome so long as you also think that the whole situation / principle of [yeah some people are cringe / unmeritous and you have to Not Be Them or you’ll get eternally shit on b/c you deserve it] is unavoidable and/or just Correct. so instead you decide who’s clearly cringe and unmeritously deserving of punishment by superior people (whom you absolutely are one of) and reject them by doing the Superior Thing of pointing out that loserness & giving them shit for it, or at least rejecting them some other way like just more so ignore / avoid / deny that person lol....if someone can be Sympathetic despite like, making mistakes ever instead of being magically perfect which is surely the ideal, or ever existing for even a moment in ways that might seem Not mindblowingly epic and admirable and enviable and dignified as all hell, then that could mean You could be like that, and What Of That....much less what of like, being nd / specifically autistic in this discussion (b/c Eye am projecting that consciously & sympathetically and i’m correct. it is simply Recognized. and who else would even care. get outta here. and also the “you don’t need to Know someone is ‘officially’ nd to then decide their behaviors are only Excusable b/c of that, when they’re not doing anything wrong in the first place & it’s wild to think you should get to punish someone b/c they’re like weird or annoying to you” like it applies in fiction here too. winston’s just out here even with this unusually actively cooperative approach and sometimes acting like he gets to Talk or Be Physically Present or Having A Personality & people are like get his ass) as not even some negative in the first place, even though other shit that might be considered like Undignified / Unimpressive is hardly necessarily a negative, but in some medium in which experiences are Portrayed and shown to us, it can simply be like, we just never see or even refer to those kinds of moments that must exist when it comes to characters who are deservingly epic thank you, we would all seem extremely likable and be entirely above plenty of everyday shit that’s just not stuff that’d seem epic to some audience, and beyond that one would totally be the Not Like Other People winners who like by definition have to be better than pretty much everyone else, b/c what else is there, that nothing’s ever simply a meritocracy and any principle that some people inherently deserve less than others and you can totally externally Tell is fucked? nah. the probably accidentally autistic characters are always all Other People who the rest of us get to dislike b/c tl;dr Couldn’t Be Us (but what if it could be (cue eternal commitment to going Nah wherein nd people are just worse than nt ones and Just need to decide to start acting right, b/c everyone else has totally always been Choosing to act correctly & winningly & that’s why they’re so epic & normal))

[exilley]

I do sort of wish western anime fans would analyze anime and manga from a framework of japanese historical and cultural context. Specifically a lot of works from the 90s being influenced by the general aimlessness and ennui that a lot of people were experiencing due to the burst in the bubble economy and the national trauma caused by the sarin terrorist attack. I think in interacting with media that’s not local to our sociocultural/sociopolitical sphere it’s easy to forget that it’s influenced and shaped by the same kinds of factors that influence media within our own cultural dome and there ends up being this baseline misalignment of perception between the causative elements of a narrative and viewer interpretation of those elements. It’s a form of death of the author that i think, in some measure, hinders our ability to fully understand/come to terms with creator intent and the full scope of a work’s merits

[leandra-winchester]

Since I'm reading many people disheartened at the lack of ordering a ceasefire by the ICJ, here's some info:

The ruling was BIG and far more than many expected. I, for one, certainly did not expect that the German judge ruled in favor of all of the provisional measures, nor that the Israeli judge would rule in favor of some of them. That is absolutely ground-breaking.

This ruling, whilst not final, will change the course of how the international community is going to act towards Israel, because now they are all going to be very careful not to be complicit in what potentially might be ruled as an actual genocide in the merits case (which will likely take years, but that's how it goes).

Governments and individuals have a face to lose, and the ICJ ruling is one more nail in the coffin of their complicity.

Edit, another tweet:

[easynotes4u]

Median: Meaning, Definition, Properties, Nature, Properties, Merits & Demerits | Statistics

In this article, we will discuss the Meaning, Definition, Properties, Nature or characteristics, Properties, Merits & Demerits of Median (Measures of Central Tendency – Statistics. Meaning of Median (Measures of Central Tendency)- Statistics Meaning Definition of Median (Measures of Central Tendency)- Statistics The median is a centrally located value that splits the distribution into two equal…

[kittyprincessofcats]

ICJ Ruling

Okay, let's get into this.

First of all, I get the frustration at the court not ordering a ceasefire. I was disappointed and frustrated at first too, since a ceasefire was the biggest and most important preliminary measure South Africa was requesting - and of course we just all want this horror to finally end for the people in Gaza. So I get the frustration and disappointment, I really do.

However, I do think this ruling is still a major win for South Africa, Palestine, and international law as a whole and here's why:

The court acknowledged that it has jurisdiction over this case and completely dismissed Israel's request to throw out the case as a whole. It will now determine at the merits stage (that will probably take years) whether Israel is actually commiting genocide.

The court acknowledged that Palestinians are a "distinct national or ethnic group and therefore deserving of protection under the genocide convention". Pull this out next time someone tells you "there's no such thing as Palestinians, they're all just Arabs".

The court acknowledged very unambiguously that "at least some" of Israel's actions being genocidal in nature is "plausible". South Africa has a case, officially. Israel is accused of genocide, in a way the ICJ deems "plausible", officially. This is huge. (And seriously, how freaking satisfying was it to hear all of those genocidal statements by Israeli politicians read out loud and used as justification for this rulling?)

The court might not have ordered a "ceasefire" in those words, but they did order Israel to "immediately end all genocidal acts" (which includes killing and injuring Palestinians) and submit proof that they actually did. How are they going to comply with this ruling without at least severly reducing or changing what they're doing in Gaza?

In fact, this wording might actually be more appropriate for a genocide (vs a war), as author and journalist Ali Abunimah notes on Twitter:

He's completely right. Israel lost today, by overwhelming majority (I mean, 15 to 2? I heard people predict the rulings would be very close, like 9 judges vs 8, but instead we got 15 to 2 (and even 16 to 1 on the humanitarian aid). Holy shit.) The court disimissed almost everything Israel's side of lawyers said, while acknowledging that South Africa's accusations are "plausible".

And this is important especially because of Mr Abunimah's second tweet there^. Because the question is, where do we go from here?

This ruling means that Israel is officially /possibly/ commiting genocide and that should have huge international consequences. The rest of the world now HAS to take these accusations seriously and stop arming and supporting Israel - and if they won't do it on their own, we, the people, have to make them. This is THE moment to rise up all around the world, especially in the countries most supportive of Israel (the US, the UK, Germany): Protest, call your representatives and demand a ceasefire and an end of arms deliveries to Israel.

We now have a legal case to back our demands: If Israel is, according to the ICJ, "plausibly" commiting genocide, then all of our governments are, according to the ICJ, "plausibly" guiltly of aiding in genocide. And we need to hold that over their heads and demand better. We need to do that right now and in huge numbers. Most politicians only care about themselves and saving their skin. We have to make them realize that they could be accused of aiding in genocide.

(As a German, I'm thinking of Germany here in particular: After South Africa's hearing, our government dismissed their case as having "no basis" - how are they going to keep saying that now that the ICJ officially thinks otherwise? Over the last months, people here have been arrested at protests for calling what's happening in Gaza a genocide. How are the police supposed to legally keep doing that now that the ICJ has officially deemed this accusation "plausible"? I used to be scared to use the word "genocide" at protests or write it on my protest signs - not anymore, have fun trying to arrest me for that when the ICJ literally has my back on this one 🖕🏻.)

So yeah - don't be defeatist about this, don't let Israel's narrative that they "won" (they didn't) take over. This might not be everything we wanted, but it's still a good result. Don't let what the court didn't say ("ceasefire"), distract you from the very important things that they did say. Let this be your motivation to get loud and active, especially if you live in any country that supports Israel. Put pressure on your governments to not be complicit in genocide, you now officially have the highest international court on your side.

[imsobadatnicknames2]

Leaving aside the whole debate about the ethics of AI art and copyright, I think one of my biggest gripes with the AI art industry is that generative AI art has this natural tendency towards producing weird and surreal imagery that I actually think DOES have a lot of artistic merit and potential if explored and leaned into as one of the unique strengths of the medium.

Like, when AI image generators were at the stage imbetween the vaguely recognizable imagery produced by neuralblender and the type of generators we're seeing today, they were producing really fascinating imagery that I'd argue had value as a contribution to the art landscape that was entirely unique to AI, since the weird surreal quality of the images was the result of Machine Learning programs interpreting words and images in a fundamentally different way than humans do.

Like i'd argue shit like this indisputably has a place as its own artistic style/medium, it's surreal and weird in ways which are completely distinct from what a human artist could produce because its unique strengths come from details that are inscrutable, ambiguous, and hard to parse to the human mind, which a human artist would have an extremely hard time mentally visializing, let alone translatong into an art piece.

But since the main selling point of AI art for both the people making these generators and the teach aficinados who are a little too into them is that AI art can serve as a cheaper/faster replacement and/or alternative for the work of human artists, progress is measured not in terms of how well they can use and explore the distincly non-human quality of AI art, but instead in terms of how well they can supress it to make it more closely mimic the work of human artists. So all advancement in the tech is geared towards progressively getting rid of the things I find artistically interesting about the medium instead of towards leaning into them as strengths that give it a unique, artistically worthwile style.

Like, I don't think AI art is inherently "soulless" or devoid of artistic merit, but I do think the focus on trying to make it increasingly indistinguishable from art produced by humans strips away the things that gave it artistic merit to me. This thing can produce imagery that is weird and wild and hard for us to even conceive but the profit motive's tendency towards rewarding homogenization has neutered that to turn it into a factory of increasingly bland, generic, serviceable imagery.