#to see the effect on THEIR society which she destroyed and humanize them

[theboost]

Top three moments from robocop 2 that make me think that frank miller accidentally made robocop trans

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Deb Chachra's "How Infrastructure Works": Mutual aid, the built environment, the climate, and a future of comfort and abundance

This Thursday (Oct 19), I'm in Charleston, WV to give the 41st annual McCreight Lecture in the Humanities. And on Friday (Oct 20), I'm at Charleston's Taylor Books from 12h-14h.

Engineering professor and materials scientist Deb Chachra's new book How Infrastructure Works is a hopeful, lyrical – even beautiful – hymn to the systems of mutual aid we embed in our material world, from sewers to roads to the power grid. It's a book that will make you see the world in a different way – forever:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/612711/how-infrastructure-works-by-deb-chachra/

Chachra structures the book as a kind of travelogue, in which she visits power plants, sewers, water treatment plants and other "charismatic megaprojects," connecting these to science, history, and her own memoir. In so doing, she doesn't merely surface the normally invisible stuff that sustains us all, but also surfaces its normally invisible meaning.

Infrastructure isn't merely a way to deliver life's necessities – mobility, energy, sanitation, water, and so on – it's a shared way of delivering those necessities. It's not just that economies of scale and network effects don't merely make it more efficient and cheaper to provide these necessities to whole populations. It's also that the lack of these network and scale effects make it unimaginable that these necessities could be provided to all of us without being part of a collective, public project.

Think of the automobile versus public transit: if you want to live in a big, built up city, you need public transit. Once a city gets big enough, putting everyone who needs to go everywhere in a car becomes a Red Queen's Race. With that many cars on the road, you need more roads. More roads push everything farther apart. Once everything is farther apart, you need more cars.

Geometry hates cars. You can't bargain with geometry. You can't tunnel your way out of this. You can't solve it with VTOL sky-taxis. You can't fix it with self-driving cars whose car-to-car comms let them shave down their following distances. You need buses, subways and trams. You need transit. There's a reason that every plan to "disrupt" transportation ends up reinventing the bus:

https://stanforddaily.com/2018/04/09/when-silicon-valley-accidentally-reinvents-the-city-bus/

Even the cities we think of as motorists' paradises – such as LA – have vast, extensive transit systems. They suck – because they are designed for poor people – but without them, the city would go from traffic-blighted to traffic-destroyed.

The dream of declaring independence from society, of going "off-grid," of rejecting any system of mutual obligation and reliance isn't merely an infantile fantasy – it also doesn't scale, which is ironic, given how scale-obsessed its foremost proponents are in their other passions. Replicating sanitation, water, rubbish disposal, etc to create individual systems is wildly inefficient. Creating per-person communications systems makes no sense – by definition, communications involves at least two people.

So infrastructure, Chachra reminds us, is a form of mutual aid. It's a gift we give to ourselves, to each other, and to the people who come after us. Any rugged individualism is but a thin raft, floating on an ocean of mutual obligation, mutual aid, care and maintenance.

Infrastructure is vital and difficult. Its amortization schedule is so long that in most cases, it won't pay for itself until long after the politicians who shepherded it into being are out of office (or dead). Its duty cycle is so long that it can be easy to forget it even exists – especially since the only time most of us notice infrastructure is when it stops working.

This makes infrastructure precarious even at the best of times – hard to commit to, easy to neglect. But throw in the climate emergency and it all gets pretty gnarly. Whatever operating parameters we've designed into our infra, whatever maintenance regimes we've committed to for it, it's totally inadequate. We're living through a period where abnormal is normal, where hundred year storms come every six months, where the heat and cold and wet and dry are all off the charts.

It's not just that the climate emergency is straining our existing infrastructure – Chachra makes the obvious and important point that any answer to the climate emergency means building a lot of new infrastructure. We're going to need new systems for power, transportation, telecoms, water delivery, sanitation, health delivery, and emergency response. Lots of emergency response.

Chachra points out here that the history of big, transformative infra projects is…complicated. Yes, Bazalgette's London sewers were a breathtaking achievement (though they could have done a better job separating sewage from storm runoff), but the money to build them, and all the other megaprojects of Victorian England, came from looting India. Chachra's family is from India, though she was raised in my hometown of Toronto, and spent a lot of her childhood traveling to see family in Bhopal, and she has a keen appreciation of the way that those old timey Victorian engineers externalized their costs on brown people half a world away.

But if we can figure out how to deliver climate-ready infra, the possibilities are wild – and beautiful. Take energy: we've all heard that Americans use far more energy than most of their foreign cousins (Canadians and Norwegians are even more energy-hungry, thanks to their heating bills).

The idea of providing every person on Earth with the energy abundance of an average Canadian is a horrifying prospect – provided that your energy generation is coupled to your carbon emissions. But there are lots of renewable sources of energy. For every single person on Earth to enjoy the same energy diet as a Canadian, we would have to capture a whopping four tenths of a percent of the solar radiation that reaches the Earth. Four tenths of a percent!

Of course, making solar – and wind, tidal, and geothermal – work will require a lot of stuff. We'll need panels and windmills and turbines to catch the energy, batteries to store it, and wires to transmit it. The material bill for all of this is astounding, and if all that material is to come out of the ground, it'll mean despoiling the environments and destroying the lives of the people who live near those extraction sites. Those are, of course and inevitably, poor and/or brown people.

But all those materials? They're also infra problems. We've spent millennia treating energy as scarce, despite the fact that fresh supplies of it arrive on Earth with every sunrise and every moonrise. Moreover, we've spent that same period treating materials as infinite despite the fact that we've got precisely one Earth's worth of stuff, and fresh supplies arrive sporadically, unpredictably, and in tiny quantities that usually burn up before they reach the ground.

Chachra proposes that we could – we must – treat material as scarce, and that one way to do this is to recognize that energy is not. We can trade energy for material, opting for more energy intensive manufacturing processes that make materials easier to recover when the good reaches its end of life. We can also opt for energy intensive material recovery processes. If we put our focus on designing objects that decompose gracefully back into the material stream, we can build the energy infrastructure to make energy truly abundant and truly clean.

This is a bold engineering vision, one that fuses Chachra's material science background, her work as an engineering educator, her activism as an anti-colonialist and feminist. The way she lays it out is just…breathtaking. Here, read an essay of hers that prefigures this book:

https://tinyletter.com/metafoundry/letters/metafoundry-75-resilience-abundance-decentralization

How Infrastructure Works is a worthy addition to the popular engineering books that have grappled with the climate emergency. The granddaddy of these is the late David MacKay's open access, brilliant, essential, Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air, a book that will forever change the way you think about energy:

https://memex.craphound.com/2009/04/08/sustainable-energy-without-the-hot-air-the-freakonomics-of-conservation-climate-and-energy/

The whole "Without the Hot Air" series is totally radical, brilliant, and beautiful. Start with the Sustainable Materials companion volume to understand why everything can be explained by studying, thinking about and changing the way we use concrete and aluminum:

https://memex.craphound.com/2011/11/17/sustainable-materials-indispensable-impartial-popular-engineering-book-on-the-future-of-our-built-and-made-world/

And then get much closer to home – your kitchen, to be precise – with the Food and Climate Change volume:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/06/methane-diet/#3kg-per-day

Reading Chachra's book, I kept thinking about Saul Griffith's amazing Electrify, a shovel-ready book about how we can effect the transition to a fully electrified America:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/09/practical-visionary/#popular-engineering

Chachra's How Infrastructure Works makes a great companion volume to Electrify, a kind of inspirational march to play accompaniment on Griffith's nuts-and-bolts journey. It's a lyrical, visionary book, charting a bold course through the climate emergency, to a world of care, maintenance, comfort and abundance.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/17/care-work/#charismatic-megaprojects

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

[kujakumai]

would you like to elaborate on the "catastrophic mommy issues"? I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on that lol

Thief King is a child raised by a mass of vengeful tortured souls in the ruined basement where they all died, all of whom are in effect a stand-in for family/community/parents. They are all TKB has left, and they are highly protective of him; they seem not entirely within their right minds, not capable of competent childcare, and they give him explicit instructions on how to destroy and take over the world, which he follows enthusiastically.

I think about this a lot, like a lot a lot, and while we don't see much I think its gotta be a very tangled dynamic. When writing him I tend to use "mom issues" or general references to his mom as an emotional stand in because I think she's probably the most likely person he'd remember clearly when he needs a real face, but that's not necessary. All of Kul Elna is Mom for these purposes.

There is a lot going on here, for example:

>Kul Elna does not seem to leave the temple unless accompanied, or at very least they prefer to stay there. This means TKB probably spent a significant portion of his childhood in the same ruins and possibly the same room where he watched everyone die. Cool! Great!

>Kul Elna appears to be only partially corporeal, limited in their ability to do much besides menace, and TKB says they are "in hell" (unclear what that means). I do not think they are up to the daily tasks of feeding, bathing, or taking care of a small child. I think he probably grew up as an urchin mainly in squalor.

The closest real-life analogue to this is, probably, simply a child in the care of someone who is ill or disabled such that they cannot effectively take care of even themselves without support; so you have a situation where no one has done anything wrong, and this family loves each other very much, and the only real culprit is the society that failed them. But you're still going to end up with a kid who is not getting their needs met, is in a situation that is often stressful and sometimes scary, and that will lead to a rapid Adultification where the kid takes on the role of steward without ever having a proper childhood.

>The Zork-raising instructions were given to TKB by Kul Elna. He tells us this. I am less concerned by Kul Elna's obviously Zork-influenced plan to destroy everything than I am its effect on a 16 year old boy who loves them very much because they're all he has left in the entire world. When did they bring this up? Is it recent? Has it been an ongoing plan for years--has TKB effectively been raised on the idea that he is to be Egypt's own destined apocalypse maiden? How fucked up would that be?

Fandom is hesitant, I think, to ascribe anything malicious to Kul Elna or suggest that their relationship with TKB is sinister--which, for the record, I don't think it is, I think this fucked-up little family has nothing but love for this kid in the depths of whatever humanity they have left--because Kul Elna gets such an unjust treatment in canon it makes us incandescent. Yet the same would apply to TKB--if they want the world in ruins and him at the top, how could he even think anything different? After everything the pharaoh did to them, and to you, of the life they deprived you of? Impossible to suggest something different. You can't tell him they're wrong. What's that old softer world bit; I am a pacifist, and I will be a pacifist until I die, or someone threatens my mother.

>TKB does not need survivors guilt to be an unfailingly loyal Mama's Boy to his ghost family (Ghost's Boy?) but he's got to have it. A simultaneous immense guilt for getting out when no one else did; the immense loss of being left behind, like they all went to become this without him; the weight of being the only one left, the only one who can take revenge not only for you but for them, and if you fail then no one will remember any of their names, or yours. One chance. Avenge them or die a nobody. Don't fuck this up. It's your responsibility, like it or not, because no one else can help, and no one else can help because of what your enemies did to them, which is why you need to do it. It's almost self-justifying.

If you want me to editorialize, I don't think he actually cares much about ruling the world, nor does that goal make sense. I think in the back of his little brain he thinks that if he wins he finally gets to join them somehow.

tldr; I think TKB's relationship with whatever the hell Kul Elna has going on is way, way more complicated and nuanced than even he is consciously aware of and you can love someone very much and still fuck them up immensely (arguably a major them of ygo itself). TKB's has such catastrophic mommy issues he literally tries to end the world. We are talking literal apocalyptic mom issues. Cataclysmic.

[intersexbookclub]

Discussion summary: Left Hand of Darkness

Published in 1969, The Left Hand of Darkness is a classic in science fiction that explores issues of sex/gender in an alien-yet-human society where the aliens are just like us except in how they reproduce. These aliens, the Gethenians, can reproduce as either male or female. They spend most of their lives sexually undifferentiated. Once a month, they go into heat (“kemmer”) and their sexual organs activate as either male or female (it’s essentially random).

Here's a summary of the discussions we had on 2023-08-25 and 2023-09-01 about the book:

HIGH LEVEL REACTONS

Michelle (@scifimagpie): even though it was written by a cis straight perisex woman there is a queerness to the writing that feels true and that she nailed. There is a queerness to the soul of this book that still holds up, that's true and good, and I cannot but love and respect that.

Elizabeth (@ipso-faculty): this book is such a commentary on 1960s misogyny. Genly is a raging misogynist. It takes a whole prison break and crossing the arctic for Genly to realize a woman or androgyne can be competent 👀

Dimitri: [Having read just the first half of the book] I wonder if it keeps happening, if Genly keeps going "woaaaah" [to the Gethenians’ androgyny] or if he ever acclimates. It's been half the novel my guy

vic: yeah a book where a guy is destroyed by seeing a breast makes me want queer theory

vic: [it also] makes me feel good to see how much has changed [since the 1960s]

THE INTERSEX STUFF

A thing we appreciated about the book was how being intersex is contextual. The main character of the book, Genly Ai, is a human from a planet like Earth, who visits Gethen to open trade and diplomatic relations.

On his home planet, and to Earth sensibilities, Genly is perisex - he is able to reproduce at any time of the month and is consistently male.

But on Gethen, Genly becomes intersex. On Gethen, the norm is that you only manifest (and can reproduce as) a given sex during the monthly kemmer (heat/oestrus) period. 

The Gethenians understand Genly as living in “permanent kemmer”, which is described as a common (intersex) condition, and these people are hyper-sexualized and referred to as Perverts.

At this point it’s worth noting that depiction is not the same as endorsement. Michelle pointed out the book is very empathetic to those in permanent kemmer. LeGuin does not appear to be endorsing the social stigma faced by these people, merely depicting it, and putting a mirror to how our own society treats intersex people.

Throughout the book, Genly is treated as an oddity by the Gethenians. He is hyper sexualized. He undergoes a genital inspection to prove he is who he says he is. 

When Genly is sent to a prison camp and forcibly given HRT, he does not respond “normally” to the hormones, the effects are way worse for him, and the prison camp staff don’t care, and keep administering them even if it’ll kill him. 

Two of us have had the experience of having hyperandrogenism and being forced onto birth control as teenager, and relating to the sluggishness of the drugs that Genly experienced, as well as the sense that gender/sex conformity was more important to authority figures (parents, doctors) than actual health and well-being.

Another scene we discussed the one where Genly is in a prison van en route to the gulag, and a Gethenian enters kemmer and wants to mate with him and he declines. He is given multiple opportunities over the course of the book to try having sex with a Gethenian, and declines every time, and we wondered if he avoided it out of trauma of being hyper-sexualized & hyper-medicalized & having had his genitals inspected.

We discussed the way he described his genital inspection through a trauma lens, and how it interacts with toxic masculinity - in vic’s terms, Genly being "I am a manly man and I have don't trauma"

Those of us who read the short story, Coming of Age in Karhide, noted that once the world was narrated from a Gethenian POV, the people in permanent kemmer were treated far more neutrally, which gave us the impression that Genly as an unreliable narrator was injecting some intersexism along with his misogyny

WHY IT MATTERS TO READ THIS BOOK THROUGH AN INTERSEX LENS

Elizabeth: I’ve encountered critiques of this book from perisex trans folks because to them the book is committing biological essentialism, and dismissing the book as a result. I think they’re missing that this book is as much about (inter)sex as it is about gender. I think they’re too quick to dismiss the book as being outdated or having backwards ideas because they’re not appreciating the intersex themes. 

Elizabeth: The intersex themes aren’t exactly subtle, so it kind of stings that I haven’t seen any intersex analyses of this book, but there are dozens (hundreds?) of perisex trans analyses that all miss the huge intersex elephants in the room.

Also Elizabeth: I’ve seen this book show up in lists of intersex books/characters made by perisex people, and I’ve seen Estraven listed as intersex character, and it gets me upset because Estraven isn’t intersex! Estraven is perisex in the society in which he lives. Genly is the intersex character in this story and people who misunderstand intersex as being able to reproduce as male & female (or having quirky genitals smh) are completely missing that being intersex is socially constructed and based on what is considered typical for a given species.

WHAT THE BOOK DOESN’T HANDLE WELL

The body descriptions. As Dmitri put it: “ Like "his butt jiggled and it reminded  me of women" ew. It was intentional but I had to put the book down. It reminded me of transvestigators and how they take pictures of people in public.” 🤮

Not pushing Genly to reflect on how weird he is about other people’s bodies. We all had issues with how Genly is constantly scrutinizing the bodies of other humans to assess their gender(s) and it’s pretty gross.

vic asked: “how much of this is her reproducing violence without her knowing it? A thing I didn't like was how he always judging and analyzing people's bodies and realizing others treat him that way. And I wish there was more of his discomfort about this, that it made him feel icky.”

Dimitri added: “I really wanted him to have a moment of this too, for him to realize how much it sucks to be treated this way. As a trans person it's so uncomfortable. What are you doing going around doing this to people?”

Using male pronouns as default/ungendered pronouns. Élaina asked why Genly thinks a male pronoun is more appropriate for a transcendent God and pointed out there’s a lot to unpack there.

OTHER POSITIVES ABOUT THE BOOK

Genly’s journey towards respecting women, that he still had a ways to go by the end of the book. vic pointed out how “LeGuin was straight, and she loves men, and is kinda giving them the side-eye [in this book]. Her writing about how Genly is childish makes me really happy. It’s kind of hilarious to watch him bang his head against the wall because he’s so rigid.” 

To which Dmitri added: “I agree with the bit on forgiving men for stuff. I don't know how she [LeGuin] does it but she really lays it all out. She gives you a platter of how men are bad at things, how they make mistakes that are pretty specific to them. She has prepared a buffet of it.”

Autistic Estraven! As Michelle put it: “autistic queer feels about Estraven speaking literally and plainly and Genly not getting it”

The truck chapter. Hits like a pile of bricks. We talked about it as a metaphor for the current pandemic.

The Genly x Estraven slowburn queerplatonic relationship

The conlang! Less is more in how it gets used

MIXED REACTIONS

The Foretelling. For some it felt unnecessary and a bit fetishy. For others it was fun paranormal times.

Pacing. Some liked how the book really forces you to really contemplate as you go. Others struggled with a pace that feels very slow to 2023 readers.

WORKS WE COMPARED THE BOOK TO

Star Trek (the original series) - we wondered if LHOD and Genly Ai were progressive by 1960s standards, and TOS came up as a comparison point. We were all of the impression that TOS was progressive for its time but all of us find it pretty misogynist by our standards. The interest in extra-sensory perception (ESP) is something that was a staple of TOS that feels very strange to contemporary viewers and also cropped up in LHOD

Ancillary Justice - for being a book where characters’ genders are all ambiguous but the POV character is actually normal about how they describe other characters’ bodies.

The Deep - for being another book in a situation where being able to reproduce as male and female is the norm. The Deep was written by an actually intersex author, and doesn’t have the cisperisex gaze of scrutinizing every body for sex. But oddly LHOD actually winds up feeling more like a book about intersex people, because it features a character who is the odd one out in a gonosynic society. In contrast, nobody is intersex in the Deep - everybody matches the norms for their species, which makes the intersex themes in the work much more subtle.

Overall, as vic put it, “there's something to be said about an honest depiction that's not great, especially when there's no alternatives”. For a long time there weren’t many other games in town when it came to this sort of book, and even though some things now feel dated, it’s still a valuable read. We’d love to see more intersex reviews & analyses of the book!

[thebunnycruise]

Less of a question and more of a comment, Im sorry if its in the wrong spot lol, I just had to say this. I promise it’s not a hate comment, and sorry for the length.

I have never in my life seen something that has made me feel so physically ill. I feel genuinely sick reading this, and mentally exhausted from it. I have never read anything that has ever made me want to do something about these topics so badly. I hate this comic, and feel every fiber of my body crumble that I can’t do anything to help these women. It’s such an uncomfortable and painful feeling to see such heinous acts being done to people who i know are just down on their luck and never deserved this. I hate to sound cliche, but this was the eye opener of the fucking century.

You should be proud of your work, you’re doing something that I haven’t ever seen work as effectively and as potently as this.

One question I guess; I unfortunately can’t donate, but what else could us readers do? This comic destroyed me and I’m genuinely desperate at this point to see some happy ending come out of this, and I don’t know what I can do.

Thank you for this question! And sorry for ruining your mood, I think... TL/DR: Giving a shit is free. I recall this one lady being interviewed by a local news reporter regarding her views on the homeless problem in her neighbourhood, and she said something that stuck in my mind: "The more I have to [pick up] human feces, the less empathy I have." I think that one comment really hit home why we're at this point in society. People connect with the characters on the Bunny Cruise because we see their backstories, how they got to where they are, what they've lost along the way, what they dream of for the future, and how they've suffered in trying to reach for that dream. But, even though we know the guy OD'ing on the sidewalk passed out in his own sick must have had a life, have dreams, it's not something we think of in the moment. The difference between the Cruise and real life is that the girls have each other to support them through it, but we will walk over or side-step the heroin addict on the sidewalk without a second glance. That "mentally drained" and "physically ill" feeling is the cognitive dissonance talking. It's when we're forced to confront an perspective that challenges our way of thinking, or in this case, face a fear that perhaps the only difference between us and 67, 10, the twins, or that guy on the sidewalk, is just pure luck. For a lot of us, this is something very uncomfortable, and it's much easier to put it out of our heads and move on with our lives. And politicians take advantage of this fear and apathy far too often. Famously, Mark Sutcliffe (Calling you out, asshole), the recently elected Mayor of Ottawa, campaigned on zoning land for more large, single-family homes rather than more compact, affordable housing. He called it "preserving the community and keeping it safe", but we all know what that really means by now. Or they will call for increased police spending and promise to be tougher on crime (which Sutcliffe also did). Because having bad luck or being neglected and abused by capitalism is a crime now... I think the easiest thing to do, is to just think about it, and speak up when the issue comes up. All too often, things like homeless shelters, affordable housing projects, and safe injection sites, don't get built because people don't want to think about the people living on the fringe of society. But the thing is, people with nowhere to go have to go somewhere.

I donate to a women's shelter because I've worked with women fleeing violence in the past, and it's an important cause for me. I also realize that I am in a very fortunate position to be able to pay rent and have a little left over to put toward charity work. But speaking up and spreading the word is free. The next time someone wants to veto a safe injection site project, speak up against them, ask them what millionaire real estate firm is lining their pockets. Vote for that city councilor campaigning to build shelters and affordable homes. Have a relative who says "the homeless deserve what's happening to them"? Shut them down, ruin that christmas dinner. They sound like a dick anyway.

It's not much, but I think if we can all treat our fellow humans a little better instead of kicking them to the curb, we can make a bit of a difference in the world.

[palidoozy-art]

Height chart/further designs of the crew (PCs + some NPCs) of our pathfinder campaign in the Eclipse! I wanted to get an actual answer from the other players as to the heights of everyone because I defaulted to drawing Juno short like a disney anthro when actually they're huge.

Kjosev and Tereza look short. They aren't. Kjosev is 5'11"/1.8m, and Tereza is 5'8"/1.73m. Everyone else is just fuckin' huge.

Anyway ramblings about these people below the cut because they've been developed a bit more.

(Note: I'll refer to "the eclipse" a lot here. The Eclipse is a catastrophe in our homebrew world that lasted for roughly a year, where the sun and moon just vanished from the sky entirely. It was effectively an apocalypse, as crops and animals all died off, the world froze over, and societies broke down. This group is trying to live through that).

Characters from left to right, bottom to top:

Calim (Male Elunin Sorcerer, 6'2"/1.88m) - An elunin born blind, Calim was never treated like an adult among his clan due to his disability. He wasn't treated cruelly, but nobody expected anything of him. He left to try to find somewhere he could be treated as an equal, wandering the world before he got caught up in the eclipse.

Tereza (Female Human Commoner/Historian, 5'8"/1.73m) - A 36 year old bog-standard human from the northern kingdom. She worked in a great library as its director, in a happy, well-off life with her husband Florian and her daughter Florette. She was picking up special glasses for her daughter when the eclipse hit, in an entirely separate country from her own. Kjosev took a liking to her and the group has effectively adopted her, trying to take her back to her city to reunite her with her husband.

Florette (Female Human Child/Magical Princess, 3'5"/1.04m) - Tereza's rambunctious 5 year old, who loves trains and boats and thinks magic is boring. She was with her mom in the south when the eclipse hit. She was going to start school next year. She likes Kjosev, carrying around a talisman he gave her that she calls 'Kjosev Jr.'

Kjosev (Male Dusk Elf Druid, 5'11"/1.8m) - Former oracle of his kingdom, political prisoner/torture victim and then forest guardian, Kjosev's... been through some stuff. Outside of that one nasty multi-year incident in which he was imprisoned/tortured in the north (the same city Tereza is from, ironically), he's never left his woods, his life spent mostly isolated. He left to try to warn people about a premonition he had involving 'a great darkness.' He failed. His goal now is to protect Tereza and her daughter, and get them safely to their home -- even if the city left him traumatized.

Vartok (Male Gnoll Monk, 7'/2.13m) - An exiled gnoll, Vartok befriended a gnome at some point in his life. When he lost his arm, the gnome crafted him a new one, giving him a prosthetic. Vartok tries to help his former clan, even if they've rejected him outright, but still seeks a new one... which is how the party came onto him. He's effectively adopted them as his new clan. Florette is terrified of him.

Genrik (Male Dusk Elf Witch, 6'3"/1.91m) - A former teacher at the academy before the dusk elves were effectively destroyed, Genrik is what can best be described as... well, a dusk elf supremacist. He loathes humans and believes one day his people's kingdom will rise again. It won't. It doesn't stop him from repeating it, though. As he's an older dusk elf he suffers a madness that his people are often plagued by, his taking the form of losing all of his memories. He creates potions to store what he can before he forgets everything close to him, including the birth of his own daughter.

(Genrik's player has written down all of his stored memories, and if he ever falls or suffers from a bad critical, he wants there to be a roll to see what memory gets lost permanently as the potion shatters).

Juno (Genderless Elunin Warrior/Knight, 6'4"/1.93m) - Elunin are granted the option to choose their gender in a sort of coming-of-age ceremony, and Juno simply... never chose theirs. Not much else is known about them. They've lived for quite some time in civilized society -- an oddity for creatures that live primarily in the feywild -- working as a member of the Night Watch. They're effectively a rabbit batman cop. They got tied up in the party when the group may or may not have been responsible for setting a slaver's compound on fire.

Imrae (Female Drow Thaumaturge, 5'4"/1.63m) - She hasn't been introduced yet, so there's not AS much information to her, but my DM requested her be drawn anyway. All we know is that she's a drow lady who likes mysteries and is based off of Piper from FO4. I also insisted she get a big hat. Because big hat.

[lesbianneopolitan]

Before I go to bed, I'm gonna ramble down and note some ideas of a lil of world building I've been doing with some friends for the vampire AU with Neo-

First things first, this one in particular is settled in the Victorian era, or something inspired by it, anyway. Neo meets vampire hunter Ruby.

Silver-eyed warriors are specially gifted to fight vampires, due to silver being very effective against them to kill them for good. One of the perks is that it's impossible for vampires to use their charm/hypnotism against them, because it's a magic mainly applied with sight, silver eyes repel them.

The blood of a silver-eyed warrior calms the bloodthirst for way longer than the one of a regular human, what means vampires would be able to go longer without having to drink blood. It's like premium blood, while the one from a regular human needs to be consumed more per day, and the blood of animals literally do nothing to calm down the thirst in this world.

Unfortunately, silver-eyed warriors have started to be rare because Salem wants to hunt them down, primarily. Because vampires manipulate human society from the shadows since time immemorial, Salem finds them to be more of a pain in the ass than anything. She wants no solution to the bloodthirst- it would destroy their market a little.

However, Neo is both, lonely, and deep inside, exhausted of letting bloodthirst control her despite her sadism (no control vs having control and fun), so she really sees a chance to take a breath by making a deal with Ruby. If the silver-eyed warrior lets her drink her blood daily, she will stop killing people.

The bad side of it is that it's all a lie. Neo will continue killing people for fun at her back anyway-

Silver-eyed warriors are also very desperate with training anyone they can find with their condition to turn them into vampire hunters quickly, because their numbers keep going down due to being targeted despite being great weapons against them. So Ruby is pretty inexperienced when she meets Neo- she has no chance of killing her, so to preserve her life she has no other option but to make the deal.

The different bloodlines of vampires come with different perks. For example, Neo comes from a bloodline in which the origin of their vampire line were the fae, so she's more of a trickster than other vampires. She may not exceed in brute force like those who come from a demonic line, but she's very good with illusion magic and shapeshifting, what makes them pretty dangerous due to being harder to find sometimes.

Neo was adopted into the family of the Vanille. Like I've mentioned before, vampires can't reproduce like we humans do in this world because of their undead condition keeping them from creating life in that way, so they kidnap babies from other parents and make them theirs. Either way, she was raised as a vampire despite living as a human for a few years until getting to her 20s and turned.

Before she grew powerful enough to kill her parents and be free, she was very much forced to interact with another family of vampires from the fae bloodline. Afterans. Neo's parents wanted to marry her off to the 'Curious Cat' to make ties with a bigger family, ignoring the fact Neo knew by then that she was a lesbian, and ignored the abuse that he actually put her through for a few years. Neo then grew strong enough and killed him by herself.

While it was a revolt between the Vanille and the Afterans, it wasn't long after doing so, that she also killed her parents.

And now I go to sleep after all of that.

[thetypedwriter]

Babel Book Review

Babel Book Review by R.F. Kuang

This book was so incredibly impressive in multiple ways. I was blown away by Kuang’s sheer amount of research in terms of history, etymology, linguistics, and sociology. There were so many aspects of this novel that required her to dig deeper into subjects and Babel is an incredible display of her hard work and effort (and PHD’s). 

Babel tells the story of a young boy who is taken from his home in Canton and trained by Professor Lovell in England. Given a new name, Robin Swift, the best tutors, and a strict schedule that dominates his childhood, Robin is forced to forget his home and dead family in order to assimilate into White British society, a society that sees him as foreign and less than human, even as they rely on his Cantonese in order to power their city. 

Blending realistic, brutal history of the British empire—bloody politics and colonialism included—with the magical element of silver bars and silver-working, Kuang creates a beautiful blend of accuracy and the fantastic. In this world she’s created, silver working is birthed through what is lost in translation, requiring different languages and people who deeply understand it. 

The effects of this translation are magical bars that can be imbued with a variety of purposes like making carts go faster, ships sail smoother, and teapots stay hot—only if you can afford it, of course. 

Robin’s childhood is stained with memories of Professor Lovell’s cold shoulder, violent temper, and reticence to admit that Robin is actually his son. With Lovell looming over him, Robin is relieved when he’s old enough to attend Oxford as a Babbler, a revered translator. 

A good portion of the book details Robin’s stay at Oxford, including his studies with his other cohort members: Ramy, Victoire, and Letty. 

I could argue that this section was a bit long, where we have chapters upon chapters of Robin attending classes, dreaded school functions, mundane translation work, or spending time with one of his friends but overall, I enjoyed it. 

This is where Kuang focuses a lot of energy and pages to linguistics, building her world and magic system of silver bars, and developing the relationships between Robin and the others. These chapters are also steeped in history, with several of them almost coming across like a textbook. 

Again, if this sounds boring, it wasn’t. I found the historical recounting of the British empire a fascinating subject when used in conjunction with the silver bars and Robin’s eventual epiphany of his own situation and latent childhood cruelty. 

Some much needed spice came in the form of Griffin and the Hermes Society. Griffin, it turns out, is Robin’s half-older brother and also an unnamed heir of Professor Lovell. 

He is a part of a rebel organization whose purpose is to destroy Babel, stop the pillaging of other languages for Britain’s greed and pleasure, and eventually, to change the course of history by dismantling war plans between China and England. 

I could go on and on by summarizing the rest of the book (which would contain massive spoilers), but the ending focuses on Robin and his friends going to Canton themselves, witnessing the British trying to get the Chinese addicted to opium, a harsh death that leads Robin and his cohort to join the Hermes society, and then a fight against the empire itself as Robin and his rag-tag survivors destroy Babel within in order to bring Britain to its knees and leave Canton alone for good. 

The plot of this book itself was solid. I don’t say fantastic because there was never at any point where I was truly shocked or blown away by a surprise twist or revelation. The characters you think will die, do die, and the characters that seem suspicious of betrayal, do in fact betray others. 

This would be a criticism of obvious expectations, but I don’t think astonishing was what Kuang was going for. I think she was going for more of a streamlined story in which, yes, the white girl does feel slighted and must take action in order to save herself.

 I did like the occasional separate POV’s that would explain a character’s backstory and motivation, but in general, Kuang was trying to tell a realistic story and she did, including adding historical footnotes, remarks on translation, and word definitions that I found fascinating, if a bit obtuse. 

Setting wise, Oxford was brilliant. You can tell that Kuang is half in love with Oxford, which makes for very pleasurable reading. As I studied abroad there myself, it was very nostalgic and lovely to read about its cobblestone streets and spires glinting in the moonlight. 

My biggest gripe with the book are its characters. They’re not bad, not by any stretch of 

the imagination, but none of them felt very fleshed out either. The only character I found myself really understanding and relating to was Robin, as we spend the entire book in his head. I found Robin to be a sweet, tortured soul who took us on a riveting journey of self-discovery and eventual, brutal revolution. 

All the remaining characters in the book were fine, but I never felt like I knew them on any grounds. It annoyed me when Kuang would have a paragraph or two every other chapter discussing how much Robin loved his cohort members and list off random things about them, like how Victoire preferred her tea or how Ramy acted in the morning. These idiosyncrasies should have been shown to me, not told. 

The book would have been at least a third longer if Kuang had truly tried to develop the characters naturally in a way where their connections felt believable and organic, so I understand why she didn’t, but it comes at the cost of having shallow characters with little depth and minimal attachments to the reader. When several characters died, I didn’t bat an eye. 

I teared up slightly when Robin was miserable in prison, but the deaths of others? Not a blink. 

While I understand that Kuang’s focus was more on the history, sociology, and linguistics, as I mentioned at the beginning of this review, by shafting the characters, it does make this a good book rather than an exceptional one. 

For me, a very character-driven reader, no matter how stunning the research and backdrop of your novel, if you don’t have strong characters to pull the reader through, it will never amount to a book I would consider great. 

However, that being said, I really enjoyed this book for what it was and the information it contained, even though we never learned Robin Swift’s real name. It was a very different read than the novels I’ve been ingesting lately, coming across as refreshing and informative. 

I really enjoyed the book, despite not having attachments to characters, because of all that I learned and the lens of history it offered. 

Recommendation: If you like history, revolution, languages, and magic, this is your book. If you wanted a different perspective on the fall of the British empire mixed in with fantastical silver bars, you will find nothing more polished or better explained than Babel. If history bores you, the world and characters will not be enough to pull you through to the end. But as a lover of history and different perspectives, I bolted down Babel and cherished how much I learned in the process. 

“Language was always the companion of the empire, and as such, together they begin, grow, and flourish. And later, together, they fall.” —Antonio De Nebrija 

Score: 7/10

[oscarisaacasimov]

"Eat Your Young" music video & meaning

Performing Gender Roles & History Andrew & Ivanna are acting in a play within a video, emphasizing that gender is performative, not only for each other but for the audience who politely applauds. The play starts with an old-fashioned wardrobe, the man and the woman putting on the appearance of what society wants them to be. The man goes off to war as a soldier, and they both look bored in their roles - there is no excitement, fear, or sadness. The time period for the outfits seems to be WWI, just over 100 years ago. Hundreds of thousands of Irish men enlisted in this war, facing the horror of the trenches, as well as violence from anti-English countrymen when they returned home.

The woman looks to older ideals of female beauty; the Venus de Milo was carved nearly 2000 years old and the legends of Venus are older still. She is portrayed by a Ukranian actress, reminding us of the most notable war of the present day. (This video seems to reflect themes from Swan Upon Leda as well.)

The play ends, Andrew & Ivanna bow, and resume their 21st century personas. As modern people who understand the problem of gender roles, and the futility of an endless cycle of violence, they want to believe they are leaving the roles and the problems of the play behind them.

But Eat Your Young is a song for the current times. Our "advanced" society is not peaceful, but has merely outsourced the violence of resource extraction, human abuse and animal slaughter. That meat hook still hangs over head and no one is safe. Hands and Affection The man loses an arm and a leg in the war. The woman loses both her arms trying to fit the ideal of Venus de Milo. This represents a loss of their humanity, and of the power to choose another role for themselves. The man is disabled and will have trouble working in the early 1900s. The woman has chosen a form where she can't do much beyond sit still and look pretty. (As a side note, the staging of missing limbs with black cloth against the black backdrop was minimal but effective.)

Before the war, the couple exchanged mutual affection of foreheads resting together. Now when the woman offers affection the man rejects it angrily. When the man offers a kiss, the woman accepts it coldly.

When the son is born, the man awkwardly and formally shakes his hand. There is no affection from either parent. Blind adherence to gender roles has destroyed the heart of this family.

The Children In Hozier's words "the adults lose something and the children watch what has been lost become visible." Seated back to back in the theater, the adults witness the man and the woman act out familiar patterns, while the children look to the future and are horrified by violence which is not yet normal to them.

On the children's puppet stage, they see disembodied hands appear - hands that are powerful but free of gender roles or adornments. The adults caught a glimpse of the man as a butcher, but the child's hand reveals the butcher is the man-puppet's true nature beneath his soldier outfit. The woman-puppet is beating her family with a stick. On the adult's stage, the son is lost. He's sent into the world without being loved, even forbidden to the pretend love of a toy doll, only capable of violence and destruction. Perhaps he has even died at a young age, a boy miner in the early 20th century. Quicker and easier to just eat him. He does not attend the curtain call.

As the adults ignore the meat hook dripping blood, "what has been lost" appears on the children's stage: something in a meat locker so horrifying that the children in the audience scream and run away. The adults behave in the theater no matter what they see, but the children offer a glimmer of hope - each generation is a new chance to end the cycle. Final Thought: Hozier is an incredible artist and gentle soul to stage a maimed war veteran, domestic abuse, cannibalism, and harm to children, all depicted in non-graphic ways.

[amaiguri]

Amai's Fantasy Noble Houses

^^ The Courthouse of Nouveau Thuille

So yesterday, I went on a big info dump about Nouveau Thuille itself, but its most important aspect is its people -- the Noble Houses of Nouveau Thuille. Factions are one of my FAVORITE PARTS of worldbuilding, so please indulge me as I gush about how COOL all my Houses are <3 <3 ,3

**House d'Magnia**

^^ The Manor d'Magnia

House d'Magnia is Arlasaire's House, my protagonist! Well, kinda. See, House d'Magnia sigil is a winged serpent and its words are "Eshew Axiom for Ascendancy" which basically means "We break the law to win." They are known for being the most brutal and underhanded in their tactics -- Giluniques, the heir, had his eye cut out as a baby with the hopes that he would become a mage. (He did.) And one of the House's favorite things to do is take in society's undesirables and turned them into hitmen. Arlasaire was one such person -- she was effectively Gil's human pet, growing up. He got to teach her to read and write and murder people and stuff. His father probably did this because Gil's mom died in childbirth with his stillborn sister and Arlasaire was a burned orphan child whose village was destroyed in a Dragonstorm. Who was going to say "No"? It wasn't a great environment for her, despite her pride in her upbringing. It really messed with her head. House d'Magnia is known for its Ysse engineering -- though Arlasaire never took to the House's art

**House d'Aramitz**

Ah, the good ole House d'Aramitz! This grand old House has controlled the military since House d'Solais ruled a united North. Their sigil (or maybe they're coats-of-arms?) is a gold sword with two shields on each side. They also are in charge of military production and were probably some of the earliest adopters of the assembly line. They value tradition and typically, their members most staunchly believe in the notion that they are keeping order and fulfilling the will of the long dead Emperor.

As of the start of my World Letters, House d'Aramitz is led by Silvestre and he has two or three sons (idk, doesn't matter) -- the eldest of whom is a sweet gay guy named Cleiv who really wishes his dad would stop trying to make him get married.

Oh, and I think their art isssssssss Martial Arts? Or maybe textilesssss? Idk, I'll roll with it now lol

**House d'Fealtoire**

House d'Fealtoire is currently being run by a young woman and her sisters are all women, but gender isn't the reason it's sometimes called "The House of Wh*res" -- that's because the House's ongoing political strategy is just to suck up to whoever is in power and keep them there. They're considered to be charming but duplicitous -- but hey! It's working! They're extremely rich and they typically end up funding the plots of the other Houses and their many, numerous smaller houses. Their sigil is a bowl of blooming Tobacco violets with vines dripping out on either side.

Lucienne d'Fealtoire is currently running the House, with her two younger sisters, Celia and Derecina. Luce has a sorted history with House d'Magnia -- she was engaged to Gil as a child and they grew up quite fond of each other. But then, her dad tried to poison every other noble at Court. Arlasaire dropped a chandelier on him to stop him. Lucienne and Gil's engagement was technically cut off at that point... except when his dad died of a heart attack a few years later, they promptly picked up where they left off. And you can imagine the kind of relationship two ambitious, horny teens have...

Anyway, House d'Fealtoire is full of musicians and dancers. Performance arts. Unfortunately, over the 5 years since I started Yssaia, I didn't always remember this and I did this whole portrait of Lucienne painting Arlasaire (below). Not that there's anything WRONG with her being multitalented, but she should definitely be an excellent actress and dancer. It just WORKS with her characterization.

**House d'Romanach**

House d'Romanach is a fan favorite because they're the House of the People. They're only three generations old, run by Lady Isaurala d'Romanach, and they're basically a factory and farmer's union that became a noble house. Isaurala's #1 priority is the well-being of the people -- but this puts her diametrically opposed to many of the Houses in the war, who are interested in fighting for independence and sovereignty, where she would rather just surrender to the seemingly less-corrupt South. Of course, she also knows when elections come, she'll keep her power and privilege, even when the others don't, so like... you know... Their sigil is a hammer and anvil, and their artform is painting.

**House d'Solais** (Gone)

House d'Solais -- or actually, just House Solais because grammar worked differently 400 years ago -- died when Riavh d'Solais, the Once and Future Emperor, the Sun King, etc. etc. died in a civil war with his son. Under the justness of his rule (and very nice, Dragon-summoning sword and amazing propaganda machine and a wife who could see all the possibilities of the future to pick the best one), Riavh united the North 400 years ago. He rose to power at age 14, when he pulled a sword out of an anvil at the back of the last king's Trialhall. He married a fairy for his wife. And his champion was the strongest and most charming fighter in all the land. But the world was not ready for a man so pure and kind. And so, he was killed by his own, wicked son in a revolt. (It was definitely the son's fault. Definitely. And Riavh was definitely not a depressed, young father with incredible military advisors who could only unite a culturally diverse North for barely a generation under the threat of force.) Their sigil is a radiant sun-shaped crown. Riavh did not leave behind a Trialhall for a next Emperor -- instead, he is allegedly sleeping until such a time arises that he can rise again and bring about a world without war. And the Noble Houses hold his crown until this inevitable return.

Which House do you think you'd work for?

[ichabodjane]

Identity and Self-Determination for Human!Halbrand, Bronwyn, and the Southlanders

Guys this is such a long post, I have so many thoughts, I tried to keep them organized but idk how well I did. Also this post was partially inspired by a fascinating convo with @demi-lancer so go check that blog out, too!

Disclaimer: I love all the theory posts about Saubrand, I think both the writers and Charlie Vickers have done a great job of keeping things open to interpretation. But I’m going forward here with the assumption that Halbrand is 100% USDA Certified Grade A Manflesh.

Tl;dr: Human!Halbrand and the Southlanders are interesting to me precisely because they are "just some dudes" trying to forge an identity against all the craziness in Middle Earth. Our two main Southlander protagonists, Halbrand and Bronwyn, aren't heroes because of special powers, they're heroes because they show up and do the work to give their people a shot at making their own fate.

RoP makes heavy use of the themes of identity and self-determination, which are important themes in the Tolkien Legendarium generally. Naming yourself, naming others, or being named BY others…this has real consequences in Arda for the fortunes of both individuals and sociopolitical groups.

The Southlanders are struggling to forge their own path and their own identity. Their ancestors tried to do it by casting their lot with Morgoth but that didn’t work out very well. By the time we’re introduced to their society, they have been denied their right to identity and self-determination for quite a long time. The elves have been keeping a close eye on them (maybe limiting their movements?) and both elves and Numenoreans look down on them as a whole. They’ve also been denied access to the elven affluence and resources that the Numenoreans have had. For example, Halbrand has clearly never seen anything like the giant Numenorean statues before and he’s so blown away just by being in a prosperous city built by humans. (And then Galadriel’s just like “these men are not like you” wow girl, ouch, okay then.)

Not only have the Southlanders been under elven control for generations but they then have Adar and Co showing up to completely remove their agency by killing or enslaving them and destroying the land they live on. Bronwyn’s heroic journey starts because she stands up against this. She rallies who she can because screw you, you don’t get to just waltz in and demand we bend the knee and sacrifice those rights or our lives to you. Even if Adar and Co have faced similar mistreatment, they don’t get to claim their own rights by taking away others’ (a topic for another post).

And when the villagers return home to prepare for that last battle, what do they do? Pop an orc head on a pike. That’s a powerful message: you try to take this from us and we will fight back.

We see this struggle happening on an individual level with Halbrand in the way he names himself vs being named by others and the ways in which he compromises safety for identity. 

Halbrand is evasive about his past (I think partially for safety and partially because of the shameful and/or painful memories there) but he is very clear about his name. When he and Galadriel enter the throne room, Miriel only addresses Galadriel (giving her agency to name herself) but he adds his name in there, too. 

Tamar the Guildsman is in the room, hears Halbrand’s name, but later either forgets or pretends to forget. Instead he just calls him “low man” repeatedly, showing again how the Southlanders are defined and thus limited by others. At first, Halbrand is evasive because Tamar is clearly trying to intimidate. But once confrontation is inevitable, Halbrand makes sure to repeat his name before smacking Tamar into the wall. (Apparently Halbrand is unaware of the effect of head trauma on memory formation but hey none of us are perfect.)

Halbrand also holds onto the king sigil/amulet (omg what is in that pouch, bro, is it the blood your ancestor swore on?) despite its threat to his plan of outrunning his past. It clearly means something in his community; Bronwyn recognizes it immediately. It’s unique enough that Galadriel can dig up its backstory at her local public library. So if he’s trying to disappear, why hold onto this thing? Because it’s crucial to his identity and in the end he’s not willing to give that up. In fact, he does the opposite: he takes it back to the Southlands in an effort to use the identity it creates to save his society. 

I’m really excited to follow Halbrand and Bronwyn’s stories as they/their society wrestle with the legacy of past decisions while at the same time struggling just to survive day-to-day. Clearly Halbrand has done some things that he now really regrets. I think his family has probably been closely tied to the cult of Morgoth/Sauron and inter-human conflict in the region (he had to get that combat experience somewhere). Also I just can't stop thinking about the sheer amount of strong chains Adar and Co used to enslave people and the fact that Halbrand is a smith. And if everyone I knew got killed by the person I made chains for OR put in the chains I made? I'd run, too.

Now Halbrand is trying to counteract that past by stepping up to lead and protect his community from essentially the threat of extinction. Bronwyn is on a similar journey, though it seems that her personal past is less dicey. Neither of them have the powers of elves or the advantages of Numenoreans. They’re just regular people who grew up in a troubled area that recently gained A LOT MORE problems. While they have allies like Arondir, Galadriel, and some of Numenor, it’s still down to them to keep their people alive and find a new home now that agriculture in the Southlands is uuhhhhhh probably impossible. 

This also sets us up for future wraith!Halbrand (as much as it grieves me to say). Because after struggling against these insane magical forces and seeing so many of your people suffer and die, of course you’re gonna make use of whatever tools might help level the playing field. Like a magical ring of power. In this way, Halbrand isn’t so much an Aragorn parallel as he is a Boromir parallel.

But before the inevitable tragedy, I’m hoping we get to see Halbrand and Bronwyn working together to lead their people to a safer place where they can shed the dark legacies of the past and create both a new identity and a new path for the people who were the Southlanders.

[corinneecrivaine]

When streaming killed cinema

When streaming killed cinema,

John Kasdan had promised a season 2, indicating that Willow was not canceled but hatus. He even wanted to bring back Val Kilmer. Now he agree to remove the series from Disney+. What are we to make of this ?

He has always said loud and clear that Willow was a childhood dream and that he was determined to finish its 3 seasons and even make it into a movie. He started working on this project in 2017. He wrote the character of Jade for Erin Kellyman when they met on the set of the film: Solo A Star Wars Story. A film he directed with his father.

Willow, the series, was full of hope for an entire community and for many other people. It doesn't matter what community we belong to. It's a series full of positive messages. For the first time, we discover a queer princess. A princess unlike any Disney princess to date. We discover courageous, strong female characters who learn to discover and love each other awkwardly. For the first time, we discover a queer romance that's not sexualized, but romantic, that emerges as the story unfolds, and that everyone accepts and doesn't judge. Unlike all Disney tales, here it's not a prince who saves a princess, but the other way around.

Willow joins all those series whose end we'll never know: The romance between Kit and Jade, the romance between Elora and Grayon, Graydon's past and childhood. Will Airk live up to his father's legacy? Will Madmartigan find his daughter Kit? Is Dark Elora Elora, torn between good and evil, or is she the new Crone? So many unanswered questions. And leave wounded fans with an emptiness in their hearts.

When, in 2020, the whole world came to a standstill and we all found ourselves trapped in our own homes, deprived of our freedom and our loved ones because of COVID, streaming platforms exploded. Taking over the film market, but destroying it in the process. Production after production, quantity without quality. Responding to strong online demand. Making promise after promise. Such was their power that even the great actors signed up with Netflix and Disney to produce their films, which were no longer shown in cinemas, and continued to work in this way afterwards. Real cinema as we had known it began to die out step by step.

The world began to go out again, to live, but everything had changed, both the people and society. Step by step, we returned to the theaters, in search of the cinema of the pre-Covid era.

The platforms continued to want to own everything, like Disney, buying LucasFilms, Marvels and exploiting again and again a franchise that everyone adored, including an audience that grew up with it. Today, this franchise has lost its soul.

Productions have continued, but audiences have grown tired of the overexposure. Nowadays, platforms have become the "kings" of the film industry, calling the shots. Denigrating and destroying the work of an entire crew.

The entire Willow team spent 9 months filming in Wales. It was a tiring and testing shoot. They all gave their all to their roles. Not to mention the month-long boot camp. The costumers, who made beautiful costumes representative of each character. The sets, Kenneth, the fights, the special effects…

Today, nothing is respected any more, whether it's the work of an entire crew, the actors, the scriptwriters (without them, there'd be no story, no films and no series), or, most importantly, the subscribers, the fans. Who are left with the emptiness of losing their favorite characters, their story and living their adventures with them. It's like having a piece of their soul ripped away. But the stories will continue through everyone's fan fiction.

Many people expected this series, this romance, to see Warwick Davis back in the role of a lifetime.

Let's not forget, before they're actors, they're human beings.

No one should have to fight to be represented, listened to and continue to see their favorite series.

Today's cinema is not representative of society. It's shaped by money-hungry financiers.

If cinema were run by people who acted with their heart and soul, then many great stories would continue to exist and be created

[bracketsoffear]

My Hunt submissions that didn't make it (1/2):

Greg (“Go-Getter Greg” by Ludo): His entire song is about him stalking and harassing the woman he's interested in. Also likes cop dramas, which ties him to The Hunt through its police.

Mr. X (Resident Evil 2): The archetypal Implacable Man in the Resident Evil series. Follows Chris/Jill all over Raccoon City, shrugging off attacks to relentlessly and effectively pursue and kill them.

Tick Tock Crocodile (Peter Pan): after eating Hook's hand, liked the taste so much that it has constantly pursued Hook through land and sea ever since, hoping to eat the rest of him; swallowed a clock that basically constantly acts as a reminder of its pursuit.

Maximus (Tangled): Horse that goes to ridiculous lengths to track down and apprehend Flynn Rider, including getting in a fucking swordfight with him. Member of the Royal Guard, and therefore a cop.

Xenomorph (Alien: Isolation): It's an enemy that can't be injured, killed, stunned, or slowed down; the most you can hope for is to distract it or drive it off with fire and flee. Any contact with it kills you. It runs faster than you. There are places all over the game it can go that you cannot; the opposite is NOT true. It knows you're hiding, and the slightest movement or mistake will give away your position. It learns your patterns so you're constantly forced to change up your tactics to avoid it. It can be anywhere, and you are NEVER safe; it can get you during hacking minigames, while you're navigating menus, even while you're saving. Has better senses than humans and Working Joes. You can’t run from or fight it—you have to hide or die. Clever enough to pick up on your habits: if you excessively use noise makers, it will not only start ignoring them, it will pick up on the ruse and search where the maker was thrown from. If it senses you're hiding in a room but can't find you, it will go into the air duct and jump back down after you've exited your hiding space. It also is intelligent enough to have genuine malice: when it has Amanda cornered, with no visible way of running away, it doesn't seem to feel any need to hurry for the kill. It takes its time with a slow, lovely Ominous Walk to indulge in it. The Alien constantly scaring Amanda is largely due to the fact it is implied that it sees her surviving as an insult. This particular Xenomorph apparently has developed a sense of pride, and it is going after the player because it was slighted.

SA-X (Metroid Fusion): A mimic of Samus Aran (herself probably Hunt-aligned) who constantly chases Samus throughout the station to kill her until being destroyed. It relentlessly pursues you once it spots you and nothing short of eluding it or concealing yourself will cause it to break off the pursuit. Even then, there are other encounters, and it is more than likely you will have no choice but to alert it to your presence. You can't harm it in any of these situations. All you can do at that point is run or hide. The SA-X is basically if Samus chose to jump off the slippery slope by killing the baby Metroid rather than spare it, and by doing so ensuring the complete extinction of all Metroids and allowing the X Parasites to cultivate.

Samus Aran (Metroid): She's regarded as the finest killer alive in a society spanning at least one inhabited galaxy under a still as yet unseen umbrella nation; which comprises trillions of individuals, some of whom know of other populated galaxies, for which Aran has waged a perpetual war with nomadic inter-stellar brigands and all manner of criminal scum in its defense for the near entirety of her career, a career that stretches through the ages and has become myth. As such, she is held in such high regard to the degree that he, she, or it is often mistaken for an urban legend or patron saint of bounty hunters. The Space Pirates fear her as a force that they cannot turn away, no matter their numbers: reading Space Pirate logs in Metroid Prime make it clear they view her as a threat that needs to be captured and/or terminated (preferably the latter) as soon as possible to the point their Elite Pirates run through simulations based around combat with Samus and research on her various weapons and armors is considered in near the same priority as with Metroids and Phazon. Later essentially becomes a Metroid, who were engineered to hunt down the X Parasites, turning her into a spiky humanoid creature who drains energy with a touch.

SCP-096 (SCP Foundation): It will kill anyone who looks at its face. However, it doesn't matter how you look at its face, be it in person, via a security camera, or even a photo. It will somehow sense anyone who has seen its face and will hunt them down no matter where they are, with nothing able to deter it until it's accomplished its goal. It's also borderline Nigh-Invulnerable, with many attempts made to exterminate it that have ended in failure. SCP-096 was shot in the leg and head by a modified XM500 anti-materiel rifle and was described as having a hole blown through its torso, but it still failed to stop its rampage. Even if shot with thousands of rounds of ammo or hit with an anti-tank launcher, it will keep on attacking. The Foundation put someone in a bathysphere eleven kilometers underwater in a deep-sea trench hundreds of kilometers away from SCP-096's containment site with a photograph and a sketch pad to get an artist's impression. It bought them an hour.

.

[nrrrdgrrrl2002]

How I’d Rewrite Mutant Apocalypse

For starters, I’d make it more clear it’s an alternate future, possibly through time travel shenanigans.

I’d also change the aesthetic since I personally don’t like desert apocalypses. I’d go more towards the last of us where society isn’t completely destroyed, but it’s severely damaged and normal people do have to deal with monsters almost daily.

I’d also change the inciting incident to a mutagenic virus rather than an M bomb so it’s leans more towards a cycle of a new species becoming dominant rather than the earth being altered so severely, the living creatures on it would probably die out and leave the planet devoid of life.

I’d keep raph as the protagonist, but have him live in the woods, possibly the farmhouse, away from areas with people that would have more issues. I’d also maybe have him suffer side effects from the virus. I’d also have Leo confirmed dead via him saving raph, giving raph some issues

I’d make the main young girl shadow, a 13 year old in this story. Basically, I’d have raph meet up with a pregnant Karai, but Karai dies in childbirth so raph takes shadow in as his own without knowing who her father is. But as shadow gets older, he gets a feeling he knows who the dad is.

Their relationship would probably be a mix of Joel and Ellie’s from the last of us and kratos and Atreus in god of war. I’d have shadow be a human who’s immune to the virus.

The inciting incident would be the utrom, under orders from their “queen” go after shadow when their queen senses the girls presence and wants her dead so humanity can fully die out.

This would force raph and shadow out of the forest and raph would have to take shadow to New York, hoping to find a community that’ll keep them protected.

They end up going to the lair, which hasn’t been to in years. During their scrounging, shadow finds a robot that’s built to look like Donnie and turns it on against raphs orders.

The robot acts a LOT like Donnie and thinks of himself as Donnie. Shadow and raph take him as a companion, raph thinking it actually IS Donnie, but as they interact with him, raph starts to question if it actually is.

They end up finding a community in New York of infected humans and still sane mutants, led by their leader they call “the light”

The light wants to meet raph, shadow and “Donnie” personally upon hearing about them. The light turns out to be Mikey, who’s also afflicted with the virus.

Mikey ends up confirming that Donnie died, Mikey had tried to help Donnie years ago when don got sick, but couldn’t save him from succumbing to his sickness, so he’s not too happy with robo don thinking he’s actually Donnie.

Meanwhile, the utrom who failed psychically relay what they found to their queen, giving her raph and shadows psychic imprint.

Plot twist. The queen is april. The trauma of losing everyone she loved + the mutagenic virus fully unlocked her kraang dna, turning her into the next prime, but unlike the first prime, she had control over ALL utrom.

She figured since everyone she loved was gone, she’d let the human species die out and then have and then have the utrom take over to keep the new mutant species safe from the problems humanity’s nature caused. When she sensed a human who was immune to the virus, she figured preserving this random person’s life wasn’t worth jeopardizing her plan.

Upon getting shadows psychic imprint, she realizes this random person is not only Karais daughter, but Casey’s.

Now. Casey isn’t dead. He was infected with the virus and after years of fighting it, it eventually turned him into a feral mutant. April found him and attempted to restore his mind, but to no avail.

She eventually starts to believe Casey straight up isn’t there anymore and slowly sees him more like a guard dog.

So upon finding out who shadow is, she sees shadow as her last connection to someone she cared about deeply and personally goes to capture her and take her in as an apprentice.

The community Mikey’s in charge of gets wrecked by april and her utrom and robo don sacrifices himself to save Mikey (robo don had an identity crisis that Mikey wasn’t helping with and this is how it ends)

Shadow does get captured and raph goes to save her, Mikey having to stay behind to help his community.

Meanwhile, april reveals to shadow that shadow isn’t ACTUALLY human. Karai was a mutant and Casey was in the late stages of the virus when she was conceived, making shadow a human passing mutant.

Shadow obviously wants away from april, so april thinks showing her her bio dad to show why april cares about shadow and how shadows safe with her.

Yeah. Shadows horrified to see the bio dad she wanted to know her whole life as a mindless beast.

Raph manages to get pretty far, so april, who’s really REALLY losing it at this point as her prime mind overpowers her april mind, ends up sending Casey after him to fight, forcing shadow to watch her biological father kill the man who raised her.

Raph is forced to put Casey down through a sai to the head… in front of Casey’s daughter. Fun!

April ends up fully losing it and mind blasts raph, severely injuring him. Shadow flips and her mutant dna comes out for the first time.

Shadow ends up killing april. As Aprils dying, her real self thanks shadow before passing.

Shadow gets her and raph out of there and back to the community. Unfortunately, Raphs injuries were fatal and he dies.

Mikey takes shadow in, now being the last living member of the hamato clan.

Maybe I’d have another arc after where renet takes this shadow to the past in order to help the present main 6 fix the future, maybe I wouldn’t. Who knows. I just didn’t like the mutant apocalypse we got in almost any aspect.

[grabyourpillow]

So. I watched Avatar the way of water

so you don't have to. hear my thoughts about it and then decide for yourself

Entails spoilers but that doesn't really matter because the scenario is at a solid twenty three on a 0-10 predictability scale.

Okay so, first things first.

The movie is stunning.

The special effects teams did an awesome, terrific, 11/10 job and I thought to myself "AI could never." Every plant, every flower, every creature felt like a living, breathing organism. The planet's ecosystems felt coherent and beautiful and alive. I had chills at some scenes purely because they were absolutely absolutely breathtaking. There are details in the morphology of different Na'vis, from the skin patterns to the development of the limbs, etc... And I honestly think 95% of the world building can be attributed to the special effects teams working on the movie.

And the scenes in the water, oh my god. You'll have to see for yourself. If only for these I don't regret seeing it in a movie theater, and they will probably fuel my imagination for years to come.

Okay that's the setting. Now,

The story: uuuuuhhhh

You're missing the bad guy from the first movie right?? No??? Too bad, because he's back. And bigger. And bluer.

because we couldn't be bothered to think of other tension points memory transplant. Bad humans destroy planet. Bad guys wants to destroy good guys because they don't have anything better to do and also revenge. Good guys good, by the standards of... US military of course.

Ah right, I have to take a detour here. Let's talk about.

🇺🇲American ideals in the movie🇺🇲

My god. It's like the VFX team tried to create an original and unique world, but the top scenarist was like. "It has to speak to the every day person: the average american male, of course."

Starting from the hero Jake Sully. Jake Sully's only personality traits are "US sergeant" and "a father protects, his family" — You'll hear that sentence about 3000 times. I suppose they thought it was deep.

(He's talking to his son. Lol.)

Jake tells his wife what to do during the entire movie, and she complies. He's not always right, but his wrongs are never shown as such. His outbursts are justified, hers are either calmed down by him or... one time, after their son's just died, he tells her he needs her to be strong. You know? Like him. THIS WOMAN HAS BEEN READY TO FIGHT THE ENTIRE MOVIR AND YOU'RE TELLING ME when some JACKASS kills her SON SHE NEEDS PROMPTING??? FUCK YOU

The Water tribe's structure is... The men go hunting. Women are healers. Some women have power but still the chief (a man) utters the other. The boys get into fights! And their dad is like "Go apologize. *Whispers* what's the other guy look like". The girls are kind and keep their younger siblings in check!

Which. You know, this is what I can observe, in my own life. It could be argued it's a good representation of the social pressures and dynamics of those gender groups in current society. The question is

FUCKING WHY

WHY am I seeing traditional gender roles and American values on a LITERAL ALIEN PLANET. GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK. And the thing is, I'm not even sure it's by design. What is more terrifying, is that it might stem from an UTTER INABILITY TO CONCEIVE ANYTHING ELSE COULD EVEN EXIST.

And the most terrifying to me is: the intended audience probably does identify with Jack Sully. I can imagine a lot of family dads sitting there slightly teary eyed going "yeah. A father's job is to protect his family."

WHICH COULDVE BEEN A STRENGTH. It could have taken that audience and told them: look. Trying to protect his family like that got Jack nowhere. Understanding of other cultures, of your own children is equally, if not more important.

But no.

I'll talk about it later but. To me, the movie unintentionally highlights stuff, and fails to deliver what could be deeper and meaningful messages every single, time.

It's a talent really.

right. Back to the story

A girl has disney princess powers because of, of...,

*Checks notes* a... miracle... You know what I give up.

(She was conceived like fucking Jesus by Mother Nature. this was actually the one scenaristic way out I could forgive, were it not for all the other scenaristic shortcuts.)

To sum up:

Visuals 12/10

Scenario: -2/10

Jake Sully: fuck you

Americanism: -1000/10

For the first hour, the only words in my mind were "utter shite." Now. With such a negative balance, is there anything worth seeing at all, besides the special effects?

I'm sad to say, there is.

For me at least. And it was

The children.

My attachment to the children is what carried this entire movie for me. Both their parents and the narrative fails them at every turn but that's ok, because they grew somewhat beyond what the narrative was tryna do with them. I'll put this in a reblog because 1. I'm tired 2. I need more picture space

[gamey-geemer]

Alright, so everyone knows the canon "This is totally probably true" stuff about Bard/Prince, Rogue/Thief and Muse/Lord being about Destroying, Stealing, and Controlling respectively, giving us 4 pairs remaining.

My proposal for those, as if nobody ever did exactly this with probably way better arguments than I have for something else.

Page/Heir: They create their aspect. John creates the wind that protects him from Bec Noir/Grimbark Jade, he creates the wind that clears the glitches, and going off of the idea that Blood represents connections and Breath is its opposite representing the freedom from attachment (not an unjustified idea for the same mythological reasons that Tibetan Buddhism was the foundation for the Air Nomads in Avatar) then he's the one who creates the freedom from the whole system set up by Lord English. Meanwhile, that I personally am aware of, Jake only uses his Page powers thrice, twice when he created his impossible Hope Field that managed to overpower both Grimbark Jade and Caliborn during his Masterpiece, and once that I don't really know about where he creates Hope in John in the Candy Timeline. As for Passive/Active, Jake is a self serving, even if we'll meaning, person while John is kind of the opposite, who everything he does throughout the entire narrative is for someone else, which is basically the dividing line of the active/passive split. Oh yeah, Tavros as a Page in one of the like 2 times he's relevant to the plot is him creating the freedom from Vriska, Equius doesn't do shit, Mituna burned his brain out creating a better fate/doom for all of his friends, and Horuss doesn't do shit that we know of. Also, it's pretty jank to have a destroyer class and not a creator class

Sylph/Witch: We really don't see Kanaya or Feferi use their fucking abilities throughout the entire series. We do see Damara as the Handmaid subtly manipulate Alternian society using her time power. Aranea manipulates Terezi into receiving her light, and Jade ultimately (save for her Green Sun powers, which give her loads of stuff outside of her Classpect powers) manipulates the scale of things and can levitate them. So needless to say I think that these classes are all about manipulation, finesse over raw power. As for active/passive, I like the symmetry of Witch being active since it sets up the human session to have only one active player in the beta and only one passive in the alpha (whoops did I just spoil my thoughts on Seer and Knight). I paired them also because more than any others these are linked by being about magic.

Mage/Seer: This is a fucking easy, they know shit. Mage might seem a bit weird, but since it drives from the ancient Persian word Magus, which was the priestly scholarly caste, it is sufficiently tied to academic knowledge. I already spoiled what I think the passive and active form are, but Rose tends to view the hard work necessary to acquire knowledge as a formality that she can skip. You see it in her regards to college for psychoanalysis, her quest in Sburb, how she treats the Troll romance lessons from Kanaya in the first timeline. Meanwhile, Sollux (while his eyes two fold have been ripped Open and he can't look away from their doom) studies. He studies how to be a ~ath programmer, he studies how everyone is going to die. Also, the Sufferer just awakens his visions of Beforan society and how people could be connected as opposed to doing any studying and coming to the conclusion that it's bullshit like how Tyzias and Stelsa do. Also, all three instances of Terezi using her mind powers (killing John, Deciding if she should kill Vriska, and charting the Retcon) were all to determine what course of action should be taken for the benefit of everyone else regardless of how it effected her. She was also entirely about using her abilities to better society by cutting out the criminals. Meulin doesn't do shit

And the last pair

Maid/Knight: These are kind of difficult since when I first started conceptualizing this these were kind of just the two that were left over. But then I realized, both Knights and Maids are typically relatively minor nobles signed into a life of servitude to a higher noble, either as a Lady in waiting for Maids or as the most powerful soldier in the case of Knights. They both are pretty much on the same spectrum of being brute force, since like Grimbark Jade says, the role of the Knight is to Weaponize their aspect in fights, and who's the only person who directly no shits given just uses their aspect to beat a mother fucker up with infinite raw power? Aradia. Dave and Aradia also both serve, serving as the cornerstone "Main person making sure everyone survives this fucking nightmare" people in their sessions, with Aradia ultimately doing so because one she isn't a dick, and two at the end of this she will get to see this whole place come crashing down (even if she isn't aware of that in the moment or even aware she wants to see that) while Karkat pretty directly serves by organizing all of his friends into an effective battle group. He weaponizes his friendship and connections to other people to their own benefits. Latula I don't think we see anything regarding her weaponizing or serving her mind, or Porrim with her Space powers.