#tons of atla references

[certkidwhocantdomath]

Guys, it's time to come clean.. My headcanons have never been in full. Yeah, in my true headcanons Johnny was blinded instead of Kenshi(bc Johnny getting blinded instead is underrated) but I kept it out because I thought you guys wouldn't like it. Also, Johnny has his powers but instead of green it's red(bc Johnny with red powers is canon but very underrated). But I finally decided to come clean and put my headcanons in full.

Btw, I just face revealed in my banner! Guess which I am!

Coldstar Headcanons, Part VII: The Truth

(That actually sounds like a badass title😆)

• Johnny is a descendant of Scandinavia and Greece and the sole surviving member the Karlatun Clan. (Canon doesn't have anything about the quote unquote "Mediterranean clan" Johnny descended from so I created a name myself)

• Johnny spoils Bi-Han. He loves to give him gifts, at least once a day. Such is the life of a celebrity. It can be anything, really. He also loves physical touch. I mean, he is a blind man. Johnny specifically loves it when Bi-Han guides him, with his hand on his shoulder or bicep. It makes him feel very present, especially with the complete loss of his sight. And that's something he cherishes.

• It's only when one of them is badly wounded, that Bi-Han says "I love you" to Johnny- when they are healed, Johnny beams from that point on. One of these moments was when Johnny was blinded by Mileena and stabbed by Shao(that's a story for another day I'm afraid).

• Ever since Johnny came to Outworld, he has been having prophetic dreams of Raiden wielding lightning, Kenshi blindfolded and levitating Sento ahead of him, Liu Kang and his cold hands, Bi-Han and a demonic shadow-like figure constantly looming over him, himself and burning hot fire. 

• Bi-Han is protective of Johnny but he's even more so in an unfamiliar place. After the Mileena incident, he will not let Johnny out of his sight and glares at anyone who tries to talk to him.

• Rather than Kenshi, Johnny is the one blinded by Mileena. It's because of Johnny's prophetic dreams that he decided to pull Mileena away from Kenshi, allowing himself to be blinded.

• After getting blinded, Johnny gained a unique "radar sense" that allows him to perceive the proximity and arrangement of objects around him. He cannot, however, discern pictures or video images, and he can only guess at colors based on the amount of heat they are absorbing or reflecting. (Johnny is basically MK's Daredevil)

• Rose(Johnny's mom) was the very woman who taught Johnny how to do that.

• After getting blinded, Johnny matured considerably, losing much of his earlier arrogance and shortsightedness. In the process, he becomes an overall well rounded and serious character, although his penchant for humor remains mostly intact.

• After gaining his powers, Johnny was sent to Seido for several months(this was before Bi-Han was courting Johnny, he started courting him the day he returned)much to the displeasure and anger of Bi-Han and Kenshi.

• Sometimes, Johnny's fellow kombatants forget Johnny is blind- leading to some funny moments similar to A:TLA when the Gaang forgets Toph is blind(perks of being a multifandom😎)

----MK CAST FORGETTING JOHNNY IS BLIND----

*out on a mission*

"There it is!" They heard Johnny exclaim from his cooling seat; aka Bi-Han's lap.

Kung Lao, Syzoth and Tomas perk up

Kung Lao looks around and sees nothing, he sends Johnny an unamused look

"That's what it'll sound like when one of you spots it." Johnny said with a smile and he waves a hand over his blindfold and gets comfy once more in Bi-Han's lap.

- -

*out on a mission in a desert*

Johnny accidentally knocks himself into Kung Lao

"Ow! Can't you watch where your-" Kung Lao stops himself the moment he realized who he was talking to,

"No." Was all Johnny said.

"Right, sorry." Kung Lao rubbed the back of his neck and looked behind Johnny to see Bi-Han giving a cold glare.

- -

*in the Lin Kuei mansion*

Kung Lao was drawing Syzoth, who was missing, with Johnny who was laying down and listening to soft music he was playing on his phone.

Raiden and Ashrah come in and Raiden happily says, "We found a printer to make our posters!"

Kung Lao replied with, "Hey, I thought making the missing Syzoth posters was my job. I've been working all day on my Syzoth!"

The Chakram wizard shows them a badly, but also cutely, done drawing of Syzoth.

"It's not bad," Kung Lao beams, "but also not good." Kung Lao deflates.

"C'mon, Ashrah your being too harsh!" Johnny began, "it looks just like him to me!"

"Thank you! I worked very-" than Kung Lao remembered who said that, "why do you have to do this?"

And can I just say, damn! I look cute in my banner!

[synthshenanigans]

…do u run the daily cj account /gen

Shockingly, despite the many CJ related accounts I have & as much as I've thought about doing one, I do not run the daily CJ account

...however if anyone were to want one for tumblr, I wouldn't mind making one at least :}

[Edit: I just realized you're prolly talking about the new one here & not twitter lol. Still I'm not the one that runs that one tho! Maaaaybe will still do a photo a day but i don't wanna steal the other persons thing]

[practisingyi]

Sometimes I wonder how much the ocean just consumes that man's mind

[kitkat-the-muffin]

Tis a niche of its own

Sorry there is only two female characters, I kinda pulled these off the top of my head and probably missed a ton of other candidates. Reblog with an addition if you have one!

Edit: I forgot to make this poll a week long! Once this poll ends I'll remake it with new additions depending on the results (the characters with the fewest results will be replaced with suggested characters from the notes so be sure to suggest some!) in the meantime tho plz reblog to increase sample size

This follows my own definition of what "Comic Relief" means: A character that is used as a conduit for comedy in a piece of media

Through character studies I have determined that there are 5 types of comic relief: the Character Relief, the Audience Relief, the Tone Shifter, the Butt of the Joke, and the Slapstick. Characters that identify as "Comic Relief" usually fall into one or more of these categories

Further explanation under the cut

The Character Relief refers to a character who actively makes jokes to be funny in-universe through conscious humor. Examples from this poll would be Sans and Rayla, who go out of their way to make their friends laugh

The Audience Relief refers to a character who makes the audience laugh regardless of their impact on the story. Examples from this poll would be Lapis and Gus, who are often involved in comedic bits meant for audience entertainment that aren't acknowledged by the narrative as anything unprecedented

The Tone Shifter refers to a character who makes jokes to relieve tension and shift the tone of a scene, either consciously or unconsciously. Examples from this poll would be Jay and Leo, as they both consciously make jokes about grim situations to help their friends or family feel better. Additionally, Jay would do this unconsciously before his trauma made him start doing it on purpose

The Butt of the Joke refers to a character who is made fun of by other characters in-universe, whether endearingly or not. Examples from this poll would be Dewey and Lance, who are often met with insults whenever they do something wrong or silly. The insults are usually meant to be endearing and comedic, but they can still feed into the character's possible inferiority complex. This also applies whenever a villain hits them with a sick burn*

The Slapstick refers to a character who is made fun of by the narrative and the audience like a punching bag. Examples from this poll would be Sokka and Yusuke, who are sometimes put in troubling and awkward situations as a gag for the audience's entertainment alone. These gags are not fun for the characters yet delightful to watch

Most comic relief characters can be characterized as multiples of these. For example, Jar-Jar from Star Wars is both Slapstick and Audience Relief, and even if you don't find his jokes funny that doesn't change the fact that they were written with your entertainment in mind

If you're curious how a "The Narrative's Favorite (derogatory)" character would fit into this chart, they're likely both a Butt of the Joke and a Slapstick character, making their life absolute hell. To be honest, MK from Monkie Kid is an example of a character who fits all 5 categories, but he isn't blue so he isn't in this poll

*Ok if you've ever seen Phineas and Ferb Mission Marvel let me just say MODOK is a total Butt of the Joke and my favorite line in that special is when a TV announcer calls him a "Giant Chicken Egg with a Face" and I just had to mention that omg

[versaphile]

So as I am wont to do when I enter a new fandom, I looked around and asked myself what resources would be useful to have. Also I need a ton of reference material for my Vash novels WIP. So I'm building a Trigun Reference Library, which will eventually contain timeline, atlas, and reference information (esp plant lore) for all three timelines. (There is some info already there, but I have a lot yet to add.)

But for now, the transcripts section is ready for the public! It still needs work, and I'm collaborating with a small group of volunteers to create the dub transcripts. (If you want to assist in that please let me know, more hands are welcome!) But better to have unformatted transcripts than nothing.

The Transcripts section has a full set of sub-based transcripts for Trigun Stampede, 1998, and Badlands Rumble.

Please reblog to let others know of this resource!

[kathaynesart]

Woah you interned for AtLA?! You have accomplished so many impressive things in your life!

Does that mean you remember this?

Hahah yes I do! I worked during season 3, so personally got to see that beauty first hand. It was a ton of fun and such a wonderful experience to work on a show that I had already been a big fan of at the time. I mostly just worked on organizing the pitch bible which had all the martial arts references and posting up storyboards, but they also let me help with filming the martial arts reference shots and I got to sit in on a writer’s meeting for one of the episodes. I was even gifted a beautiful poster signed by the entire team as a send off. Such a great bunch of creative people!! I’m looking forward to what they put out next with their new studio!! Please show them all the support you can!

[ritunn]

Fabula Ultima: High Fantasy Atlas Review

Emmy award winning TTJRPG, Fabula Ultima, just released its first sourcebook in English! The High Fantasy Atlas is already a best Electrum seller on DriveThruRPG and at the time of writing, the best selling book on the platform this week... all within one day! But, if that hasn't convinced you, let me offer you my review.

What do you get in the High Fantasy Atlas? Well you'll find the following:

Chapter 1 - Introduction: This section covers how the pillars of JRPGs work in High Fantasy games and offers more details and examples on how to implement them. Very useful for session 0 world design.

Chapter 2 - The World: This introduces 10 sample high fantasy locations you're likely to explore in a high fantasy world of Fabula Ultima game along with advice for creating new Arcanum for the Arcanist class, details concerning the creation of gods and demons, how the Stream of Souls functions, and info on tech and magic. The latter part of the chapter has new rare item rewards and artifacts you can give players!

Chapter 3 - Protagonists: This chapter includes sample PC ideas with info on them along with the new custom weapon, quirk, and zero power optional rules. The latter part of the chapter includes 4 new classes, the chanter, commander, dancer, and symbolist, along with heroic skills for classes new and old.

Chapter 4 - Antagonists: The first part of this chapter explores how to use antagonists in High Fantasy games while the latter half offers 5 villains from levels 10 - 60 you can use in your game or as a jumping off point to make your own!

Overall, 200 pages of content useful for not just High Fantasy games, but any really! Let's go over some of my favorite bits in each chapter.

Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter, though the shortest, is incredibly helpful. Having examples and additional explanation for how to implement the pillars is useful for groups, especially those coming from systems like D&D and Pathfinder who might not be used to having such power to shape the world. Otherwise, it offers a solid introduction to the genre as well.

Chapter 2: The World

By far the longest chapter, there's a few notable things that aid immensely, but let us begin with how the sample locations work.

Each of the 10 locations starts off like this with an intro and an "at a glance" sidebar. This really helps you conceptualize what the area is supposed to invoke feelings wise and offers you nice reference for travel rolls and what kind of enemies and discoveries you may find here. I highly recommend doing this for locations in general your group makes, it helps a ton.

After this, each location has some example quests and questions to ask your players to flesh out this area and areas like it. Perfect for giving others the ability to add their own flair to the area and to get them started with playing when they enter the area. These story hooks also often have a villain described with tactics they use and any relevant clocks, but they have no stat blocks, so you can make them to fit with your group's playstyle for combats.

Afterward is a section on how to run conflicts and make them memorable, helpful if that is something you've been struggling with. It also has some nice ideas regarding how to run fights against armies, which is certain to come up here and there in games.

Lastly, we explore the magic and tech of High Fantasy. The advice for making new Arcanum, whether for world building themes or for the Revelation heroic skill, is greatly appreciated as it's one of the hardest things to balance and get right without a good understanding of the game. Advice on how the afterlife and Stream of Souls works thematically in your game is also useful and it offers some nice plot hooks you can use with the ideas presented I've put into practice even before the release of the Atlas to great effect. Lastly, the section on technology is short but appreciated, exploring how it differs from a Techno Fantasy game.

The new rare items are mostly geared towards enhancing specific skills for classes rather than general use, but it's handy for figuring out how to price similar items focused on certain skills when making your own. The new artifacts are also grandiose and powerful additions to any game, magnificent rewards if your party can acquire them. My favorite is a book that contains all knowledge up to the present moment in time, but was sealed away in the far reaches of space... supposedly.

Chapter 3: Protagonists

The main course! This has the 4 new classes and a bunch of optional rules we saw in the playtest. But, first I want to take a look at the sample PCs.

Each of the 10 sample PCs has a profile like such. It covers the usual Identity, Theme, and Origin, along with a Quirk and signature weapon. Quirks are a new rule that work as backgrounds, but suped up with powerful game changing and character altering effects ranging from gaining some spells to being able to choose to make costs for a spell or Ritual free at the cost of eventually summoning a supreme villain... that will come eventually whether you like it or not. Ones like those typically give you a free heroic skill when the big event comes and you lose the quirk. Preparing you to face a new horizon or final foe.

Back to Raisa however. As we can see here, it has info on her backstory, classes, what she gets to decide about world building wise, and how they'll grow in their own character arc. Useful for someone who wants to jump right in with a somewhat premade character, but even more useful for showing your players what you need to know about their characters if you're a GM. This should also help direct and inspire players during world creation. Which I greatly appreciate. Now, for the new optional rules (besides quirks).

Custom weapons are pretty simple. They're essentially weapons you design mechanically as a player. They're always two-handed, cost 300 - 400 zenit, can be any weapon type you want along with being melee or ranged, and deals [HR + 5] physical damage with a [DEX] + [INS/MIG] accuracy check depending on what you choose. You can then pick a few traits, like Powerful for extra damage, Defense Boost for extra armor and to make it count as a shield, or Transforming to let it switch between two different modes. Depending on what traits you pick, it may also become martial. This rule can be used by anyone who wants to use it without fuss unlike quirks and zero powers, as it adds no extra power and is fairly balanced. Some people could play with custom weapons, some without. But, it allows for you to add a lot of style to your character if you choose to do so.

Lastly, zero powers are a mechanic I've been using for half a year from the playtest and it's loads of fun! Want a limit break or perhaps combo attack in vein of Tales of Arise? Zero powers have you covered. When using this rule, you gain a 6 point clock that fills whenever taking damage, spending a Fabula Point to invoke a trait or bond, or via special Zero Trigger you pick when making your power. Then you pick an effect to go with the trigger you can unleash with an action when the clock is full, like Zero Limits which boosts all your stats by 1 die size or Zero Triangle to allow you and 2 allies to make a free attack with a +5 bonus to accuracy. Zero Powers are loads of fun and you can even allow for players to charge them up together for combo attacks with a variant rule for 4 or less player parties.

Welcome to the show! The Chanter is your premier bard. Chanter's main skill is Magichant, which allows them to sing or play songs you compose yourself by picking a volume (to determine number of targets), key (to determine damage types, attribute, status effect, HP/MP), and tone (to determine the effect with info filled in by your key). It's an amazing support class with high MP usage, but they can easily target enemy Vulnerabilities or act as a debuffer too to tear their foes apart. Their other skills allow them to perform hearing-based illusion Rituals, increase damage or regain MP when enemies are hit, give damage reduction to themselves, or get a free attack with low and medium volume magichants.

Being a chess master is the name of the game with Commander. Gaining access to martial weapons of all types, the Commander has skills focused on creating conflict scene wide buffs and debuffs to everyone. Use Bishop's Edict to double MP costs or increase all damage or King's Castle to increase HP/MP recovery or null it entirely. Their other skills allow them to command allies to make free attacks with handy bonuses and chain together their skills when doing so, leading to a flurry of activations. But be careful, one wrong move can lead to your downfall. Commander works best as a sort of Warlord class, they're a support martial pure and simple, but if the player using it isn't very smart about how they use their skills they can put everyone in a heap of trouble.

Swift of step, Dancer's main skill is well... Dance! Dance allows you to spend 10 MP before or after an action to perform a dance (5 MP if you used Dance last turn). Dances provide a variety of effects but most give you resistance to a damage type or allow you to alter all your damage to that type until the end of the turn or give the enemy a status condition, or another different one if they already have it. There's also healing and haste dances if you want those too! Their other skills allow them to apply dances to others they have affection towards, dance and use the equipment action for free, get bonuses towards rolls involving acrobatics for Objectives, or increase the damage of their weapons or spells after dancing. Dancer is primarily another support class, but their ability to change damage types and increase damage makes them amazing at targeting Vulnerabilities and denying enemies damage by gaining Resistance.

Symbolism has always been the heart of magic and the Symbolist knows this best. An IP focused class like Tinkerer, Symbolist's main skill is Symbolism. By spending 2 IP, you can create a symbol and attach it to an ally or make a free attack and apply it to every enemy you hit (amazing with multi). Symbols range in effect from halving recovery, providing one free IP expenditure, or even changing the creature type. Their other skills allow allies with a symbol cast your spells, make sight-based illusions with Rituals, track enemies with symbols, and increase damage or recovery on those with your symbols. The Symbolist, like the Tinkerer, is focused on IP usage and as such will need a class like Rogue, Merchant, or Wayfarer to help keep that up. However, symbols allow for a lot of strategy and creativity in character building that you can use to your benefit. Picking your symbols will be paramount to your build, so be smart about what you pick and smarter about who you apply them too. Sharpshooter and Weaponmaster are also great picks if you intend to apply symbols to enemies.

Lastly, the new heroic skills are all solid. Most focus on using specific types of weapons, now rewarding you for sticking to them as your signature weapon. There's even a few only available to level 30 and higher, notably, Bimagus, which let's you dualcast spells and Grand Summon, which allows you summon Arcanum as separate entities to help you rather than merging.

Chapter 4: Antagonists

Compared to the last two chapters, there's less to say here but there is some great content. This chapter includes 5 villains of levels 10, 20, 30, 40, and 60 that make for fun inclusions in any High Fantasy game. The villains range from a pirate queen to the incarnation of narrative tragedy itself and each comes with a statblock, minions (if they have any), and advice on how to run their encounters. Some even have multiple phases, which is a great example of how to build your own multi-phase boss fights, after all... this isn't even their final form!

One thing to remember when using these enemies (and the book points this out thankfully) is that Fabula Ultima is designed in a way where you, the GM, have to make monsters your party can reflect upon and has the tools to fight effectively. So, when using these, change up the affinities, give them a makeover to connect to the heroes if needed, and use them as you see fit!

Final Thoughts

If you have been loving Fabula Ultima, pick up this book. There's so much great advice for running games and new content for players and GMs alike. You won't be disappointed! There's also some more beautiful JRPG style art within just like the Core Rulebook. If you enjoyed Bravely Default, FFIV, FFIX, FFX, or Tales of Arise, this book will let you live out the same fantasies and journeys featured in those games and gives you even more tools to be your very own heroes of High Fantasy and challenge tragedy itself on the Final Days.

You can purchase it on DriveThruRPG for $14 USD ($20 CDN).

[roboticsappreciationsociety]

By Ben Coxworth

November 22, 2023

(New Atlas)

[The "robot" is named HEAP (Hydraulic Excavator for an Autonomous Purpose), and it's actually a 12-ton Menzi Muck M545 walking excavator that was modified by a team from the ETH Zurich research institute. Among the modifications were the installation of a GNSS global positioning system, a chassis-mounted IMU (inertial measurement unit), a control module, plus LiDAR sensors in its cabin and on its excavating arm.

For this latest project, HEAP began by scanning a construction site, creating a 3D map of it, then recording the locations of boulders (weighing several tonnes each) that had been dumped at the site. The robot then lifted each boulder off the ground and utilized machine vision technology to estimate its weight and center of gravity, and to record its three-dimensional shape.

An algorithm running on HEAP's control module subsequently determined the best location for each boulder, in order to build a stable 6-meter (20-ft) high, 65-meter (213-ft) long dry-stone wall. "Dry-stone" refers to a wall that is made only of stacked stones without any mortar between them.

HEAP proceeded to build such a wall, placing approximately 20 to 30 boulders per building session. According to the researchers, that's about how many would be delivered in one load, if outside rocks were being used. In fact, one of the main attributes of the experimental system is the fact that it allows locally sourced boulders or other building materials to be used, so energy doesn't have to be wasted bringing them in from other locations.

A paper on the study was recently published in the journal Science Robotics. You can see HEAP in boulder-stacking action, in the video below.]

[invested-in-your-future]

What are your biggest issues with the first three volumes?

Hmm.

The Vagueness

The show, from the very start, has been way too vague about specific things it shouldn't have been vague about- be it the racism or how ANYTHING works.

Do other countries have military or did all of them randomly dissolve it? If so then why does Atlas still do?

How does anything in the world work? What was the great war beyond few weird snippets?

What can or can't Aura do? What IS Magic?

WoR has some context here and there, but it's also pretty sparse for a lore video. And the show grows sparser and sparser as it goes.

Shaky foundations could be fine if the later Volumes expanded upon the world but...

They really didn't.

The Faunus/WF Subplot.

The milquetoast "violence bad" takes, using WF as generic mooks, the Faunus discrimination overall not being expanded upon, the way team RWBY handles Velvet bullying - it all stinks of ignorance and unwillingness to actually delve into it all at all.

This is basically the depth of RWBY's take on discrimination:

The Faunus are "angry at discrimination" but "being angry and violent is not right, they should protest peacefully and out of sight".

What discrimination? What do we see of that beyond just one school bully instance nobody does anything?

Why do Faunus appear only when the show needs someone to get beat up? What drives them to join WF in such numbers?

HOW do Vale's citizens view Faunus? Is it different from other Kingdoms?

Nothing.

(And yes I know that V2 subplot is just something they lifted straight out of Korra, but Korra had an entire show beforehand showing multiple benders as oppressive and powerful beings that made the world tremble - the idea behind the non-benders being fearful at least makes sense, especially since we DO see benders who exploit others through the Book One)

Heteronormativity

The showrunners, all of them, shouted from the rooftops about how Remnant is an inclusive world and yet in show the LGBTQ+ community existence was reduced to weird gags (sometimes literally going against the "inclusivity" comments like when entire school - all women paired up with men in the background - laughs at Jaune in a dress) or bait (sometimes intentional, like how in V2 commentary Miles talks about how they put in Ruby and Weiss scenes to attract shippers).

And yet the showrunners kept talking about how the gay people totally exist and how the world is inclusive and how they are just planning things and "getting better" at writing while they had no issues throwing in a TON of straight ships into the mix or highlight heteronormative romantic interactions and attractions.

The weird thinly veiled sexism.

Literally most of Jaune subplots pretend to be about how Jaune is in the wrong, and yet it's the women who are in the wrong - "Jaune hit on Weiss and Weiss said no? Oh how evil and selfish of Weiss to not give him a chance!" and all.

Some are okay like the Cardin blackmail idea but the execution just grinds everything to the halt.

Screentime and Focus Disbalance

Jaune gets A LOT of focus, while Ruby gets barely any. Now it would work fine if you assume the show is just building up to her development as she reacts to Fall of Beacon and all that - but the volumes after don't do that and instead keep giving focus to Jaune.

Specific character allusions.

Some character references are...uhhh, yeaaaah.

Like, I love the first three volumes a lot and I love the trailers but there are flaws - I was just more forgiving of them because of the usual growing pains and because there was always that promise of the show doing better going forward which they never fulfilled.

You can like something flawed and derive enjoyment from it. As long as there are things to like and the flaws don't overcome whatever good is left in the story.

[itsclydebitches]

The thing that gets me about the 'Remember her message' crap is like... Remember what? Her message wasn't some inspiring speech or moral lesson, it was essentially saying "Shit is going down, here are people who know more. And Ironwood is a bitch ass mother fucker.". What, does Winter think people will forget the important details?

Though Ruby's message is definitely generic, I personally have no problem with that. Generic can be great when it plays to a genre's strengths and the audience's expectations. Ruby does spend the second half of her broadcast asking the people not to panic, telling them to pull together, and reassuring them that they can in fact beat Salem. On paper, it sounds like a pretty solid speech that, yes, is worth keeping in mind after she's supposedly perished and things have well and truly gone to shit. Hell, part of what Ruby asks is that the people of Remnant keep moving forward even if Atlas falls, with the implication being that she may die too, but they should heed her warnings even if she's no longer around to remind them. The scraped epilogue shows the people doing just that.

The problem—multiple problems, really—is that this message within RWBY's specific context is nonsensical. I spoke a lot about this back when Volume 8 first aired, but it's worth repeating in light of the epilogue. Ruby's speech is heard as one unbroken transmission, yet Ruby skips over a ton of crucial information, implying that the people of Remnant have heard it off screen... yet, given how this is written (both that unbroken stream + they have literally one shot at this message with Penny buying them time), that's simply not possible. Ruby admits that the Maidens and the Relics sound insane, but she never told the people what those are. She reassures them that Salem can be beaten even though she can't be destroyed, but she never tells them that she's immortal in the first place (which is HUGE given what went down with both Ozpin and Ironwood). Ruby announces that Ironwood can't be trusted, but provides no reason or evidence for why that's the case. She further tries to provide reassurance by saying that they must be a threat to Salem because if not, she would have attacked long before now, but that's another huge, baseless assumption. (Plus, the viewer knows there's no in-world weakness that Salem is hindered by, one that Ruby is strategically alluding to. She just didn't attack earlier because the show didn't start earlier. Salem, as a character, waited around for Ruby to grow up enough to fight her.) Perhaps most damning from our perspective, Ruby talks big about stopping Salem without once even considering how they might beat her, let alone coming up with a viable plan to present to the people.

In short: she's pulling an Ozpin. Ruby knows that saying, "Our enemy is immortal and we have no idea how to stop her, but you should keep fighting anyway!" is a very bad gamble, so she doesn't lie exactly, but implies that she has a much better handle on the situation than she actually does. She is, on a literal level, doing precisely what Ozpin did to the girls except on a world-wide scale. And unlike Ozpin who at least offered information that made sense to people based on what they already knew, Ruby references things on the fly that are either a) meaningless to the people or b) entirely unpersuasive. This is a kid who hacked every screen in the world to say, "Hi, it's me, someone you've never seen before. An entire kingdom is about to fall to grimm, but it's okay! See, everything bad that's ever happened in history, from those grimm to the White Fang to random crime around Vale, is all orchestrated by a woman named Salem. We can't beat her, but we can totally beat her. How? I won't say. Also, a world leader is evil now. How do I know this? I won't say. Also also, "maidens and Relics." Don't worry if those words don't mean anything to you. So see? If you just band together everything will be fine!"

And then the world... did that, with the side benefit of not panicking and drawing grimm like everyone agreed would happen back in Volume 7. But that's a writing decision entirely separated from the reality RWBY's built. From the perspective of Remnant, Ruby's speech is unsubstantiated nonsense. At best it comes across as a conspiracy-theory obsessed child playing a prank. At worst it's panic-inducing without providing a shred of explanation or reassurance. If there was ANY consistency in the show the girls would arrive in Vacuo to find the majority of the people going about their daily lives because... wait. You actually thought we were going to listen to you when you spouted all that ridiculous stuff? Meanwhile, a handful of believers are now ready to fight ... because they think Salem can, in fact, be beaten. She's an enemy, yeah? We're brave! Let's go kill her! All Ruby would have done is put those people in the same position they were pre-Volume 6, with information they probably should have been able to use to figure things out (how is Salem still around after centuries if she's not immortal?) but more likely they just jumped to the easiest, most reassuring conclusion. You said there was an evil lady controlling everything, but that we could beat her. So... let's go beat her? And Ruby is standing there, sweating, because oh yeah, she has no idea how to beat Salem. She is ACTUALLY speed-running Ozpin's choices except she pulled the entire WORLD in instead of just a few, choice hunters already committed to half the fight and instead of damning her for that like Ozpin was the show goes, "Yes. This was a lovely message worthy of murals in her honor."

So Ruby did have something akin to an inspiring message alongside the "Shit is going down, others know more, Ironwood is an asshole" spiel. But it's only an inspiring message when removed from eight Volumes worth of world-building and arcs that show precisely what happens when people do this. In that light, Ruby's message isn't inspiring at all, it's just another lie undermined by her giving no explanations and no proof that she can back up her reassuring claims.

[froborr]

The Other Meaning of Luz

We all know that Luz' name means light, right? There's tons of theming around her--she's associated with the light spell in the opening, the Light glyph is the first one she learns in both glyph systems, the King!Light glyph is based on her Titan-merged form, there's countless examples.

But there's no rule that a name can't mean two things. Luz is Hispanic, so the Spanish meaning of her name is obviously the primary one, but there is another language in which the word luz means something else entirely, and while it definitely could be entirely a coincidence, it does have some interesting connections with Luz' story, and especially the final season. And it's a meaning I haven't been able to find anybody else talking about, and neither has Google, so... let's talk about it.

That language is Hebrew, in which the word luz means "almond." So right there we've got an interesting potential meaning, because Luz' last name, Noceda, is a Galician name meaning "a grove of walnut trees." That would make Luz an almond in a walnut grove--someone who doesn't fit in, an outsider, a "weirdo," which is of course everything her character is about.

But there's more to it than that, because in addition to literally meaning "almond," in ancient times the Hebrew word luz also referred to one of three human bones associated with almonds. Scholars disagree about which bone was actually meant, but it was either the atlas bone at the top of the spine, the coccyx at the bottom, or the sacrum connecting the spine to the pelvis, the former two because they're supposedly almond-shaped, and the latter because it has almond-shaped indentations (personally, I don't see the resemblance in any of them, but apparently, historically people did).

So we've got a connection to bones, which of course immediately connects to the Bones of the Isles, the Titan--who has been quietly giving Luz her magic all series, whose voice Luz hears every time she goes to the World Between, and whose soul/power she houses in the finale--and in the process gets bones prominently added to her design.

But that's still not everything, because the Zohar--a thousand-year-old compendium of Jewish mystical traditions that is the main source for identifying the sacrum as the luz bone--describes the luz as "the bone shaped like a snake's head." And wow is Luz ever associated with snakes. She has one the first time we see her.

She has one the last time we see her.

She even wears one in her final character design!

But my favorite Luz-snake connection is the one we learn about in "Thanks to Them," when we find out her mother keeps a snakeskin Luz found as a small child in a frame on her nightstand--in the shape of the Ouroboros, the snake swallowing its own tail, an ancient symbol of infinity, eternity, and resurrection.

And speaking of resurrection, the reason we know the luz bone was a thing (even if we don't know which bone it was) is due to a belief (once fairly widespread among Jews) that the luz bone was the location where the soul was located, and that it was indestructible. At the end of time when the dead were resurrected, the luz would be the seed from which the rest of the body would be restored.

So, the luz was supposed to be indestructible--and Luz doesn't die when she's killed. It's the location where the soul is stored.

It's associated with resurrection.

And it's the seed from which restoration occurs--as in, the restoration of the Boiling Isles from Belos' rot and decay.

So, do I think Luz is named Luz because it means "light" in Spanish? Absolutely, 100%. Do I think Luz might also be named Luz because it means "almond" in Hebrew?

Well... maybe. It's definitely more obscure and a little out-there... but it does seem to fit pretty neatly.

[0vergrowngraveyard]

I’m curious about the medicine Atlas is giving Tails 👀 What is it for ???

In case this can help for reference, inspiration or something:

I take a strong medicine that makes me feel dizzy and makes me act silly. ( It’s prescribed don’t worry ). I don’t take it everyday, only for emergencies, but I can say, the feeling is pretty weird. When I take it I need someone to be with me because it makes me disoriented and sleepy, walking feels weird, and the body feels weak. One time a friend told me she thought I was drunk before someone explained her why I was acting weird.

Here are some of the secondary effects:

Difficulty thinking and remembering

Drowsiness

Loss of balance and coordination

Blurry vision

Everything feels like a dream.

I usually don’t remember everything that happens after I take the medicine, that’s why I hate it.

Do what you want with this information 😇

the really cool answer to that question is i have no clue lmao. tails doesn’t know and since you’re following his pov, you don’t know either. that’s my 10/10 excuse

i like to think that he’s just giving him benadryl because, when trying to describe how he’s feeling, i just think back on however i feel when i’ve woken up after taking that shit while sick

(also because the idea of atlas walking up to a pharmacy and buying a shit ton of boxes of benadryl every few weeks is very funny to me for some reason)

but yea, all the effects you described are pretty much what tails is experiencing (except he does remember everything that happens, it’s just a little wonky)

[steldomo]

I just wanna toot my own horn for a sec. Since I’m usually self deprecating I hope it’s alright this time lol!

In this video I watched a while back, I heard worldbuilding advice like “go deeper, not wider.” It’s usually in reference to magic systems: “instead of making dozens of spells that are just glossed over, make only a handful but their full possibilities are explored.” Avatar the last airbender is something I’ve seen been given as an example of this. Instead of having tons of elements with basic powers, the show only has four, but they’re well very thought out. Possibilities like “hey, isn’t there water in your blood?” “lightning is superheated air just like fire” “metal is a type of material found in the earth” were accounted for and expanded upon. It was awesome

Id like to think I do this as well, at least sometimes

The elemental barons are a blatant example, since they’re pretty much the same concept as benders in atla. The baron of lightning is the one I’m proudest of. He can manipulate electricity, which is the flow of electrons. I’ve researched tons of sources of electricity and strange properties of electrons in order to understand just what he can do. Neurons and muscles are activated with electricity, electric currents generate magnetic fields, manipulating the electricity in a wire technically means manipulating the electrons of the metal itself… I’m having a lot of fun learning what crazy thing he could do next!

I’m also proud of the fact that there really aren’t that many individual technological advancements. The ship’s dome is made up of a force field. Instead of coming up with tons of high tech future stuff, I just keep realizing that being able to generate force fields has a ton of applications. Ochron’s eyepatch is held up with a force field band. Space suits are force fields generated around the wearer. An idea that may go unused is a glove that creates pointed force fields to act like claws. I’ve entertained the idea of resizable phones by having them be made of a force field that can be transformed like a desktop window.

Idk man, tldr I took the “go deeper not wider” rule to heart and I’m having a blast figuring out what every implication of the magic and tech I’ve imagined could be

[diaryofamadsunwukongfan]

Religon

Vale

The main religion of Vale is the Orthodoxy of Lux, or Luxizm for short. In Vale, Luxites give their faith to a "one true god of light" that created Renment, plants, animals, and people. The God of Light, which Luxites refer to as "God", also created angels that would help him govern the land... but then the darkest angel rebelled against the God of Light, which forced him to cast him down to Earth. This fallen angel, which Luxites refer to as the Devil, created the grimm to torture the God of Lights' creation, but the God of Light once again helped mankind by giving them Aura, Dust, and Semblances. The God of Light also blessed some humans with angelic power, the Silver Eyed Warriors, but that's a lesser know story.

Luxites practice by going to church on Sunday, having holy books in their houses, etc. As a darker belief, some Luxites justify their racism against the Faunus by using a specific interpretation of the Luxizm bible that implies Faunus were created by the Devil.

Mistral

While Vale is mostly united in it's religion, Mistral has a ton of different religions that are all united by a single mythology. In Mistrali mythology, an ultimate (gender neutral) god of the universe created the brother gods of Light and Shade, who then created Renment and all the other gods living there. The relationships between the gods changes from story to story, sometimes the Shade god is the son of the Light god and grandson of the ultimate universe god, other times the brothers and ultimate god are aspects of the same being worshipped as a trinity. The seasonal maidens, who are seen as the reincarnating avatars of the original seasonal goddesses, are usually worshipped together, but their relationships to each other change as well (are they sisters, or two sets of sisters that are cousins to the others). Menagerie mythology is largely the same as Mistrali mythology, but focuses more on the god of Animals and are where most of his stories come from. Unfortunately, the racist Luxites think the god of animals is the devil in disguise.

Atlas

The main religion of Atlas is... none. It's people are mostly Atheistic or Agnostic and most of them became that way after Atlas seperated from Mantle.

Mantle

The main, and usually only, religon of Mantle is the Northern Orthodox. The belief system is mostly the same as Luxizm, but unlike them they believe that the Devil god of Shade is the brother and equal of the god of Light, so members of this faith respect and sometimes worship them both. That is the main reason why the two religions split.

While some of the people in Vale make trash memes about Northerners being demon worshippers, the truth is that members of the Northern Orthodox worship the god of Light out of love, and the devil god of Shade out of fear so that he spares their loved ones. Atlesians mostly look down on the religious people of Mantle (literally) for being backwards and highly superstitious, which is another reason why the two don't like each other.

The majority of the people of the Atlas colonies in Mistral are members of this religion.

Vacuo

Just like it's community, Vacuo is the least unified when it comes to Religion in Renment, even less unified than Mistral which has a common mythology. It has a little bit of everything, some Northern Orthodox participants who are the descendants of colonists, some old faith people who worship their ancestors and the land, lots of Atheists, and the occasional Luzite immagrant.

[mywifeleftme]

306: Jardín // Maqui de hierro

Maqui de hierro Jardín 2005, Self-released (Bandcamp)

Peru’s Buh Records was the subject of a lavish Pitchfork feature last year, which introduced me to a lot of cool Latin American avant garde artists on the label’s roster. Most of their releases that I’ve checked out have been ‘70s-era reissues, but one that jumped out at me was a late ‘90s to early ‘00s noise/techno duo called Jardín. In the piece, the label’s founder Luis Alvarez says meeting them “opened up a whole musical universe that I didn’t know. Jardín’s music was like an epiphany for me.” You can tell from the way Alvarez talks about them, and the gushing liner notes on this 2019 reissue of their third/fourth (the liners can’t decide which) cassette release from 2005, that he has a personal investment in keeping their memory alive—the kind of heart’s fav that makes someone start a label in the first place. I think anyone who has spent time in an art scene has their own archive full of brilliant unknowns, artists who maybe ruled the city for a year before fizzling out, people who dazzled at open mics and then got a full-time job at Shopify, leaving no publishable utterances behind.

So, I had a degree of preloaded affection for the band before I even listened to them, but I’m happy to second Alvarez that these guys ruled. Hard electronic that sorta sits on the border between techno and power noise, the liners make reference to the influence of Andean Indigenous drumming and the use of ocarinas (originally a Mesoamerican instrument) but I don’t find that Maqui de hierro (Iron Maqui, a type of Chilean berry) reads as explicitly “ethnic fusion” music. If I were listening blind, I’d’ve likely guessed they were German, Spanish, American, or even Montreal’s own before getting down the atlas to Peru—actually, I’d probably have given up, told you they were extremely sick, and then pulled my hoodie up and kind of bobbed up and down in place while staring at the ground.

Recorded mostly live or in their studio space, these are roiling concrete and metal constructions. The opening tracks are the most conventionally danceable, percolating techno rhythms and warlike bass drones kicking it beneath an upper atmosphere of slashing static and endless delay. “Perfume de ceniza” (“Ash Perfume”) in particular goes extremely hard, with this thrilling rill of digital distortion in its midst that sounds like a laser shark’s fin sheering through an ocean of metal. Both LP sides gradually descend into harsher, more experimental murk, still rhythmic though the irregular beats are now localized on a singular position, like a malfunctioning compressed air hammer trying to batter a crooked plate flat. I have to imagine Jardín played this stuff live at ear-bleeding volume, but with the stereo knob in your own hand at home you’re free to enjoy the wild variety of textures they tease out of their ratking of pedals, switchboards, and wires. The 15-minute “Serpientes de humo” reveals their Latin influences most clearly, with spooky ocarina trills like forlorn bird calls and some ritualistic percussion passages peeping through the maelstrom.

Kudos to Buh for keeping the memory of a cool project alive—highly recommend adventurous listeners take a trawl through the rest of the label's catalogue, there are a ton of gems to discover.

306/365

[versaphile]

The Dandelion

Okay, so I said I had a Trigun plot bunny coming on? Well this past weekend, Vash just walked over and slammed a novel idea into my brain like the typhoon he is. So I guess that's my new project, which I'm now doing in parallel to finishing the last few chapters of When My Fist Clenches, Crack It Open. And uhhh holy crap, it's one hell of a novel.

Working title for now is The Dandelion, inspired by someone calling Vash a dandelion in the desert. Apologies for the source of that being lost in the depths of tumblr's Trigun tag, if you know it please tell me.

It's going to be about everything we didn't see in Stampede: Vash's early life on Ship 3, his explorations of No Man's Land, his itinerant wanderings as a "plant engineer" among humanity, and even Vash's interactions with the Plant Cult/Eye of Michael and brief, painful confrontations with Nai himself. I'm already planning to cover a ton of stuff, I finally got a sub for the Ulysses novel writing software to organize it all, this will not be small and I have a massive amount of planning to do.

This thing is probably gonna be uhhhh minimum 100k and probably at least twice that if my track record is any indication. You can laugh at me in three years when it's 500k, nothing that hasn't happened to me before ha ha. *cries* I just have MANY feelings about Stampede Vash in particular, many many many, and about his relationship with the entire complicated world Nai has made for him. Vash keeps telling me ideas and I keep writing them down in rough form for now. I can't start writing properly until WMFCCIO is complete, but I'm so close so my hope is to finish that by the end of the year, and then have enough material planned out to start writing The Dandelion as soon as that's done.

Currently I have to go uhh research desert biomes, desert travel, all the NML maps I can scrounge, emu husbandry, insect lifecycles, come up with roughly 5,000 names for every goddamn human, plant, and toma on NML, why do you love knowing everyone's names Vash, why are you torturing me like this? And I still have to figure out the back half of the fic and a million other things but I am VERY excited, it's been freaking ages since I had a new giant novel idea and this is SO different from anything I've ever written.

Also, having previously made an atlas for Merlin fandom in support of my giant novels for that, I've already started putting together an entire website for all the Trigun resources I'm gonna need in order to write The Dandelion, including all the episode transcripts (important references!!) and various timelines and visual references and such. It's still kinda bare bones as I'm very much still amassing info and Trigun fandom is such an absolute firehose and that was even before Vash commandeered my brain for this new novel. And I have to try to do all the RL things while I'm juggling all this. But I will share when it's further along.

But I already have the first line for my AO3 summary:

Before the bounty, before the Stampede, a young independent plant struggles to find himself on an unforgiving desert planet.