#well emporor-like i guess

[loves-em]

THE QUEST FOR THE NAME

As people my age do, they go to school. And they have teachers there, but that's happening less and less nowadays.

Get it, because there's a shortage?

Alright, not funny.

Fair enough.

With some teachers, you'll have problems. You just won't get along. With other teachers though, you'll get along to the point of having inside jokes together.

This is a story on one of the greatest inside jokes to ever be, within my friend group at least.

Mr. E is one of these teachers I get along with great. A younger teacher at my school who teaches Biology and Chemistry, funny guy and gets his point across very well. I really respect him for his teaching ability!

But let's move on with the story.

During my Science classes with him (this is a chosen subject he is qualified for because he teaches BioChem), my Friend Max would always go up to him and ask him questions. Sometimes unneeded, rarely about the topic we're at. This wasn't annoying to Mr. E, or if it was, it was in the funny annoying way.

Anytime we would enter the room, Max would go "Ay Mr. E!", and he would go "Oh not YOU again!", and that was funny.

Sometimes I would tag along with Max, a student has their questions and it was funny to annoy Mr. E and chat a bit as well.

One time Max went up to Mr. E, he asked him a personal question. This was also a thing Max did often, but it was just jokey-joking. He asked him for his son's name.

Mr. E has a younger son, Who should be around 5 by now. But Mr. E refused to tell the name. So, naturally, we demanded three guesses for that name. WE NEEDED THAT NAME, ALRIGHT?!

Our guesses went to waste, we didn't get it right. How could we, with so many options?

We then went on to have three guesses every day we saw him in class, which was 4/5 school days for me. He taught me in all his subjects, so I saw him a bunch. Max didn't see him as much (only in the science course), but I still did our daily guesses, gotta keep the streak up.

One time, we got really close with "CJ". From what I understood, his son has a first and second name, starting with these initials. Also, it might be a rather popular name as well, he said it would probably be in a baby name recommendations book.

A fun thing we found out: Mr.E has a Pug named Hannibal. Like the emporor. Or the cannibal. Depends on who you ask.

We documented all the names we've asked so far, alphabetically at that. The "CJ" information was very recent, so there's many other guesses.

We have asked a total of 154 names so far, with no luck just yet, but I can feel us getting closer every day.

Only that we aren't. With the new school year starting a few weeks ago, I don't have a single class with Mr.E. Only Max does, but he wasn't into the name thing as much as I was, so he doesn't ask Mr.E names on his own.

Yes, this story doesn't have a happy end where we find out the name. Or at least an open end where we might find out. It just ended, but it was fun while it lasted. Maybe we'll find out another day.

I have some more stories to share on Mr. E, he is a funny guy. Let me know if you want more! Also, please feel free to tell me your interesting teacher stories and inside jokes!

(Also: My first post! I've been wanting to start a personal Blog for forever, so this is me finally starting. Is this how you do that? Is tumblr the right app for that? Do give feedback on my writing if you read to this point.)

[lasclanswer]

Alvarez guitar serial number checker

#ALVAREZ GUITAR SERIAL NUMBER CHECKER HOW TO#

#ALVAREZ GUITAR SERIAL NUMBER CHECKER SERIAL NUMBER#

#ALVAREZ GUITAR SERIAL NUMBER CHECKER SERIAL NUMBER#

INFORMATION on Yairi Guitars: Google Yairi-Yahoo, Yairi brochure, and Yairi serial number and or build dates.

#ALVAREZ GUITAR SERIAL NUMBER CHECKER HOW TO#

(inside the guitar) This will date your guitar if you know how to read it. ALSO Yairi guitars have a number stamped into the base of the neck. There is a yairi group on YAHOO that is very useful. The model number to letter/number change in model indentification started in 1975 (IE 5065 be comes the DY74) I have seen other guitars dated 1973 that had they Alvarez logo. I have a late (november) 1973 5065 (which became the DY74) It has the A/Y logo on the head stock. The fact that your guitar says Alvarez in script on the headstock and not A/Y tells me that it is pre-1974.ġ973 seems to be the change over years for the logo. If it remains a secret I will tell everybody that it is a YW 1000! This is my last attempt to find out something about a guitar. And - funny enough - they are not very expensive because in Germany erverybody who thinks he is an expert would never pay a high price for a not all - solid guitar! And finding an historic model as a YW is still very seldom. But for a long time they were very hard to find in Germany. I wanted to own a K.Yairi since I first heard of them in the mid seventies. I have written an email to the official european K.Yairi webside twice but they did not answer, which is quite a poor service in my opinion. I've seen lots of pictures and read lots of infos in the net, but until today I found nothing about a f.e. The problem is just that my guitar should be a YW 1000, but the numbers on the label under "model" could mean everything, but definitely n o t YW 1000! With a good deal of fantasy you could see a 3 and a 6. There are also a lot of photos on the Yahoo-Yairi website to look at for comparison.īut dating my guitar is not the problem. There are usually some of the non Alvareal guitars on Ebay for sale so you can look at them and compare photos. Some of these I have seen Just have a Y on the headstock The non US guitars have a different but sometimes simular model numbering system esp. Any where else in the world including Canada they are Yairi. Yairi sells his guitars in the United States through Alvarez as Alvarez-Yairi and they have the A/Y logo on them. Oe thing you may or may not know is that K. There is information on Yairi on the web if you take the time to google it and so on. Yairi guitars sold through Alvarez, but there is also other information as well. ALSO there is another yairi guitar site on yahoo that is a lot more active then this one. If you google yairi guitar dating it should come up. Older Yairi guitars are dated in the year of the emporor. I would be very thankful if anyone could help me! I tried it by mailing my question to the K.Yairi website twice, but noone answered! Which is not a service I think. The head does not show the typical vertical letters (like Martin). This guitar was bought in the famous Steinway - House in Hamburg/Germany in, I guess, the late 70ies or early 80ies. The lable is - i guess rather unusal - brown with the logo and the K.Yairi writing in silver. Serialnumber, modelnumber and year of production can not be read. Unfortunately all the labels inside the guitar have vanished over the years. Yairi guitar came true and I found a dreadnought K.Yairi in the style of a Martin D 35/45, most similar to a YW 1000. This spring my lifelong dream of owning a K. I am a bit out of practice, but I hope I shall be understood. First I must apologize for my poor english.

[pebblysand]

Obsessed with your writing as always, so if you feel like it could you answer please: 11) Have you ever amended a story due to criticisms you’ve received after posting it? / 16) How did you come up with the idea for Giulia? (there's got to be a She Lives AU/Case Fic pls I'M BEGGING YOU) <3

aw, thank you soooo much <3! man, also those are two excellent questions. i apologise in advance for the long answers.

11) Have you ever amended a story due to criticisms you’ve received after posting it?

so: the short answer to this is no. at least, not that i recall. it may have happened when i was writing fanfiction at a younger age, but i honestly don’t remember if it did. i have, however, sometimes amended things in a story after posting it, but it’s always been because of a flaw that i saw or something that i wanted to change, rather than something someone else wanted to me to change.

i actually regularly do that. if you’ve been reading castles from the start and have recently gone back, you’ll notice small changes here and there. but that’s just me suffering from edititis (which i have dubbed as the constant will to edit and keep editing shit until i die. if i ever published a book, i think i’d still feel the need to go into bookshops and scribble changes into them). in castles, though, i’ve never (and don’t intend to) change anything major. it’s a couple of lines, maybe a scene, small stuff. however, in my previous long fic, children (not potter), i went back a couple of years later and rewrote the whole thing. but that was because i wanted to do that, not because someone else asked me to.

this, of course, aside from the obvious ‘oh, you wrote “lay” instead of “lie”’ or ‘oh, you put two p-s in “apologise.”’ i sadly don’t have a beta for most of my work and whenever someone points out a typo i get embarrassingly annoyed at myself cause god, i spend hours and hours proofreading these and there’s always typos that get through the cracks. it drives me nuts. but of course, if i get a comment pointing one out, i’ll obviously go back and change that.

this being said, i don’t necessarily rule out changing something on the basis of a comment in the future, it would just have to be something i agree with. this is a rather complicated topic for me actually because i do have a knee jerk reaction to criticism which i think is maybe different from most authors. i’ve seen in the past a lot of people on reddit or elsewhere complaining about authors getting very defensive/angry at criticism. i have the opposite flaw: i genuinely think everyone who criticises my work is right. so, my knee jerk reaction is to people-please, go back, and change the thing that made this person unhappy. i’m fighting constantly against that knee jerk reaction, trying to trust myself and my narrative choices haha. in a way, i do think my knee jerk reactions is quite a good thing because it clearly means i listen to people and don’t think i’m better than them, but i’ve recently come to terms with the fact that it also has a downside. i very quickly question myself, think everything i write is shit, and lose the will to write. i have alluded to this before but there is a reason why there was a four-month gap between chapter 8 and 9 of castles.

the way i’m learning to deal with this is two folds: first, i try to remind myself that everyone is contradicting themselves and there is no way i can make everyone happy. in castles, i have people in the comments who don’t want harry and ginny to end up together. i have people who think ginny should be ‘punished’ for dumping harry in chapter 3, and people who don’t. i have people who love the foreshadowing i do and my use of time in a non-linear way, then recently got a comment saying that person hated it. so i try to remind myself that i’m the captain of this ship and in the end, i need to make decisions lol.

second, i also frequently go back and check in with myself. when i got a lot of criticism about harry’s characterisation a couple of chapters ago, i went back and re-read the whole thing to make sure i still stood by what i had written. and, i think, while i didn’t at that point, if i had come out of it thinking i needed to change x, y, or z, i probably would have. i think that’s one of the gifts you have in fanfiction: interactions with your readers and the ability to go back and change things you don’t like. so it’s not like i’d completely rule out changing something after posting, it’s more that i’ve checked in and felt there was no need. it doesn’t mean it won’t/can’t happen in the future.

comments and criticism do influence future chapters though. like, i’ll read something and think: yeah, that’s a fair point, or here, that’s a good idea, and take that on. for example, i think that had i not gotten certain comments, i would have written harry’s reaction to ginny’s letters as a lot less ambivalent in chapter 9 that i ended up doing. i might have reached the same conclusion in the end and it didn’t influence the overall plot, but criticism and comments do have an influence on future developments, yes. not all of them, but some of them.

.

16) How did you come up with the idea for Giulia? (there's got to be a She Lives AU/Case Fic pls I'M BEGGING YOU) <3

aw, jules. that’s also a very interesting question. so, for her i feel like there’s two things.

first, there’s her function in castles as harry’s work partner. i won’t lie, that was sort of born out of a reaction i’ve had to many other post war fics that always rang a bit wrong to me. in a lot of post-war literature, when harry joins the aurors, he’s just partnered up with ron. and i always felt that was weird because… they’re both newbies!! they need a more experienced partner, someone to teach them shit! and, so once i’d decided that, i sort of started digging into who that partner could be and what he or she could bring to the story.

i very quickly decided she’d be a woman. first because the only other auror character was robards and i wanted to balance it out, and also because she comes in at a point where harry is actually more comfortable with the women in his life, than the men. there’s a very weird post-war dynamic with the weasleys with a lot of the unspoken ramifications of losing fred, of everything that he hid from them regarding the war, as well as his relationship with ginny. his relationship with kingsley is … complicated, and at that point, he doesn’t really trust robards. he feels much closer to hermione (who is also on the outside of the weasley dynamic) and i just think that in a weird way, the relationships he has with women in that part of castles are a lot more honest than what he has with ron, for instance. so, i also wanted giulia to be part of that.

on that same note, the one thing that i knew when i started thinking about her is that she’d be honest, no-nonsense because at that point in the story, it was what harry needed. he’s navigating blind in the middle of a storm for most of the first half of castles and i think he needed someone he could trust and who would be honest with him. everyone around him is trying to protect him but harry’s always preferred having the information just laid out in front of him - i wanted giulia to provide that. it was also particularly interesting because, as he says himself at one point, she is the only person in his life who hasn’t known him for years, and who hasn’t been through it all with him. and, then he’s paired up with this person and told: you have to trust them with your life. and, of course, that doesn’t work like that. and so i wanted to giulia to be honest and no-nonsense because that inspires trust.

and then… there’s what every writer in the world will say, which i appreciate is very frustrating if you’re trying to come up with a character formula: she just shot off the page. i have no explanation for it. the main character who i had planned and for whom i had an extensive backstory was mia, not giulia. then, i started writing her with those two things in mind and she went from being a work partner who was going to appear in a couple of scenes to, well, giulia. that’s the part i can’t really explain. i remember writing that first scene where she meets harry in the patrol car and jokes about him trying to change his appearance and i was like ‘ohhhhhh who is this?’ giulia basically stole the show and wrote herself. i had very little hand in it. which, when you think of her character, is incredibly fitting. i had to dial back mia’s story (although, i’m now developing it for the next couple of chapters so it just got moved rather than deleted) because giulia just took so much space. it’s one the joys of writing where a character you thought would be minor just takes on a life of its own. and, the whole thing about her being gay (and sort of a player), and her slytherin past, and her relationship with harry all just became strangely self-evident. i wish i could say: ‘oh, i had the idea for giulia by doing x, y, z’ but it really wasn’t intentional. i had a baseline but she created herself.

obviously, then, she did end up filling a very important role of having harry understand that the guilt he felt over the things he’d done during the war shouldn’t plague him forever (‘you’ve done shit things, do better,’) but that was a role i gave her after she shot off the page, not before.

regarding her death, that’s sweet. i’m still sad we lost her. i was writing her for chapter 9 and just felt sad. this being said, it’s kind of hard for me to think of an au in which she doesn’t die because she always was going to die. from the very first time i wrote her, i remember i wrote the chapter from the moment harry meets her to the end of chapter 4 in one sitting. and there’s this line she says which is: ‘we’ll all die and fall into oblivion but you won’t’ (when she’s trying to get him to talk) and i remember writing that sort of instinctively, stopping and thinking: oh shit. she dies, doesn’t she? and, once i’d thought it, i couldn’t unthink it. it was set. and, i remember getting a tonne of comments from people who loved giulia at that point and biting my tongue because i knew, i always knew she was going to die. that too was self evident because in the end, harry has got to learn to stand on his own, she can’t always be there to tell him what to do. and, obviously, that becomes clearer after she dies, in chapter 9 where he’s just found out about ginny and he’s trying to figure out how to feel but all he remembers are bits of conversations that don’t really help.

and, like, she’s far from perfect. she’s impulsive and can sometimes be a bit too honest. and, while a lot of the things she tells harry about sexual assaults are correct, the way she teaches him also sort of backfires because it’s so prescriptive he feels terrified of doing the wrong thing and ends up, for most of chapter 9, doing nothing. and, generally, i tend to think she was the right person to teach harry at the right time, but her style of teaching would have completely backfired on most people. like, ron wouldn’t have taken to her. at all.

but man, i really miss writing her.

anyway, thanks again for your questions and sorry for the essays, haha. they were really good questions! if anyone wants to ask more, the full list is here and my ask box is open.

[cheesecakemermaid1048]

Snek

I am just gonna call them”noodle cookie”XD

[stormhaven13]

How do you explain Edelgard using the Slithers as pawns to "free humanity from tyranny" when they are a direct danger to anyone and everyone? Rhea is not the "bigger" threat when the Agarthans turn people into beasts and still actively pursue genocide of a race/species while all Rhea does is reactionary.

When Edelgard invaded the Holy Tomb, she threatened to kill anyone who stopped them from stealing Crest Stones, is it not understandable that Rhea would take some huge offense to that? Not to mention the "Flame Emporor" being involved in other crimes as well.

If Edelgard needed to "use" anyone (lets face it, she was the pawn all along cause the Slithers ultimately got what they wanted in the end, Rhea dead and possibly being used by them and the other few Nabateans leaving Fodlan for good and Sothis and her power disappering from Byleth) she would have used the Church to wipe out Slithers before forcing Rhea to step down.

So. I don’t really know why you’re asking this as if it’s a big gotcha. Like your whole point of “Edelgard is really the pawn”. Yeah. That’s. That’s just the point, that was the whole intention of TWSITD. They literally made her to be a weapon, and she could not get out from under their thumb. So instead, she decides to use their plan to enact her own, to try and change the world for the better.

I’m guessing you haven’t done Edelgards route in Three Hopes, because it actually looks at one of your points. The whole premise is that given the first opportunity she uses the church against TWSITD, which requires a massive series of coincidences and her plans going perfectly, and all that does is annoy Thales rather than outright beat him. I haven’t had time to finish it yet, so I don’t know how it ends, but yeah. Three Hopes’ Black Eagles route is exactly what you said.

The thing that makes it pretty clear that this ask isn’t really in good faith is that I’m not a particularly active blog, so if you looked at the stuff I’ve posted you’d see that I’ve never said I don’t like Rhea, or think that she’s always being unreasonable or whatever, im really not sure how you’ve drawn that conclusion. Best guess is you saw my response about Seteth and Flayn being only spareable by Byleth and made a few logical leaps.

I personally don’t have a huge amount of interest in Rhea, but there’s plenty of nuance to her character rather than the kind of flat and boring characters of TWSITD. She makes an interesting antagonist in Crimson Flower, which is my favorite route, but I just don’t personally have a lot to say about her that other people haven’t already said.

And the fact that you seem to think TWSITD has more power than Rhea is frankly a bit laughable, and requires ignoring most of the text of the game. Are they a threat, absolutely there’s a reason they are the final antagonist of one of the routes, but the whole point is that they are attacking the far stronger force of the Church.

Do I think Edelgard using TWSITD the way she does is “morally right”? No probably not, especially on routes other than Crimson Flower where she feels forced to rely on them even more. But she has been put into an impossible position, where there are no morally right options, and we aren’t given enough text to really analyze what her other options would have been, besides in Three Hopes, which makes it pretty clear that that path would not have been possible in the original Three Houses.

But all of that is not the point of Three Houses, none of the house leaders, or Rhea, are “perfectly moral”, they are all put in difficult situations that require impossible choices, and to differing degrees they all do “bad” things in various routes, or in their histories. The point, at least to me, is that what happens when someone like that is given an out, what happens when they’re given support is that they improve. All of them, when given support, learn to trust again, to rely on others. I personally just find Edelgards version of that the most compelling, for reasons others have said far more eloquently than I am willing to try now. If you want to understand why people like Edelgard, I encourage you to go look (just look, no need to start arguments) at other posts in the tag about her.

TLDR: I’m a small blog who has never said I dislike Rhea as a character, or view her as this total monster or whatever. I simply like Edelgard not just despite, but because she is flawed, she is human, because she makes sometimes crappy choices in the pursuit of a better future against impossible odds. Three Hopes specifically answers and examines one of these points in great detail, so I invite you to either play it yourself, or watch a playthrough if that’s not possible. Do I personally find Crimson Flower to be the most compelling path, yeah I do. I’m just not black and white about it, and just because I don’t personally find interest in a character doesn’t mean I think that they’re a bad character, or unreasonable, or whatever. You’ve ascribed thoughts to me that simply do not exist.

[darthravage]

“Kneel bevore the dragon of Zakuul”

Anyone who has played KoET so far will know this quote which is a way of conditioning Vailyn. As you all know she is somehow mad and I will try to explain her madness as far as possibile in this text. Of course it is very well explained in the game but I’ve grown mad and wanted to write something again. When I’ve finished KoET (what won’t take that long anymore I guess) I’ll try to explain Valkorion’s behaviour. How ever let’s do this one. (Ok this text became longer than I originaly planned it. The last heel will contain the whole text in short form without the argumentative part of course.)

Let’s start with reasons in her family: I think we can agree in the fact that Vailyn’s father is rather mad what you can see in the fate of Ziost and Nathema as well as in the fate of his father. SInce she is his offspring it’s rather natural that she inherits some of his madness. The argument between Vitiate and Senya about how to raise the children won’t have improven that at all as well as the fact that the Senya left Valkorion and the children had to decide with who to go wasn’t really helpful. Maybe things would have been different if Vaylin had chosen to stay with her mother but her brothers stayed with her father and so she would have lost at least one other person she had a bound to (Texan) who brought her gifts from the worlds he conquered and visited her in her prison. Another thing which you can see is that the game just mentions that Texan visited her and not Senya. So when Vaylin needed her most her mother wasn’t there in person for some reason. Sure it may have reasons which could be that Senya just was too weak to visit a world like Nathema and see her doughter suffering or Valkorion was just able to prevent Senya from visiting her daughter. But I think Vaylin was too young and too tortured to think about posibilties. When Texan died Vaylin lost the only person who ever seemed to care about her and to understand her. She mentions often enough that neither Valkorion nor Senya ever understood the three of them. Of course Arcan was still left as one of her siblings and she stayed loyal to him as long as he was the emporor but in the begin of KotFE you see that they don’t trust each other. Vaylin is too emotional and psychological instable but she isn’t stupid and of course noticed that Arcan didn’t trust her.  All together: Except her dead brother no one ever seemed to understand or trust Vaylin while she was still discovering her own potential and therefore she didn’t even know herself right.

When she got empress of the Eternal Empire and SCORPIO’s behaviour: Basically Vaylin wasn’t sure about herself when she got empress so though physically being a young adult she was psychologically basically in puberty when she had to care about a whole planet and the conquered worlds. That in combination with the fact that she never learned to trust people bevore isn’t a good combination at all. SCORPIO wasn’t really helpfull in that case either since she abused Vaylin either. Of course SCORPIO may not have had a better past herself as you learn on Iokath but Vaylin dosn’t know that and even if she had known she wouldn’t have been able to understand based on facts which I will explain later. All together you can say a girl at her puberty which never learned to trust another person and has to lead an empire gets betraied again. That also explains why she reprogrammed the GEMINI units after SCORPIO was gone. Things which have to obey her can’t betray her and she is at least sure about their loyalty (the only thing she can be shure about at this time). More over, the GEMINI units were related to SCORPIO what make it more likely for them to betray her. Another thing is that I don’t believe she is concious about her own motives and it’s imposibile for you to control your subcontiousness. Since it is some kind of displacment we get to psychologicall ilness. I’m not a psyologist and I won’t try to make a diagnose what exactly she has but I try to determin which kind of displacemet (Freud) she uses:  I think there are more but most like is projection: She tries to project her own mistakes and incertenty to others. So she isn’t responsibile for things which go wrong but her knights or who ever is there are in her opinion. That again is not concious to her and so she feels right at this point and thinks she is in the right position to punish who ever is there.

Now let’s get to the most important point her conditioning on Nathema: First of all the world itself is torture. It is completely empty of the force and even non force users can feel that so it must be an awfull pain for some one who is strong in the force like Vaylin was (I mean she is even stronger than the Outlander even when her power is restricted). Then the conditioning itself: When you have a dog you probbably know the basics: When the dog does something wrong you are angry whith him and you show him that by punishment, when he does something right he gets a reward for it. According to Vaylings reaction when the conditioning is used against her it seems to be the situation with the punishment. Meaning a child who is insecure about herself which is on a planet which is torture itself for some reason she dosn’t understand is punised when she does something wrong and dosn’t even understand what she did wrong. This can’t end good. Another point is that she wasn’t even aware of the conditioning when it was first used against her in the game. That leads to the fact with undercontiousness which I’ve explained bevore again. Another point is that she wasn’t only punished for things she did wrong but this Jarek (I hope I’ve spelled him right) did crusual experiments with her. That’s something entirely else agian. When somebody gets conditioned you have a punishment which comes right after the deed: when a child touches something hot it feels imeditiadely pain and knows it is unhealthy to touch this thing for some reason so it stops touching it. (In some cases more tries are requiered but the relationship will be build some times). But in those experiments there a relationsip can’t be build since it isn’t imediatly after she did something wrong but to a random point in her live. Also some of the experiments were ment to take her empathie for some reasons as you can see in Jareks recordings of the experiments. One sayes she watched somebody die in a very crual way and showed no intentions of acting. The assesment of this experiment was positive. That showes that she was conditioned in more ways. One was "kneel bevore the dragon of Zakuul” another one was directly aimed to take any empathie away from her. There are two possibile reasons for that:  The first one is that Valkorion who feared the strengh of his daughter was afraid that she some day might find out what he did to Nathema and she could turn against him for that if she felt empathie to the Sith and all the other people who died there. The other one gives more credid to Valkorion. Vaylin isn’t really thinking bevore she acts so if she feels sorry for people she might cause chaos on a large scale trying to seek justice for them. (Maybe I will mention that when I write the text about Valkorion but for now I won’t check what is more likely). The fact that implants and chemicals which damage her are used isn’t good either. And she knows what they can do to her (prbabbly it isn’t coucious to her again but it all exists in her subconcousness).

Short: We’re talking about a young woman who dosn’t really know herself and feels misunderstood by anyone else who get’s a task most people with a “normal” past aren’t up to. In addition to that the one person she trusted is dead and when she still was a child she has seen things which are worse than that what most people (including some soldiesrs) have seen in their aduldhood. She gets betrayed multible times and the times when she rules are bad since Zakuul is in war by then. To conclude it all she was trained to have no empathie on a world which is torture itself. And her genetic material is rather suboptimal.

I don’t know what Valkorion thought when he send her to Nathema and trained her that way but from a person which is at least 1 century old and has raised two empires I would expect more and better thinking than that.

[spicy-boi-loves-lancey-lance]

Voltron Legendary Defender Season 8 (Spoilers) (Klance)

Good morning, good day, good evening... Good anything. Today I'm here to talk about something. That something is of course VLD season 8 (mostly Klance) because it left me with a strange impact that I haven't seen anyone feel except me. And if you read into this, and you ship Klance it might just make you feel that interesting feeling of getting what we wanted, albeit not exactly, but in a way. Also sorry if some things are off, I'm doing all this from memory.

So right of the bat, an unpopular opinion. I enjoyed season 8, quite a lot actually. I know it might be suprising, but I... As a Klance shipper don't hate A//urance in any way shape or form, I don't ship it. But can you blame me for not having the same opinion as you. I liked the moments between Lance and Allura, but my problem with them was that they came after they already canon. If you don't understand what I'm saying: The A//urance moment didn't help build their relationship, it established it after it was confirmed canon with a kiss. So, no I don't hate the ship at all. I respect what it is. I really do. I just don't ship it.

Now comes the main thing: Klance

So, just to explain a bit, this part is basically going to be a meta (about those strange ol' feelings of mine) with some canon moments thrown in.

To start of I wanted to say that for the majority of the season Lance didn't seem like himself. He was serious, cold... Odd. I know, it was a scary time, but that Lance that was there in the most awful of times was always the same, except in this season. The only times he reminded me of the Lance I know was when he was with Keith. And in a way that it just made me feel like I was in the middle of some early season, it was just... Lance.

Now, I feel I must adress one of the best scenes we've ever got between the two of them. The sunset scene... Ya know, when Klance was getting rough and I started to lose hope the last thing I would ever say ia that we would canonically have a Klance scene we call "The sunset scene". It was just so Lance and Keith. You know how I said Lance didn't seem like himself, well in this scene I felt that feeling of "this is them" so much. It was powerful. For a comedic little scene it was really powerful. Keith first said how Allura is going on a date with Lance because she likes him, that didn't really help Lance. Then he metioned himself if I'm not mistaken, something about Lance having his back, I think. And that cheered Lance up, not the fact that Keith as his "stability" knew Allura doesn't have anything against how Lance behaves, but the fact Keith made him realise Keith sees him as someone who is important to him. That scene means a lot to me.

The other very important scene is the when Allura is hurt, and Lance is scared for her. Keith reaches out to him, tells him she'll be alright. That doesn't seem to help Lance much. Then Keith mentions how much he and Lance have grown. And at that moment I realised what that feeling was. To put it bluntly Lance and I were experiencing the same feeling. I saw and felt that familiar feeling of a Lance I know, the Lance I love. While Lance felt the familiar feeling of someone who he can rely on. Someone who he knows, trusts. Who went through battles of his own. Keith and Lance can depend on each other. They can and have got each other's backs. While Allura put pressure on Lance, where he might've felt like he needed to make her feel good, and forget about himself (which is adorable of him, he's such a sweetheart). Allure surely didn't meant to do that but that's just how it was. With Allura he couldn't be himslef for those reasons. Because he had to focus on making her feel happy, because of all she's been through. That's the contrast; Allura and Lance are facing their own battles, but they are vastly different. Allura was facing loss, power, leadership, her people meant the most to her. Lance on the other hand was facing love, self discovery, his friends and family are the most important people in his life. While Lance and Keith might not face the same battles, Keith is able to be Lance's stability because Keith already beat his battles, he knows who he is. Allura was still facing her battles, just like Lance. Both of them couldn't rely completly on each other because neither of them were strong enough. Keith is Lance is strength, and vice versa. You remember that moment when Keith didn't want to lead Voltron, and it was Lance who first went to talk to him. Even when Lance wanted to pilot the black lion, he still put Keith as the more important one. I always had a feeling that moment would be important, I just didn't know when. So, yes. Lance and Keith can depend on eachother, Lance and Allura are to weak to do so.

Another very popular moment coming up, this will be the last big part of this post. You might've guessed what I'm talking about, if you didn't... I'm talking about "I think his like the future" -Lance (talking about Keith. This one also seemed like it would be important, and now I realised why. So you know how Lance was sad about Allura (unnecesarily) dying and he felt grief. Well that aforementioned sentence (in my eyes) confirms that Klance does become canon at some point in the reality of the show. Let me explain... So Lance greives for Allura, but after a certaint amount of time he has to let it go, not forget her, of course. Just let go of her. She was his past. But Keith is his future. After he realises he can't hold on to her forever. He goes to the one he can rely on, the one can rely on him. Because if he can let Allura go in the past, he can accept that Keith isn't only the future, Keith is HIS future. The "filler episodes" always foreshadowed stuff, right? Maybe this one foreshadowed Keith being Lance's future. After all, Keith isn't the future of the peope because he refused his role as emporor. So he's yet to achieve his title as the future, or has he? Of course with all of them being single (except Shiro) it leaves a lot up to the imagination. But this just seemed to fit like a missing puzzle peice.

So this won't be a long paragraph, I just noticed how one of the last moments of the show is a Klance paralel:

After Keith mentions how he denied his role as emporor, Lance says "Classic Keith". Which might be a paralel to when after Lance comes out of the haling pod, and starts flirting with Allura Keith says "Classic.". And I think that is the perfect paralel, becuase when Keith said ot was jealousy (or it at least sounded like it), but when Lance said it, it was clearly a joke. It reflects on how much they grown.

BONUS While watching the first episode, I realised that when Allura and Lance were at Lance's home, Veronica asked Lance to hook her up with Keith... Lance got so fucking defensive omg.

So TL;DR Klance totally got together in canon, because they are strong together.

[narrowtriangle33-blog]

Quotes that accurately describe White Trump Voters.

"It’s not just that he’s white. White people sneer at, mock, ostracize, and generally hate on other white people all the time. It’s that he DELIVERS RACISM and THAT is the priority to his base. This is what gets me when writers and thinkers wring their hands in befuddlement, like Nichols is doing, about how Trump’s base can “vote against their own interests.” They’re not! They’re prioritizing the babies in cages, the “shithole countries” remarks, the deadly Charlottesville clashes with literal fucking Nazis, etc OVER health care, transitioning the economy away from fossil fuels, education, assistance to the poor, and whatever other liberal agenda items one would think would be natural, rational fits for the Cleti everywhere.

These people are absolutely voting in their own interests, and getting exactly what they wanted out of the Trump admin. He has been a tremendous success in their eyes because he has delivered racism since Day 1, and that’s what they want out of politics."

"This, They will never -ever- admit it, outside of trolling on the net, but Trump has done more to support their views and find great joy in it then any GOP member before.

He’s all but given up on the dog whistles, once he found out that the media will simply ‘tut-tut’ and that delights his base. Even when he does something that will fuck them over, they overlook it because he continues to advance their agenda with huge leaps. Most of the never-Trumpers discovered early on that going against him can lead to getting primaried and Mitch is content to let Trump do whatever the fuck he wants with limited disagreement, because he’s busy installing GOP goal friendly judges everywhere.

The DNC’s response has been to avoid rocking the boat as much as they can by offering up Joe with a bone thrown to black people with a possable black woman VIP. (If that even happens), but the chances are high that Trump will get another four years to continue to do as he likes. And what will the Dems do? Protest and throw shade and offer limited resistance that won’t slow down Trump for a second.

People don’t like to even entertain the idea that Trump will win, but without a huge number of people turning out against them, what else can they expect will happen?"

"My father HATED John Wayne with a burning passion that I remember from age 3-4! He loved Westerns but he would spend the entire movie foaming at the mouth at all the racist tropes and outright historical lies of each one of them! Honestly, although he loved thoughtful rap, I think he idolized Chuck D for simply uttering his infamous lyric!

Now that I’ve reached a certain age, I find I love Westerns too - but not John Wayne, Clint Eastwood or any old ones. I like the newer ones that speak to what deplorables white cowboys were: The Revenant, Bone Tomahawk, Hostiles and the like. They’re still white-centered and white-washed but any modern thinking person can see that the cowboy image should stand for nothing but a savagely cruel, thieving, raping murderer (and we’ve been consistently lied to)."

"Does Trump accept responsibility and look out for his team? Not in the least. In this category, he exhibits one of the most unmanly of behaviors: He’s a blamer. Nothing is ever his fault."

"This is nothing but rose-colored bullshit. Anyone who’s ever spent more than 5 minutes working in corporate life knows for the most part this isn’t how white men behave. Those offices are full of extremely mediocre men who are very confident and have nothing to back it up with other than their bluster, egos, and the generational wealth that allows them a leg up over others. That generational wealth allows them to go to the diploma mills that open doors for them. Admitting mistakes or even admitting just not knowing something in that environment comes off as weakness to them. They spend most of their energy trying to project the image of confidence and control, which is why they’re quick to rage when things don’t go their way. A good example is the douche bag running Quibi that gave that horrendus interview a couple of weeks ago. He was asked a couple of questions about why his company was failing while other streaming services are thriving, and where they might have went wrong in their business model. He didn’t accept responsibility for shit. He went into his hurt little feelings and attacked the interviewer, and tried to make the questions seem like they weren’t valid.

On steroids this white American exceptionalist world view is called patriotism. It manifests in the idea that we as a country can do things counter intuitive the rest of the world just because we’re the USA. More mass shootings by far than any other country? USA! Other countries have cheap/free education through college? So what, USA! Biden even displayed this during one of the debates when Warren pointed out the same disparity in our healthcare compared to every other developed nation. Guess how he responded.

I feel like I started rambling a little but what I’m trying to get at is that whiteness, toxic masculinity, and patriotism are so intertwined that its beyond the author of that Trump think piece."

"Funnily enough as the article and subject matter were in regard to racism in the US I didn’t feel a burning need to mention Indigenous Australians but to answer your question they are pretty much in the same boat as black Americans. Did anything I say imply otherwise or were you just fishing for an argument?

"Stupid as it is, “You’re a manly-man, right? So why is your manly-man leader such a cowardly little pussy?”

That’s not what he projects and that’s not what they see. They see him using aggressive and accusatory tones and language all the time and it makes him look tough."

They fall for the “Emporor Has No Clothes” routine because they never look at him critically. They buy the bullshit on the surface, and don’t see that his words never match his actions. He said on tv several times that if anyone in the country wants a Covid test, they can get tested. Ask them how many people they know whose jobs don’t require it, have actually been tested. He down played the death toll of this disaster every step of the way. Remember when we were supposed to be in church for Easter? As long as he lies with confidence, they’ll follow him to hell."

"I’m definitely tired, and frustrated, and everything else. I keep holding my nose and voting, and that only adds to the exhaustion and frustration because very little if anything seems to change, and in some ways we keep repeating the mistakes of the past. I’d never advocate for doing nothing, but trying to engage and challenge the average Republican-voting dipshit to think critically, and not keep supporting people and policies that perpetuate and exacerbate the problems this country has??? No thanks. If you’re not black, I so encourage you to take up that mantle, but for me as a black dude in this country I can’t. Talk about shooting the messenger. Plus, to keep it a buck, this is mostly white people’s mess, if not all. They need to fix it.

Honestly I feel like racism festers because most white people just look the other way. The racism of their peers/friends/relatives doesn’t impact them personally so they’re probably just people to be avoided. Why rock the boat when you can just avoid an uncomfortable topic? Joe might forward you Fox News and OANN stories, and racist FB memes, but he’s fun at Bills games. Well what if Joe is also a cop, or in a management position over minorities? You can bet money he takes those views you overlooked with him to his job. The PoC he interacts with won’t have the benefit of seeing him at Bills games, or might not even have the benefit of being seen as equals."

"People get so caught up in the blatant, mustache-twirling racism that they don’t see the subtle pervasive way it spreads like a cancer. For every Trump there are dozens Joes, and along with the Joes are the real problem: The people who ignore the Joes. The Joes and Karens go on to commit all kinds of microaggressions that Poc pretty much have to tolerate, and in Joe’s and Karen’s minds that’s just the way the world works. I deserved to get followed around Joe’s store. I came in wearing a hoodie and Adidas so I couldn’t be up to any good. Karen felt threatened when I walked into the building she lives in, so she felt justified to call the police, never mind the fact that I live there too. This is how deep this shit runs. It’s not just politics. Racism isn’t just baked into politics. It’s part of the flour the US was baked with.

So I appreciate you if you’re willing to call these fools out. I’m glad somebody is because I’m not wasting my breath. They won’t hear me anyway."

"I mean if Tom Nichols was in front of me and read this steaming pile of shit to me I would’ve slapped him silly and said the reason that people that look like you excuse all of his fuck ups, failings and mistakes is because well HE LOOKS LIKE YOU!!!! The question that none of these mouth breathing chud monkeys seem to want to answer or are incapable of answering is would you excuse any black, Hispanic or Asian man that had his resume? We know the fucking answer.

When this bloated piece of unseasoned chicken shut down the government in January of 2019 hurting his all white, poorly educated base the most a quote from a voter in Florida was burned into my head forever. She said upon not getting her government subsidized check (I mean they have no issues with the government helping them, it is those pesky brown people that are lazy and entitled) “He is not hurting the people he is supposed to be hurting.” Let that sink in. A voting US Citizen thought it was the job of the sitting *president to hurt people. That says it all. Their allegiance isn’t based in anything other than anger and hatred of those that they deem less than them. Fuck him and them and may they both rot in hell."

"“He is not hurting the people he is supposed to be hurting.”

That spontaneous, bewildered, stream of consciousness utterance by someone who doesn’t think critically but has an indwelt recognition of like-mindedness IS the Trump voter exemplified! A racist who found themselves too poor, too old and without the power to demand or protect the status quo and just wants to stick it to their perceived enemies while retaining ‘something’ for themselves.

That sentiment has fueled every waking thought, worry and action of an American white since the founding of this country.

So, it’s not just every Confederate flag waver, every neo-Nazi and every flyover state’er; it’s every aggrieved American white who had to accept the changing world around them; there’s no reasoning with them nor changing their minds.

My fear is that I’m becoming inhumane like them because I was soooo happy when he cut her Meals on Wheels and didn’t cut her Social Security check."

"I think you nailed this right on the head. All through the article, he keeps pointing out what we already know except for one thing. After all, why would white people elect someone who is so far outside of what they claim to be/stand for? He’s not conservative in any real way. Yet conservatives stand behind him. He’s not a Christian in any practical sense by his actions. Yet Christians say he’s sent by God. He’s not a good businessman, father, or even person. Yet here we are. The only answer that makes sense in any real way is that he is proof that to many people, any white man can do the same or better than even the best black man, woman, or POC in general. There’s always a backlash to progress both real and imagined. Trump is it."

"Also, a lot of the characteristics Nichols thinks represent the opposite of idealized masculinity are actually representative of masculinity as it is performed in this country. From my experience with men who lean into their masculinity, it is about performing dominance by antagonizing people, all in the service of making shallow, insecure men feel better about themselves.  Trump is a domineering asshole, which is what too many men think being a man is all about."

"It is fascinating how unbelievably brainless racists are. Many of the commenters and you Damon have pointed out the stupidity of racism. I mean this seriously, racists have absolutely abandoned intellect, progress, humanity or desire for real greatness that could manifest through equality, in order to hold onto the despicable delusion of superiority based solely on a human having more melanin than another. The sheer simplicity of the trick doesn’t even seem like it should work; but alas, all roads merge at Slave Rd. The dimwitted aptitude it takes for a person to actually believe stealing humans, beating, burning, assaulting, selling their children on auction blocks, splitting families (and more brutalities)...... all for greed born out of sheer laziness, and again stupidity is mindblowing. You literally must turn your brain off to be a racist, and you see it now. Millions of white people, with switch STILL off, courtesy of their forefathers, have continued down this same disastrous, nose-spite-ing road. There’s a lot of white people walking around with black kerchief’s, hiding the draining blood and a ragged hole where their nose once occupied, holding a tight grasp of their hate. Their greed. Trump finally allows them to remove that blood soaked kerchief with pride for all the world see their disfigurement. It’s stunning that there is pride where instead, their should be pure shame for then and for now."

[breezy-cheezy]

Alright, HERE we go! Awhile ago I had an idea for a MP100/Voltron crossover, and after mentioning it to @x-i-l-verify​ and loooots of brainstorming later, we have...*gestures vaguely* this. These are more or less screenshot redraws just to kind of get across who is who. :) More info, reasonings and musings under the cut, because well...it got long...

Teru’s Role: Shiro (Black Paladin)

A year ago, Teruki Hanazawa (around his early twenties in this universe) was chosen for an exploration mission to Kerberos. 

Teru was always at the top of his class at the Galaxy Garrison and took the job proudly. He believed he was something special, and it was only right he would be selected for such a prestigious mission. 

Then he and his small team got kidnapped by an alien race: an empire called Claw. 

He was forced into slavery, forced to fight, to kill, just to survive. 

Somewhere along the way, Teru lost his arm. Some time and excruciating experiments later, he had a new one. It made killing easier. 

He hates it.

After being forced to endure and commit horrors unimaginable for so long, Teruki Hanazawa realized (you’re horrible, no one is coming to save you, no one cares about you) that he was rather insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe. Being treated like dirt for a year would do that to a guy.

By the time he managed to escape and make it back to Earth, Teru saw himself as nothing more than a commoner. 

When the time came for him to lead Voltron, Teru could think of no one less qualified or deserving to pilot the Black Lion than himself. But someone had to do it...

Tome’s Role: Pidge (Green Paladin)

Tome always believed there was something more out there in the stars. She knew there were aliens out there, and she wanted to find them for herself. 

Tome believed joining the Galaxy Garrison would be just the way to do it. 

There she could train to reach for the stars, not to mention she was able to find suspicious extraterrestrial hints along the way. 

She’s pretty tech savvy in this AU because she had the proper drive, resources and training (not as good as Pidge, but still pretty much the group techie).

Further out in the desert, there’s a particular cave covered in strange lion markings that she took interest in...luckily there was a shack nearby where she could frequently visit and organize her findings. 

Through a bizarre series of events, Tome finally made it to space.

By the time Tome finally discovered real aliens, she couldn’t be happier.

 She just never would have expected how big a role she would have in a massive intergalactic alien war, fighting as the Green Paladin of Voltron.

Shou’s Role: Keith (Red Paladin)

This one’s the most iffy but here we go

Shou is the son of the big boss of Claw in canon, ergo he’s the Emperor's son in this AU. He has no idea about it though.

Shou’s mother, one of Emporor Touicirou’s consorts, began to fear for her unborn son’s life and fled the Claw empire (with the help of this AU’s equivalent of the Blade of Mamora, probably the 7th division crew?? They did defect in canon so...). Shou was born on a far away planet called Earth, and his mother used alien technology to safely disguise them both.

His mother passed away when he was very young. Shou can’t remember what she looks like. All he has left of her is a little knife with a strange symbol on it (subject to change).

Years later, Shou’s adoptive parents enroll him in the Galaxy Garrison, hoping the strict schooling will discipline their mischievous, troublesome child.  

Shou is absolutely bored at the Garrison. He is an extremely gifted pilot though.

He sees Tome sneaking around the school sometimes and figures she’s up to no good. He wants in.

Shou and Tome end up searching for aliens together; Shou more because it’s fun and not really having any particular interest in aliens, Tome not knowing that an alien already befriended her (it’s not like he knows either).

Serizawa’s Role: Hunk (Yellow Paladin)

Seri’s still plagued with severe social anxiety, but there are no psychic powers in this AU so he never felt the need to isolate himself to protect others.

Serizawa is a chef in the Garrison cafeteria. This way he has minimal social interaction while still being a positive contributor to society.

This doesn’t stop Reigen from singling him out. 

Reigen believes Serizawa makes the best takoyaki around, and kinda takes the guy under his wing after that.

Serizawa suddenly finds himself with a friend to eat lunch with. He’s kind of freaked out by this and thinks it’s a one time fluke, but Reigen keeps coming back and keeps talking to him. Seri quickly warms up to this strange but friendly man.

In order to help Serizawa more with his social anxiety, Reigen has him come sit in on some of his classes once in awhile. Seri ends up as a sort of unofficial Teacher’s Assistant.

Seri’s always terrified the students will hate him and he always brings snacks for the class.

He really has nothing to worry about though. The kids love Serizawa.

Reigen’s Role: Lance (Blue Paladin)

Reigen is a teacher at the Galaxy Garrison, so I guess he’s actually “Shishou” this time around lol.

He teaches history or English or something, since I do see the Garrison as more of a university/school of sorts (Hunk did mention a “principal” in the show), and Reigen wouldn’t be able to handle being a drill sergeant (the guy wouldn’t have the heart to yell at kids all day).

As mentioned before, Reigen noticed Serizawa struggling with anxiety, and one day took it upon himself to kinda help and mentor him.

One day on the way out from working, Reigen and Serizawa catch two students sneaking out of the building past curfew. 

They follow Tome and Shou out to their little alien research base, and Reigen confronts them.

Right as Reigen is about to reprimand the kids, a meteor crashes to Earth. Shou and Tome run off to investigate, stealing a hoverbike in the process. As the closest authority figures, Reigen and Serizawa follow and end up as chaperones of sorts for these reckless kids.

Reigen is the true Space Dad in this AU (sorry Teru :P).

Things proceed pretty much as canon Voltron episode 1 from there: they find Teru in the landing site (Tome: “An alien?!” Shou: “Nah, isn’t he that jerk that was always at the top of our class...?” Reigen: “He’s still a kid, and we’re getting him out of here, let’s GO.”), rescue him and regroup back at Tome’s conspiracy shack, the accidental discovery of Blue Lion, Reigen waltzing in and accidentally ending up as her paladin, the crazy flight and wormhole to the castleship (*points to my first picture at the top lol*), the discovery of the “last Alteans in the universe” in cryopods...which leads to...

Mob’s Role: Allura (can pilot all lions, Yellow is his favorite)

Mob is a Prince and was next in line for the throne. Now that he and Ritsu are apparently the last Alteans alive, he’s not sure what to make of it.

He was always insecure and even scared of his impending kingship, or leading in general. He has been trained thoroughly for the role as he grew up, so he’s a more capable and levelheaded guide than canon Mob would be.

He still speaks quite softly, but there is always an earnest strength in his tone that makes others stop and listen instead of talking over him.

Mob is weaker than most Alteans (due to some chronic illness like his anemia from canon) but that doesn’t mean he still can’t fight or throw a person across the room. He’s still very strong by human standards.

He still would prefer to use words instead of physically fighting in any conflict.

Mob is in his early twenties in Earth years, about Teru’s age of mental maturity (sorry he still looks so young in the picture...). They end up bonding over their insecurities in leadership.

Mob also bonds with Serizawa in having natural affinities for Yellow Lion.

The space mice may or may not be small alien cats instead in this AU, not sure.

Mob stumbles out of the Cryopod, dazed and confused. He quickly takes on his role as a guide for the Paladins, and does his absolute best to help them learn to pilot their lions and form Voltron.

Ristu’s Role: Coran (can pilot all lions, doesn’t really have a preference)

Ritsu is Mob’s half brother in this AU. We took some artistic liberties in this, having this make Ritsu as more of a servant/bodyguard to the royal family than as an actual heir (hello, inferiority complex from canon...).

Mob always treated Ritsu like family nonetheless. Ritsu does care about Mob a great deal and guards him with his life.

He’s more around Shou’s and Tome’s age in mental maturity.

Ritsu is...intense for an Altean. He kinda scares everyone a little bit (except for Mob, who’s lived with him as long as he can remember, and Teru, who’s already Seen It All and can’t really be phased by much anymore;;;;; )

Very jumpy. Even more than canon since I imagine being a bodyguard leaves you more on edge than not.

Came out of the Pod fighting like Coran did, and probably took longer to calm down. 

He is also the “drill sergeant” in their Voltron training exercises (wiping the floor with everyone and being Mr. Drill Sargent Nasty: "No, Brother, I'm not going too hard on them! Claw isn't going to defeat itself! SHOU GET YOUR ASS BACK IN HERE I SEE YOU TRYING TO SNEAK OUT, DROP AND GIVE ME THIRTY." -thank you for that Xi <3)

Mob brings the juice pouches and guides the quieter, trust building exercises like the maze and mental lions. He is also there to make sure Ritsu doesn’t run the Paladins and himself into the ground.

Mob and Ritsu balance each other rather well in guiding the paladins, actually.

Shou at some point gets it in his head that Ritsu is just a stick in the mud and needs to be befriended. Ritsu’s not too pleased by this, but then eventually does mellow out by some miracle.

In fact, he does grow rather fond of this odd band of humans, and starts thinking that maybe, maybe, his brother really is right in thinking they might be capable of saving the universe...

....well that’s super long for a set-up post, but hey, might as well put the ideas down where I can :’) More to come...probably....

[superchicalonelyviking]

6

Mat here, writing this onboard the train from Beijing to Ulan Bator! So we have had a great week in China and are currently passing by the the epic mountainous scenery as we make our way Mongolia (our final proper stop!) China has some spectacular and very diverse scenery - understandably as it is such a vast country! We could have done with lot longer than a week to see it properly but here is our whistlestop tour. Our ferry to Shanghai was a ghost town! Just 12 passengers onboard a ship that was clearly able to accommodate hundreds! The ferry heads west from Osaka through the Seto Inland Sea, so for the first day of sailing you get beautiful views of Japan on either side of the boat. The second day had nothing to see but water of the South China Sea, so a very relaxing and easy day. Then the next morning, the ferry goes all the way up the Huangpu river right to the centre of Shanghai, so you watch as the skyscrapers in the distance get closer and closer until they're right next to you and suddenly you're in the middle of Shanghai! We just had one day in Shanghai. We wondered through the 'People's Park', which gives the weird juxtaposition of beautiful natural-looking park, but with massive skyscrapers towering over it. There were hundreds of (mainly quite elderly) Chinese people sitting behind umbrellas which form an impromputu table on which they display a page of writing in Chinese. We weren't sure what they were doing - Libby guess of 'maybe they're tour guides' was closer than my guess of 'I think they're just selling umbrellas.' We looked it up - turns out it's a sort of dating market where parents or grandparents go on the weekends to try and find a partner for their children or grandchildren! The pages of writing were a description of the person they're matchmaking for, so they can then go and hover around and try to find someone they would like to introduce their own bachelor/bachelorette to! I think usually there without permission from the person they're matchmaking for! After we walked to the Bund, a Colonial style area on the riverfront opposite all the massive skyscrapers. It doesn't really look any different from a big western city like London or New York, until you walk to the neighbouring old town, where suddenly the streets are all built in the traditional Chinese style with curved rooves, embellishments and a decorations , in the back streets aa people live in very small houses in quite poor looking conditions, a stark contrast to the immense shiny skyscrapers next door. We stopped for some tea in an old tea room hoping to avoid some of the intense heat, had a 'green bean cake' which is a very beautiful looking Chinese sweet made by pressing dough into a mould. It had the slightly unnerving feel of eating playdough! Then it was time to head back to the station for our night train to Beijing. The striking thing about the scenery from the train was the countless tower blocks of flats. Identical, slightly ominous tower buildings are arranged in grid formations, frequently at least 4x3 grids, often much bigger in number. They often seem to be out by themselves, not obviously part of a bigger city. And next to these areas, small, primitive and slightly abandoned looking farming communities in the middle of the countryside. And there are many more apartment blocks and bits of infrastructure under construction- the feel you get travelling through China is one of mass development- production and building on a massive scale, almost like a turbo-boosted industrial revolution. The next morning we arrived in Beijing. We spent most of the day exploring the city and seeing the sights - the politically interesting Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City (the ancient palace of the emperor) and the Temple of Heaven Park. The park was built as a place for the emporor to worship and pray for a good harvest, and has many elaborate halls and temples dedicated to different activities. It is a Confucian temple, so all of the plants growing in the park are very tidy and planted in a very orderly fashion. The famous Beijing dish is Peking duck, which I can confirm is amazing! The flowing day we went to see the Great Wall. I wasn't really expecting to be that impressed by it, but the huge lush tree-covered mountains with a huge wall snaking all over out of the mist, way into the distance, was actually an incredible sight. It wasn't a very effective wall, shortly after it was built it was ineffective at keeping out the Mongols, then shortly after it was rebuilt it was ineffective at keeping out the Manchu army. An excellent example of how walls don't work! That evening we met up with a person called Anna, who we met on Couchsurfing. Anna is Chinese, and lives and works in Beijing, but is also quitting her job soon and intends to travel! We had drinks with her and a friend and had a really nice evening finding out about what living in Beijing is like. She didn't seem to like living in the city, and preferred her home town in a farming community, but didn't have an option of work there. Something she talked about was the pollution - we'd noticed the smog on the first day, giving the city a misty yellow glow, apparently they have 'blue sky days' every year when officials visit Beijing, and they close all the factories! It's especially bad in the winter as most people still heat their houses with coal. She also didn't like how many people there were in Beijing - everywhere you go the streets are full of people , railway stations are rammed like a crowd at a concert, so it's quite an intense experience. Fascinating but quite overwhelming at the same time. The next day we got a high speed train to Pingyao. Pingyao is a small, ancient walled city (like York!), With the entire border wall still completely intact. During the Ming and Song dynasties it was the capital of the region. The old buildings are very well preserved (not the case in a lot of other parts of China). We spent a few days here, exploring the town, seeing the historic buildings such as the old bank and government offices and walking around the 6km city wall. It's a really cool place, it truly feels like an ancient city and exploring the backstreets really seems to transport you back in time. As China is one of the world's oldest civilisations, it was great to explore somewhere so historic. We also made a short trip out to an ancient Buddhist temple near the city. It was very different to the Japanese temples, with huge statues of deities, made from clay and wood, all painted and weirdly human looking. The place is full of dust which has blown in over the years- the area has lots of coal mines which are still very much in use. The statues are hundreds of years old, so are obviously very aged and falling apart a little bit, but weirdly they've been dressed in brand new, clean and shiny gowns! The temple was near a small village and some farmland, so we went for a walk around to see what less urban, less touristy China felt like. The buildings are all built in a courtyard style where you have huge walls and rooms around the edge and an open square in the centre. Apparently during communist times people were encouraged to use materials from ancient sites to build their homes, so there's a chance some of the houses are made from bits of the great wall! After a few days in Pingyao, we'd luckily managed to survive the daily 36 degree heat and it was time to get back to Beijing, ready for our train on to Mongolia! We probably won't have any internet access after leaving the capital so will update when we're back in Ulaanbaatar a couple of weeks!

[vgblast-blog]

Top 50 Iconic Pop! Characters Of 2018

https://videogameblast.com/?p=869

Top 50 Iconic Pop! Characters At GameStop

Every Time I Go Into GameStop I Pass A New Iconic Funko Pop! Figure. I Was Curious How Many There Actually Are. Since I'm A Huge Fan Of Pop Culture, I Decided To Put Together This Top 50 List. How many of Pop! figures have been produced, I can't even estimate. GameStops online inventory is a vast treasure trove of these adorable characters. It took me a long time to pick my top favorite 50 on the list. I tried to limit my selections to only Pop! Characters that are available online. If you want any of these iconic lovable characters, or are looking for gift ideas, I'll leave a link for each as I go. Not everyone has the same taste in Pop Culture. If you like VGB's articles, or grew up in the 80's or 90's, you should love our taste in Pop! Figures. We hope you enjoy the list!  

POP! Animation: Rick & Morty - Pickle Rick

Its Pickle Rick!     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Games: Cuphead - Cuphead

Cuphead has risen to be one of the most recent iconic characters in gaming. If you've played Cuphead, you probably either would love this character, or torture it. Cuphead is one of the toughest games ever!     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! TV: Bob Ross with Paintbrush

Lets paint a tree with Bob Ross!     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Games: Borderlands - Emperor Claptrap

Bow down to Emporor Claptrap!     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! TV: Mr. Bean - Mr. Bean

Mr Bean was one of the best things to ever come from the English tele. He was one of the most epic weirdo characters of all time. You gotta love Mr Bean!     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Rocks: Garcia - Jerry Garcia

I grew up around a bunch of Hippies, so of course I was excite to find Jerry. J-Bear was definitely the coolest musician Pop! character I found.       Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! TV: Rocko's Modern Life - Heffer

If your a fan of 90's NickToons then this is a character then probably gets your nostalgic juices flowing. Rocko's Modern Life was one of my favorite cartoons on Nickelodeon, and Heffer was such an iconic character.     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Movies: Guardians of the Galaxy 2 - Rocket

Rocket Raccoon is such a hardcore character. Though he may be one of Marvel's smallest characters, he is definitely one of the most crafty and fearless. Rocket is awesome!   Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! 8-Bit: TMNT - Shredder

Since TMNT Arcade was one of my favorite cabinets of all time, this 8-Bit Shredder really caught my eye. 90's Shredder was the best!   Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! TV: Steven Universe - Amethyst

That's right, I'm a geek. I think Amethyst is a rad character from Steven Universe. If you haven't gotten into the Steven Universe series, I highly recommend it.   Get Her At GameStop Online Here

POP! TV: Golden Girls - Blanche

Thank you for being a friend blanch, said every male cameo character to ever appear on Golden Girls. If you watch the Golden Girls now, its funny to see how they blended this dirty old birds sex life into family friendly TV.   Get Her At GameStop Online Here

POP! TV: The Walking Dead - Negan

I'm a huge fan of both The Walking Dead AMC series, and the graphic novels. If you think Negan is hardcore and foulmouthed in the television series, you should see him in the comic universe. He is one of the scariest villains ever.     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! WWE - Razor Ramon

Aye, its The Bad guy. If you were a fan of the WWF back when it was still called that, then you probably remember Razor Ramon. Every Pop! Razor Ramon figure should come with a crusty toothpick.     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Movies: Home Alone - Kevin

Michael Jackson DNA not included.     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! TV: Fraggle Rock - Boober with Doozer

You can find several of the iconic Fraggle gang if you search on GameStop's toolbar, but of course my favorite is Boober. This stoner Fraggle is accented with a Doozer. When I was a little guy I thought the doozer's were so cool!     Get Him At GameStop Online Here  

POP! Disney: Darkwing Duck - Launchpad McQuack

From giving us a ride across the Amazon, to Darkwing Duck, Launchpad was everywhere in the 90's. If your looking for a wing-man, Launchpad's got your 6.     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Heroes: DC Heroes - Classic Batman

There have possibly been more Batman Pop! figures created then any other. Out of a wide selection, I chose to go with Classic Batman. Nothing beats a classic I guess.     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! TV: Angry Beavers - Dagget

There are several NickToons characters to make the list, and Dagget is among one of my favorites. This Dagget figure came out looking extra angry.       Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! TV: Angry Beavers - Norbert

You can't have Dagget without Norbert. Norbert was the more cunning and intelligent of the pair. While Dagget usually screwed things up, Norbert was a problem solver. He was pretty happy go-lucky, so I'd say he was more of a frustrated beaver.     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Chewbacca

Everybody's favorite Wookie! Chewy needs no introduction.     Get Him At GameStop Online Here  

POP! DC: Harley Quinn with Mallet Vinyl Figure

Possibly the most beloved villainess of the comic book world. After the Suicide Squad movies she has risen to the status of legend.     Get Her At GameStop Online Here

POP! TV: The Tick- The Tick

Spoon!         Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Movies: The Sandlot - Ham

There's no crying in baseball!         Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! TV: Ahh Real Monsters - Krumm

Yet another Nick character on the list that was quite odd. I loved Krumm, and felt bad for him at the same time. Nearly every episode the poor guy dropped an eyeball. This Pop! figure comes with dreadlocked armpit hairs.   Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! TV: Ahh Real Monsters - Ickis

To accent Krumm, next we have the awkward Ickis. Oblina's stock photo was missing, but she is available if you'd like the full trio.     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Games: Street Fighter Ryu (White Headband)

Perhaps the most iconic character in fighting game history! This Ryu comes with a white headband rather then his trademark red. This figure is not to be mistaken with Daniel Son.   Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Games: Sonic The Hedgehog - Sonic with Emerald

It can be said that Sonic is the 2nd most iconic character in gaming. Well if Mario is so cool, why isn't he on the list?       Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! TV: Masters of the Universe - Beast Man

If you were a fan of Heman, then I'm sure you remember this snarly guy. Skeletor's minions were all oddball characters, but Beast Man was definitely the most iconic.     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! TV: Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Tom Servo

I thought it was so cool that Pop! created a Tom Servo figure. Most of you probably have no idea what Mystery Science Theater 3000 was. Those of you who were a fan of the show probably are happy to see this guy.   Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! TV: Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Crow

Tom Servo wouldn't be complete without his co-critic Crow. This duo are definitely pop culture icons.     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Marvel: Deadpool - Bedtime Deadpool with Robe

Here we have Marvel's most offensive non-hero decked out in his bedtime robe. Deadpool is such a unique character, so I love that they went weird with this figure. Why the robe I'm not sure, but its kind of funny.     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Games: Five Nights at Freddy's - Nightmare Freddy

There are a lot of Pop! characters from the FNaF universe, but I thought this one was by far the coolest. Freddy is already a creepy character, but Nightmare Freddy is extra creeptastic!   Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! WWE: Sasha Banks

The Boss Sasha Banks is always a controversial character. Either you love her, or you hate her. Haters gonna hate! I happen to like her a lot, and her pop figure is adorable as she is in real life.   Get Her At GameStop Online Here

POP! Television: Adventure Time/Minecraft - Finn

There are many versions of Finn and Jake. Since this is a gaming site, I decided to go with the new figures from the Minecraft crossover episode.       Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Television: Adventure Time/Minecraft - Jake

This is another companion character set. You can't get Finn without the stretchy wonder-dog Jake!       Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Movies: The Lord of the Rings - Gollum

If your a Lord of the Rings fan, then you'll probably crave this precious Gollum Pop! Figure.       Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! TV: Rugrats - Tommy Pickles

Yet another iconic character from the NickToons universe, and possibly the greatest explorer in animation history. Tommy Pickles was great!     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Disney: Kingdom Hearts - Shadow Heartless

If your a fan of Kingdom Hearts, then you have probably have slaughter hordes of The Heartless. I think this Shadow Heartless is one of the coolest looking Pop! characters out of all.   Get Him At GameStop Online Here

Mortal Kombat X Action Figure - Subzero

Finish Him!         Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Games: Mortal Kombat - Scorpion

Get over here!     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! TV: BoJack Horseman - BoJack Horseman

BoJack Horseman is an all around odd character and show. If your a fan of adult animated comedy, then this figure is a must have.     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! WWE: WWE - Jake 'The Snake' Roberts

As you can probably tell, I'm a lifetime WWE/ WWF fan. Jake 'The Snake' Roberts was one of the coolest wrestlers from my childhood. I thought it was awesome they included his pet snake Damien.     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Animation: Care Bears - Good Luck Bear

The favorite Care Bear of all Irish people.         Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Games: Street Fighter - Hyper Blanka

Who do you think would win in a fight between Blanka vs Beast Man?     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Heroes: Justice League - Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman is an old character from the DC universe. After her stand alone movie, along with the Justice League movie, her character is more popular then ever.   Get Her At GameStop Online Here

POP! Animation: Rick & Morty - Morty

Rick & Morty are becoming the most popular characters in animation comedy. If they start cranking out more new seasons, the series may takeover one day. If you got Pickle Rick up top, I recommend adding a Morty.     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Games: Cuphead - The Devil

The Devil from Cuphead might rival the Shadow Heartless as the coolest looking Pop! figure. He came out looking sweet!       Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Disney: Kingdom Hearts - Goofy

Goofy is an iconic character that goes back as far as my earliest memories. This is a figure both Kingdom Hearts and Disney fans should love!     Get Him At GameStop Online Here

POP! Games: Borderlands - Lilith

My wife and I are long time Borderlands junkies, and we love Lilith. Shes one of the coolest females in gaming history, and a complete bad a$$. Would you mind getting her some eridium?   Get Her At GameStop Online Here

POP! TV: South Park - Mysterion

Last but not least on our list we have Mysterion from South Park. If you don't know who this character is under the mask, I'll leave it as a mystery.     Get Him At GameStop Online Here Everyone has different taste in pop culture. These 50 figures are just the tip of the iceberg. Pop! has created a iconic figure for nearly everyone. If you didn't find your favorite characters on the list, you can search GameStop's inventory. Thanks for joining us today. We hoped you enjoyed the list!

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