#which is absolutely fascinating

[wishesofeternity]

"Stratonike evidently retained the Akkadian royal title used for her even after [her husband] Antiochos’ death, since the astronomical diary entry identifies her as šarratu, in logograms GAŠAN, which means “queen.” In earlier centuries under previous regimes this title could not be used of a royal woman unless she also ruled. As suggestive as this is, there is no direct corroborating evidence for Stratonike exercising rulership, unless we credit her influence with her children as a form of political dominance. The trope of the domineering dowager queen mother should be familiar enough from interpretations of other royal families throughout history. But the diary, normally fairly precise in noting royal family connections, does not call her “mother [or widow] of the king,” meaning that at least some people remembered Stratonike as a queenly figure on her own, without reference to male relatives. This is an interesting hint at how these royal women could carry out their duties so as to be regarded as individual rulers in their own right."

-Gillian Ramsey, "Apama and Stratonike: The first Seleukid basilissai," "The Routledge Companion to Women and Monarchy in the Ancient Mediterranean World" (edited by Elizabeth D. Carney and Sabine Müller)

[kirbydots]

I love how much cool stuff trade paperbacks have in them.

[aroaceleovaldez]

listen I know everybody makes Orpheus and Eurydice quest aus of Nico bringing Jason back BUT we already did Orpheus and Eurydice in canon like at least three times (Nico bringing Percy to the Styx, Nico bringing back Hazel, and Piper in general is Orpheus as an Argonaut) AND we are missing the much simpler canon-established method.

Remember the whole soul-trade thing Nico was doing in BoTL that got dropped completely? Even though it was like the entire subplot with Minos?

The requirement is a soul that has cheated death for a soul that has died. Now, quickly ignoring the convenient emperors running around who very much cheated death and the entire main conflict in TOA is Apollo trying to get rid of them. There are a ton of escaped souls from the whole Doors of Death/Thanatos getting captured thing. They're just kind of around. A lot of them were in the Giant Army but not all of them and a good number of them are random mortals and they're just. Somewhere.

So that's two loose plot threads: Nico is 100% fully aware of a completely Underworld-Legal method for bringing people back from the dead and there's an absolute ton of random souls-who-cheated-death running around who knows where completely unaddressed. Also, we know from BoO that Nico has changed his stance since BoTL and is now completely down for some murder.

Now, is there a very compelling plot within there about Nico and his sense of Underworld justice/Nico's morals and how he views the situation (insert the "That word ['please'] didn’t make sense to Nico. The Underworld had no mercy. It only had justice." quote from BoO of Nico killing Bryce while he's begging for mercy here.) vs Jason's own sense of justice/morals and the knowledge that Nico 100% actually murdered somebody to bring him back. THAT'S FASCINATING. It's a good conflict for a story and it ties up loose threads! We don't need to invent new mechanics the worldbuilding writes the plot all on it's own.

[gottagetgogottagetattahere]

Knives is such a hypocrite and a liar and he lies most of all to himself and i hate him but i also love it. Bro's so coked up on copium all the time.

Claims to be doing it all for the sake of Plants, then arguably takes away their agency and freedom way more than humans ever could. Claims to be doing it for his brother and literally ruins his brother's life in every possible turn. Claims humanity never learns from their mistakes and it literally takes dying for him to stop doubling down on his bullshit. the medical abuse done unto tesla horrified him so much and yet he is directly responsible to the same abuse being subjected to countless of children.

Given the chance, I would love to be his sleep paralysis demon. i do not think I could fix him, but I think I can drive him to early retirement from super villainy.

[cyberdragoninfinity]

I'm sorry but WHAT is happening in Duel Links??

*CRACKS KNUCKLES* ALRIGHT im certain other people could explain this better than I could (bark at me if any of this is wrong,) but, an attempt at a quick rough tl;dr of it:

so like. an important thing to note with DL is that like..... the in-universe explanation for Duel Links is that it's one of Seto Kaiba's new VR Next Evolution of Dueling Ego Projects, which like, ok sure, he Makes Those, but what's a little alarming with this one is that technically (almost) none of the characters In The Game are actually Those Characters Specifically, they're AI recreations of them with their original self's memories (that's already a lot, right out the gate.) (I say "almost" everyone because I think it's implied DSOD Kaiba and maybe Mokuba actually Are them because it's Their Game and they're always product testing it, there might be others though)

anyway another thing with this situation is that, uh, Most Characters in Duel Links Do Not Know They're AI. They just assume they're the original guy, that's just them! Hanging out in this cool new Duel VR! But then sometimes you DO get characters who actively are aware that they're just code in a video game (Yami Bakura and Bruno 5D's both comment on it), so you have this really interesting ecosystem of duelists who Are aware they don't really exist, and duelists who are None the Wiser. absolutely batshit.

and sure this is all well and fine with like, DM and maybe GX characters, ok sure it makes sense Kaiba would be recreating notable duelists of that era, but i cannot stress enough He Is Also Making AI Recreations of Dead People. DL very much takes place post-manga, post-DSOD. But Yami Yugi is There. Yami Bakura and Yami Marik are Very There. Manga Pegasus is there. Seto "I Will Never Learn to Come to Terms With Grief" Kaiba is actively raising the dead in his little VR card game simulator so they can live forever and there's a 50/50 chance they'll be FULLY AWARE that they died. JESUS.

There's also the hulking elephant in the room of Duel Links Has Been Including Characters From Series Kaiba Has Nothing to Do With For Quite Some Time Now--and a lot of those characters are like HEY. WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE. like I SWEAR someone from either Zexal or Arv-V was actively like "hi what the hell is KaibaCorp" so like...Kaiba's branding is ALL OVER THE VR WORLD EVEN IN THE WORLDS HE DIDNT EXIST IN. It's painting this absolute off the rails picture of Seto Kaiba trying to create this virtual multiverse of The Best Duelists From Every Timeline Living or Dead, and half the guys he's pulling in at this point are like *spawns into a perfect recreation of their hometown with no real idea of who did this* "what in the goddamn."

like guys from zexal/arc-v are actively IN GAME like trying to figure out why this VR world exists and who created it. It's absolutely wild and fascinating to watch. excited to see what happens when they add VRAINS world next month?!?!? idk anything about VRAINS really but it's probably going to make the DL lore even more bananas.

ANYWAY. ALL OF THAT SAID. NOW WE HAVE MAXIMILLION PEGASUS DROPPING IN-GAME OMINOUS SENTIMENTS it's kind of a culmination of all of the aforementioned shit. Duel Links Pegasus (an AI recreation of manga!Pegasus, who is fully aware A.) that's he's dead and B.) that there's multiple worlds and timelines crammed into this Virtual Reality) has a conversation with Paradox (an AI recreation of Paradox the Bonds Beyond Time Yugioh Movie Bad Guy, who, for all intents and purposes, fully believes he's the real dude and he wants to kill-die-explode-murder Pegasus SO BAD) breaking down that "hey, this place unites different histories, and if you kill me duel monsters won't cease to exist. Anyway, I'm not real! Ohoho! This world holds threads of tragedy, Paradox-boy!" <-- (not verbatim. but i wish it was.) Meanwhile Paradox is having a sputtering breakdown right next to him. This is a video game to play yugioh the trading card game.

like. it's just absolutely wild. konami could have just said "hey heres yugioh characters from every series. whatever" but no instead they threw in a bunch of mild psychological horror and inter-series friction and existentialism and it's a freemium video game that i have 600+ hours on on steam. yugioh duel links !

[lestresmiserables]

I have arrived at my other favorite part, the university. Again a section with a lot of lore to be uncovered if you go looking for it. Again a section where I wonder a lot about what happened, what were they thinking, how were they spending their days?

My emotions already start with the memorial. The 'in loving memory' with all the pictures and the candles. There are three beds with made up dividers between them. Was it where they holed up after the dorms got overtaken by infected? Were they the last survivors of the students? Did they make it?

Then you enter the dorms and there is so much personality in each room. Posters, little trinkets. Outbreak day was september 26th. Beginning of the schoolyear. They probably finally finished making their room their own. Maybe they could still barely remember the name of their dormmates. Maybe they're freshman, moved from across the country and did not know anyone yet. They held out for atleast 10 months in those dorms. 10 months of not knowing if your family and friends back home are alive, dead or something worse. 10 months of being terrified and trying to survive with people you have maybe seen around, people who are completely strangers. Maybe with some friends, maybe with some who absolutely hate your guts.

After a while the cracks start to show. Infected are getting through the barricades and it is getting harder to get them out. Personal relations are getting tense. Rationing food. Who makes the calls. Who risks their life to go to town to try and find supplies. You find out no one is coming. You are on your own.

You are presented with a choice. Either you spend the last of your (probably short) life in the dorms. Trying to survive another day. Or you venture out, risk the relative safety of the dorms, and see if you can make it out in the big, brutal world. Maybe you will even make it to a QZ. Maybe you won't even make it out of the university grounds.

Maybe you will find a group of survivors, you join them. The group grows. You create a town. Sometimes life almost feels normal. At some point rations start to get low. There are little to no provisions left in places nearby, and the situation gets desperate. You start doing something you never would have thought an option when all of this started, all those years ago in that stupid dormitory. It feels like several life times ago when you were young and innocent, excited about the poster you were going to put up, wondering what your dorm mate would be like. But the years of survival have hardened you and you don't think about pulling the trigger and seeing the life leaves someones eyes anymore. You have stopped wondering if they have a family, if someone is waiting for them to get back when you drag their body back to base. You don't throw up anymore after you get served an extra serving of meat at dinner that night.

It was never an option to overtake the group that stationed themselves at the university. They are always too well manned, too well armed. But out of nowhere they seemed to have left. No one is sure why, it seemed like they had a good thing going in the science building. After staking out the place for a while to make sure they are not coming back you and some others go in. See what they left behind. But instead of finding it empty, you find a man and a little girl. A little girl who doesn't hesitate to shoot you to protect the man.

Maybe you were always fated to die in that cursed university.

[featherymainffins]

Peace and love on planet Earth but if I see one more post NOT about recovery and, in fact, encouraging eating disorders in the ed recovery tag, I might just turn into a chimpanzee and tear everyone's faces off.

[12pt-times-new-roman]

I missed the first hour of combat but — C3E62, let's go!

"We built this for you!" oh honey.

Bor'dor has the lucky feat.

"In the aura of this oddly dunamantic energy emanating from Ashton—" Is this the first time Matt has confirmed that Ashton's abilities are dunamantic in nature? I know it's been obvious from our standpoint for a while now, and it was implied to the party by Caleb's mention of dunamis, but is that the first time it's been acknowledged in-game?

As Laudna starts to get flashes of memories eventually leading to Delilah, her ribcage cracks open to release a hound of ill omen modeled after the Briarwoods' undead hounds.

The dome above the temple begins to glow as a voice echoes from above. "Leave or be judged." A winged celestial being — a Dawnborn Angel — descends, with a flaming sword in one hand, to the middle of the chamber.

As far as I can tell, this is a home-brew. The Judicator seems to be modeled on a planetar (same AC and similar abilities, though likely a lower CR), but the "dawnborn angel" resembles nothing I can find.

Prism refers to herself at the Matron of Ravens' daughter. Now, her calling the Matron "mother" makes sense given the goddess' titles and namelessness; but being a shadar-kai and a wizard who has a "complicated relationship" with the Matron while calling herself the Matron's daughter is definitely cause for concern.

Deni$e has 3-4 rogue levels.

"The Judicator does not back down, it does not feel fear." It's also an "entity trained to hunt those of arcane persuasions." All I can think of are cybermen from Doctor Who.

The summons get the HDYWTDT on the Judicator!

A mid-combat break?? Is this gonna be a C2E86 situation where the entire episode is combat?

An angel, a demon, and an earth elemental walk into a bar...

Orym climbs the demon's back and sits on its shoulders like he's mounting a horse, which it begrudgingly allows.

Ashton speaks to the now-uncontrolled earth elemental in primordial. "We gotta get these people out of your home. Can you get me up there?" With its reaction (read: because Matt is giving the party some leeway here), the elemental grabs Ashton and attempts to huck them up to the angel with a nat20 (what the FUCK is the count on this? this pendulum has got to swing in this half, yeah?), because "the spirits of the forest have taken over where the arcana has failed."

The barlgura grapples the angel and brings it to the ground.

THERE'S the Chop Suey joke, finally. "When angels deserve to dieeee...."

Deni$e has a barbarian rage ability called "spirit of the mountain"? I can't find any barbarian subclass with this ability, and it's not a dwarf thing, so is this a home-brew barbarian subclass?

Bor'dor gets his second HDYWTDT on the angel with a 5th level inflict wounds. He holds its head, kisses its forehead, and says, "enough."

A second Judicator, the one that was patrolling the city, approaches the temple, but turns around and leaves at the sight.

It's so interesting to think about the way this battle would be interpreted in different campaigns. In C1, this would've been a heroic tale of villagers rising up against their oppressors and succeeding; in C2, it would've had underlying tones of national, material, Exandrian politics rather than theological ones, but still would've had that tinge of objective victory; and in C3, it is inundated by theological rhetoric and the politics of the gods, and mired by uncertain, subjective success.

The Judicators' masks are not worn, they are fused to the skull. (Again. Cybermen.)

Eventually, Abadeena's magic, alongside the spirits of the forest and the magic of the villagers, reduces the temple to rubble.

Orym is reconciling, trying to bring together conflicting goals, and Laudna clocks it with a pissed-off expression.

One by one, the remaining "captives" begin to follow the first into the forest, exiting the township and heading to the north, except for a single child. "I'm... I just wanted to feel like I belonged to something, you know, I—" And Abandeena responds, "Do you understand why this was wrong?" With that, they feel the final weight lifted, the hillside and village finally free.

Laudna approaches Abadeena. "Be careful not to become what you despise." She looks back with a genuine honesty. "Sometimes, you must do things you wish weren't yours to do for the betterment of your people. I'm not proud of everything I've done, but don't think your words are lost on me." "There's a thin line between being a savior and an oppressor." "Well. Thank you for being our saviors... we hear, of the Loam and the Leaf, thank you. For your deeds, whatever we can do, you have it." She casts some healing, and allows the Bells Hells to sleep in her house for the night because she can't cast scrying today.

Ashton asks for a private word with themself, Abadeena, and Prism. Nothing comes of it yet, as the village begins to gather toward the city center. They cook, swap stories, and sing.

For the first time in a long time, the village is free to give their thanks to the eidolons and to each other.

Bor'dor can't stop thinking of the face of the angel as they died, and he doesn't know whether he did the right thing. "Something is happening, and faith is shaken."

Prism is trying to view all of this with a skeptical, academic, objective mind, but she can't help but second-guess her subjective experience because everyone's happy and everyone's sad. She feels that this was a net good, but feels that compromises her objectivity.

Ashton believes that, leaving everything out of view out of consideration, this was a net good. They go with Prism and Abadeena behind a tree. ("It's time to get sexy now! It's our turn!" Talisein please)

There were tithes taken from the townsfolk. The temple was wealthy enough; these were not taken by the arbiters of the temple, according to Abadeena. She drags it to the city center, and Prolef begins to redistribute the wealth taken by the temple back to the townspeople.

While that exchange was happening, Orym finds Laudna. She remarks that the townspeople are ignorant of the greater evils in the world. They both agree that this ship is sinking, but this town doesn't know that; they agree that they are frustrated at their ignorance, their bliss, and lament that they have to get back to their people.

Laudna and Orym are so angry, but they can't articulate why — it feels to them like they just put themselves in great danger, when there's so much more at stake than there is in "this piss-ant town dealing with their piss-ant squabbles... I don't know why I'm so angry about it." "You've known more than your fair share of shit... I don't even think... I'm having trouble believing there's anything we can do. I just keep stepping forward because it's what I've always gone, but I don't know if there's anything we can do." "Ashton said something quite profound to me the other night, when were taking out watch around the campfire. Profound especially for them. Right now, if we try to change the world, it's just going to seem like an impossible task, it's just too much. But we can try and change that which we do have control over, our immediate surroundings. Save our friends." "I don't know how much time we have left on this planet — feels like it could all go soon, in a week. But I just wanna make do with the time that I have with the people that I care about, and I want to find them, I want to find them again." "Then let's find them. It's the only directive we have at the moment, the only thing we can control." Orym takes her hand. "I don't understand why you bounced down through history to be here with me right now, but I sure as hells am glad you are here." "I've seen a lot of shit, Orym. That's why we're still here." "And more coming." "We've shown we can take it. Let's just get the fuck out of this town."

Abadeena escorts them back to her cottage. She smiles, and reveals her first name: Joan. Whether the Bells Hells decide to kill her or trust her, she thanks them for trusting the village, agrees to help them on the path toward home, and offers them answers.

If the temple comes back, she does not believe this town is the only one rising up. They have a coalition binding together townships of the Loam and the Leaf, keeping them away from the influence of Vasselheim.

Prism asks if she's ever heard of Predathos or speculated on its nature, asks if Predathos is an elemental weapon against the divine during the Founding. Abadeena knows nothing about Predathos except for Ludinus' speech and the Bells Hells' knowledge, but she does recognize the confidence with which Ludinus spoke and the way his words influenced the people of her town. To them, the eidolons have a symbiotic relationship, as it has been for all those who lived on Exandria before the gods coopted it.

"The lands of Exandria hold to them innumerable eidolons that are tied to the forces of this world, of the titans that first shaped it. With the titans long-gone, they persist however they can, oftentimes among the rules of the gods who now rein. So they are echoes, shades, the remnants and the memory of the titans, of the great elemental queens and kinds of this world, the ones who originally sculpted it." Prism questions whether Predathos is more intelligent, more vengeant, than a simple "black hole."

Orym says to Prism that they don't know anything, and Prism retorts that she's trying to help by way of being really good at learning things. The only thing Orym has to go on is the track record of the people trying to release Predathos, which Prism agrees is "damning."

"Prism... I don't understand the gods, I don't know anything about the titans, I don't know eidolon from eyeliner. I believe that... I'm a widower because of the people who want to bring this about. So it's hard for me to wrangle with the other side." finally

Ah. So this encounter was not designed to pit the Bells Hells against the gods or against the titans, but it was designed to force them to reckon with the fact that they know nothing, nothing about what's happening around them, and further to force them to seek out information about the things they don't know.

AH. Abadeena does not wish to destroy the gods, but to return to a state of Exandria in which the gods and the Primordials lived in balance. Mortal races are an invasive species just as much as the gods are, but there was a point in history where they, the primordials, the eidolons, and the gods existed in conjunction with one another.

She also notes that the primordials, the eidolons, do not feel a threat from Predathos — and that the Matron of Ravens offers no warnings of Predathos, no insight, if she saw it coming at all.

Ashton and Laudna: Ashton doesn't think that the Hishari have anything to do with anything — that is something that they'll be asking of the Bells Hells "once everything quiets down." They are so angry right now, and Laudna notes that she and Orym feel the same. Ashton's worst nightmare was their very first divine intervention. "The gods saw me, a god saw me, I was not invisible. It was not hungry, it wasn't fearful, it wasn't — it was a messenger, it was sent, and it told me what I really didn't want to hear: that it doesn't fucking care, that I might as well be fucking gone, that I was a mistake."

Bor'dor goes out to look for Orym, but rolled a 4, so Orym — from his perch on a high tree — takes pity on him and (after Liam asks whether Bor'dor is a half-elf or not) reveals himself.

With a 19, Bor'dor impressively climbs the tree and joins Orym.

"Do you believe in god?" "I mean, it's beyond question. The gods have shaped the history of this world, they have dropped miracles from their seats on high and caused irreparable damage — and unmistakable good. I don't know that I care — I care about you and me, and I care about my family across the ocean." "My life is vert small. I wake up, I work, I go to sleep. My beliefs have been black and white. These people told just o go into a church and fight something that I can't fathom, and int he moment, where I felt victory, I didn't see a divinity or radiance or whatever the fuck you call it, I just felt sadness and compassion. Did you see the way it looked? There — why did we have to do that? Why is that what happened? And then I wonder, also, why — that woman, Abadeena, has no fucking clue what you people are talking about." [...] "I know, I think, barely more than you do, that people who are so determined to bust something out of our moon that it's worth killing a lot of people to get there. Do I believe in the gods? Yes. Have they had a ton of bearing in my life? No." "So you get to Ludinus, and then what? We just killed an angel, we saved a woman who has no clue about the fight that she's fighting. This village has no clue, they're fucked either way — what are we doing here? My life is very small. What are we doing here?" "I think that, um... Ashton, Laudna and I have friends that we were with, got pulled away from, and I think we've got a one in 2000 chance of stopping more people I care about from getting killed." "Okay. Let's do that, then."

Bonding over shit jokes and laxatives. Ah, the quintessential Critical Role experience.

But still, Bor'dor extends a hand. "I go where you go."

I'm just saying, my "multiple tables running at the same canon time concurrently, exactly like the way Pathfinder Society specials run" theory gains all the more merit.

Laudna stays up with Prism reading through books, and Marisha manifests Beau through Laudna. (Someone write an essay about how each of these players manifests specific aspects of a character throughout each campaign. Tag me when you do, if you do it before me.)

In the books, there are tithing ledgers, as well as deals and plans between the temple and the Silvercall Mill about buying out portions of the neighborhood. These plans were awaiting approval from others in the network — discussions about finding land for temples of the Wildmother and other deities hat wasn't already controlled. It's a lot of discussion about calculated expansion by Vasselheim and Othanzia.

With an arcana check, Prism identifies the runes on the Judicator as having an original draconic base, an arcana script that is divine and protective in nature but in some cases near anti-magic. It didn't present itself in battle, but the Judicator has the ability to dispel existing magic — its old magic, possibly related to the anti-magic cone displayed by the Mage Hunter golems that Ludinus employed.

Also in these papers is a discussion of Vasselheim sending forces to leyline nexuses. Prism notes that the leylines are stationary except for certain celestial events, of which the apogee solstice is the largest — nexuses stay where they are placed until the next apogee solstice moves that nexus, resulting in people gravitating to that area for the time between now and the next apogee solstice. It's about resources.

Prism has been away from her home for a decade. She believes that these past few days are validation for those ten years spent at the Cobalt Soul (or elsewhere), and stifles a personal smile.

In the morning, they are met with the smell of breakfast prepared by Abadeena. She offers to create a scroll for Prism so that she can copy the spell into her spellbook. (Again, because she's an Order of Scribes wizard, Prism can copy spells much more quickly than the average wizard.)

Ashton approaches Abadeena about the magic in their head. "It seems to bend the world... I have dreams, sometimes they're inhuman, sometimes I'm other people but I'm not... you ever seen anything like this?" "Like this? I have not at all... however, if you are to continue to travel, maybe speak with the spirits. Maybe things that are older than all of us combined have better insight than this frail form." ooooooo something something the Luxon is older than the world and so it makes sense that they might be some kind of primordial force. it makes sense that they might be a primordial titan that existed "before the gods" because the primordials also did.

Finishing breakfast, they enter the scrying chamber, and Orym enters unannounced — having taken a point of exhaustion from a sleepless night.

Again, Chetney giving each of the Bells Hells material gifts is a fucking genius move by Travis, because they all have scrying targets now. Whether intentional or not, it's genius, and it really goes reflect the themes of this campaign.

They see snow. Snow, falling, across a mountain range. They see Deanna first, with a prominent symbol of the Dawnfather — then they see FRIDA, a rosegold bipedal robot — then, the familiar image of Chetney, trekking behind with excitement and distance — then Imogen and Fearne, following behind, as FCG wheels up alongside them, all trekking through the snow. Prism and Orym recognize the smoky sight of Kravarad, and recognize that they are not far from Uthodurn. They see Imogen grasp her cloak and look back, as if she's making eye contact with the basin, with the scrying censor — Laudna shouts her name, but the image dissipates.

Regardless, they recognize that the other half of Bells Hells is on another continent, on the other side of the world.

Orym asks if there's anyone nearby who can transport them, and Abadeena notes that "those in Vasselheim could, if you had their favor." Yet she does know someone, about 5 days travel's away from Hearthdale, who could transport them: Hevestro, hierophant of the Emerald Tree, a powerful archdruid whom Abadeena once trained under.

So Team Issylra has two options: go to Vasselheim, a longer journey but with more people who could help, or go to Hevestro and count on the good will of a single archdruid.

Abadeena can scry two more times, and Prism can scry once, making for a total of 3 more scries. (Ahh, now I see why this episode is 5 hours long.)

Scry 1: Dariax. He's chewing on his nails with a dirty, scarred face, with a look of concern, sitting in a dark space they can't quite make out. He plays absentmindedly with the compass around his neck, thinking. A blue hand catches his holder, he gives a nod and stands with his spear — Dorian, also looking a bit worse for wear. "That's the bag of dicks—" "That's our bag of dicks!"

Scry 2: Bor'dor's Home / Brother. "Don't take your clothes off!" (Orym: "C'mon, let it happen.") "There, you see a vision of a homestead, modest but well-furnished, not quite the home of a farmer or a person who keeps cattle or sheep. It's an unfamiliar space to you (Bor'dor). You're uncertain whether this dagger is calling a connection to a place of import or a particular answer to your question, unfortunately."

Abadeena copies the scrying spell onto a scroll, which Prism copies into her spellbook.

Now, the Bells Hells must decide between two things: going to Vasselheim and trying to convince them to help, or taking their chances with the dangerous journey through a canyon to Hevestro's homestead. Orym's gut says the latter.

Matt confirms that no one in the party would know anything about the waters between western Issylra and eastern Wildemount, and that it would take a number of weeks to traverse it by ship. For the record, based on Exandrian timezones, geology, and cosmology, there could be an ocean the size of the Pacific in that space.

They decide to go toward the gorge where Hevestro lives, and Abadeena grants them a wind-based, cougar-shaped eidolon that will escort them. "If you meet others of the Valley Coalition, tell them of what has been done here, and let them know that we are ready to help them as well."

[lieutenant-amuel]

Elena of Avalor is genuinely such a good show.

[hum--hallelujah]

the THING about Disloyal Order Of Water Buffaloes is that, #1, it is one of the most melodically satisfying songs I've ever heard and that's why it was one of the first FOB songs I actually listened to of my own free choice, and #2, it makes people crazy insane bc so many of the lyrics simply make zero sense on a surface level EXCEPT "I'm half doomed and you're semi sweet" which IMMEDIATELY gets across its point and acts as a thesis statement to the song, thus allowing an understanding of the rest of the lyrics to fall into place

[moe-broey]

I need like. A Don't Make Me Tap The Sign about Alfonse Fire Emblem specifically about his character and how he's perceived sometimes. Like Book 7 Chapter 12 he's just like that. He's always been like that.

I feel like I've def said it more eloquently before probably in Book 5 (regarding Reginn and Fáfnir), where like. He Will try for and favor a peaceful solution, but if it's clear there's no way out without violence and killing the threat/adversary. He won't hesitate. He won't falter. Crit line literally references this actually, "Above all, the mission".

Like I feel like the difference between Alfonse just doing Alfonse things (most recent chapter Seidr having to kill Kvasir, no way out of it -- plus also even considering killing Seidr herself, if that were to end Gullveig) and the Letizia moment was like. The Letizia moment was a BOLD gambit he played, which is WHY it was so shocking in the story and as an audience member, and why I think it left such a deep impression. Still very in character for him and the way he thinks/problem solves on the fly, carefully evaluating the situation and what would be the best move with the highest rate of success. (THAT LAST BIT ACTUALLY........ he'll do this even with low rates of success, out of sheer stubbornness as well. Which is why I still stand by him being rash at times, a LOT of his rashness is disguised as "calculated risks" and he just has the willpower to pull it off. The worst-best type of guy to me LMFAO)

Going back a bit though, the Letizia moment also stands out as an example of how far Alfonse is willing to go to win, especially if his back is pushed against the wall. It gives you a FASCINATING glimpse into his character and into his mind. A lot of times Lif would be an enigma to me, beyond the basics, character wise. Like yeah I guess that would fuck up a guy. But his methods (working and making contracts with gods when especially as Alfonse he knows better than that??) would be inscrutable to me. But everything absolutely finally clicked when Alfonse made that gambit, playing to Letizia's personality and whatever preconceived notions she may have, that maybe Alfonse could find a weak spot in and take advantage of. Lif is doing the exact same thing. His judgement is maybe a little worse for wear on account of, well *gestures vaguely to all of him* but he's still very much doing The Same Thing.

LIKE. I'm def straying from my point which is. Alfonse isn't shy about having to resort to violence. It Is a resort. But if it has to be done, it will be done. Any damage control (such as Sharena's feelings -- she has CLEARLY been extremely upset these past chapters) can be resolved later. (This.... is also fascinating to me..... bc it's always been clear to me his loved ones are the people who ground him, who stop him from losing himself, from becoming cruel in his practicality and tendency for detachment. There Is his morality as well -- but his loved ones are a huge part in what keeps him kind.)

I guess what I'm really trying to say is. Hit me up next time Alfonse is playing 4D chess with the enemy or throwing himself in a ditch on purpose just to indulge his baby sister's current pet project. THOSE feel like standout examples of Alfonse Off The Shits (but still completely in character for him tbh), while like. The rest is just par for the course for him. Just another (especially traumatizing) Tuesday.

[htylmg]

still can’t believe nico having catholic guilt is canon. like. i mean yeah but did u really have to confirm it let the boy rest

[skitskatdacat63]

— Emperor Charles VI's diary entry on Count Althann's death

[text: "My only heart, my comfort, my most faithful servant, my soulmate, who loved me dearly as I did him for 19 years, [we] had a true friendship, we were one heart and one soul, and we never concealed anything from one another. He will always be in my heart, [my] beloved friend..I. have lost everything."]

[ru5t]

@lcfthaunted //> requested.

  He's left their guest no further than just inside the door: the office directly off of the entryway at the front of the building. Di hovers near the office door, the image of her standing guard puts a strange chill in his stomach. It lingers as he puts himself to his task, going through whatever's left in the catchall - they'll need to go trading again, soon. That task sorts itself into the ever-growing list of things he has to do in the next week while his searching goes on autopilot and Jack wonders if this woman from the center of the city sees an ally or a threat in the young ex-drac standing at attention in the mouth of the warehouse. Honestly, he's not sure what he sees, there. Only that he knows the office is the best place for her for now. Too much that is precious resides in the units to play loose with strangers, and too many of his crew are too nosy for their own good to let them go stampeding in to peer and poke and probably insult. ... He allows himself a deep sigh, a soft curse aimed at the empty air over his head, then he gathers what he came for and returns to the entry. Jack dismisses Di with a casual nod over his shoulder, get outta here, and she scowls at him, but sets off for the garden anyway. She'll be back.

  He gives a light knock before pushing through the office door, announcing himself.

  The office was a nightmare when they first began settling into the haven, full of dust and who knew what else. Since then, they'd pulled up the carpet entirely, and someone -best guess said Dawn and Lith, though jack didn't know for sure- had painted a mural in its place. Bright orange and purple wildflowers in a sea of scrub grass, like what bloomed in the ridges to the north. The shelves had been pushed into a neat configuration, some covering the widows like blinds to cut the heat, and that old couch Weasel had rolled up with weeks ago finally had a place that wasn't the middle of the entryway. Even the old business counter was painted, and a few battery operated lights sat waiting there for nightfall like end table lamps. The result was a strange, colorful thing, but nice as far as ruins this far out into the desert went.

  Jack lays the bundle of clothes he'd gone digging for on the old counter. It's mostly out layers, any jackets he could find, and shirts that could go overtop of something thin and almost sheer that is decidedly not designed for the desert-- though a few genuine articles are in the mix as well. Anything he thought might fit, though he expects she's not likely to go trading anything out. Not right away. Thus, the jackets. It's always easier to borrow a jacket than lose whatever you've got, at first.

  “You'll burn if you don't cover,” he advises, and that's all he says of the state of her. But he keeps looking. Brow lightly furrowed, something reluctant stuck in the back of his teeth. He crosses his arms and leans against the counter. “I can't get you back through the wall.” Blunt, in terms of opening, but it's important there are no illusions. He can't, and his sister doesn't deal in smuggling people, and he won't suggest she start (or even bring her smuggling up at all. Not until she gets back and decides on that for herself - if this was still the situation when she did get back.) So as far as he's concerned, it's impossible. “You can stay here,” a nod at the couch, “or if you'd rather take your chances, I'm riding back to three tomorrow. There are neutral settlements, there, and maybe someone who can do what I can't. But I expect y- .. the crew from the market will be watching for that. Watching for you. I'd give it time.”

[bonefall]

you know what im thinking about: in riverstar's home,the park seems to be being destroyed/uprooted/invaded by twolegs--bc that's the only way we cna have conflict-- which...WHY???? like,if this is TNR program (first ever twolegs to care about all these fucking cats) that's different but this is a public fucking park??? where is the purpose in this

The bulldozers seem super bizarre, I'm trying to imagine what exactly was going on in the minds of the humans bulldozing the part but drawing a blank.

Also... why would there be people with nets jumping around catching cats during construction? You'd think they'd do that before they call in the workers, if they were going to do it at all. Where is the supervisor?? Like, I know this is Interwar Britan but at the very least I'd expect the Construction Group to be arguing with the Cat Catching Group

And also, you were probably NOT hungry for a dose of Timeline Soup but if we go with the authorial statement that Turtle Tail was hit by a Ford Model T, placing the beginning of DOTC in the late 1920s at latest... it's actually a bit early for them to be using bulldozers in construction. Not impossible or inaccurate, but still early.

At first, "bulldozer" just referred to the blade. You would attach one to a tractor, and they were mostly used in farming. It was the merging of two tractor companies to create the Caterpillar Tractor Company that kicked off the wide production of bulldozers, around 1925. You probably recognize that name, "Caterpillar," if you've been around construction equipment.

So they REALLY got popular in the 1930s for use in quarries, clearing out rubble, etc. I'm not sure exactly what they were doing to a public park, with bulldozers, in the late 1920s...

That was also before the suburban expansion that came following WW2, when most of England being bombed to bits and they started building out car infrastructure. It makes perfect sense they'd pulverize a beautiful park to make a shitty highway; but it's a bit early for that, in the interwar period

Anyway babble babble; DOTC makes more sense taking place in the 1950s if you're trying to be technologically accurate lmao

[hunxi-after-hours]

hey, big fan of your blog! read some of your qianqiu metas, and was thinking lately about the presentation of the statist consolidation of power and framing of political unification as an unproblematic moral good in a lot of the wuxia/xianxia I've engaged with. having grown up with these genres, I know that censorship and sociopolitical circumstances are big influences on the message that gets put out. (1/3)

but also as an anti-authoritarian looking to art and literature for countercultural inspiration, I guess I've found a lot of wuxia lacking in a vision for a radical future. this certainly isn't to say that art needs to be radical to have value, or that wuxia spaces haven't created avenues of self-expression and joy for oppressed groups in an airtight society where there are dire risks attached to political activity. (2/3)

wuxia/xianxia are my favorite genres, but many aspects of its narratives seem to uphold structures of oppression (i.e. ableism, colorism, xenophobia, misogyny, etc). but hey, 嫌货人才是买货人, no such thing as perfect, best thing to do, I suppose, is to engage with art with a critical eye. thanks for your time! (3/3)

an anon after my own heart, hello! you're definitely getting at certain themes, assumptions, and values that in a way were built in to the wuxia genre as it has evolved today. whether you’re reading classic authors like 金庸 Jin Yong or remixers like 梦溪石 Meng Xishi, I’ve definitely noticed that wuxia as a genre has, well, complicated relationships with the structures of oppression that you brought up

(I'm leaving xianxia out of the discussion atm as I’m less familiar with it as a whole, but also I don't think it has the same concerns of nationalism and historicism that wuxia does)

in many ways, the modern wuxia genre is a heavily compensatory genre, which I mean specifically in a “hey, compensating much?” kind of way. it took me a very long time to realize and process this, diaspora kid that I am, but so much of contemporary Chinese culture is still profoundly affected by the events of the past 200-250 years. I mean, when you think about it, the imperial dynastic system wasn’t all that long ago; in many ways, Chinese society is still reeling from the century of humiliation, the breakneck industrialization, the mass deaths of the 20th century in war and famine and revolution and government abuse (there is also the matter of the government deliberately evoking public memory of past atrocities to fan nationalistic sentiment for its convenience, which not only keeps historical national humiliations top-of-mind but also disrupts processes of collective memory and collective grieving).

Stephen Teo, in Chinese Martial Arts Cinema: The Wuxia Tradition, tracks the origins of wuxia as a genre, and from the beginning wuxia has been bound up with anxieties over masculinity and national agency, which in literature can often be one and the same. Teo, in tracing early forerunners of wuxia and the historical context of its emergence, notes that "[i]ntellectuals initially regarded the warrior tradition in the genre as one of the elements that could provide a positive counterweight to China's image as the 'sick man of Asia'" (Teo 37).

Given the repeated incursions and invasions onto Chinese soil and China’s status as a semicolony for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, it’s almost too obvious how the wuxia genre provides a balm for those exact anxieties: the martial warrior tradition (the 武 wu in 武侠 wuxia, if you will) directly addresses fears regarding the emasculation of Chinese men; the historical settings of wuxia novels often set during or against a backdrop of past imperial Chinese glories; the featuring of military triumphs over “foreign barbarians” who sought to invade or occupy imperial land, or even better — the protagonist, raised among the “wolfish barbarians,” is uniquely positioned to combine the “raw, savage strength” of “barbarian” culture with the “cultured civility” of Han Chinese culture; the strong emphasis on tradition(al aesthetics) and traditional Confucian ethics of morality and righteousness as contrast and counterpoint to the rapid modernization and Westernization of 20th/21st century Chinese culture... you get the idea

Teo’s book surveys the wuxia genre over the past century, particularly through film, and he discusses how wuxia in the 21st century begins “to manifest as made-in-China historicist blockbusters mixing the epic form with wuxia" — which is to say, wuxia has increasingly become intertwined with the genres of period dramas and historical epics:

"Having been grafted onto the period epic, wuxia becomes a showcase of Chinese history, seeking to be universally accepted while at the same time locating itself within the historicist confines of the nation-state." (168)

wuxia’s increasing hybridization/conflation with historical epics (particularly in Zhang Yimou’s 2002 film 《英雄》 Hero, John Woo’s 2008 - 2009 《赤壁》 Red Cliff duology) increasingly politicizes the genre, and that politicization thereby links wuxia to national issues of structural oppression, like the ones you mentioned: the statist consolidation of power and framing of political unification as an unproblematic moral good, ableism, colorism, xenophobia, misogyny... any one of these could carry a research paper on their own, and I don’t presume to be able to solve or explain away any of them in a tumblr post, but I do think there are many ways in which the wuxia genre’s (often uncritical) support of structures of oppression are directly linked to the origins of wuxia as a genre that was in many ways wish-fulfillment for a 20th/21st century Chinese culture wracked with political turmoil, economic disaster, and cultural uncertainties

I particularly like Teo’s discussion here:

"...The grand historicist self-fashioning of the genre in a film like Hero and its offshoots Curse of the Golden Flower, The Banquet, The Warlords [...and] Red Cliff demonstrate the kind of nationalistic self-aggrandisement that critics find so disturbing, particularly so when the nature of the regime is authoritarian and autocratic, ever ready to invoke militaristic power as the means to their end of a unitary nation state.

“However, if we see the wuxia genre as a mirror of the nation, it shows China in perpetual crisis, torn apart by internal strife and the urge to cohere as a unitary state." (186)

the framing of political unification as an unproblematic moral good is something I find particularly interesting, because a lot of that has to do with Chinese history. the famous opening line of 《三国演义》 / Romance of the Three Kingdoms references this directly: 天下大势，分久必合，合久必分 / “All great movements under heaven [follow this rule]: that which has fallen apart for a long time must come together, and that which has been together for a long time must fall apart.” The entire cyclical narrative of imperial China has been this: a dynasty rises, a dynasty falls, the land fractures into squabbling kingdoms, out of which a single dynasty eventually rises, to eventually fall, to eventually fracture again. and so, a dynasty’s collapse and the subsequent societal fracturing into warring territories is naturally paired with the crisis and violence that ensues with the fall of a state. simply put, there just isn’t a period of Chinese history (or if there is, I don’t know of it) where political fragmentation has not been associated with civil unrest; therefore political unification must be an unproblematic good as it eliminates domestic warfare and returns order to the central plains. handily, this supports the current regime’s nationalistic and authoritarian agenda, and so we see this particular moral value reflected in much of wuxia fiction

not to simply brush aside ableism, colorism, xenophobia, and misogyny all with a wave of a hand, but I do think that much of this has to do with contemporary Chinese society’s current attitudes towards these issues. when a society privileges pale complexions in its beauty standards (see: the triptych of 白富美, the omnipresence of beauty products that advertise skin tone lightening, the entire entertainment/idol industry), colorism is a natural (and shitty) result. government-spurred nationalism, historical racism, and Han chauvinism all contribute to the rampant xenophobia of much of Chinese media, especially when it comes to depictions of non-Chinese Asia (Central Asia, Japan, SE Asia in particular). when wuxia needs a faceless enemy, it reaches for the barbarians on the border. ableism and misogyny are issues that contemporary Chinese society struggle with now; the issue of ableism in particular feels stifled in the cutthroat nature of the current job market (the flipside of China’s massive labor force is the knowledge that every person is fundamentally replaceable), and the depths to which cultural misogyny runs in China is growing steadily more and more evident as the gender gap widens

and when it comes to fiction, when it comes to literature, widespread change often doesn’t occur until there is a societal call for it. I’m thinking of the U.S. science fiction and fantasy scene, which went through its own reckoning with diversity and genre-reified prejudice over the past decade and a half. and now we have brilliantly diverse authors and searingly postcolonial works, queer characters on the regular, Tor Books itself advertising to us soft sad queer freaks on tumblr. the journey wasn’t easy though, nor is the journey remotely close to over, but the fact remains — there was, in a sense, a collective cultural awakening about the ways in which more classic SF/F often utilized and reified racism, prejudice, misogyny, ableism; and subsequently, there was a conscious effort towards holding the genre(s) and its creators accountable, towards writing and supporting and amplifying voices previously shunned and silenced

and, well, to be fully honest, I don’t think that cultural moment has arrived yet for wuxia. this is not to say that there are no wuxia creators out there trying to decolonize the genre, but that we haven’t reached the turning point where decolonizing the genre and examining its history of misogyny, xenophobia, ableism, and colorism is expected, accepted, even celebrated, and I don’t think we’ll get there until contemporary Chinese society goes through a cultural reckoning with these same issues

I also think it’s worth mentioning that whatever that collective cultural awakening/reckoning looks like, it must be and will be distinctively Chinese. Chinese culture maintains different moral values from Western (Euroamerican) culture; contemporary China faces different social issues and political problems than contemporary Euroamerica. whatever this journey looks like, I don’t think it will look like or should look the same as what the U.S. went through/is going through. decolonizing/deimperializing East Asia is inherently different from decolonizing/deimperializing the West, so I would like to stop short of making prescriptive statements on what that cultural turning point should look like

that being said: if anyone’s run into some good postcolonial wuxia lately, I’d be VERY interested to hear more about it