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iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia · 4 months

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Brainrot Housekeeping: A little note about Dorian

This is my heads-up that I've decided to try messing around on their platform and translating some of my headcanons into the Arcana's visual novel format.

This is not a promotional post. (hence why you won't be seeing any links, story titles, or profile handles)

It's mostly so that if anybody sees something posted by an author over there using my ideas/moniker, it's probably me and not a thief. Also, this blog is far and away my priority over that - if I start to feel overwhelmed or burnt out, that's going to be the first thing I stop doing. Not this :)

I'm putting more thoughts below the cut since the main point of this post is to be transparent about my activity to avoid misunderstandings:

I've been in conversation with plenty of people about Dorian. I've heard from people whose lives were transformed for the better because of it, I've heard from people with mixed feelings, I've heard from people whose lives were wrecked by it. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's been on my page for a while that I'm fairly skeptical of them myself and don't always see eye-to-eye with them on how things seem to be run.

Anybody who's talked to me personally about it knows that I have boatloads more opinions, but I realized that those are based off of what I've heard much more than off of what I've experienced. So for transparency's sake, here are my reasons for trying this out:

First, the most important thing I've learned to do is to try encountering something for myself when I keep hearing and developing strong opinions about it. Sticking to this personal value is what got me out of Rai's server and influence (if you don't know and you want to know, read my pinned "to the arcana fandom" post) and ultimately what helped me get the resources I needed to help my friends get out of serious danger too. If I want to join the conversation about the clear divide between Dorian's vision for the Arcana and the fandom built around the original game, I have to try both sides out for myself.

Second, I'm a curious person and it seems like a new way to fuck around and find out (something I do constantly, though I rarely show it on here :P). I'm a creative, I love these characters, and the chance to see my own words in the original format sounds like fun.

To finish off, these are the goals and parameters I'm setting myself when it comes to however active I end up being over there. I'm putting them here again for transparency, but mainly to help me keep myself accountable:

My main goal is to try a new experience and have fun in the process. To do that, I'm going to keep my mind open without losing critical thinking and only make what I feel like making and when I feel like making it

Nothing I create is going to be motivated by a desire to be "successful". I'm already successful - I have a steady job IRL, a group of amazing friends, and this gift of a page that lets me be creative and find joy with other people around one of my many interests

Being active over there is going to be a bottom priority. If my tasks are getting to be too much, that will be the first to go because the only value I place in it at this time is experiental

If I find I can't stick to these goals, whether it be motivation, mentality, or just a loss of interest, I'll stop my activity over there and re-evaluate what I'm doing vs what I want to be doing and why

If I encounter something that's deeply concerning to me, I'll attempt to address it proactively through the proper channels available to me. If those concerns remain unaddressed and I think people need to know about it, I'll talk about it openly and honestly

I won't use my blog or server to promote any work I publish over there. Concurrently, I'll do my best to avoid any promotion off of the Dorian app

That's all from me for now about this! I'll be linking it in my pinned post so people who want to know more about me can look at it, but I won't be putting it on the arcana tag because I don't think it's relevant at this time.

Cheers!

brainrot

#ask arcana brainrot #dorian era

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purity-town · 9 months

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No update today -- next chapter's cover has had a good chunk of progress made on it, but I'm too busy tomorrow to get it finished up to post at a reasonable time. (This works out well anyhow, as I'll be moving back down for college next week, so if the current page wasn't partially finished already I may have not had the time to complete an update.) In the meantime, finally getting around to posting ask responses (below the cut)!

I'm really glad to hear you're liking it! Life's been a little crazy lately, so updates have been more scattered than I'd like, but I'm still thoroughly enjoying making this comic, so I'm you're enjoying reading it!

Looking at the timestamps, the first page was released on December 12th, 2020. So we’re just past 2 and a half years now!

The actual “development” of the story technically goes a bit further back to the time around the 1.4 update release, as I was getting really into the game lore and wrote up some worldbuilding ideas. Then in late November of 2020 I started planning a fanfic based on that, did a short 2-page comic set in that AU for fun, and then ended up expanding that original fanfic into the current, longer comic!

I’m gonna tentatively say yes! At least, one per Andrew and the Clothier each. There wouldn’t really have been a reason to make more than one of Andrew. There technically could’ve been more made of the Clothier, but one was all that was really needed.

Fortunately this current set of backgrounds outside of the dungeon is relatively simple, as I reuse the base coloring for the columns and adjust the perspective/lighting as necessary (each column is actually two pieces -- one “flat” side and one “angled” side).

I have a pretty limited capacity for doing backgrounds, so I tend to use tricks like this to reuse them where I can, haha. The first few backgrounds for an area tend to be harder, as I need to make assets and figure out how I want lighting and so on to work, but from there it usually gets easier.

It's still dependent on the background's design, of course -- backgrounds that are painted (usually outdoors) are a much different experience to work with than areas with detailed lineart and textured surfaces, such as the tavern and Andrew's kitchen. I'm slowly getting used to the perspective tools in Clip Studio Paint, though, which is helping a lot with drawing indoor spaces!

In all honesty, I was mostly focused on making it immediately recognizable even in silhouette, and that it fit well on the page, rather than focusing on making it perfectly to scale or the likes, haha.

Design-wise I find the Wall of Flesh to be super interesting -- it visually ties the “first” boss of progression (EoC) in with the last boss (Moonlord). And it’s overall very jarring, in that it’s easy to accidentally summon and turns the Underworld into an inescapable auto scroller in a way none of the other bosses do. And of course the story/lore significance, etc. etc. etc.

So when the time comes, I hope I can do it justice!

Honestly, I’m not sure! I still haven’t totally decided how that whole sequence of events will go -- some parts of it are very clearly planned out, others not so much. In a general sense, I do think that Chris’ reaction could vary significantly with the circumstances -- how much of a shock it is, and if he understands the significance of it -- but generally wouldn’t be good, in a horrified/panicking sense.

At the current point in the comic, Chris *does* have a general idea that something weird is up with Andrew, just based on what Heather/Malik/Becca were saying (including Heather’s mention of “burns”), plus Andrew leaving in a hurry that morning and brushing it off when asked about it. He doesn’t believe that Andrew is evil, of course, just that he’s dealing with some things, and Chris is appropriately concerned.

So- yeah, finding a doll of Andrew in the Underworld- honestly, there are a lot of ways for him to take it badly.

But hey, once he has the doll, Hardmode won’t be far away, and that’ll bring a whole new host of problems for him to focus on instead!

#purity town #not an update #pt asks

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oraculate · 2 months

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whops im a little late sorry but here i (dove, s/h, certified hag) am and more importantly, here's ko lijae, your local fuckin weirdo. surprise surprise though, she's not just a pill popping drunk, she's also impulsive to a fault, an adrenaline junkie with a death wish, and an obsessive nightmare. she's giving oracle at delphi, or she would be if you romanticized it, but it's kind of hard to romanticize someone who very clearly does not have their life even close to together and is letting that show in a way that distinctly bucks social norms. but hey, who has time for social norms when you're touched by the gods, amirite? i'm more than thrilled to be here, haven't written in a hot minute so be gentle, but her pages are here: profile / bio / connections and there's a little bit more under the cut, msg for discord!

i'm not sure what to put that isn't already on the pages so here's a little mindless rambling for you in case something resonates.

ko lijae has premonitions, visions, etc.

her family is historically shamanic and has been for centuries, passed down from woman to woman as is oft the case.

now, granted, they're lowkey scammers so at least in very recent memory "real" visions and so forth are not a thing.

not to mention traditionally in muism shamans are more focused on connection to the spirit world/those who have passed so she's not exactly on brand religiously....

so needless to say the thought process in the ko household was 'yikes'.

and if it had been truly just an expression of mental health concerns she'd have been fucked because if there's one thing the ko family does not believe in its talk therapy or mood stabilizers etc.

as a kid she found a certain idea of solace in the idea that she was probably just experiencing sinbyeong or 'shamanic sickness' (recognized as a culture bound syndrome in the DMCA) that many soon-to-be shamans go through before they are fully initiated, often that are accompanied by reported auditory and visual hallucinations.

at this point in her life she's not sure she buys into the shaman thing fully, she's come to acknowledge her grandmother as a fake, but she also grapples with the idea that there's definitely something going on with her and it's certainly not purely based on mental unrest (though she's more than happy to admit there's a deal of that going on at this point) so a part of her at least wants to attribute it to something somewhat explainable, and figures it must have some kind of genetic component that could be related to how her family ended up shamans in the first place.

in the evolutionary game of fight or flight lijae has chosen a resounding: both. she'll fight you and she'll run from herself.

a lot of that running is done via chemicals of whatever type she can get her hands on, resulting in a chain smoking habit and alcoholism.

she has an exceptionally devil may care attitude, sharp tongue (mostly at her own expense) and a deep and feral loyalty to the few people who stick by her.

honestly she gives feral cat energy, like she might gnaw her paw off if she got caught in a trap and god help you if you corner her, but if you hang around patiently enough maybe eventually she'll come around. but she's got fleas and half an ear is missing and there's scars all around her muzzle so is it worth the time? maybe not.

anyway if you've got any sort of ideas about how this weirdo might be able to round out a plot for you either with or without the inclusion of her '''''gifts''''' i'm all ears!

#LJ / plot #eldrtch:int.

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fantasy-anatomy-analyst · 1 year

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DnD 5e goblins and bugbears

are these designs racist? Well, as I am white, I can't really say I'm the expert on this particular concern, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone else point it out, so take this with a grain of salt.

They probably aren't intentionally racist designs. They do make me feel uncomfortable. I haven't finished my redesign for them yet, but I wanted to get this post started since I have other big projects to get to and if I just go straight to those, I will continue to forget about this one. So let's get started!

(image description: the official dnd 5e art for goblins and bugbears. They're related species, though the bugbear is much taller and covered in fur, while the goblin is very small and mostly hairless. they both have large triangular ears and a rounded hook nose with no bridge. The goblin has very yellow skin, the bugbear has very orange fur, and both have red-yellow eyes with flared eyebrows. Their weapons and armor look a bit scrappy, with bones and spikes and metal studs all over the design. notes on the image will be explained below. end description)

the fur color can probably be given a pass because it's fur, but the goblin's skin is so yellow. By itself, I don't think that would be enough to call it a bad design choice, but it is a little odd. what really makes me suspicious are the face shapes, especially the nose and eyebrows. And also the armor. There's not much armor, and it doesn't look like an exact match for any specific type of armor. Honestly I think it's a mix of inspirations, since the bugbear's leather skirt thing does look more like typical roman-inspired battle skirts. but there's enough going on with layered panels and metal studs, mixed with hide and bone and spikes for that "primitive" flair, that I do wonder a bit.

I gathered a few images that these designs reminded me of, as a visual reference.

(image description: both images contain screenshots of the huns from the animated disney Mulan film. The first image also shows old samurai armor and mongolian armor. the armor all has similar designs of layered metal and/or leather with metal studs all over it. The second image contains close ups of the goblin and bugbear faces with the animated film hun characters for comparison. They do all have similarly flared eyebrows and eye colors, as well as some similarities in the nose designs. end description)

Just, kinda makes me uncomfortable. Feels like someone should have double checked their work a bit before finalizing these monster designs. It's not blatant enough to be like, really on purpose, I don't think? I could be wrong, I very well may be missing some details. But the similarities to the hun designs alone are enough to make me say "oh gee, this doesn't seem right." Honestly, I think it's part of a larger trending problem with monster design. There are just some visual features that get used as the universal indicators that these creatures are Evil by nature. These features typically include some form of hooked nose, "primitive" armor, weapons, and clothing, and facial shapes that are angular and blocky, with a very heavy brow.

as a result of these common "evil" visual features, it's kind of inevitable that humanoid monster designs will end up feeling racist in some manner. It's much easier to avoid accidental racism with more animal or insectoid monster designs, but everyone always wants sapient-ish enemies they can use as cannon fodder, with even more humanoid final bosses. So they default to these visual traits again and again, because those are just the visual traits that have always been used. So it's an ongoing issue. Heck, if I tried to design evil humanoids from scratch for a job, I'm sure someone above me would request edits to give them the more obvious "evil" traits so they look more scary and intimidating. this is an industry problem more than an individual one. I hope I've helped point it out here, so more people can recognize it and add their own commentary.

I am also working on a redesign for these, in as close a stye match as I can manage. here's a WIP sample:

(image description: in the first image, a sketched redesign of the goblin and bugbear. Their noses and ears have been altered to look more bat-like, with prominent fleshy ridges on the noses that stick up away from the face. In the second image, the goblin is mostly finished with new colors and altered armor. It is now wearing a short leather wrap with strands of leather or hide hanging off the belt, alongside the arm bracers and leg bracers that were already there. Its skin is now a pale grey color and its hair has been redone as short bristly fur, with facial whiskers on the brow and chin. The bugbear has not been repainted, but it has been cut up and repositioned in preparation for the repaint. end description.)

fixed the poses while i was at it, making the goblin a little more dynamic and the bugbear a little more balanced. They're cave dwellers, so i went further with the bat-like features and the pallid complexion like other cave dwelling creatures have. It's going to take a while to repaint these, so this WIP will have to do for now. I hope it shows how a similar art style can be maintained while also making the designs a little more interesting and not so reliant on racist features.

#goblin #bugbear #dnd 5e #redesign process #creature critique

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sixty-silver-wishes · 9 months

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Thoughts on the Barbie movie

So I finally saw the Barbie movie! I was excited to watch it for a long time, and overall, I really liked it, although I wouldn't consider it quite perfect. Here are some thoughts upon first viewing-

First, what I liked. The set design, cinematography, and costuming were incredible; it was so fun and refreshing to see practical effects and the sort of artistry that went into this film. The characters were mostly likeable (put a pin in that), and the comedy definitely landed; I was laughing out loud multiple times, and the fourth-wall breaks were a ton of fun. While I've heard different people say different things about the feminist (or at least attempted feminist) messaging and how effective it was, I really liked the point that women didn't have to be extraordinary to be fulfilled or respected. It didn't shy away from topics like aging, emotions, or bodily changes, and I loved how older women were also uplifted in this film, as well as the messaging that patriarchy is damaging to both men and women. And I really appreciated that Barbie and Ken didn't end up together; as an ace person, that representation was really nice to see. Michael Cera as Allan was adorable, and I loved Kate McKinnon as "Weird Barbie." It was nice to see a diverse cast, and in today's climate, after the barrage of hate towards trans people in politics and society, seeing "Doctor Barbie," played by Hari Nef- a trans woman- being called "beautiful" in a big-budget mainstream film was honestly heartwarming. I was definitely crying a bit towards the end, and I'm hoping to watch the movie again sometime.

As for what I didn't like, most of it comes down to the character of Sasha. She was exasperating every time she was on screen, and was written in a grating "how do you do, fellow Gen Z's" way I couldn't stand. While it's true that activism and social justice are obviously components of Gen Z culture, Sasha felt like a caricature of this in the worst possible way. Her calling a Barbie doll "fascist" for setting "unrealistic standards for women" was especially eye-rolling, considering that actual fascism is on the rise both in the United States and around the world, and it felt belittling to the concerns that young people have been vocal about in recent years. For a character representing the "real world," she felt incredibly unrealistic and one-dimensional. However, I did like Gloria's character, and the relationship between her and Barbie.

For a film sponsored by Mattel, I wasn't expecting much in terms of anti-capitalist critique, and while it was sort of there on a surface level, I feel like the film could have gone more into how the concepts of patriarchy and capitalism intersect. They touched on it a little with the Mattel CEO claiming to care about girls and women but only because they were his target market, but I felt more could have been done there.

Some people have been saying the film focused too much on Ken, but I personally didn't mind his arc; it was mainly about how patriarchy harmed men, while Barbie's was about how it harmed women. While I feel like the Kens deserved consequences (conse-Ken-ces?) for trying to overthrow the government and enslave the Barbies, I guess you could also argue that the battle amongst themselves counted as such, as the film displayed that patriarchy is a self-destructive construct. I felt like the Barbies being brainwashed represented internalized misogyny (the "tradwife" movement came to mind), and while Gloria's speech was good and all, I would have also liked to see that concept deconstructed further.

Overall, I'd give the Barbie movie a 9 out of 10. Beautiful visuals, interesting thematic points, and a lot of fun, but I just wish it could have dug a bit deeper.

#barbie #barbie spoilers #barbie 2023 #barbie movie #review #movie review

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pbandjesse · 9 months

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My neck is doing better but is still very stiff. And I just had one of the worst charlie horses in my calf I have ever had. Like I can't fully stand up on my heel because it stretches my leg down and I am not having fun. And James is in New York and is sending me very confusing texts which has me all out of sorts. I don't like feeling so confused.

I didn't have a bad day though. It was fine. The best thing that happened today was finishing my blanket. That made me so happy. Helen said I was running around showing it off with a big smile like it was my baby. And it's true,n it feels that way.

I started the day feeling fine enough. I apparently snoozed my alarm though and I don't remember doing so which frustrated me. I would feel alright. Neck still stuff but not as painful. I got dressed and ready. I felt like I was forgetting something though and as we were leaving I realized I forgot my rings. James went back for them and that made me feel a little better.

Breakfast was correct this time. And we got to the market before 8. Even with leaving a few minutes late so I'm pretty impressed.

I was fully in charge today and because my focus was so much on that I was not a very good salesperson I always sold one sticker pack and that was it. But because I was getting paid to be there I don't care as much honestly. I was happy to stand at the market table next to my table and work on my blanket. I finished sewing the last rose together within the first hour and then I spent the next 2 hours working on the sewing down it tail ends. They're not all done but at least it's mostly finished and it looks great and I'm so proud of it. I think there's like 60 hours into this blanket. And I am really thrilled with the final product. I still might put a fleece back on it but honestly because I've sewn down the edges so well I don't even know if it needs it. I'm still really happy though and I just want everyone to know all about it.

I also had some really nice conversations with people. As people were getting set up I had to ask two of the smaller distilleries to be next to each other in one spot but there were super chill about it. And then because the charcuterie people came I had to move the Puerto Rican distillery all the way down to the end but I gave them the option for spots and they picked their favorite one so no one was mad at me. And then I found out that four of us are not going to be there next weekend so it's going to be kind of a sparse market because it's like Jenny and bread and food and it's I don't know what they're going to do without us. I'm the least of the concerns but still my energy will not be there.

James came out to buy breakfast and baked goods and while we were paying a woman was looking at my blanket and trying to understand them notes that I append to it and so I went over to chat with her and she was so nice and very encouraging. And I started explaining to some older women about at the construction and I was like you know a potholder loom this is essentially a blanket made a pod holders. And it made me laugh and it made them laugh and it was just a good way of explaining what I had done since I didn't have my wing with me to have a visual. But I very happily stood there and worked on sewing down those edges until about noon.

When I finally made a sale. I sold my sticker pack to a lovely girl around my age. And she ran over to her friends to tell them about the stickers and they were all very excited and I got a little boost of pride because they were so interested in my stickers. I need to order more of the jobs and I want to get some drawing done tomorrow. Tomorrow my big plan is to work on my Native American field trip PowerPoints. Because I have need two of them. I might just make one PowerPoint though and just like have a an opening and closing section but regardless I would like to also get a little bit of drawing done and some deciding on what my next stickers will be. I also would like at some point to make a better sticker display and packaging but for now I'm happy with what I got.

Once everyone was done at the market I packed up real quickly and went inside to talk to James and have them take a picture of me holding my blanket. And I chatted with Stanley and Bob and my neck was doing a lot better and my back was doing a lot better but I was still tired and I didn't want to stay till 2:00 but I stayed until everyone was out of the pavilion which is what I've been told to do in the past. I walked down to the water after sitting with James for a while. There were jellyfish and I was really excited about that because I love seeing the jellyfish in the harbor. And I even saw some fish and it was like a whole school of fish swimming back and forth and that was neat to see too. And honestly was a really beautiful day for how humid it could have been with the storms coming in tomorrow and this upcoming week. I was in a really good mood though and while I was very happy to be done and going home I was also not dying of exhaustion like sometimes I am.

After I said goodbye to James I got myself together in the car and went home. There was a little bit of traffic but it apparently cleared up before it became an issue. And I got home before 2:00.

When I got back here I brought my bags in and my blanket and hung the blanket up on my garment rack in the studio. I'm hoping that the weight of itself will pull the stitches a little bit so that I can see if there's any failure marks or failure points. Anything that needs to be reinforced. And I got a little shower and I changed into a soft shirt and then I laid down.

I watched a video for a little bit but then I fell asleep. I woke up at 4:00 as James was getting ready to go. They looked so handsome and it was just nice looking at them. I really could have gone with them to New York but I have no interest in seeing basketball game and it will be nice to get some work done tomorrow. Have some time alone. I gave them a very big hug and told them to be safe and then they were off.

I would get up soon after that and when and had some food. And then I played a game on my tablet for a little while and then I painted my nails. But I ended up messing up my pointer and thumb on my right hand because I started working on my next knit project and I could not wait until my nail polish was dry obviously so I messed it up and took it off those two fingers. Maybe I will repaint them later but I was very much into this new project.

The new knit squares are going to be much larger than the last ones they're 19 rows across instead of 12 which doesn't sound like it's that much more but it is. Originally with the small squares they take about 15 minutes, the new squares take 45 to an hour. I think I'll get faster as I'm going but I am very pleased with the size that I have chosen. I didn't have the right size hoop so I just marked off on a medium sized hoop how many pegs I needed and I think it will work out just fine. I honestly can probably get two done because I can do one on each side but I'm not going to worry about that right now.

I would watch a documentary and eventually take a longer bath. My hair feels very strange and flat today. And I keep looking at my pictures from like May and my hair looks so much different than it did and I don't know why. I know I cut some at the beginning of the summer but the shape of my head looks weird today. But even pictures from like 2 weeks ago it looks fine so I know it's all in my head. Well I mean my hair is on my head but you know what I mean.

I've been hanging out in bed since then. Which is when I had a horrible Charlie horse in my calf that hurts so bad and felt like it lasted for so long. And I was very distressed and I texted James and James started talking about laying in a hammock and how it was probably worse than a hammock and I'm like what are you talking about I'm nowhere near a hammock. For some reason they thought I was at camp? They have the car! So then I was all confused because they were talking about hammocks and then talking about the days of the week and I was like what are you talking about and I was worried because they worked 8 hours and then drove for 4 hours to get to New York so I was like are they just over tired what is going on. But they are safely in New York with family and everything is fine. They're going to a basketball game tomorrow with their friends and it's going to be fine. But that was very upsetting at the beginning of this post while I was texting them. Everything is settled now We are talking about other stuff They know I am home I know where they are. I'm going to try to stretch my leg and searching out ready for sleep.

I have a long day of working on the computer tomorrow so hopefully it is nice and if it rains it's not too bad. I hope that you all have a very nice night tonight. And you sleep good. Until next time my friends. Goodnight everybody.

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fleurcareil · 10 months

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Nova Scotia: South and East shores

Woke up with a full sunshine so the weather finally turned for the better! :) Even when staying in a cabin without having to take care of a tent, I still take about 1.5 hours to get myself sorted in the morning, from drinking my first cup of tea over my daily NY times crossword / wordle / woordle (Dutch version)/CBC news routine, getting dressed, prepping breakfast (apple or oatmeal) & lunch (sandwiches) and packing up, but I did take the time to eat breakfast on the deck in the sun before heading out... Being on the road for so long, I purposely make an effort to slow down where I can especially in the morning; I can always skip something along the way if I'm running out of time.

This day I'm driving east along the south shore of Nova Scotia to its capital Halifax where I'm spending two nights. First stop was the beautiful seaside section of Kejimkujik National Park, where I went for a 8.7km hike along the coastline. The trail starts through the coastal bog which has shrubs and small trees and then opens up to a white sand cove which is pretty on its own... until I spotted the first seals on a little island offshore! Turns out that the area has one of the largest seal concentrations in Nova Scotia, and I ended up seeing over 21 harbour seals and 3 gray seals, which are rarer but easily distinguished by their larger size (up to 2.5m length & 300kg in weight) and horse-like face.

Walking along the various coves, I met the park ranger who says I'll likely see deer and bears on the rest of the trail... "no worries, it already ate a human this morning" 😂 he assured me I got nothing to be concerned about as they mostly eat seaweed... And lo behold, within the next 15 minutes I encounter 4 deer who didn't seem to care about me, and from a vantage point I see from afar (luckily) a black bear combing the beach!! A bit more apprehensive, I continued the hike saying out loud from time to time "hey, I'm here, just a human, you can continue eating your seaweed" 😉 but all good, nothing else happened except that a tiny green snake almost gave me a heart attack when it moved while I was stepping over it, thinking "that's a strange leaf". 🤣

After all the wildlife adventure, I went for a walk through historic Lunenburg, which was recommended as a village that I must visit, but it being a mid-week pre-high season there was hardly anyone there (nor the famous Bluenose replica ship featured on the 10-cent coin) so I was not much impressed honestly. I did pick up yummy fish cakes to eat later at Peggy's Cove which rightly so, features the most visited lighthouse in Canada. Sitting on the big rocks overlooking the Atlantic Ocean makes you feel small!

My apartment was in Dartmouth across the harbour from Halifax so that was the perfect excuse to take the ferry to get into town - ferries make me happy and the view from the water is always impressive 😍 - after which it was a steep climb to the clock tower and the Citadel National Historic Site. A guided tour had just started which included a rifle demonstration, the noon cannon shot and the usual titbits of historic info, but I was actually quite moved by a reconstruction of the D-day Juno Beach landing by Canadian troops... Walking through the many obstacles the soldiers would have faced (without the mines & being shot at) makes me appreciate even more the courage those men had that day and during the ensuing battle. The Netherlands was liberated mostly by Canadians, for which we will be forever grateful!

The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia served lighter fare, with amongst others pretty hooked (wall) rugs from Deanne Fitzpatrick depicting local scenes; I have a hooked wall rug myself from Colombia that I love deeply as the various techniques & textures provide a great visual. For who knows the painter Maud Lewis; her entire house was moved and reconstructed inside the art gallery including all original wall paintings and furniture, quite colourful as you can see below. I'm personally not a big fan of her child-like style but apparently her paintings are a hot commodity (I had heard of her as there's many fraud paintings in circulation, not helped by the fact that she used stencils for many recurring motifs and also her husband finished sometimes her paintings). After a morning of culture, high time for a blissful lunch break along the harbourfront which the city has done really well, with many muskoka chairs & hammocks to hang out in, very inviting!

Last touristy thing before sitting down on a patio for a sun-laden beer & snack dinner, was a visit to the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, which was the main entry point of transatlantic immigrants coming to Canada by boat. The exhibits really moved me as much rang true to what happened when I came to Canada 14 years ago; from the despair/disbelief of not being able to find a job without Canadian experience, to the "milk & honey" opportunities that I was given to build a new career, buy property and make great & diverse friends, and the pride I felt when I became a Canadian citizen; this is the only country I have never felt like a stranger and that's very meaningful to me. All in all, an amazing day in Halifax!

The next day I drove further east along the south shore and did a couple of hikes; the Salt Marsh Trail uses an abandoned railway track that was built over a causeway across the marsh entrance, so you're walking with water on both sides. On Google Maps it appears the trail goes over water which confused me but is actually true! 😁

The second was a loop hike at Taylor Head provincial park further east, which has stunning coastline on the west side (the other side was quite boring though looking onto a lagoon). Turned out that the waterproof spraying of my hiking shoes did not work so got wet feet from walking through the bog 😒. At one of the coves, I clearly upset a sandpiper couple presumably with kids nearby, as they made a racket of noise flying low over me while I tried to walk on as fast as possible while keeping my hands over my head in case they would attack...

I decided to skip famous Cape Breton on this trip as I had already been there many years ago (and was not a huge fan despite it being pretty) so instead I beelined across the peninsula to Pictou on the east shore. For at least 40km, there was literally nothing else than a wall of trees (apart from 4 unpaved side roads) which coming from Europe still feels like a miracle to me after all this time. I realised later that the reason why the trees seemed to be more prevalent on this road is that there was no clear-cut on the sides, whereas typically 5-15 meters is cleared on each side of the highways to better see moose/deer before they cross, and increasingly more important, to act as a wildfire break.

Having checked into the motel quite early, I picked up a salad from the grocery store and sat at the Waterside Beach provincial park for a few hours; my very first beach on this trip! Later on, I walked through the village of Pictou which looked cute but dead. At the end of the third week, I'm ready to drive up north again through New Brunswick!

Wildlife: 21+ harbour seals, 3 gray seals, 1 black bear, 4 deer & 1 green snake (all at Kejimkujik), 1 black snake and 2 sand pipers at Taylor Head

SUPs: none

Hikes: one at Kejimkujik, one Salt Marsh Trail, one at Taylor PP.

Distance driven this week: 1373km

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xiyao-feels · 3 years

Text

Finally got around to writing down some thoughts on the differences between Empathy and the original—per scene and then a general reflection.

Episode 10

(episode 10 differences)

Going through this chronologically, our first comparison is the captain encounter. Honestly I think NMJ was straight-up inventing most of this—even aside from the sheer absurdity of MY, what, smuggling XY out of prison, bringing him into the middle of everything (he runs into the Captain and friend AND WWX!), XY…just going back into prison…well, anyway, putting all that aside—the Captain's questions here seem like NMJ's preoccupations, not the Captain's. The Captain is hugely contemptuous of MY, but he's not, like, obsessed with his innermost heart, you know? "You're lying! I just saw that. You were talking. Tell me honestly. What's your ulterior motive?"—that's NMJ, not the Captain at all. Plus there's the way the Captain grabs MY basically the exact same way NMJ does.

Next up there's MY telling NHS he's going to go check on XY—minor phrasing differences aside, one thing that's interesting is we don't get all of MY's reaction/decision before he tells NHS in Empathy, just the tail end:

Ahhhh, now, the bit where NMJ sees MY stab the captain! You can see here the beginning of a pattern of Empathy erasing the Wen. MY throwing himself in front of the blade to save NMJ is removed, of course, but so is NMJ fighting WZL, as he was before going to the prison in episode 10; in the Empathy he's just kind of standing there. And then sees MY, uh, creepily pick up a sword??? And follows him??? Instead of hearing that XY's escaped and running to the prison because of that, which is of course what happened in episode 10. (So XY is erased some in this scene, too; even when it comes to MY's excuses, he says It wasn't me, but we don't get to 'Xue Yang killed him', as we do in the original.)

Some other points of interest here… Of course the expression NMJ sees on MY as MY kills the captain is only shown in Empathy. Interestingly, also, while MY is quite clearly terrified at NMJ's approach in both, in episode 10 it's presented immediately, while in the Empathy he has a beat before he starts reacting that way.

The last scene—NMJ confronting MY and kicking him out of Qinghe. In the Empathy, we start with MY having been thrown onto the floor, rolling—but this isn't there in episode 10, and to be honest I think it probably didn't actually happen. First, while I can see NMJ throwing MY onto the floor, I don't actually think he'd throw him quite that hard at this point in time? And it's also got a lot of visual echoes of JGY rolling down the stairs; I think he's projecting backwards. Of course, it still takes MY longer to recover in episode 10; Empathy consistently minimizes the physical harm done to MY.

So the conversation is interesting because it's really just two different conversations in the Empathy vs episode 10. In episode 10, MY leads with the Captain's abuse of him, and he's clear that it's habitual, ongoing, long-term. In Empathy, he leads with the Captain releasing XY, /adds in/ that the Captain wanted to kill him (that's not there in episode 10!), and absolutely skips over and minimizes the abuse: the beatings aren't mentioned, the credit-stealing isn't mentioned, the insulting and humiliating… even the 'Every time' is removed from before the 'he humiliated my mother', making it seem like this was a one-off provocation instead of habitual. NMJ's somewhat unhinged rant about MY's motives, including the would you have killed everyone at the cave if I hadn't helped you, is also Empathy-only (and then when MY starts to reply NMJ is like, Don't lie to me! and MY shuts up, suggesting perhaps that a denial would have been lying, which may be part of why people think this is a remotely reasonable assertion).

Some other interesting things—in episode 10, we see NMJ lift his sabre and then lower it, unable to go through with it; in Empathy, we don't see that at all—in general I think there's less of a sense that he's struggling with his decision, in Empathy, it's more just like He Is Doing The Righteous Justice. Fascinatingly we also don't see him put Baxia away in Empathy—I think he must because we see a scene where he already had, in episode 10, but we don't actually see it. We also don't see MY, injured, get up and thank NMJ and walk out, or indeed NMJ's conflicted gaze after him; the scene cuts off too soon.

Episode 22

(episode 22 differences)

There's only one scene for episode 22: the WRH, NMJ, and MY scene, inside Sun Palace. Right off the bat, we have the Wen erasure again; the episode 22 scene starts with WRH directly addressing NMJ and tormenting him and his Nie cultivators, whereas the Empathy one only starts when MY walks in. (Although interestingly MY addresses WRH as xiandu, while he doesn't seem to say anything with his bow in episode 22).

This one is an interesting scene because there's relatively little overlap? In the episode 10 scenes, you mostly saw different versions of the same events; in this one there's some of that, but there are also large chunks of time that are only in episode 22 or only in Empathy. Most of the MY-interacting-with-NMJ is only in Empathy, including, yes, the damn sabre touch. But we do have the beginning of MY talking to NMJ in both. MY's expression is different in Episode 22 vs Empathy—it's a little hard to capture in a still, but it's a lot more, mmm, simpering-mockery in the Empathy version?

Ah, one detail that's interesting—so, in CQL—which is to say in Empathy because we don't see this sequence at all in Episode 22—when that Nie cultivator calls the place 'a den of Wen' he uses 温/温氏, for Wen, and then when people are insulting MY in this scene they're using 走狗. But in MDZS all of those are actually 温狗, Wen-dog. Which is definitely more directly disrespectful to WRH than the 走狗 insults, but I feel like in general CQL doesn't use 温狗 a lot, while in MDZS it's all over the place—so while it's an interesting detail I'm not sure it's suggestive for Empathy in particular. Hmmm.

We return to things being shown in both Empathy and Episode 22 with NMJ shoving MY back. In Empathy, we only see MY stagger a little, while in episode 22 it's quite considerable—again, Empathy's tendency to minimize the physical damage MY suffers.

And then MY kicks NMJ in return! Okay this is actually fascinating, because in Empathy, it looks like this totally wipes NMJ out, and the scene stops here. But that isn't at all what happened! He's knocked onto his back, yes, BUT he recovers and comes up and shoves MY hard enough he goes flying:

He gets up and goes to attack MY, and would probably have killed him if WRH hadn't interfered. Which, don't get me wrong, is entirely reasonable of him given his understanding of the situation but it is not at all the impression you'd get from Empathy. If anything NMJ's collapse in the Empathy after MY kicks him looks like the collapse he has after WRH finishes with him, in episode 22. And MY saying How dare you be so rude in front of Clan Leader Wen when he kicks NMJ is also removed—the whole sequence here is really another example of the removal of the Wen from the Empathy scenes.

Incidentally, MY didn't actually kill all the Nie cultivators, in this scene. If you look while MY is flying back, at least one of them is still alive:

And then you can see all four are dead while NMJ's attacking WRH:

But MY has been on the floor recovering from NMJ's attack, so he definitely didn't kill the at least one and quite probably two who are still alive.

WRH asks MY if NMJ killed Wen Xu question; you have MY staying quite noticeably silent, which I think is still meant to be understood as MY saving NMJ's life. I guess they changed it because the MDZS version really doesn't work with the flow of events as happens in CQL? For the record, in MDZS MY answers yes, but then immediately suggests that they torture him instead of killing him immediately, and then once WRH isn't set on killing him immediately, kills WRH on the spot and starts lugging NMJ's unconscious body out of there. So there's no WWX for distraction, and Sunshot's army definitely isn't right outside, there's only LXC he sent a message to and who hasn't quite shown up yet—so in MDZS he's taking a bigger risk, and more unambiguously saving NMJ's life and winning them the war. Which is not, to be clear, to in any way minimize CQL MY's astonishing bravery and achievements.

Episode 23

(episode 23 differences)

So in both we start with LXC holding NMJ and looking down at him. In episode 23, when NMJ sees MY, we see LXC see and notice his reaction and /then/ look over at MY in concern, whereas in Empathy we don't get that moment—it just goes to both of them looking at MY.

NMJ demands his sabre back, and in both MY complies, though in the Empathy one he takes a beat longer and looks more worried about it. In the original, MY also has "Let me explain" which is dropped from the Empathy.

In both we have NMJ attacking MY with Baxia, and trying to get past Shuoyue—in the Empathy it's a bit shorter, though, and we also lose LXC asking NMJ what he's doing this for. I think that goes with cutting LXC seeing NMJ react before he looks over at MY, above; the effect is to make NMJ's response seem more obvious/natural, when in fact LXC is pretty baffled by it at the time.

"he became the Wen's underling and had been helping the tyrant at Nevernight!"—the language on 'became the Wen's underling' is actually different in episode 23 vs Empathy. In episode 23, you have 原来投靠了温氏; in Empathy, though, it's 原来是做了走狗. Note the 走狗 as earlier!

Okay, and now the big one: LXC giving NMJ reasons they should trust MY/not kill him. Empathy cuts most of this. It keeps that MY is the one who sent the map, but it drops: that the reason LXC is here today is because MY sent him a message; that MY was the one who schemed to get WRH's guard down, and then /killed him/; that MY was the one who saved LXC's life after CR burned; and that MY independently approached WRH to spy on him and has been sending LXC letters the whole time. /That's really not trivial. That's a lot to cut./

I wonder if this has any relation to the common idea that LXC did not in fact have a lot of very good reasons to trust JGY.

(Incidentally it's after the MY killed WRH reveal, in episode 23, that NMJ lowers his blade.)

...also. so. In episode 23 LXC asks MY, you know, didn't he already tell NMJ about all this (a question which makes a lot more sense in MDZS, where NMJ has already woken up before LXC joins them, but I just run with it), and MY says, you saw it ZWJ, even if I had he wouldn't have believed me. And NMJ—again it's kind of hard to capture in a still, but he pretty much reacts like he thinks that's ridiculous and MY is just making excuses/being manipulative?

And then of course that gets erased from the Empathy, as well as as just mentioned most of the reasons LXC actually gave. So. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh, this also means it cuts what I'm pretty sure is the first on-screen use of A-Yao—it does show up later in the Empathy version of this scene, so I don't think that's hugely significant, but just as a note.

Then there's MY kneeling in preparation for apology, which is in both Empathy and episode 23. The Empathy cuts make it seem like he kneels pretty much right after NMJ lowers his blade, though, and we don't get to see him making the deliberate choice to step out if LXC's protection to kneel—again, I think it makes LXC seem more understanding of NMJ than he actually is here.

The apology proper is only in Empathy; honestly it mostly seems fairly reasonable to me, although it does mean you only hear LXC saying "But I believe, when he was doing such things, deep in his heart he must have been…" after the version that cuts most of his reasons for believing that. In terms of actual changes, I wonder if LXC reacted more quickly/strongly to the bit where it looks like NMJ is actually going to kill MY? It's definitely more understated than his previous reactions, and it would fit with the other changes made.

Last scene: the oath. At this point I think it's fairly well-known that NMJ looking at JGY, and LXC turning his head to look at them both, is only in Empathy—there's also, maybe?, a small change to the text; in episode 23, "Both God and people will be furious with us" is 天人共怒, but in Empathy it's 天人共戮. I say maybe because—on the one hand, the subs definitely use a different character, and it's in both the YT subs and the Netflix subs even though those aren't always 100% identical, but while I'm not usually checking the audio for this I did here because it's just the one character and the audio pretty much sounds the same to me? (ep 23) (Empathy) Could just be my ear, or a mistake on the subs' part or the audio part, who knows.

Overview

Looking at all the changes together, a few patterns emerge.

First, people who are doing damage who aren't JGY—the Wen, XY—tend to get minimized or erased from the narrative. Similarly and to some extent as a result, the harm caused by JGY is exaggerated; also similarly, the good that JGY does is also minimized or erased. Meanwhile, the damage done /to/ JGY is minimized—both the environment of abuse he suffered at Qinghe, and the physical harm done to him, which he usually recovers from much more quickly in Empathy (even when the attack itself is made stronger as, unusually, it is in the confrontation where NMJ kicks MY out of Qinghe). Finally MY is made more manipulative than he necessarily is; while I'm not saying he's never being manipulative, NMJ understands his expressions of weakness as /purely/ manipulative and inherently false, when in fact the weakness MY expresses is very real, however calculated, or not!, its expression may be.

Honestly—in this JGY who does way more harm and way less good than he actually does, who is more powerful and experiences less damage than he actually does, who is never actually weak but only acting that way to manipulate people? I feel like I'm seeing a lot of where popular takes on JGY come from.

#long meta #more than one tag could contain

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saintobio · 3 years

Note

okay so.....straight spoiler y/n is pregnant.....and my dumbass is trying to remember the last time they had sex which might have been a little before bora bora since that was really the switch for y/n to start acting 'cold' during the trip and after so it might have been when they were either doing it in the office or whenever the last time was before he announced the trip (I think it was the office for sure but I might be wrong I'll correct myself if the ask are still open by then with a small tl or make a visual one)

honestly at this point I think gojo needs to go into the unofficial official "needs a hug or something" box next to yutta and y/n. cause as described he is utterly fucked right now. from his bags, constant crying from the slightest thought of what has occurred with Nana, being emotional drained cause of said thoughts, to the point where he isn't a shell of his former-self but possibly going back to one that he has experienced before (mostly in terms of being upset over someone close to him being gone). and it makes it even sadder that his only life line at the moment is really y/n because she is really the only constant in his life since they where kids (since she really didn't change until the incident but still stayed). the second being his mother through them rebuilding the slow mother-son relationship that they both collectively missed out on. but even then he clings to y/n in many cases such as Sera showing up and him holding y/n closer, during a private mother-son moment he still clung to y/n by hand, overall making sure his hands don't leave her (cause the moment it did he was just spacing out even when talking to others verse near y/n who you could say he hid beside but was at least able to speak even if it was lackluster or just void of anything at all)

also the fact that Sera showed up to the funeral both made me worry but mad at the same time. she still has in her mind that she is having it tough (which in some ways she is considering she is trying to mend something that she has run out of thread for and not realizing how much others see her bleeding over it) but her increasing obsession in having those above her (good or bad) be at her feet is starting to make her see she has nowhere else to go but also make her see how she is doing too much. it's also clear she is having thoughts about moving on or has thought about it but stays to satoru cause of what he provides but also cause she is devoted to something she would have lost in anyway. and the fact that her family doesn't know the full story but still are willing to pull through for is what makes me upset for her (since she maybe the breadwinner but it's clear the family thinks her stress is from that and not her own obsessions)

short thing about Gen she could 100% beat Sera's ass given the chance I'm confident she would throw hands both physically but also intellectually. aside from that she is also someone who doesn't know the full story so she might think y/n is giving sympathy cause she needs to, not because y/n is genuinely concerned and having second thoughts.

now these second thoughts that y/n is having which I kinda called since y/n is a character, that given the 'push', will change for the better but can't change or more so hide how much they really are still the same person which really shines the brightest in this chapter in ways of feeling rage at Sera lifting a hand at satoru, to always making the excuse to leave the uncomfortable situation that briefly happened at the funeral, to even still remembering little details of the past (which she tried to forget), and taking care of him; cooking breakfast, or the little cute moment of them doing skin care (which was really fucking cute like damn I loved that part the most aside from the entire story which is as always a masterpiece but let me get back on track) which she doesn't have to do at all but wants to see him happy again like old times or how satoru had attempted in the past a few times. like she was happy to see a smile on his face even if it didn't reach his eyes all the way. or how she has gotten so use to kissing him a lot and even still referring to him as 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘶𝘴𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥 or 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘶𝘴𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥 instead of ex-husband when divorce is mentioned or even by his name. even letting him call her pet names which she brushed off before (right?). she may have changed for the sake of her heart's health and her own but doesn't realize her heart still wants him.

now these second thoughts I never got back to. this is just an assumption but aside from the stress of the week of crying away from satoru, worrying over him, and more....I'm confident that the question he asked last night (which was whether she wanted to stay with him or not or wanted to still go through with the divorce) really struck a cord in her. to the point where she worried how satoru would be without her causing stress but also wondering about herself as well which could also point to her maybe knowing about the pregnancy (I doubt it), but it could have slipped her mind to do something about it, or really thought that anything that comes with pregnancy (like symptoms) was due to her condition or just stressing to much but that's an assumption since she did get tons of stress over the last week or so and the surprise baby could have added to it as well since she was recovering from fatigue at the hospital.

(shit I just saw how much I wrote I'm so sorry I'll leave at this for now and leave my thoughts on how everyone may feel or react to the baby news, sorry for the grammar or spelling errors I might have made I hope it makes sense even with those lingering around...love your writing and take a rest if needed and drink water♡)

AAAAAAAH thank u for sending ur feedback babe 😵‍💫 it’s amazing how much reaction you guys can write abt a single chapter <33 i rly had fun reading through this

#saintobio.asks #series: sincerely not

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sindumpster · 3 years

Note

Wait what's a hammerspace organ? I'm stoopid- also, is it normal for OC's to look alike because i constantly get self conscious over mine because of how they look like other people's characters i know ._. I hate it

It’s...kinda my own coining (and also kind of a joke, if this is about that recent post of mine) so I’ll do my best to condense the whole...explanation/context behind the whole thing.

Hammerspace is kinda like the cartoon version of a TARDIS—it’s something bigger on the inside than the outside and usually used for visual cartoon gags. Like when a character pulls inexplicably large objects out of a small bag they couldn’t possibly fit into, or other impossible cartoon physics stuff where you’re cramming a bunch of things in a tiny space to be funny.

And then some time ago “hammerspace preds” became more popular, where basically the stomach acts like a cartoon hammerspace. They can eat lots of things or multiple prey but it doesn’t really affect them much (usually it’s implied the things they eat are stored in a pocket dimension/space, and sometimes there’s other weird hijinks going on there too. Everyone plays with it and justifies it differently). And a while back I got asked about it and rambled about why I do not like them.

...anyways the joke is that, if you know some of the old dusty canon with Jake, you’d know his crop works like a hammerspace. It his case it’s mostly for object storage and used as a silly/mild-gross humor gag, and it’s also there becuz plot. Anyways that’s the “hammerspace organ” and why I’m a big hypocrite lol. In my defense though he rarely sends people there, and it’s usually on accident.

////

And I guess it depends on how close those similarities are? On some level it is normal to find similarities with other characters. No concept is truly original, and no character design is original, it’s really more about how you put all the pieces together, and what you do with it. And sometimes just being around other creatives will make you unconsciously incorporate pieces of their style or designs (like, my style has definitely been influenced by my friends, and I know my friends sometimes borrow from me too. That’s just how styles naturally evolve, and it’s totally fine. You’re constantly observing and adding pieces you like, and so it only makes sense that you’re gonna take some pieces from the people you admire too). And honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had very similar designs to my characters, whether they know me or not. It can even happen coincidentally, just like how artists occasionally stumble across “style twins” (people who draw/write extremely similar despite not knowing each other before a certain point. Usually it just means they had similar influences and similar tastes, and there’s nothing malicious about it).

I will say though that if you’re getting really close to someone else’s concept (like to the point your character looks like a clone/actively confuses others due to the similarities), and the other character belongs to someone you regularly interact with or an artist you follow really closely, the respectful thing to do is either tinker with your designs a little more, or ask the artist if they’re comfortable with the design closeness. You might even be able to ask them where they got their ideas from or what influenced them, so you can look at the source and spin the concept in a different direction (and also you might learn some cool things too).

Another way to judge it is how are your characters similar? Is it just the coincidence of them having a similar body type or hair style to someone else’s character, or is it a long list of extremely specific similarities/concepts? Like people might get a little suspicious if two characters are missing the same fingers, have the same bent nose, have heterochromia, have the same body type, make the same default expressions and mannerisms, fill the same niches in thier canon, have the same powers and weaknesses, and so on. But that’s really only a “bad” thing if your character encompasses all of those very specific similarities. Nobody’s really gonna get mad if it’s one or two specific similarities, because a missing fingers isn’t an original concept, and a bent nose isn’t an original concept, and heterchromia isn’t an original concept. Like I mentioned before, it’s how you put all those pieces together that matters, and if you find that your character is really similar after you put that intricate puzzle together, maybe you should look for some different pieces. You might even like the end result more.

I will say though that the majority of the time, it’s totally fine. Over time your characters will diverge and look different, and theirs will too. And odds are it’s likely happening because you’re into similar themes or have similar influences, or you’re still in the concept-borrowing stage and finding what appeals to you. Worst case, you can always ask the other person if your characters are looking too close, or if it’s okay to borrow thier concepts, or if they have any suggestions for changes. Sometimes artists are even fine with an incredibly similar character as long as you give them a shout out as your source of inspiration.

Anyways sorry this is long, but it’s really hard for me to say one way or another if I don’t know the characters. All I can do is point to some general warning signs and what to do if you’re concerned while also approaching it respectfully.

#sorry about the ramble on the second part #it’s really hard for me to say definitively either way #if I can’t see the characters #I will say a lot of the time I think people psych themselves out too much over character designs #but I also know unintentional copying happens and can be incredibly confusing #asks #greenheartanonymous

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tiny-space-robot · 3 years

Note

Okay so Fire Emblem anon here!! Here's a Kinda Super Long Bc I Got Carried Away description of a few Fire Emblem games, plus some characters that seem like they hit tropes you like!

The good news is that there's not a super huge overarching timeline, there's several smaller timelines that are seperate from one another except for the crossover games. I'm gonna go with describing the newer ones that you're most likely to be able to get your hands on and play; a lot of people complain that they lean into some anime-tropey stuff and are too easy, but tbh, that's a perk just as often as it isn't. Basically, it's Game of Thrones, but rated T and with more cute girls and old men who are friendly instead of creepy.

Tbh, it's a turn-based strategy game with visual novel elements for characterization, if strategy games aren't your thing and you're just interested in the characters, watching the support conversations on Youtube might be more your thing. All the characterization, none of the resetting the same goshdang level thirty times. Anyways, description of the games in passing, including a brief description of the plot concept, pros and cons, trigger warnings, and some characters you might be interested in if you're just looking up characters.

*line break for legibility*

Awakening: for the 3DS. Follows Robin, an amnesiac mage, after they're found in a field by a band of knights called the Shepherds. Involves the undead, a twink in a mask, timey-wimey shenangians, and the usual cast of oddballs you'd expect from a Fire Emblem game.

Pros of Awakening: customizable player character, intro of Casual mode (turns off permadeath) and the Pair Up system, which lets you put characters together for shipping reasons strategy and stat boosts. Also doubles as a shipping simulator, since you can pair off characters and meet their later in the game due to said timey-wimey shenangians.

Cons of Awakening: there are some....very concerning combos of names/skin tones/plot relevance for certain characters, so go in with a warning about implicit racism. Also if you like strategy games, this game is relatively easy to break and make "too easy," but tbh that's what Lunatic Mode (the Ultra Unfair Hard Mode) is for.

Trigger warnings across the main plot: underhanded politics, attempted assassinations, martyrdom, an optional character is implied to stalk Robin but idk how to tag that, identity crises, conflicts within a family, character who isn't you looks like you, backstory child abuse, an optional character is a bad portrayal of DID if you squint?

*line break for legibility*

Fates: is actually a group name for two games set in the same universe, and a DLC bonus story: Birthright, Conquest, and Revelations. All for the 3DS. All three games star Corrin, a pacifist raised in seclusion in the kingdom of Nohr. Each game reflects a different path Corrin can take in navigating the war between the nations of Nohr and Hoshido: Birthright has them stand with Hoshido, Conquest with Nohr, and Revelations has them strike out (nearly) alone. Each path has a completely different storyline, cast of characters, and difficulty curve.

Pros of Fates: honestly, the characters here cater the most to the avid pro-shipper and multi-shipper. I just love this cast. Both Nohr and Hoshido have four members of the royal family you can play and get to know, each of those royal family members has two retainers who are various levels of dedicated and/or unhinged, and the cast just widens and widens. Also a character customization and shipping simulator point for the same reasons Awakening gets it. Also, canon fujoshi rights (there's a character with a skill called Daydream, which boosts her stats when two male characters are paired up near her. one of us, one of us). Also the first game with canon queer characters: both Rhajat and Niles are bi.

Cons of Fates: unfortunately, the writing is kinda rushed or badly translated in some places. Also *shakes IntSys* my lore! Give me more lore! Also, iirc, you could get both physical games in a bundle for a discount when they came out, but not anymore, so it's sorta like Pokemon with version exclusives. Which is less fun, since you can't directly trade characters. Also the fandom for this game is RIFE with discourse, which is kinda sad bc I just wanna talk my ships with ppl sjxhdjdn

Trigger warnings for Fates: child abuse might as well be Nohr's middle name, in-universe racism (since Hoshido is p obviously Japan-inspired, and a lot of Nohrians are rancid to Hoshidans), kidnapping, on-screen murder, lots of fighting your loved ones (on both main routes, you gotta fight the playable characters from the other side AAA), su-c-de, death of sibling(s) in certain routes, demonic-like possession, there's like six characters people can read as bad mental illness rep, Niles especially is discourse bait for being a kinky (yes that's canon) bi man of color but also he's awesome so die mad antis

*break for space*

Shadows of Valentia: for the 3DS. A remake of Gaiden, the second game in the series. Follows Alm, a farm boy from a small village in Zofia, and Celica, his childhood best friend. Zofia and the nation to its north, Rigel, are two nations ruled by the dragon gods Mila and Duma, respectively. Normally, they're in equilibrium, but Rigel is invading and Mila is missing, prompting Alm and Celica to independently investigate the problem.

Pros of SoV: the most like the old-school Fire Emblem games, but it also has the permadeath-off mode. also the first to be fully voice acted! The art style is gorgeous, and the plot was polished up from the old game--two characters names Berkut and Rinea were added, and they are PEAK OTP the diskhorse can die mad. Also the cast is pretty fun all around, from buddy squad and the older brother/dad figure they adopted along the way to "hello this is my gang of childhood friends, we're gonna kill a god" Also introduces Mila's Turnwheel, which lets you rewind your moves if you realize you goofed big time and screwed yourself over.

Cons of SoV: has the most references to other games, but you won't, like, be lost if you don't get them. You just might have a few interludes of "who tf is Camus/the White Wing Brigade/etc" but it's easy enough to look up on the wiki. Also tbh, the plot kinda drags in the middle, there's some filler battles to try and make it feel more realistic and it feels...weird. Also no custom character, you are Alm and Celica and you will Like It.

Trigger warnings for SoV: you know that thing where a girl character gets killed off for a guy character to angst over? the game starts with a fakeout version of that. also a character slowly goes mad over the course of the plot (but it's really well done imo?), there's some self-sacrifice stuff in there, classism is a major theme, possession/selling your soul™, there's a couple of levels where you're exploring tombs/prisons, I'm sure there's something else but I'm forgetting right now

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Three Houses: on the Switch. The newest game in the series, and the most polished imo? Stars Byleth, a wandering mercenary turned teacher at the Officer's Academy. The Academy, housed in Garreg Mach Monastery, teaches youths from across the land of Fodlan how to be warriors, commanders, and knights. Students are sorted into three houses based on their country of origin: the Black Eagles are from ghe Adrestian Empire, led by the heiress-apparent Edelgard; the Blue Lions are from the kingdom of Faerghus, led by prince Dimitri; and the Golden Deer are from the Leicester Alliance, led by Claude, grandson of the Duke. You choose one of these houses to lead, and then everything quickly goes sour.

Pros of Three Houses: It's such a rich experience! The music is incredible, there's so much lore, and you can wander around the Monastery and hang out with the students to your heart's content. Also, it's four storylines for the price of one, even if they're all relatively similar in the first half. It does a pretty solid job of weaving together its themes into a satisfying narrative that will make you consider everyone involved. Also we got our first bi main lord (Edelgard) and non-white main lord (Claude is mixed race) in one fell swoop! Also, given the setting, it's teacher/student ship heaven.

Cons of Three Houses: just gonna come right out and say it: one of the villainous factions in the game is pretty substantially tied up with some anti-semitic tropes. There's no way to ignore it, it's just bleh, and I'm not gonna send anyone in without that warning. Also, though there's some characters you can persuade to switch sides, or spare, there's no route where there's a happy ending for everyone. Also there are so many people who are fake deep about the themes of the game, so be ready for the worst takes imaginable about your faves. also super trigger heavy, see below.

Trigger warnings: MANY. Garreg Mach and the Church of Seiros are very reminiscent of catholic religious stuff, for anyone with religion triggers, blood in cutscenes, death of a parent, death of a sibling (different characters), major gaslighting vibes in some places, lots of people going unhinged, some white savior™ vibes in places, body horror, creepy ass weaponry, backstory genoc-de (mostly not related to the anti-semitism), blood magic (definitely related to the anti-semitism), in general it goes to a lot more effort than the other games to make you think about what's Actually going on, even if it doesn't always work.

*break for legibility*

As for characters you'd like, if you just want to look some characters up, my recommendations based on what I understand about you include:

Awakening: Libra fits 'gnc man of the cloth' so well it's actually a conversation in game: "so what's a woman of the cloth doing here?" "...man, sir, man of the cloth." And Then He Never Gets Misgendered Again. Also Nowi's supports sometimes feel like a jab at antis-- she's a manakete, a person who can transform into a dragon. Manaketes also grow really slowly, as in "middle aged looking manaketes are like 1000 years old," so she's got major baby face and copes with being mistaken for a teenager by making jokes. Also Gregor, who she first appears with, is pretty fun--older mercenary with a thick accent who is like 80% here for a good time. Also Walhart, who's a villain but got some content added as DLC.

Fates: any interactions between Corrin, Leo, and/or Camilla are probably right up your alley--Camilla is obsessively protective over her siblings in a way that's Very Definitely Platonic™, and Leo also canonically has a crush on her in something that was cut in the English release. Also Gunther--once upon a time he was your classic knight in shining armor, now he's semi-retired, Corrin's personal guard, and covered in scars (and his voice is gorgeous too)

Echoes: my biased answer is to listen to every single line Ian Sinclair read for Berkut because he absolutely did NOT have to go that hard. My actual answer is to point you in the direction of the pegasus sisters Catria, Palla and Est, or maybe the older gentleman who's the head of the Priory, I forgot his name oops abbdbd. Also Clive is a devoted husband to one Mathilda, who looks just like an older version of his sister Clair 🤔

Three Houses: knowing you, you'd adore Hanneman--an older professor who's extremely passionate about his work, to the point where he tends to forget personal space and such. Also Seteth, like I mentioned before (join me in simping for him and his gorgeous pecs) and like, honestly, I know ppl make jokes about Alois but he's rlly good. Soft, awkward but he doesn't care, dad jokes everywhere. And also Mercedes, both because she's the biggest sweetheart imaginable and everyone should love her, but also bc she is just walking potential for the kinds of stuff you post on this blog. On one hand, she's the oldest student at the Academy and attached at the hip to one of the youngest, Annette (tho people act like they have a way bigger age gap then they actually do) and on the other hand, she has a long-lost half brother she can encounter (who I will not name for HUGE HUGE spoilers reasons) who she spends the rest of her life with in one of her endings. Heck, he has three possible endings total! Total!

Basically I brought the games up bc I'm used to being on the side of the fandom where everyone shoos anything uncomfortable under the rug, but there's so much material here that's being wasted I SWEAR

If you have any other questions I can send another anon? Your call! Thanks for hearing me out I love ur blog :3

OKAY!!! sorry for answering so late, but this ask was pretty much a BOOK (not that I´m complaining though! thank you so much! ;;u;;)

and from what I read here, I THINK if I´m going off on my first fire emblem adventure, I´ll try and pick up three houses if I get the chance! I have read your trigger warnings (thank you so much! ;u;) and I think I can take it! >:3

again though, I am really, really not a fan of anime and the anime artstyle in general (blergh! XP) so I´m not sure how I´ll cope with that in particular, but then again, an artstyle does not make a game! u3u

AND HANNEMAN SOUNDS LIKE A WINNER TO ME!! I looked him up and OOOF!!! he may not have NEARLY as many wrinkles as I´d like him to have, but the facial hair is definitely a step in the right direction! ;3c

NOW YOU GOT ME INTERESTED!!

LETS GO!!!!!!!!!!!!! (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

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cometsweepandleonidsfly · 5 years

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“Let me ask you this: What prompted Dany to burn King's Landing? In the moment, that is. The allied forces of Dany and the North had won. In the interests of time, let's leave aside the fact that it was comically easy to kill a dragon only a week ago, but this time, the dragon deftly avoided every projectile and Dany destroyed every scorpion without even breaking a sweat. That was the first laughable moment in an episode that, ultimately, was anything but funny, given how it left the HBO drama's unreliable reputation for quality in smoldering ruins.

In any event, when Dany rested her dragon on a King's Landing wall and realized that she was victorious and the Iron Throne was (probably) hers, what — right then and there — prompted her to decide to burn the city?

Nothing. Nothing at all.

There was no proximate cause, no essential reason for the character to take that horrific action at that moment. To say that a character — or a person — has mental illness in their family tree and thus has no control over their actions is astoundingly reductive and plays into harmful and lazy stereotypes. It's also just boring writing to make a character do something stupid and then handwave it away with "Something, something mental illness!"

That's not only offensive, that's a generality that does nothing to justify that drastic action in that particular moment. All in all, the show has done a piss-poor job of explaining why Daenerys would decide to destroy the very prize she had set her heart on ruling a decade ago. We watched eight seasons of a woman at least attempting to use or think about power differently. Until she didn't. Because … reasons.

Because she had been burned by personal losses? No, sorry, that won't fly. The deaths she's endured recently have certainly contributed to her current mental state, but in the past, we've seen her go through horrific experiences and major grief without murdering thousands of people. Even when she has made mistakes, it was usually in the midst of making strategic decisions that were designed to her get to the next stage of her plan. "Because she was angry" doesn't work, because we've seen her be furious while also demonstrating restraint and realistically assessing the best way forward.

Inescapably, infuriatingly, what we're left with is apparently the central message of Game of Thrones: Bitches are crazy.

Here's how little the show thinks of Dany and how ill-served she was in "The Bells": Once the attack on King's Landing began, we didn't see her face. A core character was reduced to a vengeance-fueled cypher. All we observed, for what felt like pummeling hours, was dragonfire roasting citizens, knocking down buildings, and terrorizing soldiers and civilians alike. Despite Emilia Clarke's superlative acting abilities, we didn't see Dany for the majority of the episode's running time. She was just a faceless, personality-free supervillain, the kind you see in a by-the-numbers blockbuster. We'd been invited to understand Dany's point of view for all these years, but as the endgame approached in "The Bells," the writing made her less interesting than the purple potato known as Thanos.

In its best moments, Game of Thrones has been so much better than this, but every season has been uneven, and this season has been the most slapdash, rushed and insulting of all. At this point, I don't care what happens in the series finale, because the show has already destroyed its legacy, as far as I'm concerned. Of course, a good chunk of that legacy has to do with how ill-served its female characters have been, and the show went out of its way to double down on that in "The Bells."

Brienne was last seen wearing her robe, crying over a boy who broke her heart. The show took the beauty of Jaime knighting Brienne and — again, thanks to tin-eared, threadbare writing — turned it into a bad subplot on a crappy soap opera.

Game of Thrones used to be intermittently interested in exploring and complicating Cersei, which makes sense, given how tremendous a performer Lena Headey is. But this season especially, Cersei has been reduced to a flat, one-dimensional villain, one who is mostly offscreen, except in the occasional scenes in which she smirks or drops smug, acidic commentary. Cersei barely spoke in "The Bells," except for when the show was about to kill her off.

Sansa wasn't even on screen. Everyone in Westeros has made mistakes in their time, Sansa included, but at this point, she's shown more wisdom than most of the characters left alive. She's the most level-headed leadership material the kingdom has at the moment. So, of course, she sitting around tending the hearth in the North and hasn't been given much of interest to do (aside from being portrayed as disloyal to Jon Snow). Not surprisingly, the continually ineffectual Jon Snow wandered around in "The Bells" and once again, didn't really accomplish much. And the show is apparently just dying to put a crown on his head. Because … reasons?

If the show had given us more than a couple minutes of Arya and the Hound actually interacting in the past few episodes (or seasons), maybe her decision to forego revenge on Cersei — you know, a huge part of the motivation that has driven her for years — would have made more sense. It's not that I needed her to kill Cersei, but once Arya was in the Red Keep, the writing for her was abrupt and took the path of least resistance. Maisie Williams gave a terrific performance in the episode, but the messages "The Bells" was sending were so depressingly incoherent that it was hard to care about any of it.

"The Bells" was full of sound and fury that signified nothing, aside from an ungainly sprint to the finish line. It made me feel ill to see so much effort and money wasted on such trivial, silly, nihilistic and sexist storylines. And honestly, the men didn't fare much better: All that character development of Jaime was apparently wasted, and I'm trying to come up with a list of good decisions Tyrion made lately and I'm not coming up with much. This superlative cast deserved better.

In "The Bells," there were moments that could have contained emotional resonance, but that potential was overshadowed by decisions that Benioff and Weiss set up and executed with little or no foresight or thoughtfulness. At this point, it's hard to escape the conclusion that the Game of Thrones creative team thought spectacle would make up for the lack of well-honed concluding character moments. As impressive as the visuals in "The Bells" were, they were ultimately hollow: The explosions served mostly as a reminder that Game of Thrones likes to kill people in large numbers when it runs out of ideas.

Landing like enormous chunks of masonry were so many adolescent, superficial takes on what could have been meaty themes. If it was saying anything, "The Bells" appeared to be stating that cycles of oppression and abuse can't be undone. Rulers are always self-serving and driven by greed and paranoia. Most people can't see beyond their own self-interest. The little people will always get crushed. Douchebros like Euron Greyjoy will always wear leather pants.

So much money spent, so much time spent, all for a show that never knew how to write its women consistently well and that had immature conceptions of how to end their tales. The best-executed major plot turns are moving and tragic because they feel surprising and yet inevitable. Given the right kind of in-depth character development, we could have wept for the choices Daenerys, Brienne, Sansa or Cersei made. I grind my teeth when I think about what this show turned out to be versus what it could have been. At its best, its characters have given us moving and wonderfully complex moments, but "The Bells" was Game of Thrones at its worst, and it did untold damage to the show as a whole. It's going to be hard to think of the show without feeling nauseated by what it did — especially to its women — in the home stretch. “

#my god this #got8 #game of thrones #spoilers #but the real spoilers are how the show spoiled itself

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fashioneyesta · 4 years

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#ItsEveryonesJourney

Today I wanted to take this opportunity to talk to you all about something that deeply impacts my daily life.

Today a new campaign launched called It's everyone's journey. The campaign is focused around raising awareness of the ways that the attitudes of non-disabled passengers can impact disabled passengers.

Fact: one in four disabled people say the attitudes of other passengers prevent them from using public transport.

So today I wanted to give you a glimpse into my experiences. Traveling as a person with a visual impairment and a guide dog owner can be incredibly stressful.

This is mostly due to the way I can be treated by other passengers on my journey.

Don't get me wrong, I meet lots of kind and courteous people on my daily commutes. Yet I also find that I can be subject to a lot of negative reactions too.

I get it, traveling and commuting is stressful as can be. But when you have a disability the stress can become so much more heightened.

I often find that during peak times I have to board a packed, busy train and then find a space to stand comfortably with my guide dog. Usually there aren't any seats available and I'm forced to stand near the train doors with my guide dog positioned between my feet to keep her out of the way. People can incredibly irritable when they try to disembark, but find they can't because I have nowhere to move out of their way.

Then there are the times when I'm trying to find my way through a busy station and people get aggravated that I am in their way; Whether that be when I'm moving through station ticket barriers or walking down a flight of stairs. Being visually impaired I can find train stations incredibly disorientating. They're busy, loud and big. So I often need to take some time to acclimatise myself to the situation and get my bearings.

I find issues on buses too, mostly concerning priority seats. Often I face accusatory comments or looks from passengers when I sit in a priority seat. The general consensus is that I don't "look disabled" to be sitting a priority seat. Well, what am I honestly supposed to look like? The point is disability is a spectrum and many are invisible.

I could go on forever about my woes traveling as a disabled person on public transport. But those are a few to give you an idea of what its like for me every day of my life.

Traveling can often bring out the worst in people, the long, laborious commute draw out feelings of impatience, agitation and on those testing days...rage. I get it, when you're on a busy train longing to get your pyjamas on a slump on the sofa.

But if your on public transport just remember that traveling as a disabled person is just as tough. Please always show patience and kindness to your fellow disabled passengers.

A little kindness really does go a long way.

Happy traveling xx

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rottinghollows · 6 years

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Episode 015: An Encounter with Trrm

Trrm is an artist I've only heard of fairly recently, but as a creative and musician I have a lot of respect for his drive and dedication to his work. I found him through UndergroundUnderdogs' Youtube Channel which I will link here. Our interview is below, but before reading, give a listen to his most recent track. As always, enjoy!

RH: Care to say a bit about yourself for those reading?

T: Well, I'm an artist from Winnipeg, Canada. I've been making music the last 6 years, but for the last 2 years i taught myself to mix/produce everything myself. I just started releasing music again late 2017.

RH: Has music always been a big part of your life? What made you want to start producing for yourself?

T: It has and it hasn't. I remember getting so much enjoyment out of music when I was younger, my mom tells me I was always hummin melodies and making like drum patterns *laughs*, but I was mostly into sports and just fuckin' around when I was growing up. I started mixing out of necessity. Studio fees were unaffordable after I moved out and I always wanted to be able to curate my own sound. that shit took forever to just get it sound listenable. It's still a work in progress, though I have friends that help(plus Youtube).

RH: Has learning to produce help you grow as an artist? I could only imagine so *laughs*

T: Definitely. Even being able to practice recording was huge too..I'm not rushed on anyone's time..my set up is in my basement actually. *laughs*

RH: I remember coming across your work initially through UndergroundUnderdogs' Youtube channel, how'd you link up for that if I can ask?

T: Well it was all simple really, and I think it was also a timing thing. UU was really pickin up steam with their podcasts/site, and I had heard of them through a friend. In the fall, Chris and I had started shooting videos together and I knew I wanted them on the right channels. When I was getting ready to release them I sent one (the video for blacksea) to UU and he was like "oh shit this is dope", and next thing he said was "do you want us to host this on our YT channel?", I was like beeeet haha. I think they had only uploaded like 5 music vids at that point and since then keep uploading really dope underground artists. They really do fuck with underground artists on the real.

RH: Legit, got nothing but respect for the UU team. What have you been working on recently?

T: For Real man. Honestly, it's cliche but I been workin non stop for the past year. Chris and I just finished our 5th vid last night. I have a project coming up with my good friend bleich that we just started (releasing a single this week). Releasing a self produced project in the summer, but right now I'm printing a shirt/sweater of my last EPs cover that my buddy DEATH_CORNER did for me. "a winter's end" coming out end of May.

RH: When you produce music, do you use Ableton or FL Studios? How does producing a track feel to you?

T: I do everything through Logic X. I have a 25 key Midi and a Maschine. Producing a track feels so tight! It's like i'm switching between actor and director, if that makes sense. *laughs* it also allows me to play with a lot of different styles...but I still love getting beats in my gmail.

RH: How much do you put into making your music videos? Is there a certain feeling or aesthetic you're trying to convey?

T: For me, as little as possible. that's not to say a lot of work doesn't go into them, i'm just more concerned on setting, vibe and tone of the visuals. At the same time, with visuals you have to be creative, especially without anything super extra. We just have fun with it at the end of the day.

RH: Who or what would you say inspired your work?

T: Outkast, mainly Andre 3000. His style on everything he's done is so eye catching. Aquemeni and stankonia are two of my fav projects from them. I draw a lot of inspiration from super random things that I can't even explain. Mostly 90s and early 00s nostalgia. I love the randomness of jazz. basquiat was also huge for me. I'm drawn to obscure shit I don't know how or why but that ish is flawless to me.

RH: I've been meaning to ask about your rap name. Is there a significance to it for you?

T: Nah, not really. Lot of people don't even know how it's pronounced, some think it's an acronym. My name is pronounced 'Term', I just like how TRRM or trrm looks. It all stems from my early rap name Termanill(don't search for that unless you want to cringe).

RH: Before we close up, what would you say you hope to accomplish with your music?

T: My only goals are to keep creating, pushing my artistic boundaries, keep coming up with something new. The end goal is to live off my art, and to get into as many creative outlets as possible.

RH: Good shit man. Got any final words/shoutouts to give?

T: Shoutout to everyone supporting trrm, shoutout to anyone reading this, and an even bigger shoutout to RottingHollows.

RH: Much love man, thank you for your time.

Links

trrm

Twitter

Soundcloud

[D_A_E_C]

Twitter

Shop

Chris Freeland

Twitter

Vimeo

Prod. Bleich

Soundcloud

UndergroundUnderdogs

Twitter

Youtube

Site

Next Episode: Lil Cut Tendon

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lazylacadaemon · 7 years

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(1) hi! this is a similar question to the other anon asking advice, but with a different twist. i'd like to ask specficially if you have any advice for uni students planning to major in classics/classical studies? how was your experience with it? did you end up focusing more on the history/archaeology side of things or the ancient languages? is it possible to do both? also, on a somewhat related note, how do you find doing your masters in classics in canada? i'm briefly (cont..)

(2) considering it (i’m on the west coast), but job prospects look…. a little dismal. is that just me, or is that a legitimate concern? would you happen to know what kind of options are out there in academia now for people who’d like to pursue more than an undergrad in the humanities? sorry that this ask is a little out of control with the questions. feel free to filter out your answers; i don’t want to bother you too much or take up too much of your time!

Hey thanks for dropping by to ask, I’l do my best to account for as many things as I can. This could get long haha. A lot of this is from my (limited) personal experience and the experience of people I know, so don’t take it as the be all end all answer.

1. Classics in general

I adore the discipline, I adore my profs, and while I complain a lot about dead languages I really don’t have any regrets doing it. I think the experience will vary from school to school and country to country, but I just want to get my overarching fondness for the ancient world out of the way.

In my undergrad I focused mostly on art history and archaeology (though my minor is in linguistics) because I’m a very visual person, I’m a self-taught artist, and it was interesting to me. My supervisor (who sort of adopted me because I took so many of her classes) is the one who really loves getting down in the dirt and she’s always trying to get me to get out there too but I’ve never been on a dig and I honestly don’t know how useful I’d be on one. xD In grad school now I’m in a program called Ancient Societies and Cultures which is an interdisciplinary program- there are people like me who are Classics majors that want to bridge that gap between literature/language and archaeology and history, but there are also people who major in things like math/engineering who want an older perspective on things too. As far as I know, my university is the only one with such a MA program in classics.

But yeah it’s certainly possible to do both in undergrad- I took a lot of myth courses, a lot of history courses, and a few courses I wouldn’t have thought to take due to limited options in certain years (but tbh I nearly died in 500 level Roman Monarchy because I know pretty much nothing about Late Imperial Roman History, just the art lol). I of course took a lot of Greek and Latin- I was going through a bit of a crisis in my first couple years trying to decide between East Asian Studies and Classics, and taking Intermediate Japanese at the same time as Intro Ancient Greek was… interesting. I didn’t take Latin until my MA- I don’t think it was a Super important requirement for what I was doing, but I’m very glad I did it anyway. Also… a shameful admittance… I have my BA in Classics, I am maybe 2 months tops from getting my MA… and I have never read the Iliad- the closest equivalent to a bible there is- all the way through. In English. (I’ve read the Odyssey twice to make up for it though)

2. Classics in Canada

The first most important distinction in Classical studies: in North America, Classics is usually put together with the history department. In Europe, Classics is still fundamentally linked to its origins in philology. Classical archaeology in particular is actually a really niche discipline, at least in North America- the anthropologists don’t want it because we have “too much literature”, the historians don’t want it because we have “too much dirt”, and the art historians sometimes begrudgingly take us in even though they aren’t super fond of dirt either. I had a colleague who referred to a complete and utter lack of good programs in classical archaeology at “the university that shall not be named” in Toronto (whatever it was, it did leave quite a sour impression on him).

Secondly, Canadian students relative to American and European students entering classics are at a particular disadvantage if they want to dive right into languages: in the States, there seems to be a Latin revival in secondary school- maybe even in primary school- so you can legitimately have people with 4 years of Latin straight out of high school under their belts. In Canada, the last private school that offered Latin at the secondary level dropped the program. It’s not a big problem if you are doing an undergrad and are super interested in doing languages (although they’ve cut the Classical Languages Major here because only like 2 people did it… pretty ridic still and a lot of my profs are Very Angry), but say you are me who took Greek in undergrad on a whim but no Latin, and then looking at grad schools like UBC who seem to cater to American/International students by requiring a minimum of six years of Latin or Greek and four in the other- friggin impossible when you only have been doing Greek and no Latin for half your undergrad. However, if you love Latin there are (or at least… there were, idk what’s up with this political mess) a lot of prospects in the US for teaching Latin and it’s an easy straight shot from uni into the field (easy if you don’t mind living in the States).

Finally, specifically, I don’t know much about Classics outside my university. I’m a student at the U of A and, being the filthy rich Albertans we are, we tend to have a lot of advantages that other universities might not. We have a tidy little collection of artefacts in our museum from Greece, Italy, Egypt and the Near East, the UK, and so forth. We have regular exchange programs in Italy for students interested in poli sci, history, art history, or classics, and we have regular digs in both Italy and Greece. We also have pretty decent entrance requirements and great profs- still pretty limited to Greece and Rome, but I think we recently got someone who is an expert in Sanskrit for instance, which is great. I don’t know much about other universities- I’ve heard gossip that U of T has some interesting department drama, and I had a former classmate who really really really loved a particular school on the east coast (the name is escaping me right now but it was clear she would have much rather been there- I want to say it’s in New Brunswick).

3. Job Prospects

ok let me get one thing very clear: i’m really

really

rEALLy tired of people who have only taken high school repeatedly telling me that the Only Thing you can get with a History/Classics Degree is being a professor (or a teacher). The professor life is a very viable option and a lot of profs will either nudge you toward it or away from it- my dad is a prof (not in humanities) and is really pressuring me to do a phd because ‘its the best job in the world’ etc etc but I’m not sure if it’s what I wanna do, at least not yet. I really don’t like the idea of moving around where the jobs are, and a lot of it does depend heavily on travelling around to lectures and talking to people and hoping you make a good connection. It is dismal, as my profs will be the first to admit, but Classics is definitely still hiring new profs- my uni just got a new mediterranean archaeologist I believe after holding auditions for a couple months.

This is a worry that comes up so often in classes and there isn’t a straight answer for it- the terrifying and also liberating answer is that life is messy. It’s not terribly likely you’ll get a job in your field- but that applies to classicists and historians just as it does to engineers and microbiologists. The degree, the specialty, isn’t that important. Getting it done, doing something is more important.

I’m not the best person to ask about what happens after university because I’m right on the brink of moving to Toronto to do another MA in Museum Studies/Information Studies - I’ve been in school from Kindergarten with no breaks and I’m going to be in University for exactly 10 years- not too keen on spending another 7 doing a phd. I’ve been in a very lucky position and my parents have been very supportive of me, I can’t thank them enough. They’ve been saving since I was born to send me to university, and my dad was very supportive of my arts degree because I get to do a lot of the things he didn’t have the option to do when he was going to school and I get to provide his discipline with a new perspective and vice versa every time we talk. I have a great support network of family and friends who have made this possible for me and I’m forever in their debt.

Knowing ancient greek isn’t going to get me a job, but knowing how to talk about ancient greek to people who are curious, knowing how to communicate in writing, how to communicate orally, how to make my subject less impenetrable and elitist for other people are all skills that are invaluable to me. Who knows, maybe some employer will look at a resume like /you know greek AND latin? you must be a crazy hard worker and disciplined to pick up dead languages/. If you get wrapped up in the “what am I going to do with this”, you’re not really focusing on the right things? Sometimes it won’t be obvious until you’re looking back on it, or until someone else is looking at it. I’ll pull up the typical ‘JK Rowling was a classics major’ of course, and I’ll point out that there are so many many many more jobs out there than there are fields that account for them. If that piece of paper gets you a job you enjoy, regardless of whether you use 100% of your skills and knowledge every day, then enjoying the road to getting that piece of paper is worth it imho.

Think beyond teaching, think about archaeology, museums, archives, local history, information, movies and documentaries, writing fiction or non-fiction… and there are possibilities out there that haven’t occurred to me only because I’m still in school. You can’t predict what jobs are going to look like in the future and hell, job prospects for snake people are dismal enough as it is. I live in a province that’s absolutely flooded with engineers for example, and a lot of them face difficulties because of the rollercoaster economy here regardless of how ‘useful’ the degree is considered relatively. Might as well do something you enjoy, something that is applicable to multiple disciplines (Classics is like history, language arts, art history, etc all rolled into one and they all teach basics of communication, critical thinking, etc. that are indispensable for any society). Also, Classics remains desperately isolated from other disciplines in part because people have been avoiding it- there’s a lot that could be done uniting it with other disciplines like cultural studies or computers - especially because so many profs make new websites that look straight out of the 90s. -cries-

I know this wasn’t part of your question but also consider it from a social angle- Classics is considered to be a dying discipline in part because it is considered “useless” and partly as it has been historically perceived- correctly- as “elitist”. However, you’ll notice that classics is becoming more and more relevant, particularly with the rise of extreme right, white/euro supremacist groups appropriating the imagery of “western civilization”. The discipline desperately needs fresh ideas, new perspectives, and challenges to the status quo to keep idiots like this from misusing the ancient world for their own racist, sexist agendas. My thesis is getting increasingly relevant to this as I continue writing it, and though it will ultimately reach a small audience the knowledge that I’ve researched myself and have had peer reviewed will become invaluable to me in dispelling misconceptions and outright lies about ‘western’ civilization. Please consider it from that angle as well.

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