#Unclear if that actually worked tho :

[kindlythevoid]

It’s really beautiful how Tolkien takes the time to honor the dead. After Gandalf’s death, they take the time in Lothlorien to deal with their grief and sing their laments, but as there is no body, that’s all they can do.

But when Boromir dies, even when Aragorn has to make the decision to either pursue Frodo or Merry and Pippin, and both are rapidly growing farther from the three left, they take the time to honor their friend. They don’t leave immediately, even though efficiency would dictate otherwise. No, instead they take the time to decide how to “bury” him (quotations only because it’s not burying in the strictest sense of the word, but rather reverently dealing with Boromir’s body). And then they gather trophies of his last stand and arrange them in the boat with him, taking time to “[comb] his long dark hair and [array] it upon his shoulders.”

How many times have other adventurers dedicated valuable time to honor the bodies of fallen companions, specifically to this extent? More often than not, they have to leave them behind, or only take the time to fold their arms or close their eyes.

Occasionally, they’ll build a pyre or bury them or whatnot, but it’s always after the battle that they set aside a significant chunk of time, or they live up to the term of fantasy (which isn’t a bad thing!) and there is no time wasted in building a cairn or burial or what-have-you.

My point is that time is spent, time that could be used for more “productive” things, such as, I don’t know, pursuing Merry and Pippin whose lives are at stake. And it isn’t framed as a bad thing, because it isn’t! Each life is precious, even when only the body is left. And they take the, well, the time to acknowledge this, in a reasonable and conservative way. (And when I say conservative, I mean that they pick the burial most fitting for their running clock, balancing both their need for a grieving period as well as the haste that the hobbits will require.)

I can’t speak to the rest of the deaths in the books as I haven’t caught up and refreshed my memory, but I will touch on another death, this time in the movie, that shares the same theme.

Theodred.

While he certainly hasn’t been totally forgotten by the fandom, I believe it is fair to say that he gets less discussion. Which is fair, considering he gets almost no active dialogue that I can remember and he is unconscious for most, if not all, of his screen time (and book time) before dying shortly after.

And one could say it’s because he’s a prince, one could say it’s because he was the heir, etc., etc. But it honestly makes no sense to dedicate all that time to preparing and putting on a large funeral when Saruman is right at Rohan’s door and there are so many bigger and more impactful decisions to be making now that Theoden has his mind back.

But, again, it isn’t criticized in the movie. It isn’t treated as the wrong decision. The people, included Theoden, needed time to mourn and Theodred deserved to be honored, even in death, even as the great forces of orcs and Uruk-hai were marching across Rohan.

Time is valuable, time is precious, and it should be wasted, especially when you’re trying your hardest to make sure you and yours survive. But time is meaningless if you don’t use it to live and subsequently honor those who have lived.

#does that make sense? #I know it got a little preachy at the end #Trying to summarize instead of just dumping #Unclear if that actually worked tho :/ #kiki re-re-re-reads the lord of the rings #the lord of the rings #boromir #theodred #gandalf #aragorn #theoden #merry and pippin #meriadoc brandybuck #peregrin took #tolkien quotes #just yelling into the void

[arolesbianism]

Ok did some fact checking and yeah unless I missed smth outside of Wendy, Walter is the character who refers to Abigail by name the most! Which is absolutely delightful news for me, the number one Abigail Walter besties believer

#rat rambles #starve posting #wurt is in second place with her saying abby-gill twice 👍 #and the only other person who reffers to her by name is webber in his sisturn dialogue where he calls it a little abigail house #wait that reminds me I forgot to check some ppls sisturn dialogue but I did word search abigiail and abby on everyone's pages #so unless wurt mentions her no one else should have brough her up? lemme go check wurt tho #ok no other abby-gill mentions #anyways back to walter even outside of him actually reffering to her by name hes the only one that rly seems to like. #actually talk to her like a person? #like dont get me wrong other characters have talked to her instead of at her but walter is like. not being weird abt it. #he just talks to her casually like he would to any other person! and I love that so much! #hes even like the only one who seems to recognize her flower as her #ok well wormwood does too weirdly enough #but I dont think anyone else properly does? wortox might tho its just kinda unclear #but yeah walter has to treat abby like a person to make up for webber saying 'wendy would have been so happy if it worked' after failing to #revive abby to her face lol #I love webber so much but he is also like 10 so its unsurprising for him to be a bit too blunt sometimes

[bonetrousledbones]

medication update i started this stuff 3 days ago and I just wrote the majority of a college letter thing i’ve been putting off for two weeks in like an hour just because i fucking felt like it and its not even midnight yet

#trousled rambles #currently unclear as to whether this is actually the meds or if my impulses worked in my favor for once but. holy sdhit man #still in the stage where my body is adjusting Weirdly but yknow what maybe the dizziness is worth it . just a little #would still appreciate it if it didnt hit during the class i need to concentrate the most in tho that would be great

[viti-ocs]

Doing research for a new group of OCs I'm planning to create who are part of a cult, it's gonna be so fun

#I love learning about cults especially after being in one growing up (jw) #the cult Im making I was originally referring to as a death cult #but after reading a bit they're actually considered more of a destructive cult #I might try and combine the two tho since most if not all vults center around religion in some way #I didn't really want there to be religious aspects to this cult but again after research I've found not all cults are connected to existing #religions. which I should have figured with organizations like Heaven's Gate once existing #but death cults seem to surround the deep connections with past loved ones or smtg #I don't fully understand them yet. I will dive deeper into the subject soon (probably after work today) #I've got the vaugest ideas for the cult already tho #I want to make the leader a woman. ik it isn't very realistic 'cause most of the more popular/famous cults are headed by men #but that's all the more reason for me to make a woman cult leader. to do something a lil more unique #and also because we support womens wrongs in this house <3 #there's also gonna be a group of mercenaries in the organization #or maybe everyone will be taught to be one? unclear yet #that's all I got so far I'll update y'all as I come up with new info and discover new things #viti shoosh

[mrfutureboy]

skfkdkksksk

#original entry #cw vent #i am just...so frustrated all the time #not like constantly or 24/7 but every week or every other week(end) i just get refrustrated over the same thing #im in my head abt it rn bc my 1yr anniversary with my partner is coming up but our future just looks so...far away. unclear. #weve talked for a while abt moving in together. nothing happened. i put my foot down like 'lets actually work towards this' and we looked #at places and tried to schedule tours tho unfortunately were never able to bc most placed never got back to us (one place was straight up #and said they werent able to do tours rn which yanno fine) #this was really stressing me out but ultimately out of my control #after that they said they wanted to wait until they got a better job which is fine but its been several months and im not sure when they #even last applied anywhere #on one hand i know that its stressful job hunting and so i want to be patient #but on the other hand sometimes i feel like all i do is wait around for them and im fucking tired of waiting #ive lived at home since march 2020 and am now in a place financially where i could move out but i feel like im being held back #i do want to have a life w my partner but they dont always act like they want to despite saying they do #im fucking sick of spending weekends at their parents house (bc they r in a similar situation like me) and driving back and forth all the #time. i hate leaving bc i feel like i shouldnt have to leave bc we should just be living together #but then sometimes im not sure i do wanna live together #im so conflicted and stressed and i hate that i have to be frustrated over this so often bc i shouldnt have to fucking tell them over and #over i should just be listened to and acknowledged #i want the fucking truth i want their actions to reflect their words i want to actually feel like we can be adults and live together and #work towards a future but they cant even pick out fucking cereal to eat in the morning

[barabansetbabets]

you know what I don't fucking want to hear anything about female group infighting/dram or whatever. let me tell you I HAVE been stuck into a lockeroom with a bunch of 14yo girls that hated each other, but fucking HELL at Least they were upfront about it!! Now I'm stuck for three months with training truckers and if have to listen to another guy bitching for fifteen minutes about one's another as soon as their back is turned I WILL deck someone

#years pass and the more it seems that i will never escape middle school #or it's just the learning effect #put people together in a class and they will act like middle schoolers #idk I will form an opinion when I will actually work #tho I will be a trucker so it is unclear how much time I will have with colleagues #hopefully not much.

[pathsofoak]

I think I'm going to explicitly mention Thomas's age The Early Rise. There is a scene where Janson shows him his file, there is no reason why that wouldn't be in it, his mother willingly gave him up, they would have gotten those documents somewhere. Since Thomas basically turns away from WCKD on the basis that he's a child in the Night Winds, I think it would make sense.

Random hc's in the tags they're just a thought dump

#his old name is also in there but it's redacted #like also the fact that the redacted line is a name is unclear but to the reader it is #a nice little easter egg #the age I'm going for is 16 in the Early Rise #which kind of fits with what Chuck guesses him to be #only it's much later in the story so it's implied that Thomas was around 15 when he entered the maze #doesn't really add up visually in the movies I guess but this deep into the fic I don't think it matters much #I was working off head canons for the ages with everyone else anyway #and then I figured out Brenda is actually one of the oldest in the books while I wrote her younger #I'm keeping Newt as the clearly older one #he'd be the only one who passes 18 I guess tho I won't make a point of it at all #I guess time has just stood still in the by then 10 months since the Maze and no one aged a day #so anyway Thomas is 16 and with that kind of hangs in the middle #Minho Teresa and Newt are all older in my mind #Frypan is either the same age or older #Gally is younger because I know he's implied to be in the books and also I think the idea #is kinda funny if you consider how many times Gally has called and will call Thomas a Greenie #Chuck is still 12 he'll be 13 by the end of the fic #Brenda I'm keeping around Thomas's age I think #like between him and Gally #so the order would be #Chuck Gally Brenda Thomas Frypan Teresa Minho Newt #or Minho and Teresa are switched idk but in years they're the same age #Newt is 19 max in this one by the end #I'm keeping them younger on purpose because that's kind of the point when it comes to showing WCKD's cruelty and also #it makes the way Jorge and Vince (& Justin) take care of them hit a little harder #and otherwise to show it I'd constantly have to push it all in Chuck's POV since he's the most obvious *kid* of the bunch #and I'm already hurting him enough *guilty look*

[comradekatara]

What if Aang and Gyatso ran away together, allowing them to avoid the genocide but still confront Azulon twenty years later after Aang has mastered every element and win the war? 80 years later what would the world look like, and (in this unlikely AU scenario where all the rest of the main cast is still born) how would Sokka, Katara, Toph, Zuko, Azula, etc be different?

I mean it wouldn’t take aang 20 years to master every element he’s literally a prodigy. he mastered all four elements by the time he was 13. but yeah. if gyatso had found him in time. oh man. the inherent tragedy of poor timing, magnified by one hundred years. it’s unclear exactly how long after aang getting frozen sozin’s comet arrived (it was within the same year, but certainly not on the same day, as natla suggests), but it was probably sometime between a few weeks and a few months later. so I don’t think aang would’ve been able to prevent the initial attacks on the four temples, but obviously there would’ve been survivors who weren’t at the temples at the time, since yknow. they’re nomadic (natla also has them conveniently gather for “the great comet festival” as a way to explain why they were all killed at once but like. they weren’t. that’s not how genocide works). and so if aang and gyatso were together, away from the southern air temple, during the attack, that would definitely spur aang to fulfill his responsibilities as the avatar. he’d still feel the same crushing guilt, the ignorance of not heeding the threats of war, the responsibility on his shoulders of repairing his culture and ending an imperialist regime before it’s too late. but obviously, to a far less extreme extent, and with gyatso there to guide him, instead of temporally displaced and utterly dispossessed and bereft of his mentor, with no air nomads (besides appa) left. there would still be air nomads immediately after sozin’s comet, who were eventually captured and executed (or forced to hide and assimilate, hey ty lee’s family) over a century of imperialist conquest and violence. but if aang never time traveled, he would have still defeated sozin at the age of 13 and ended the war under a massive time pressure. roku would still be on his ass trying to get him to correct his mistakes, and aang would still feel the crushing burden of being just one kid tasked with saving the world from disaster.

so based on aang’s lifespan as indicated in lok, the next avatar would be an adult from the southern water tribe by the time the rest of the gaang are kids. and maybe the avatar is kya (im not gonna do the exact math here, because who cares). and kya is tasked with maintaining balance in a world where there are fewer air nomads than there should be, but due to aang’s influence, there are far more than there otherwise would be, as he spent the rest of his life ensuring that the world was a safe place to live in and keeping the rulers of the fire nation in check. and the world has never really forgiven the fire nation for what they did to the air nomads, but the extent of their imperialism was never fully realized because aang stopped sozin before he could oppress and attack more populations. so kya is constantly working with various nations and peoples to maintain balance, but she’s basically just a diplomat because aang did most of the work of putting out fires and now she’s just facilitating and ensuring that the peace he established continues. so she has time to like. start a family. and sokka has a complex about being the nonbending son of the literal avatar (and hakoda’s like “try being the nonbending partner of the literal avatar” but it doesn’t really make him feel better because that’s so obviously not the same) because obviously he can develop a complex about anything (still a much better complex to have than his actual deal, tho, so we’re counting this one as a win) and katara has a complex about having to be the best waterbender ever because her mother is the avatar. and their home life is kind of unstable because their mother doesn’t have a lot of time for them, but she’s still a very loving parent and eventually she takes them on trips with her and they love being able to see the world and help their mother with her diplomatic duties (katara is very justice-oriented, sokka relishes in getting to help kya with the more administrative and bureaucratic side of politics). so it’s better.

katara and sokka meet toph on one of their diplomacy fieldtrips, since the beifong family is incredibly powerful in the earth kingdom, and as much as they try to hide toph’s existence from the world, it’s kind of hard to ignore a whole twelve year old girl in a fancy hanfu just running around your mansion. sokka and toph immediately get along, and she takes him to the earth rumble where he becomes obsessed with the entire spectacle of it. katara finds toph kind of obnoxious, and is glad for them to finally leave gaoling. then of course toph stows away with them, and sokka has to somehow keep that a secret from both katara and kya until the beifongs come aknocking like “did you by any chance KIDNAP OUR DAUGHTER?!?” and toph’s like “NO. I KIDNAPPED MYSELF.” and katara is just so fucking fed up with the whole thing someone please return this tiny aristocrat back to her mansion dear GOD. but ultimately toph is just so cute that she gets her way and kya agrees to show her the world before then returning her to her family (at which point toph assures sokka that she will simply run away again). toph is just so happy to have relative freedom that she doesn’t even mind that katara is [checks notes] bullying her for being blind. and so she kind of just tags along on their travels throughout the earth kingdom. but then, once they go back home, she realizes that there is simply no way that is agreeing to live in the south pole, so she and sokka reach a compromise and she moves in with suki on kyoshi island, who sokka goes to visit all the time.

oh yeah. he obviously knows suki. their introduction is far more formal, what with them actively knowing the avatar will be visiting them in advance, and he doesn’t antagonize her (he also doesn’t need to learn any grand lesson about patriarchy since gender roles were not being reified by colonialism in this world. fwiw) but he still asks her to teach him what she knows (even though he did receive formal training from hakoda as a child, not for any life-threatening purposes, just because it’s a part of their culture) because he’s obsessed with learning every single thing he can about the world. suki finds it really cute that this nepobaby is so humble, and they have a fun time getting to know each other without the threat of war looming over their heads. yue similarly gets to know sokka on a diplomatic trip to the northern water tribe and there’s immediate chemistry and they’re infatuated. but obviously she’s also engaged, which is an issue. since there’s no siege, both hahn and yue survive and eventually get married, which is as tragic for yue as it sounds. eventually yue gets so sick of hahn that the next time she sees sokka she’s just like fuck it and just straight up enters her infidelity era (which is fully morally justified btw). sokka knows that if anyone ever found out that the princess of the northern water tribe was having an affair with the avatar’s son, it would cause an international scandal, so he’s incredibly careful not to do anything that might expose them. and it’s very bittersweet, but it is what it is.

haru and jet’s respective villages were never occupied so they both grow up in pretty normal households. haru is still kind and brave, and jet is still obnoxious (sorry), and katara is still infatuated with both of them, but jet never like. tries to kill sokka or flood a village, and she never helps haru liberate a prison camp, so they kind of just have normal teenage relationships that last for a brief while and then end naturally. of course sokka still cannot stand jet, but it’s purely vibes based so he just chooses to ignore him while katara sews him the ugliest hat you have ever seen in your life. and eventually haru and katara will reconnect when they’re slightly older and get into a more serious relationship. because they’re cute together. also they meet aunt wu and the events of “the fortuneteller” just play out exactly as they do in the episode. idk why but that’s important to me.

as for azula and zuko, they both grew up hearing from their father that “the fire nation was robbed of its glory and humiliated by the avatar, and that one day it is their destiny to take back their honor and finally realize sozin’s vision, restoring their glorious bloodline to the true throne once and for all.” and ursa’s always like “oh well you know your father has fanciful notions because he was descended from the firelords, but that’s a totally outmoded system of government, and ever since avatar aang instated a republic, the quality of life for all of our citizens has improved tenfold. that’s just evidence-based data talking.” so zuko believes ursa, because she’s nicer to him, and azula believes ozai, because he has his claws in her. kya knows that ozai and the rest of the old royal bloodline still pose a threat to the stability of the fire nation and the world at large, so she is always attending to that family just to ensure that they’re not doing anything insane. and sometimes she takes her kids along with her. and well. for one thing, a better-adjusted sokka hanging out with azula (still being abused, albeit to a lesser extent) is kind of just amazing to me. she explains why the fire nation is ontologically superior and that’s why they’re being nerfed by his stupid lib mom and he’s just like “you’re so smart so how are you so stupid.” he’s deeply enthralled by her cognitive dissonance and just her whole deal in general.

meanwhile katara is infatuated with zuko, and ursa, who immediately adores katara because she’s such a cute and friendly girl, is kind of quietly encouraging him to date her, because the waterbending prodigy daughter of the avatar is really an ideal match for her son. and zuko really likes katara too. they get along really well, and they agree on a lot, are both really passionate about similar things, and go on fun little adventures together, and help each other with their bending, and make each other laugh. but every time katara tries to kiss him he interrupts her by being like “does your brother think im cool?” and katara’s just like “what.” until eventually even she realizes that the idea of actually dating this boy is simply impossible. and for a while she’s crushed that the guy she likes is obsessed with her stupid loser brother (can you imagine anything worse. truly. i cannot) but eventually she comes around because she’s always wanted a gay best friend who she can carry around in her pocket. and then she makes him go shopping with her and paint her nails and go to plays and at first he’s like “this feels kind of offensive” but eventually he realizes that even though she IS stereotyping him he actually DOES really like all those things so he’s just like FINE. I GUESS. katara meanwhile is trying to oh so subtly figure out whether or not sokka even knows that zuko exists and sokka is just like “oh yeah he seems nice enough. his sister though. well she fascinates me.” and katara is like “what the fuck nooooo” but then sokka keeps talking and she realizes he’s discussing her like an abnormal psych case study or something he would dissect in a lab and she’s like “oh. okay. thank god he’s not into her. he’s just some kind of freak.”

katara crowns herself queen of the gays and vows to zuko: “i am going to get my brother to fall in love with you if it’s the last thing i do.” but all of katara’s attempts to make zuko attractive to sokka backfire because she’s exclusively making him do things that she finds attractive and sokka simply has the exact opposite taste. he goes to katara like “i don’t know why i never noticed it before, but zuko’s vibes are kind of rancid. he even kind of reminds me of that guy jet who sucked so bad.” and katara’s like FUCCKCKKKKCK. eventually katara is out of options so zuko’s just like “fine i guess i can’t sink any lower..” so he just knocks on sokka’s door and when sokka opens it he just gets on his knees and clasps his hands together and goes “pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease just one chance PLEASE” and sokka is just like “ummmmmmmmm???? lmfao???? okay….” and goes on a very awkward date with zuko where all he does is just answer every single one of zuko’s somewhat invasive questions about his life in the most detached, impersonal way possible and then at 9pm on the dot sokka yawns and is like “wow im so beat…. this is my bedtime so. goodnight” and zuko is just like scribbling down in his little diary “sokka goes to bed at 9pm on the dot every night because he is regimented and responsible…” sokka gets home and katara’s like, eyes all sparkly “how did it goooo???” and sokka’s just like “man. i don’t know how i didn’t see it sooner. i thought azula was a freak, but zuko is just as much of a freak, if not more so! i definitely need to go out with him again. he’s such a fascinating test subject.” and katara is just like “fuck my life why is he like this.” and then goes to zuko and is like “yeah!!! sokka said he had sooooo much fun!! he really wants to see you again!!” and zuko just lights up like “REALLY??!!?” and katara just doesn’t have the heart to tell him the reason.

anyway. katara and sokka travel the globe. katara establishes some water tribe healing centers in other parts of the world, works as a liaison between the air nomads and the southern water tribe, gets back together with haru, goes on countless adventures, and builds a beautiful life for herself. sokka starts attending ba sing se university because he’s sick of people assuming that his diplomacy skills are purely due to nepotism. so he decides to major in polysci so that he can point to his degree as a qualification. but pretty quickly he realizes that polysci is a stupid field of study and everyone in his classes (including the professors) are completely incompetent and have no actual field experience. so he starts taking different classes, shopping around to figure out what it is he really wants to study. turns out that a lot of different subjects interest him, and maybe being a diplomat isn’t his only possible career. he spends a good decade in academia, just contributing research to all kinds of different fields. then he gets sick of academia and goes into engineering. he starts working with an inventor in the earth kingdom (the mechanist) and basically revolutionizes technology. then he’s like “im sick of inventing cars and computers and smartphones and falafel” (his most important invention) so he goes back to his physics research. but then he gets kind of sick of how insufferably arrogant physicists are so he’s like “maybe it’s time to revisit my favorite case studies” and goes back to the fire nation. katara tags along purely for damage control.

sokka, katara, zuko, and azula are all having dinner together. azula was eventually able to extricate herself from ozai’s abuse and moved to a more rural part of the country to heal. she got really into spiritualism and started working with air nomads taking care of sky bison. zuko moved to a different city in the southern fire nation where he became a herpetologist who primarily works with dragons, and also got really involved in theater. by the time sokka and katara revisit them they are both really happy and thriving. sokka has even read some of zuko’s plays, and has to admit that they’re quite good. which is disappointing, because he was hoping to use them as case studies in his research. at some point during their dinner, zuko’s like “i can’t believe we used to date. i must’ve been so annoying back then, i don’t know how you even put up with me.” and azula’s like “hang on. no. you weren’t dating sokka. i was dating sokka.” and they both stare at each other and then turn to look at sokka for like five minutes of total silence. katara gets so fed up with this that she just bursts out, “NEITHER OF YOU WERE DATING SOKKA. HE WAS USING YOU AS DATA FOR HIS ABNORMAL PSYCH PET PROJECT.” another five minutes of silence. and then azula is just like “oh that actually makes perfect sense. in hindsight that really explains a lot.” and zuko’s like “but kataraaaaa why wouldn’t you TELL meeeee” and katara’s like “well i didn’t want to hurt your feelings and destroy your ego forever. but now that you like. ride dragons for a living i figure that you’ll be fine.” and zuko’s like “yep. haha. im fine! totally fine.” he wasn’t at all living under the illusion that sokka was returning to him after all these years because they were going to reunite and get married and ride his favorite dragon into the sunset forever. his ego definitely isn’t destroyed by this fact at all. he’s sooo good don’t even worry about it. sokka’s just like “well anyway, im very glad that you both seem to be doing a lot better now. that’s really great news. big mazel to you both. okay bye.”

anyway. as for kya, she lives a long and happy life, and is so proud of both her children. she dies at a very old age, completely content. the next avatar is of earth kingdom heritage, of course. and it’s mako :)

#mysticarcadehologram-blog #asks #AUs #kya #aang #katara #sokka #azula #zuko #toph #suki #yue #katara&zuko #azula&sokka #sokkaxzuko #not tagging everyone. lmfao #this devolved into katara sokka azula zuko tormented freak polycule and im only somewhat sorry for that #this was soo stream of consciousness bc i wrote it on my phone #but anyway. i think this. somewhat. answered your question #and then some .

[frostfire-17]

yet still more hittite facts

I am making a new post rather than endlessly reblogging this one, because it is getting a little unwieldy! and this addition is pretty long. (and also to spare poor @max1461, thank you for your forbearance so far)

But! @whatshouldwecallhomer asked, "More Hittite facts please? What was their lifestyle like? Were they nomadic or sedentary? Agriculturalist, pastoralist, or something else? Seafaring or sea-shunning? What were their most interesting technologies, artwork, and political customs (in your opinion)?"

Agriculturalist or pastoral, sedentary or nomad: there were certainly pastoral nomads in Turkey while they ruled, but the ruling class had parked their butts firmly in one spot at Hattusa (except that one dude who was like "okay but what if the capital was SOMEWHERE ELSE THO" and everyone politely pretended to like it and moved it right back once he died). The texts present a very agricultural picture; lots of livestock and grain and fruit and wine and so on. They were really into bread - there's a whole book cataloguing Hittite breads and cereal products called Alimenta Hethaeorum by Harry Hoffner (why is the title in Latin? well, because you obviously know Latin if you're reading it, right? right? anyway the actual book is in English). There definitely were a bunch of sheep and people taking care of sheep, too, though: lots of sheep sacrifices.

Sea-faring or sea-shunning: they were not a seafaring people. Their homeland was in central Turkey, specifically within the bend of the Marassantiya River (modern Kızılırmak), and far from the coasts. All their conquering was done overland, either further west into Turkey towards the coast, or down into Syria towards Egypt.

Interesting technologies! Definitely the grain storage/water preservation in the above post is up there, but their masonry was also out of this world: check out what they did without any mortar or anything!

Wall foundation from Alacahöyük!

Interesting artwork! They left behind a lot of stone reliefs and inscriptions and so on, but my favorite is their metalwork, of which almost nothing survives, but we have a few pieces. Here's a libation vessel in the shape of a stag, with a relief scene around the lip:

Stag vessel at the Met!

Interesting political customs! The most interesting is probably MURDERING EACH OTHER, which they did a lot! Especially in the early period. For example Mursili I, mentioned in the above linked post as the dude who sacked Babylon, made it home from all of that only to be murdered by his brother-in-law, Hantili. Hantili was conspiring with his own son-in-law, Zidanta, presumably in exchange for Zidanta getting the throne next, but Hantili later was like "uh no I think my own son for the throne, actually?" so Zidanta murdered his entire family and took over. Then there was a period of just - really excessive amounts of murder, until a strong king, Telipinu, emerged and ruled for quite some time and set down an edict full of reformations and rules about who could do what and how succession would work from now on and how everyone needed to calm the fuck down. Then he died and there's a period of so MUCH murder that we are kind of unclear as to who was king and how long. \o/

Anyway, there's some more Hittite facts. I have more asks that I will get to soon!

#hittites yay!

[controversial-blorbo-bracket]

Controversial Character Tournament Round 2: Blaine Anderson from Glee vs Barok Van Zieks from The Great Ace Attorney

(remember that these characters are fictional and your fellow tumblr users are real. i will block you if you harass others in the notes, please consider sending your unhinged harassment to my inbox instead)

Propaganda under the cut, may contain spoilers:

Blaine Anderson:

LOVE: - "you know that post that's like "fandom will call a character evil and immature and then the character is just 15 yo" because that's what happens with blaine. he's just a sweet but socially inept kid with a lot of insecurities who's trying his best. compared to most glee characters he hasn't done anything wrong in his life. and yes he cheated on his boyfriend that one time, but he was super depressed afterwards (also this is glee literally every character has cheated and none have suffered as most as blaine because of it). in conclusion he's just a silly goose. my little princess <3"

HATE: (tumblr will not let me format this one bc its too long)

"A lot of people say he's the male Rachel Berry, and while I think that is absolutely a true statement, I actually don't mind his personality all that much. Literally everyone in Glee has a personality that ranges from inconsistent to downright horrendeus, so instead of talking about what he's like, here's some things he canonically does (buckle up, this'll be long): In season 2, when we first meet him, he's the leader of his school's showchoir. (redflag no.1/j) This gives him the freedom and authoritity to do a lot of stuff- not all bad, but he does serenade a closeted guy he doesn't know all that well, who works in costumer service AT HIS WORKPLACE, with a song about sex toys. (The guy in question ends up getting fired of course). He also gives some pretty hypocritical advice to his love interest, Kurt, about how he should try to blend in (hypocritical, cuz Blaine does the opposite and he's thriving under the attention), and he asks some insesitive questions, but those are all pretty excusable, or at least standard for Glee. In s3, him and Kurt are boyfriends, and he transitions school for him, which we could absolutely count as a decent thing, however it all kinda sours when he gets the part of Tony in the school's production of West side story. Why is this important? Kurt is a senior, and the performing arts university he's applying for is really competitive, so he needs all the extra curriculars and theatre experiance he can get. He asks Blaine to not aidition for Tony- which he agrees to- than promptly goes against that by singing one of Tony's songs at audition. He then gets offfered the role, doesn't turn it down, tells Kurt he should be happy for him, and honestly, BY GLEE STANDARDS, this is also pretty chill. Meanwhile: enter Sebastian Smythe, another contraversial character, who's now the new captain of Blaine's former showchoir, and who decides that either 1. Blaine is hot 2. Gonna use Blaine as an informat (His reasons are unclear tbh) Either way, he starts flirting with Blaine, who does end up rejecting his advances and telling him he's taken (though much later than it's probably ethical, idk tho, I'm aro). He (Blaine) really enjoys the attention though, so they end up keeping in touch. (Important for later.) Back to our main plot though; Blaime doesn't have sexual chemistry with his co-star, so the director tells him to lose his virginity (yes, you heared that right, it is fucked up). So he tries to sleep with Kurt, who of course, doesn't know that his boyfriend's sudden interest in him is due to directoral instructions. And then probably the most contraversial Blaine scene happens- see, Blaine, Kurt, and Sebastian (who Kurt hates with passion) end up going to this gaybar. Blaime gets drunk (though he only drinks one beer on screen, so we don't exactly know how drunk), and tries to sleep with Kurt in the parking lot. Kurt is visibly upset, and tells him no multiple times. Blaime doesn't oblige, and Kurt ends up shouting at him, which Blaine...doesn't take well, and blames Kurt, then leaves by foot. (They end up having sex by the end of this episode btw. No, Kurt still doesn't know about the directoral instructions. Whether he does it out of love or fear that Blaine will leave him is unclear) So we already know these two are not very good at boundries and communication, but the writers say they're "soulmates" so apperantly it's okay? Anyway, this all culminates in cheating incident no.1, where Kurt meets a guy whom he shares similar interests with, and who gives him some very cheesy compliements. They exchange numbers, and text a lot. Blaine doesn't like this. He checks their texts in secret, and then sings a song in front of the entire Glee club about how he's being cheated on, to humiliate Kurt.

Kurt insists it's not cheating, giving the example that Blaine's doing the same/used ro do the same with Sebastian. Blaine says "that's different" and they leave it at that. Kurt apologises via song. S4- Kurt moves to New York. Has to work a lot, since rebt is high, and also gets an internship at vague, so he's quite busy. Blaine feels ignored, so he cheats on him with some guy we only see the facebook profile of. They break up. S5- Blaine has a crush in this other guy, Sam. (He's been trying to get Kurt back, so him moving on is a big deal). Except gay marrige gets legalized, and Blaine decides to propose to Kurt. So he gets back together with him, then bot a week later he arranges a huge public proposal where it'd honestly just be plain emberassing to say no, but dontcha worry, because Kurt accepts. They move to New York together. Blaine becomes insecure, because Kurt gets ripped thanks to his fencing lessons, meanwhile he lrts go of himself a bit, enjoying all the fine food New York has to offer. His reaction to this is to try manipulating/tricking Kurt into eating copious amounts of food too. (To be fair, Kurt's reaction to the situation isn't perfect either, but this is not about him, their actions can co-exist without one of them necessarily having to be "the right one") S6- Kurt breaks up with Blaine. Blaine ends up going back to Ohio, and dating the guy who bullied, non-consensually kissed, than threatened to kill Kurt. (The guy did have a redemption arc, but I still dunno how to feel) You might be wondering- "wow, this was so lpng and extensive", and you'd be right but also this was mostly romantic relationship centric. There's also a lot of stuff Blaine says to his friends that make me question my sanity, but this is Glee, so that's every character in basically every episode. What makes me hate Blaine isn't even JUST all this- it's the fact that in universe, he almost never gets called-out, people take his side, it's as if the writers are condoning his actions, and I Don't Like That. I'm all for liking morally grey, or even morally dispicable characters, as long as their actions don't get excused. Hell, I started out just mildly disliking Blaine, but a lot of people paint him as innocent and pure, and that didn't feel right. Then I was ready to like him BECUASE of his questionable morality- but turns out, the guy doean't have much else going on besides this. His personality is almost the same as Rachel, except Rachel's more...full? If that makes sense? Blaine is just...bland. And inconsistent, and boring, and I just Do Not Like Him At All."

Baron Van Zieks:

LOVE: - "man's 6'4", british, looks like a vampire, took a mental health break for 5 years thanks to the dead bodies that cropped up after he lost in court, and is uhhhhhh kinda racist which is a key part of his character. the explanation for it is divisive but he does grow as a character eventually?? i think he's fun. there's a bonus case exclusive to the 3DS version of the games where he mentions he was almost poisoned in one of the first cases he ever handled. he objects with his leg. he brings wine into court but rarely drinks it. he has bats in his office. we have no idea where the scar on his face came from. his voice actor did a subway commercial. i think he wants to believe he is the sane one in the courtroom but that title belongs to the 16 year old judicial assistant for the defense." - "I love to hate him tbh!!! He's a complex interesting character tied up in things outside of his control and being used by the antagonist to hurt people, isolated due to his grief and rumors from the public. He also sucks SO fucking bad and I want to punch him. Lovingly. But I love him I promise."

#poll #round 2 #barok van zieks #blaine anderson #ace attorney #the great ace attorney #glee #2 submissions

[lazaruspiss]

sladedicktalia??????? i am LISTENING

there's like. 5 fics. im so starved. i think theyre so hot and funny together!! im obsessed. also this got long so im adding a readmore. whoops.

SlaDick: classic enemies to lovers. they may try to kill each other half the time but they respect each other more than anyone else. OBSESSED with each other, Slade knows he's weird about Dick and couldn't care less but Dick is so in denial about it. they could both give explicit consent but be so antagonistic about it that it becomes unclear if "yes i want to have sex with you" is actually code for "die right now" and i think that's beautiful.

SladeTalia: they fucked! in canon! there was some bullshit plotline where Talia tried to give Slade Damian and pretend he was his son instead! ex fuck buddies who show up just to make each other's lives harder bc they wanna fuck so bad it makes them have stupid brain. also they're both hot as hell. i'm weak for big strong milf/dilf idk idk.

DickTalia: LISTEN TO ME. TALIA WOULD TREAT HIM RIGHT. THEY BOTH KNOW HOW EMOTIONALLY DEVASTATING IT IS TO LOVE BRUCE. LISTEN TO M- ok aside from that. Talia is someone who tried so hard to be good, to choose to be kind. She loved Bruce because she saw how hard he tried to do good in the world. Her character has gotten considerably colder over time, in huge part due to a certain writer writing about her despite knowing nothing about her, but in universe i try and rationalize it as a growing cynicism stemming from both her father's gradually increasing cruelty and Bruce's failure to support her or commit to her or to even just respect her. She hasn't been shown to have very many people in her life who she can really trust and be close to. She used to have a good relationship with Ra's, she used to have Bruce, she's even lost Damian at this point. She feels like such a lonely character to me. And I think Dick would be able to see that, be able to understand it better than most. He's always had people who loved him, people he could turn to, but he's also ended up perpetually isolated for one reason or another. Dick and Talia both feel to me like characters who are so lonely the further they get in their lives. I could see a silent understanding there. The kind of people who would be able to find solace in simply sharing a space with each other. Neither of them like to talk about what they've been through, I think they'd like to have someone who just gets it. Trauma for trauma, you know?

SlaDickTalia: several angles available here.

1) Dick deserves some sexy older lovers who would wine and dine him and also rail him within an inch of his life and also kill for him. i am not immune to the aesthetics!! to the allure of a hot older duo double teaming their young spitfire partner!!!

2) corruption arc. u know u wanna.

3) Dick's fear of abandonment x the 2 most devoted people on the planet. if they were dating nothing bad would happen to Dick again, Slade and Talia just wouldn't allow that. smth smth, couldn't get rid of them if he tried <3

4) Bruce would hate it and that's always fun :3 not that that's hard tho, Babs is like the only one of Dick's partners that Bruce liked and that's bc he wants to keep it in the family.

5) healing.... sobs...... esp when it comes to feelings around parenthood. Those three have shit to work out and i think having some company would help.

6) They all need more people time but 2/3 of them don't get along with anybody so they're kinda stuck with Dick. that kid will forgive anybody if u bat ur eyelashes and behave well enough. He's also more likely to still see them as people despite everything they've been through, and when you're a military experiment and a semi immortal daughter of an immortal terrorist... It can be hard to find someone who looks at you like you still have a chance at humanity.

7) Slade and Talia playing a Cat Vs Dog type game with Dick in the middle. I think it's funny.

#sladicktalia #sladick #sladetalia #dicktalia #i have feelings about them. can u tell #asks #hardlycats

[bestworstcase]

You’ve mentioned a few times that Salem is awkward, could you get into you’re reasoning and evidence for this characterization (as she is currently)? I’m fascinated by this reading and fully persuadable. Her origin story being the tower, it makes sense she’d be a little socially stunted but she was charismatic enough then to convince others to fight for her through words alone (tho that is different from in person social skills (to that point she persuaded kingdoms to revolt against the gods)). Millions of years of isolation wouldn’t put a shine on amicability, but these things /inform/ characterization. I’m interested in what you see in her as awkward in how she’s presented to us in the Current Era (Remnant Era?)

this post regarding her interrogation of oscar in 8.4 is salient because that's the scene that rly convinced me she's being written this way on purpose. there's a lot of contributing factors, though:

both then (fomenting rebellion) and now (recruiting hazel), salem's standard approach to getting people on her side involves basically walking up and "demonstrating her powers," i.e. inviting or just letting the person she's trying to sway kill her over and over again until they're willing to hear her out. she can (and did) make a compelling enough argument for people to follow her, but the way she chooses to make people listen is by subjecting herself to extreme violence.

further, it's shown in V8 that even within her own inner circle, there is a lot of confusion regarding what salem wants—so much so that tyrian and hazel think diametrically opposed things. why does this confusion exist? ozpin (and most of the fandom) believe it is because salem lies; but a) salem hates lies and liars, and b) the idea that salem herself is deceitful is founded on things jinn says of her in the lost fable, which is a verifiably unreliable narrative. if we look at the two onscreen instances of salem speaking of her goals—"the moment you put your desires before my own" and "in pursuit of a new world"—what strikes me about both is her vagueness.

when cinder questions her in V5, salem answers in a very oblique way: "working with bandits? leaving ruby alive? what's the point!?" -> "never underestimate the usefulness of others; take leonardo. he was one of ozpin's most trusted, but now…" both the bandit (raven) and ruby were or are among ozpin's "most trusted," and salem's point is that she wants to turn both of them against ozpin (like leo and summer). but she does not actually Say That. i made this analogy in the oscar interrogation post but i'll make it again: the way salem answers cinder's question is like showing her work on a math problem but not actually giving the answer. a lot of salem's dialogue is like this: she talks in examples, hints, and implications.

in fact the one time we have ever seen salem clearly state what she means is after ozma asks her "what are you saying?" <- i find this to be significant not only because it flags that other characters find salem's speech to be opaque or unclear sometimes, but because salem answers him honestly and without any hesitation, which indicates that she was not trying to be vague or obfuscate her meaning on purpose. asked for clarification, she clarifies.

then there is what she says to ozma once he tells her the whole truth: "why spend our lives trying to redeem these humans when we could replace them with what they could never be?"—now i am not going to get into my whole theory here, suffice it to say that i think that by "them" salem meant the gods in accordance with her longstanding ambitions—but the salient piece for this discussion is that this bolded phrase is a direct paraphrase from the final lines of 'the shallow sea' and i do think that that is, given the preponderance of thematic links between salem and the faunus, probably intentional, i.e. salem is quoting that myth to express her rejection of ozma's mandate (compare ozma's reliance on fairytales to communicate and make sense of his existence.)

lastly, there are several occasions when salem is talking (to her inner circle in 6.4, or to ironwood in 7.11, or oscar in 8.4) only to be interrupted with unexpected new information (ozpin is back; ruby used the lamp; oscar is fronting). in the first two examples, salem responds by either kicking everyone else out or leaving herself. see the linked post for a more thorough breakdown of her conversation with oscar, but suffice it to say that she responds in a very awkward and disjointed way before she's able to get herself back on track.

so we have a pattern of:

speaking vaguely or being cryptic, in a manner that other characters explicitly find to be confusing,

clarifying readily the one time she's asked for clarification,

paraphrasing the concluding lines of a myth about people embracing change and leaving their old selves behind to live their truth in a new world that is harsh but free, in order to articulate her rejection of "redemption" and the divine mandate,

and ending conversations very abruptly when interrupted mid-speech.

and this pattern exists in correlation with a pair of soliloquies whose language is markedly more eloquent, even poetic, and delivered with a clarity and emotional smoothness that is often lacking from her spoken dialogue.

what this suggests, to me, is that salem struggles to articulate her thoughts (the soliloquies) into words (her dialogue), and that she deals with it with preparation—by planning out what she intends to say and how she'll say it in advance. that she relies heavily on scripts and rehearses speeches and conversations in her head specifically to avoid having to speak off the cuff, in essence.

(and i think this is generally the basis for ozma's distrust and doubts: she told him the truth but in a really confusing and cryptic way that didn't always make sense. if she wasn't coherent—and how could she be after millions of years alone?—of course he wasn't sure whether he could believe what she said!)

basically, i think she's capable of being compellingly persuasive only under particular circumstances (planned speeches given to an audience primed to listen to what she says by violent, spectacular demonstrations of her immortality), and she flounders in ordinary conversation because a) she struggles to find the right words to express her meaning clearly, b) her natural affect is blunted and sometimes erratic (<- "well… :) perhaps you and i can have a better working relationship……… >:( oscar, was it? /:"), and c) she knows both of these things make her come across as an insincere liar.

<- there is a performative aspect to… nearly every scene in front of her inner circle or her enemies; that informs this reading too. as does the fact that there are many, many characters who are tangibly more charismatic than she is—ozpin, blake, oscar, cinder, robyn, ruby, yang—whereas the character whose manner of speech most resembles salem's is pyrrha, who speaks in an overly formal way and explicitly feels socially isolated and unable to form real connections with people.

#it's also not just the tower #it's the millions of years being the only living person on the planet #i think part of it is she's so accustomed to having nothing and no one to talk to except herself #like a lot of her Being Cryptic comes across as salem #really needing the other person to ask clarifying questions bc she doesn't know how to organize information cogently #but she's surrounded by people who Don't Ask Questions

[guiltycorp]

this might be a controversial opinion, but I think Shoko’s ‘I was there too’ was another expression of the author’s slide into sexism in the latter half of JJK

because the thing is, at the time of reading the backstory arc, I thought it was an exceptionally good decision not to involve Shoko in the main plot too much despite being the typical 1 girl 2 boys as per shonen standards, she refused to engage with them on a narrative level from her words about ‘never becoming trash like those two’ to her consistent avoidance of getting involved in their conflicts, Shoko also never presented her own stance on strong vs weak or non-sorcerers vs sorcerers, she just wanted to do her own thing and let the boys sort out themselves

and when letting Gojo know the whereabouts of the newly snapped Geto, she says ‘no way, i don’t want to be killed’, which is obviously another valid reason why she didn’t want to participate in their break-up thing

...for a ‘girl character in a trio’ this complete avoidance is an admirably fresh character trait!! if she tried to act like a true supportive friend, she would inevitably have to take on the emotional burden of her two male classmates no matter how empathetic Geto was as a person, with his slide into complete breakdown it would still fall on Shoko to try and handle it emotionally, leading to an unsatisfactory sexist trope similarly to Nobara who never acted as the ‘safe-rational-emotional core of the group’, Shoko never fell into the trap of being a prop for male characters’ feelings and decisions   

moreover, it worked well in that arc specifically because there were other female characters who actually did serve as exactly that, changing both Gojo and Geto for good despite this being another ‘female character dies for male character progression’ i think it still worked pretty well due to Riko representing the established cycle of innocent youth dying because of their messed up society 

(...and also because this was far from the only factor influencing both Gojo and Geto) 

one could argue that still, with Shoko and Yaga being the only survivors who knew Gojo and Geto that well (the extent of Nanami’s closeness to them seems unclear to me) Gojo never remained alone ...but Yaga was another cog in the system, consecutively failing his students time and time again and Shoko... well, in the fanbook, it was said that she’s neutral and doesn’t have a preference between Gojo and the higher-ups, and yeah, she didn’t comment on any of his rants about changing the status-quo

of course, she still did what he asked her to do (writing off Yuji as ‘deceased’ on the report) and she is not completely heartless as seen in the JJK0 movie where she immediately left the room as soon as Yaga called for Geto’s immediate execution  there’s also the ambiguous way Kenjaku phrased this where it could mean either that Gojo himself didn’t want to fully destroy Geto’s body or that he didn’t want Shoko to do it to spare her feelings (personally i’m leaning more towards the first option tho tbh) ‘You are only considerate during such awkward moments’.

BUT THE POINT IS, no matter how valid for her own character, she did absolutely leave both Gojo and Geto alone! purposefully so, too so for the author to suddenly bring up her own feelings making it seem as if it’s Gojo who ignored her steadfast support and presence in his life is... just a return to the more basic tenets of ‘woman longs to be appreciated by a man but the man is busy doing other more important things’

like, Gojo is a dumb bitch with extremely low emotional intelligence who relies a little too much on his personal understanding of strength when it comes to forging connections but to pretend that Shoko was there for him or Geto is a disservice to all of their characters also, while it’s canon that Gojo doesn’t let himself open up to anyone other than Geto, it’s not like there are people by his side who’d be willing to listen to him anyway?... it’s not a coincidence that both Utahime and Nanami have a lot of Geto’s more admirable traits and yet dislike Gojo instead of enjoying his company and to me it’s a shame that fandom jumped so readily on this perceived dynamic of poor left-out Shoko...

she was never left out, she left on her own time and time again!

#jjk spoilers #jjk #shoko ieri #gojo satoru #has been bugging me for a while #text #jjk meta

[weaselbeaselpants]

The 'Quinton v Nebula'clique' drama

[[[ DO NOT BOTHER THE PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS POST]]]

I saw on Twitter that Quinton had filmed a response to one of his critics whom he had a more personable interaction with. After going through all the info laid out by non-biased, non Wikitubia sources that aren't gushing abt shit that doesn't matter, as well as I guess what we'll call the "opposing sides" here's what I can surmise:

A yt named FlowersGothic had some kind of parasocial interest in Quinton and really wanted to be his solo editor and more* irl

-> Quinton himself also has/had his own parasocial attachments to people, namely Lindsay Ellis and Sarah Zed, I think. I def remember how the two expressed publicly that they aren't into working with him after (I think???) he trauma dumped and was waaay to emotionally volatile when asking to be their friend, which naturally turned them away and creeped them out. Whether or not he was definitely creeping on either women is unclear but yeah I get why they were uncomfortable.

All parties involved here already know this, but it's not Lindsay and Sarah's responsibility for Quinton's validation or feelings of rejection. they don't have to be friends w him when they feel like he pushed their boundaries. I do feel like, frankly, a lot of these receipts are being presented as worse than they are by the 4chan/KiwiFarmers doing the digging...if Quinton's going to be called a creeper, it better be by the ppl he hurt and not randos who don't even like Sarah or Lindsay abt how they should feel...

-> Flowers took her job as editor waay too personally and also messaged Quinton drunk twice, on Halloween saying she wanted to be more than friends

-> Quinton said no. Like Ellis and Zed, he's not responsible for Flowers' feelings and validation, just her paycheck which he said did pay her fill on

-> Flowers did a 180 and said she now hated him, apparently blamed him for her emotional problems and state and started to compile a list of grievences she's had and spit that back at Quinton.

-> Flowers has been presenting these receipts as absolutes for awhile now

-> Quinton for the first time responds on his second channel to Flowers accusations; presenting his side and also saying Flowers' is using half-truths and sometimes straight up lying

-> Dan Olson and Lady Emily, friends of Lindsay and Sarah respectively have vague tweeted today very obviously abt Quinton. Don't know exactly what Olson said, but Emily def is implying that Quinton = bad

-> people are now wondering if Flowers is somewhat responsible the schism and that the 'Nebula Clique' is siding with her and other people's own biased thoughts against Quinton as fueled by their own less than positive circumstances with him.

It's sad. I haven't watched anything by Flowers. I think I would, actually, but these are some very heavy things she's accusing here and things she's being accused of. I don't actually know any of these people exactly, but none of them seem like liars -if anything I see Quinton as being a little bit waywaywaay too honest sometimes? Not understanding like Contrapoints, I guess, but you know- tmi?

As an outsider, this looks like a matter of a lot of hut feelings and neurodivergents' judging other neurodivergents' behavior based on their own bad experiences.

I hate calling the Nebula crowd a 'clique', tbh. As someone who is always on the outside of other friend groups and so know the feeling of jealousy and exclusivity, I think it's easy to just look as any gang of well-netted creators as a "clique" when they could very well just be protective of each other. Considering the bs Sarah and all the former TGWTG-folks had to deal with I get their apprehension of Quinton.

I also tho really get Quinton as someone dealing w similar issues as him, and I'd be heartbroken to find out he's lying or even just accusing someone else of lying.

Gosh I hope this blows over and gets resolved and doesn't reach the pos drama channels out there.

#quinton reviews #sarah zed #sarah z #lindsay ellis #breadtube

[quetzalpapalotl]

If you would be interested in talking about it I would love to know- how do you think IDW1 OP feels about the way Shockwave surgically altered him to carry the Matrix? It's such a wild note to me (both in what it implies about the Matrix and the whole idea of the "chosen leader" being something everyone in power understands you have to artificially construct, and in the sense of how OP understands his duty as a Prime because of it).

I'm always interested in talking about this disaster of a man, thank you.

This ended very long, I went on many tangents and for that I'm sorry, but I hope it does answer your question. Since this is about how I read OP I focused more on his character in the comics as a whole rather than what the authors were thinking.

First, I personally don't think that being altered to have a Matrix compartment really makes any difference on whether one can actually carry the Matrix. It makes it easier, but the Matrix still has a morality lock that a frame modification is not gonna pass. But then again, the morality lock doesn't end up mattering and it doesn't make the Primacy any less of a construct, but we'll get back to that.

Now, we can guess that despite having multiple Prime candidates, Orion was Shockwave's favorite. Shockwave calls him his brightest hope and entrusts him to Zeta in case anything happens to Shockwave. Yet there's a lot Shockwave didn't tell Orion, he didn't tell him about Zeta, he didn't tell him about the other candidates. He did the noncon body modification and is overall an extremely shady dude. But Orion has no distrust of him. Shockwave sort of acts like he expects Orion to rise up to do what Shockwave needs when he asks for it and Orion is perfectly willing to do it (as Roller calls out).

This makes sense, OP is a character who very badly wants to believe in Goodness, Hope, Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice, more than he actually believes in it. In a way, he's playing fake it till you make it with reality and he reacts very intensely whenever the world disappoints him. This leads to him being either very trustful or very cynical depending on the person and situation.

Orion was a very privileged kind of naive. He thought the world was fundamentally good, that all you have to do to stop bad things is to stop the wrongdoers and that everything can be solved through the right channels. His encounter with Megatron shatters this image and makes him realize that he actually doesn't know how the world works.

To this Shockwave presents himself, he genuinely wants to help Cybertron, he understands that which Orion doesn't (Orion directly compares him to Megatron on this) and Shockwave has the idea that to fix the planet they just have to put the right person in power, Shockwave is still working with the system. The last point means that change can come peacefully, which is perfect as Orion wants to avoid a violent revolution (he has ideas on who's allowed to use violence). Shockwave presents himself as the solution to Orion's firts major moral crisis, so it's really no wonder that Orion clings to him so badly.

(Side note, but Shockwave seems to be winging his whole plan. It's unclear if he found out Nominus' Matrix was a fake before Sentiel and Proteus, but he didn't bring that up in CT. So if he ever thought it was real, was his plan to kill Nominus and shove the Matrix in OP's chest hoping it would take? Was that why he had multiple candidates? After he found out he was fake, was he planning on finding the real Matrix or also use a fake? Probably whichever was more viable)

Orion himself never shows any interest in becoming Prime, never even talks about the possibility. He seems just willing to go along with it because he's willing to go along with whatever Shockwave says. He insists to Roller that he's not with Shockwave because he singled him out (tho, I think he certainly likes Shockwave's attention). And after Shockwave dies in spirit, and someone else he trusted shows up to take the Primacy, Orion is happy to go along and serve under him.

(There is a version of events where OP ends up being Shockwave's puppet Prime which makes me insane to think about)

That's right! It's time to talk about IDW1's most important character!! This was a trap!!

Zeta fills in the gap Shockwave left in Orion's life, and he even actually ends functionism!!! (officially that is), so he seems like the right person to put all his hopes in. Despite this, he isn't Shockwave, Orion is not as taken by him and does bring up the fact that this Matrix and Primacy thing is made up to him.

What I want to highlight here is that Zeta not only admits to Orion that the matrix and the primacy are symbols to be used for control, but he also calls Orion himself a symbol, even before he becomes Optimus (but in a way, progressing the path Shockwave put him in by trying to make him a Prime). Zeta jumpstarts OP's mythification by using his image for propaganda.

Orion at first doesn't think that this is very cash money, but on top of being desperate to believe in someone, this questioning happens at the same time that he loses his faith in the Decepticon due to the other stuff happening. So out of good options (at least form his POV), he decided that hey, maybe Zeta has a point. Maybe we can use the symbols for good, since things are such chaos otherwise. And even tho he would later disown Zeta, I think he still learned to wrong lesson from him.

So, Zeta turns out to suck massively, he aids in killing him, Megatron shoots him in the back and he finds the real Matrix. After things didn't work out with the 3 dudes Orion had put his hopes in, it seems that now Optimus has to embody his own values himself. But out of those 3 Shockwave didn't let him down willingly, I think Optimus still wants to pay respect to his memory and their dream. And besides, because OP is prone to question all his life choices and will spent the rest of his life struggling to give up control, I think he does wonder that maybe things wouldn't have gone so far if, instead of blindly trusting Zeta, he had become Prime from the beginning as Shockwave wanted.

Now we know from the end of Mtmte that the Matrix' morality lock reacts to your own feeling. Someone like Rodimus who wanted to prove himself felt good bonding with the Matrix because that's what he expected. Optimus feels pain, he feels the fear of war in all Cybertronians, he calls him a warning about responsibility. This all reflects what Optimus himself thinks of responsibility: that is a burden.

When OP finds the Matrix he was feeling guilty over having followed Zeta, over having let things get this bad. But OP's idea of making amends is to take on more responsibility. Every time he tries to step down he ends up coming back because he feels that's what he has to do. So it's really not so much that because the Matrix choose him that he has to become Prime, but rather that because he can use this power he has to. He morally obliged to do so because what's happening is his fault. Besides, he was already the leader of the Autobot forces going into battle against Megatron (even tho in Autocracy he also acts like a regular cop, this is a mess, but let's roll with it) so this is still his duty. And what's he gonna do? Not try to stop Megatron? (Optimus is someone cannot stay still, but his repertoire of solutions is lacking). He not only chooses to use the literal and symbolic power of the Matrix, but he also chooses to become a symbol himself, one that's supposed to embody all the good in the world. (And this is also part of why he always comes back, he made himself too big on an idea to be able to just fade)

But it is a choice, even if Optimus doesn't think he has a right to refuse. OP always frames everything he does as a choice (at least in retrospective, he can go "you leave me no choice" in the moment). So if it's something that Shockwave wanted him to do, he still did it willingly. This sense of hyperresponsability also has OP never consider himself a victim, he doesn't tend to emphasize the ways in which he has been hurt, he never ever talks about how Zeta used him and lied to him (he has no right, he hurted people). So this aspect of him is why I think he doesn't acknowledge Shockwave violated his bodily autonomy. Shockwave saved him from the Senate, repaired him and made the modifications for the greater good. So really, OP was harmed and is fine.

Anyway, even tho, OP was indeed technically "chosen" by the Matrix, he still sees the whole thing as much of a construct as Zeta's Primacy. He has respect for the Matrix, he knows it can create life, it saved him from death, it gave him a vision and there's all the powers he would use later. Still, he doesn't think it's actually divine or that bonding with it makes him that special. During the course of the war he has made far more use of the Matrix' symbolic power than of its practical uses. (Including saying that the Matrix is giving him a vision to get out of situations dhasgdkjashdas I love that)

(And he's not wrong about the Matrix not making you special. Mtmte shows us that anyone can open it under the right mindset. And even if Zeta, Sentinel and Nominus never carried the real thing, Nova did, so I wouldn't argue it is a good judge of character)

Optimus doesn't feel super comfortable using the idea of the Matrix this way, but this is far from the only and/or worse morally dubious strategy he pulls out for the greater good. He kinda goes back and forth between paying lip serive to the idea that he's Just A Dude, and using the Matrix as an ID card. Until we get to Combiner Wars and onwards where OP is fully, shamelessly cashing on the religious clout of being Prime. But he also seems so struggle managing this internally in that he tries to not buy his own hype but it does get to his head sometimes.

Also, there's something funny going on in that Optimus' Autobots don't seem to have any formally institutionalized religion. I mean, Optimus had authority before the Matrix and I don't recall any official statemen in the Autobot code or anything that the Matrix means one is Primus' chosen and that's who the leader is (Bee could be voted into position, and Optimus stll considered Bee the leader when he got it the matrix back even if he did undermine him). Now the idea certainly exists and I don't doubt it what used for propaganda, but Autobots seem to be left to their own devices in matters of faith and everyone has their own beliefs.

But even if not everyone thinks that Optimus' is Primus' chosen exactly, the idea that the Matrix is... something and that it choosing Optimus means he is special is certainly the prevalent notion. In this sense, the Matrix becomes part of Optimus' mythos rather than the other way around. Optimus idealization is so real it causes people to develop delusions. And Optimus himself doesn't do much to avoid this. Sure, this kind of thing is often beyond one's hands, especially when you're one of the few people who can go toe-to-toe with Megatron (who also mythicized himself), but even if he denies being special when asked directly (which is usually to his closer friends who already idealize him less than the average bot), I doubt he has ever gone on official record like "My fellow Autobots, the Matrix doesn't mean shit". On the most charitable of takes, this kind of thing serves for morale, which would be needed when battling a figure like Megatron.

So Optimus is always under the shadow of himself. An idea he created from the dregs of a rotten legacy that he has to live up to because it's his duty to do so, because he can't not do anything and this is what he knows what do to. And this all ties back to Barber's broader themes of symbols, stories and Optimus as an idea as well as a person. And as we know, the ultimate conclusion Optimus reaches is that yeah, no, the Primacy cannot be salvaged, no one should have that much power regarldess of intentions, it needs to die so Cybertronians can move on, so he takes it to the grave with him.

#towardsmorning #i really thought this would be a quick answer i really did #quetzal rambles tf

[twst-vision-of-the-crimson-rose]

Vision Of The Crimson Rose AU

(Made by @klai-16xoxo )

Welcome one and all to the world behind the curtains of reality!

Would you like to accompany Kalim and Riddle to their adventure through what it’s meant to be hidden from the world? And unlock many roads and stories and meets new characters that may or may not seem familiar to you?

If that the case then let’s go! Firstly why not get to know the two main characters a bit?

{Riddle Roseheart}

In this au, Riddle had been raised extra strictly by his mother to the point that his mother had developed an unhealthy obsession of perfection and placed a lot of expectations on him. That why when he started to go blind she didn’t like that and viewed it as a huge flaw… in which she was willing to do anything to get his vision back. So kuch so that with some connection, a mysterious Doctor had offered her a beautiful crimson red eyes to be his, in which she happily agreed… not knowing the dark secrets and event that followed those beautiful Crimson eyes.

Riddle in this au kinda has Abathy. While he has shown fear,anger,compassion and happiness, these would be rare, fleeting and moderate. He dose not fake his emotions tho, so whenever he shows them, they would be 100% genuine, while if he faked them it would be painfully obvious!

{Kalim Al Asim}

Kalim’s past is unclear even for himself, all he knows is that he had been drowned and his eyes had been stolen from him, despite that he somehow able to still use his other senses to move around and interact with his surroundings. It is only when Riddle had claimed his eyes that he finally can see again but through Riddle’s POV, Kalim want to uncover more about his past and would do anything to achieve this goal!

As for his personality… well it is pretty much just like the one in the game, he such a kind soul and always try to look at the bright side of things but deep down there is more to him then meet the eyes.

{referring and small facts}

// this au is still under work and tbh I made it for fun and it story still being worked at, meaning I am just going with the wind! All I know this au is like a horror rpg games like pocket mirror, mad father and so one! Tho I had a lot of help from @sleepy-meep when making this au so thank you bestie🫶 anyway let me just attack ye all with random facts!

// as for the fact, there so many bu I would not say all of them but here are few!

Riddle in this au may have abathy but tbh he such a sweet heart and a lil silly but I like to imagine him like Rachel from Angels of Death.

Kalim actually basically fucking Paimon from genshin lol he make sure to guide Riddle around and tell him all he knows… which surprisingly is a lot.

In the au, the two would go literally behind the curtains of reality and to multiple realms that is ruled by different Wardens and each one had it different themed

There this one character titled as “The Archiver” and the most powerful character in the au that oversees everything in the realms (also he is my twst oc, Takara lol you can learn all about him from my blog @klai-16xoxo )

In this au, NRC dose not really matter that much at, since the boys didn’t even go to it soooo~ yeah! I am not even sure if it dose exist hahah

Kalim can beet ass and wouldn’t hesitate, keep ya hand off Riddle ò<ó

Sometimes I would open an event where a “Love DLC” happen where you can romance the characters that or have Riddle do it or any other characters you ship but keep in mind that some would not be answered if I find them inappropriate!

This blog is like a side blog for me and idk if I would be that much active in it but I would try my best!

I am not the best writers so if I wrote down some stuff they may not be that good so forgive me!

#TWST VOTCR AU #riddle rosehearts #kalim al asim #twisted wonderland #twst #twisted wonderland au #twst au