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experimentaljournal · 3 years

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My range of texts

BOOKS

· “We’re all mad here” ― The Cheshire Cat from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol

· "If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't.” ― Alice from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol

· “All the best people are mad.” ― The Mad Hatter from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol

· “After all this time?” (Dumbledore)

“Always” said Snape.

― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33, The Prince's Tale

· “To you, who stayed with Harry right to the end.” ― (Dedication) J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

· “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

· "It is only in the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." From The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

LYRICS

· “Be patient, is very good advice,

But the waiting makes me curious,

And I'd love the change” ― Disney's Alice In Wonderland Movie (1951) - Very Good Advice (Lyrics)

· “Deep in the meadow, under the willow. A bed of grass, a soft green pillow. Lay down your head, and close your eyes. And when they open, the sun will rise. Here it's safe, and here it's warm. Here the daisies guard you from every harm. Here your dreams are sweet, and tomorrow brings them true. Here is the place where I love you.” (Lullaby Lyrics) ― Jennifer Lawrence from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Movie

Strange things did happen here

No stranger would it be

If we met at midnight

In the hanging tree

Where I told you to run

So we'd both be free

[Original line:] Wear a necklace of rope

[Line modified for effect:] Wear a necklace of hope

Side by side with me

―"The Hanging Tree" Lyrics (Jennifer Lawrence with James Newton Howard from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 Movie)

MOVIES

· “Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favour.” ― Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

STUDIO GHIBLI MOVIES

· "Sometimes You Have To Fight For The Things That Are Worth Fighting For.” - The Secret World Of Arrietty (2010)

· “They Say That The Best Blaze Burns Brightest When Circumstances Are At Their Worst.” - Howls Moving Castle (2004)

· "Always Believe In Yourself. Do This And No Matter Where You Are, You Will Have Nothing To Fear.” - The Cat Returns (2002)

· "It Doesn’t Really Matter What Color Your Dress Is. What Matters Is The Heart Inside.” - Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)

· "Everybody, Try Laughing. Then Whatever Scares You Will Go Away!” - My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

· "Life Is Suffering. It Is Hard. The World Is Cursed. But Still, You Find Reasons To Keep On Living.” - Princess Mononoke (1997)

· "Once You've Met Someone, You Never Really Forget Them." - Spirited Away (2001)

· “It’s Funny How You Wake Up Each Day And Never Really Know If It’ll Be One That Will Change Your Life Forever.” - The Secret World Of Arrietty (2010)

· "Deny Death, And You Deny Life." - Tales From Earthsea (2006)

· "You Should Never Judge Others By Their Looks." — Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008)

· "But If His Love Isn't Pure, She'll Turn Into Sea Foam." "That Is Where We All Originate, My Darling." — Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008)

· “I’ll always love Ponyo. Whether she’s a fish, a human, or something in-between.” — Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008)

FAMOUS PRACTICIONERS QUOTES

· “The Designer is the artist of today.” Bruno Munari

· “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” Walt Disney

· “One person’s craziness is another person’s reality.” Tim Burton

· “Do everything by hand even when using the computer.” Hayao Miyazaki

· "Humans have both the urge to create and destroy." Hayao Miyazaki

· “You must see with eyes unclouded by hate. See the good in that which is evil, and the evil in that which is good. Pledge yourself to neither side, but vow instead to preserve the balance that exists between the two.” Hayao Miyazaki

· “Fantasy, Creativity, Invention think. Imagination sees.” Bruno Munari

TV SERIES (GAME OF THRONES)

“Are you a sheep? No. You're a dragon. Be a dragon.” ― Lady Olenna from Game of Thrones

“Winter is coming.” ― House Stark Motto from Game of Thrones

“Hold the door.” ― Hodor from Game of Thrones

“Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder.” ― Lord Baelish from Game of Thrones

“What do we say to the God of Death? Not Today!” ― Syrio Forel from Game of Thrones

“Valar Morghulis (All men must die). Valar Dohaeris (All men must serve)” ― from Game of Thrones

“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.” ― Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones

“The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.” ― from Game of Thrones

RONDOM (BOOKS)

You cross your arms. “Look, Joe. She’s alone. She’s scared. And she’s my friend.” ― from You (Chapter 19, pg. 175) by Caroline Kepnes

The Three Lord laughed. “You may ask anything you wish, little one. If it weren’t for you, we would be not here”. ― from Mistress of All Evil (Chapter 18 pg. 143) by Serena Valentino

The room had a central staircase with two set of stairs that both led to a second-story landing. ― from Let It Go, A Frozen Twisted Tale (Chapter 19 pg. 181) by Jen Calonita

The thing about the front bench was that it meant I had a good view. ― from How to Stop Time (Chapter London, 1599 pg. 157) by Matt Haig

Against this backdrop, once, or twice, or five times a year, somewhere in the world, there would be a recruitment. ― from Red Sparrow (Chapter 22 pg. 313) by Jason Matthews

You can’t blend in when you were born to stand out. ― from Wonder (Front Cover) by R. J. Palacio

My name is August. I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse. ― from Wonder (Back Cover) by R. J. Palacio

I am as harmless as a little child, but I don’t like to be dictated to. ― from Heart of Darkness (Chapter 2 pg. 60) by Joseph Conrad

Wendy: You are the littlest, and a cradle is such a nice homely thing to have about a house. ― from Peter Pan (Act IV pg. 134) by James Barrie

I was born and I have lived in a land of giants; giants have dragged me by the wrists since I was born out of my mother – the giants circumstances ―from The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Introduction XXXIX) by R. L. Stevenson

BOOKS REVIEWS

“Has the power to move hearts and change minds” ― Guardian about Wonder by R. J. Palacio (Back cover)

“Outlandish… Heart-warming… Perceptive” ― Daily Telegraph about How to Stop Time by Matt Haig (Back Cover)

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why-animals-do-the-thing · 5 years

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How many animals does it take to sound like a dragon?

The only spoiler for Game of Thrones in this article is that the show involves this one lady having some dragons. In-text links contains spoilers, so click through at your own risk.

Long-time readers will remember how excited I get about animal noises being used for to bring fantasy creatures in media to life, like finding a tiger chuff in the Lord of the Rings’ cave troll vocalizations or a lion’s oofing in the call of Jurassic World’s Indominous Rex. I found a really cool post on Instagram today from a conservation breeding facility I follow about where some of their animals’ noises have be used, and... man, it led me down such an awesome rabbit hole of noises the Game of Thrones sound designer has used to bring the dragons to life.

Let’s start with the post I found today. (Click through there if mobile isn’t embedding the video for you). White Oak Conservation posted this video to start off Endangered Species Day, in which Paula Fairfield (the sound designer for GoT) is crouched next to a microphone recording white rhino vocalizations for inclusion in the dragon sounds of Season 8.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by White Oak Conservation (@whiteoakconservation) on May 17, 2019 at 7:35am PDT

“Today is Endangered Species Day, so throughout the day, we will post photos of some of the endangered species that can be found at White Oak. But we thought we'd start with something a little different. As you know from a previous post, a couple of White Oak's species were featured in the most recent season of Game of Thrones. Sound designer Paula Fairfield used our rhinos' (and cranes') voices to help bring her dragons' voices to life. She felt that using endangered species vocalizations was important: "We live in a world where our animals are disappearing at a rapid rate," she said. "So it's powerful for me to listen to their beautiful voices and use them in this space." As the GOT series winds down, we thought we'd show you how the sounds were collected. And if you want to learn more about the now-famous rhinos at White Oak, be sure to sign up for our Rhinogram at www.whiteoakdwildlife.org/rhinogram. #endangeredspeciesday #saverhinos#GOT @eargasminc”

That post referenced an earlier post, in which we found out that they also used vocalizations from White Oak’s sandhill cranes were also part of Season 8′s dragon noises! At which point I was super curious what other animals had been part of the show’s dragon vocalizations and sound effects over the years. The answer is, it turns out, quite a lot.

Let’s just start with this quote from a Vanity Fair article about how Paula imagined the relationship between Dany and her dragons, to set the stage in your imagination.

“Fairfield joined Thrones in Season 3 and talks about “inheriting” the trio of dragons when they were “more kind of like toddlers.” She then lovingly crafted stories and personalities for each dragon to help get to the heart of their sound. She sees Drogon as a kind of lover to Daenerys, and endows his noises with more sensual tones—whereas the “bros,” as she calls Rhaegal and Viserion, are like “Beavis and Butthead.””

Whelp. Okay then. That would explain why Drogon’s “purr” vocalization towards Danaerys is... well...

...yup. It’s a modified version of the moan of a mating male giant tortoise, Paula revealed in an interview with Radiolab:

“The groan of the male actually became, with some work and adjustments, the source for Drogon's purr with [Daenerys]. The funny thing about the purr with Drogon was watching people watching [the show] and giggling when they heard it, but not really knowing why. To me, it's because it had that essence, that kind of sensual, sexual essence.”

If that’s not fantastic enough, it turns out vocalizations for Viserion were based on the screams of a very special animal: hardcore GoT fans!

“Having met a few of the Burlington regulars at the Con of Thrones fan convention earlier this year, Fairfield asked Samantha (Sam) Adolfo (jack of all trades artist and obsessive Game of Thrones nerd), Morgan Drase (lead singer of Chicago band Radio Shaq), Dustin Drase (musician, husband, Ice Dragon), Amelia Chambers (writer and purveyor of vintage clothing), and Loftus to, according to Adolfo, “get a little drunk, and then scream as if you're being tortured. It’ll be therapeutic!” She didn’t tell them why she needed the screams, or even that her request was for Game of Thrones.”

Paula has also noted in interviews that she uses sounds like the beating of a dragonfly’s wings to add texture to the skin of the dragons as they move, "shrieky" bird noises to build out the dragon’s repertoire, and that lots of the little whistles that the dragons make in earlier seasons were sourced from her dog, Angel.

We’ll probably never know all the animals whose calls went into shaping the soundscape of the Game of Thrones dragons - Paula said back in 2015 that she used ten different animals to sculpt the roar of the youngsters and added even more as the dragons aged - but now I’m definitely going to be listening to a bunch of Youtube clips to see what I can find. How many can you pick out?

#animal sounds #game of thrones #no spoilers #dragons #got

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cyberkevvideo · 4 years

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Throne of Night Theory Builds Part 16: The Mist Creature

Imagine my surprise when I learned the Canadian dollar dropped considerably. I’m so glad this AP was done when it was and not now. I don’t know I could have handled paying 1.5x the value we were originally quoted. That said, with so much “free time”, I can’t help but daydream that Gary’s working on the AP to kill time. During this time trying time, it’d be a nice pick-me-up.

Today’s entry isn’t a new picture, but it’s definitely cool to look at. A creature made of mist awaits our heroes and is about to ambush them. It took me a fair while to look up all the different kinds of fog and mist-like creatures in Pathfinder 1st Edition. I finally settled on today’s base creature because of the very descriptive eyes both in the picture, and in the lore write up that I discovered. They seemed to match, so that’s what I went with.

For the CR, I looked up sample encounters in the beginning of Book 5 of “Way of the Wicked”, and one of them was a CR 15. Given how difficult the creature would be to advance and make a worthwhile threat, that’s what I went with.

For space reasons, I’ll be cropping the encounter build.

All images shared here were done by the forever fantastic and amazingly talented Michael D. Clarke, aka SpiralMagus

EDIT: All stats are cleaned up and look pretty.

BTW, it suggested I make one because there are those who’ve expressed they want to reward my efforts, so I made a Ko-Fi page. No pressure in supporting it though. I know we’re all experiencing financially trying times right now. I hope everyone’s staying safe right now.

The creature I went with, due to his piercing blue glowing eyes, is the fogwarden. It’s from way back during AD&D days, and was converted by Frog God Games for their Tome of Horrors Complete. I took a few liberties and combined the 3.5, Pathfinder, and 5e versions. Yeah, all three are different from one another. This is what the “unique” aspect of it is. But this way, it’s an actual threat at CR 15. Also, I made it a psychic. While the fogwarden can still use its lightning abilities, it can’t cast any spells in its constant gaseous form. However, it can use psychic spells since you only need emotions.

For this, I advanced the HD to 8 from 4, gave it the Mighty Template, and the Mist creature template. Redundant, I know, but those extra abilities and hp from changing it to an outsider definitely round out the creature more. Despite all the overlap, it still ended up being a CR 15. It’s technically a CR 16, given the templates and HD, but it just does not have the AC nor deal the damage a typical CR 16 should, so I dropped it down to 15. If used to its fullest potential, and it can bottleneck PCs with the fog abilities, then it might actually be worth more XP, but on paper it’s only worth this amount. GMs are free to reward their players more if the encounter ends up being far more difficult than anticipated. At this level though, the PCs shouldn’t find 4th level psychic spells or obscuring fog spells that overwhelming.

I will point out that this is a 3PP monster, so it doesn’t really follow the rules too well. All monsters are supposed to have three odds stats and three even. This creature had two odd and four even. It’s not even in the original 3.5 stats. In fact, the Wisdom is 2 lower. The 5e stats are exactly the same as a the 3.5 ones, so that didn’t help me any. I needed one more odd number so I threw in a magic tome for good measure. This gave me the numbers I needed.

If you’re wondering where I got some of the damage numbers from, I was looking at the original fogwarden stats from AD&D, and what they suggested for their 8 HD advancement. Best part is even stronger ones are large size and have a less globe of invulnerability. On top of that, they’re a mystic theurge of CL 17/CL 13th (arcane/divine). It’s too bad old stats didn’t have ability scores.

VLINAUNDRA (CR 15; 51,200 XP) Unique advanced mighty mist fogwarden psychic 8 NE Medium outsider (air, elemental, water) Init +11; Senses cloud sight, darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +29 Aura fear (60 ft., W-DC 25) DEFENSE AC 26, touch 26, flat-footed 14 (+4 deflection, +6 Dex, +6 dodge) hp 256 (16 HD; 8d10+8d6+184) Fort +12; Ref +15; Will +20 Defensive Abilities air mastery, electricity discharge (R-DC 25, 6d6+5 electricity), fortification (100%), morphic form; DR 10/magic, DR 2/—; Immune cloud/fog/gas-based attacks and spells, cold, combat maneuvers, electricity, inhaled poisons and gases, mind-affecting effects, paralysis, poison, sleep; Resist fire 10; SR 27 Weakness vulnerability to sunlight OFFENSE Speed fly 70 ft. (good) Special Attacks animate dead, dark half (+1 spell DC, +2 Will, 2 bleed; 11 rounds), lightning bolt (60 ft. line, DC 27, 7d6+5 electricity, useable every other round), mighty damage. phrenic amplifications (focused force, intense focus, overpowering mind), phrenic pool (10) Melee shocking touch +26 (5d6+5 electricity) Spell-like Abilities (CL 8th, concentration +17) At will—animate dead 3/day—fog cloud, obscuring mist, stinking cloud (F-DC 24) 1/day—cloudkill (F-DC 26), solid fog Psychic Spell-like Abilities (CL 8th; concentration +18) 1/day—detect thoughts (W-DC 22) Psychic Spells Known (CL 8th; concentration +18) 4th (4/day)—black tentaclesB (CMB +18), shout (F/R-DC 25) 3rd (6/day)—excruciating deformationB (F-DC 24), id insinuation II (W-DC 24), slow (W-DC 24) 2nd (7/day)—alter selfB, fox’s cunning, mind thrust II (W-DC 23), sonic scream (R-DC 23) 1st (8/day)—comprehend languages, ill omen, magic missile, murderous command (W-DC 22), ray of enfeeblementB (F-DC 22), shield 0 (at will)—dancing lights, detect magic, ghost sound (W-DC 21), know direction, mage hand, resistance, telekinetic projectile, virtue Psychic Discipline abomination STATISTICS Str 10, Dex 22, Con 12, Int 20, Wis 16, Cha 18 Base Atk +10; CMB —; CMD — Feats Ability Focus (lightning bolt), AlertnessB, Dodge, Expanded Phrenic Pool, Great Fortitude, Greater Spell Penetration, Spell Penetration, Weapon Finesse Skills Acrobatics +22, Bluff +20, Fly +26, Intimidate +20, Knowledge (arcana) +20, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +21, Knowledge (geography) +17, Knowledge (local) +19, Knowledge (nature) +19, Knowledge (planes) +18, Linguistics +21, Perception +29, Sense Motive +27, Spellcraft +23, Survival +19, Stealth +22 (+26 to move silently, +37 in areas of fog, cloud, mist, or smoke); Racial Modifiers +4 Fly, +4 to Stealth to move silently, +15 to Stealth in areas of fog, cloud, mist, or smoke; +5 to all ability and skill checks Languages Aquan, Auran, Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Terran, Undercommon SQ air breather, detect thoughts, gaseous form (constant) Gear tome of clear thought +1 (read) SPECIAL ABILITIES Air Mastery (Ex) Any airborne creature takes a –1 penalty on attack and damage rolls against a mist creature. Animate Dead (Su) The electrical aura of the fogwarden can animate dead creatures within 20 feet. This is otherwise identical to an animate dead (caster level 8th). The animated creatures resemble zombies (and use their stats) and are under the control of the fogwarden that animated them. They are not undead however, and cannot be turned or rebuked. If the fogwarden is slain or moves more than 20 feet from a zombie, the animated creature collapses dead and cannot be animated again. Cloud Sight (Ex) A mist creature can see through clouds, gases, fogs, mists, and smoke as though they didn’t inhibit vision. Creatures and objects do not gain concealment from a mist creature due to such conditions. A mist creature may use this ability while gaseous. Electricity Discharge (Su) Electricity constantly plays across a fogwarden’s form. Any metal object (including metal weapons) that contacts a fogwarden’s body takes 6d6 points of electricity damage. Magic items receive a DC 25 Reflex saving throw to reduce the damage by half. Nonmagical items and objects receive no save and automatically take full damage. A creature holding the object or weapon at the time of contact takes 6d6 points of electricity damage as well (DC 25 Reflex save for half). Gaseous Form (Ex) The fogwarden’s natural form is that of fog or mist. This ability is similar to the gaseous form spell (caster level 8th), except that a fogwarden does not lose its supernatural abilities or its lightning bolt ability, and has a fly speed of 40 feet. It is immune to and cannot perform combat maneuvers. Mighty Damage (Ex) A mighty creature adds +5 damage to all of their attacks, spells, and supernatural abilities. If a spell or ability targets multiple creatures (ie. magic missile), the bonus damage is only applied once to a single target of the mighty creature’s choice. Vulnerability to Sunlight (Ex) Fogwardens shun sunlight. A fogwarden exposed to sunlight is staggered for as long as it remains in the sunlight, and is destroyed utterly after 1 hour of exposure if it cannot escape.

--name means “mist” in dwarven.

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e-one-seven · 5 years

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About Cyclum Puzzles and how it is connected to Metheus Puzzles

Warning: This is a fan theory. I am not related to Klei Entertainment in any way, I just love their games and the lore behind a little bit too much. Also, This is a long post, so I'll put the actual post under "Keep reading" so it won’t screw up your page scroll habits in case you are not interested in Don't Starve and its lore. Thanks.

Let's start with a little story: once upon a time, there was an Ancient Civilization made of people afflicted by starvation and fear. Desperate, they escaped below the ground, where they found a magic portal from where a strange, black substance was leaking. Their leader, a curious man, started to study it and he discovered that the weird substance was much more powerful of everything he and his people ever saw before. He dubbed the substance "the Fuel" and he started to use it to build everything his people needed. They evolved, probably developing magic powers in the process, their civilization flourished and their leader became a powerful King for his people.

But not everyone was happy. Metheus, the King's advisor/queen and the one who carried the torch during the first explorations of the caves, eventually noticed that there was something wrong with the Fuel, but no one listened to her. She could do nothing but watch as the Fuel changed her people and her King day after day until They arrived to claim the souls of the people as a payment for their new powers. They all started to turn into monsters. The Corrupted King could do nothing but watch as Metheus sacrificed herself to stop Them. From that moment on, the cursed substance was renamed "Nightmare Fuel".

(And to me some people managed to escape through the portal to various worlds including Earth, where they mixed with the locals causing the birth of individuals with the potential to develop magic They are still hunting down to complete the genocide nowadays, but this is not the place to talk about that.)

With the Ancient Civilization and their rulers gone, the Constant became a dead world. They were powerful, but They needed people with strong, corruptible minds to sustain Themselves and Thier powers. So They pulled some strings and one day They found William Carter, a young, yet unlucky aspiring magician. They caused an accident and made him find The Codex Umbra, the fruit of Metheus and her King's studies on the Fuel. The young man started to study it and experiment with the small residues of the Fuel on Earth, unaware of the corruption it would cause to himself and whoever surrounded him. Like the King before him, he started to go mad, and his beloved assistant Charlie tried to make him stop performing his experiments. But during that what was supposed to be their last show, They came to claim Their tribute, and William Carter (now Maxwell), Charlie and possibly other people were captured and took to Their Realm.

It is not clear of what happened here (and I hope we are going to see it in Maxwell's cinematic), but it resulted in Maxwell becoming the new King of the Constant and Charlie being permanently fused with one of Their creatures. According to what Maxwell said when he is bound to the Throne, he might have tried to oppose Them and failed. ("It's best not to fight it." [...] "You can't change the rules of the game. I don't know what they want. They... they just watch. Unless you get too close... Then... Well, there's a reason I stay so dapper.")

We still don't know how and to what extent Maxwell tried to fight back, but we can still make some hypothesis. This is my personal opinion: at first he was somehow happy to be the vessel of Their will, but when he saw what Charlie had become because of Them. He tried to fight back and/or invert the transformation, and They tied him to the Nightmare Throne as a punishment for his attempted rebellion. Maxwell realized he was forced to follow Their will, so he kept summoning innocent people from Earth to the Constant, but with a twist. From that moment on he started to bring prisoners by following a determined scheme: the new survivors had to be smart and/or strong enough to survive on their own in the long run, and if they showed themselves to be worthy enough he would have shown them the truth about Them and Their world. Or at least, that could have been the initial purpose behind the choice of the survivors we get to play as. Eventually, Wilson, a young, yet unlucky aspiring scientist, finds/creates the portal that allows him to go on a journey to reach Maxwell and he finds him tied to the Throne. Maxwell implies that it happened because They don't want him as a King anymore, and a possible past/current secret scheme from Maxwell to defeat Them could be the true reason for Them wanting a new Ning. Wilson sets him free, sacrificing his freedom in the process and becoming the new King.

What is the possible correlation between Maxwell's story and what happened to the Ancient Civilization? As already said, whatever was the reason why he did what he did, Maxwell's actions caused a scattered community of people afflicted by starvation and fear to be born again, a new civilization who started to study the Nightmare Fuel and its application on their own and get insane, giving Them more power. Maxwell himself studied the Nightmare Fuel and it made him so corrupted that he seemed to have given up to his possible original plan to stop Them by the time Wilson found him. Wilson finds him and decides to release him from the Throne with an act the game defines "take pity at your own risk". He never really knew Maxwell and he doesn't know there are other people still alive out of there (but he might have suspected that if he canonically saved Wes and resurrected Webber), so maybe talking about a "self-sacrifice" could be an exaggeration. But there is a strange detail I recently noticed and greatly contributed to the creation of this theory. What is the one thing that most of the promotional images from Don't Starve and Don't Starve Together featuring Wilson have in common? Wilson carries a torch. Just like Metheus, the first character to canonically sacrifice herself to free the Ancient King and stop Them, did. The end of Don't Starve was the promise that the history of the Ancient Civilization would repeat itself after Maxwell's defeat, with the survivors turning into corrupted beings and Wilson "dying" by losing his humanity forever.

But it didn't happen. Charlie cyclum infregit. The use of Latin is not casual: taking in account how Latin grammar works "cyclum" does not simply mean "circle or cycle", but "circle or cycle that got changed by something". Charlie broke the circle by putting herself on the throne. And it was not just the circle of the succession to the Nightmare Throne, but possibly a greater scheme that was meant to end with everyone's corruption or death. By putting herself on the Throne and modifying the Jury-Rigged Portal she might have allowed the survivors to join their forces and gave them a chance to fight against Them. The survivors have a better comprehension of what is going on in DST, and it might be the explanation why the Magic Tab was mostly unmodified: only four new recipes were added, and only one of them requires Nightmare Fuel (Abigail's Flower, Wendy's exclusive item imported from Don't Starve). The others all require Moonlenses instead. The survivors are trying to abandon the Nightmare Fuel for the safer Moon Rocks.

I read some posts on Klei's forum where people were "complaining" because Maxwell seems to know next to nothing about the Moon and its magic, but it actually makes sense: he studied only the ancient Shadow Magic, and the Celestial Magic was apparently not available before Charlie's kingdom. Until now we saw Meteor Showers that brought boulders with Moon Rocks to the mainland, giving the survivors the chance to study a new kind of magic, possibly a safer one. Then... Wilson seems freaked out by something in the opening screen image, and what could be scarier to see huge pieces of the Moon detach and fall down from the sky in the middle of the ocean to create a new island?

And this is just the beginning of a series of actions that will cause They to reveal Themselves if we take the title of the whole update in account. There could be two ways for this to happen:

1) Charlie is loyal to Them and she is bringing the secrets of the Moon to the Constant because the Celestial Magic is not as harmless as it seems (the undead versions of the creatures living in the Constant might point towards this direction). The survivors are not aware of this and whatever they will do with the Celestial Magic will actually make Them strong enough to be physically able to manifest in the world.

2) Charlie is trying to betray Them and she wants the survivors to study the Celestial Magic to find a way to destroy Them for good (the Glass Cutter being powerful and having increased durability against Shadow Creatures seems to point towards this direction). At this point, They will realize what Charlie is trying to do and They will come in person to stop her plan, just like They did when Maxwell tried in the past. Some quotes from the Ancient Fuelweaver seems to point in this direction too: let's look at his quotes when he is defeated:

"Fools!" "Who are you?" "Release me, shade!" "You deserve this." "You are not Them..." "Are you so easily deceived? Ha..." "You've made your choice."

Except for the first deathcry, after an accurate analysis it is obvious he is talking with Charlie. At least three quotes imply that she is not working with Them, and that whatever is her plan it might backfire. Because of this, it might also be possible that a combination of both the previous hypothesis might happen.

3) Charlie wants the survivors to use the Moon Magic to destroy Them, but as Moon Magic is as dangerous as the Shadow Magic the survivors have to learn to control it first. But every fictional story taught us that Light and Shadow are balanced, and therefore using the Moon Magic is making Them stronger to the point They will eventually be able to physically manifest Themselves in the world. They might try to punish Charlie by limiting her powers and forcing her to watch while They kill the survivors, as they know too much to make one of them a new puppet king for Them to control. And after they are gone, They will summon new people to choose a new king just like They did when Maxwell betrayed Them, recreating the cyclum like it was before Charlie meddled with it.

(And if you are wondering "if Charlie is good, why is she still killing people when they are in the darkness?", the answer is simple: even though she is trying to lead a secret rebellion, she is also bounded by the rules. And the key rule is, if one is in the darkness, one needs to die. Also, death is not as permanent as before, so she is not even bothered by following it anymore.)

#don't starve #don't starve together #fan theory #don't starve Maxwell #don't starve Charlie #new contents #attempt at lore reconstruction #don't starve Them

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nobodysuspectsthebutterfly · 7 years

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Some people blame Sansa for Ned's death, and some blame Ned for his own death. Imho, Ned dug his own grave by going to Cersei. Still, in an interview GRRM said, "Sansa was the least sympathetic of the Starks in the first book; she has become more sympathetic, partly because she comes to accept responsibility for her part in her father's death." Does this mean her actions really did contribute to his death? The interview was done by Amazon UK. I believe you've linked it in a post before. Thanks!

I have, it’s a favorite interview. I’ve also answered this question before, but not for a long time, so you get it again, this time with extra quotes and sources.

So, first and foremost – Sansa is not to blame for her father’s death. The only ones to blame are Joffrey, who gave the order; Ilyn Payne, who obeyed without question; and almost certainly the man who convinced Joffrey to go against the plans of Cersei and Varys and the small council to allow Ned to confess treason and take the black, the man who made sure Ilyn Payne and Janos Slynt were ready and waiting for the execution.

However, Sansa did unfortunately have a part in the events that led up to Ned’s execution. As did many others, not in the least Ned himself – because, after all, he did tell Cersei he knew of the true parentage of her children, and told her he would be telling Robert as soon as he returned from his hunt, and told her to flee with her children before Robert killed them all. Ned also made plans to send his daughters to safety, preparing a ship for them to travel back to Winterfell (because, unlike the common paradigm, Ned was not stupid, just… outwitted, and too merciful). However, when Robert returned several days later, deathly wounded, Ned did not tell him (he didn’t want to break his heart in his last moments on earth), only modified his will to refer to Stannis and not Joffrey. The next morning (an hour before he was informed Robert had died), Ned told Arya and Sansa that he was sending them away from King’s Landing by noon. He allowed Arya to have one last lesson with Syrio (who was coming with them), but told Sansa she could not see Joffrey before they left. And Sansa fled, crying, and went to Cersei:

She was the good girl, the obedient girl, but she had felt as wicked as Arya that morning, sneaking away from Septa Mordane, defying her lord father. She had never done anything so willful before, and she would never have done it then if she hadn’t loved Joffrey as much as she did. […] The king had been her last hope. The king could command Father to let her stay in King’s Landing and marry Prince Joffrey, Sansa knew he could, but the king had always frightened her. He was loud and rough-voiced and drunk as often as not, and he would probably have just sent her back to Lord Eddard, if they even let her see him. So she went to the queen instead, and poured out her heart, and Cersei had listened and thanked her sweetly… only then Ser Arys had escorted her to the high room in Maegor’s Holdfast and posted guards, and a few hours later, the fighting had begun outside. –AGOT, Sansa IV

She was not privy to all of Ned’s plans regarding Stannis, the gold cloaks, etc… but she knew more than just that her father planned to spirit her and Arya away from King’s Landing. She knew when they were to leave, on what ship, how many men would be in their escort, who would have the command, where Arya was that morning, etc… all of which was useful to Cersei in planning and timing her move. –GRRM

Because Ned did not tell his daughters why he needed them to leave King’s Landing, because he did not tell Sansa that Cersei was an enemy, because Sansa trusted the queen and was desperate to stay with Joffrey, Cersei was able to draw out all of the information she knew. You can imagine the conversation: “Oh, you’re leaving, my dear?” “Yes, Father is making me go, you have to make him change his mind, please, I love Joffrey and–” “Yes, of course, sweetling, but tell me, how has your father said you will be traveling?” “Oh… there’s a Myrish ship, the Wind Witch, it’s leaving today–” “Surely your father isn’t sending you on a ship with foreign sailors, all alone.” “No, Septa Mordane and Jeyne and Arya are going too, and there’s to be a troop of ten men for our protection, led by–” “And where is your sister now, dear Sansa?” “Arya’s having a lesson with her dancing master in the Small Hall, even though she gets to bring him with us! It’s not fair…”

And after that interrogation disguised as concern, Cersei took Sansa prisoner. At the very moment Ned was making his stand in the throne room, Sansa was under armed guard in Maegor’s Holdfast. Even if, somehow, Ned had been able to escape Cersei’s coup, Janos Slynt’s betrayal, and Littlefinger’s dagger, somehow managed to get out of the Red Keep with a few men, Sansa would have already been a Lannister hostage.

As it was, because of Sansa’s information, Cersei’s men killed Syrio Forel, and killed the Stark men at the Wind Witch and set up a trap for Arya. As it was, after Ned was taken prisoner, he was quite prepared to die. He was not going to capitulate and betray his word, to tell the world the lie that he was a traitor, that he’d lied about Joffrey’s claim to the throne… until Varys reminded him about Sansa:

“So what is your answer, Lord Eddard? Give me your word that you’ll tell the queen what she wants to hear when she comes calling.”“If I did, my word would be as hollow as an empty suit of armor. My life is not so precious to me as that.”“Pity.” The eunuch stood. “And your daughter’s life, my lord? How precious is that?”A chill pierced Ned’s heart. “My daughter…”“Surely you did not think I’d forgotten about your sweet innocent, my lord? The queen most certainly has not. […] Lord Eddard, tell me… why is it always the innocents who suffer most, when you high lords play your game of thrones? Ponder it, if you would, while you wait upon the queen. And spare a thought for this as well: The next visitor who calls on you could bring you bread and cheese and the milk of the poppy for your pain… or he could bring you Sansa’s head. The choice, my dear lord Hand, is entirely yours.”

–AGOT, Eddard XV

So, to save his daughter, one of his children who he loved more than life itself, Ned came to Baelor’s Sept, to confess his “treason”, take the black, and be sent to the Wall. And Sansa was there too, proud that because of her desperate plea for her father’s life, because of the love of her dearest Joffrey, because of the kindness of Queen Cersei, because she’d been a good girl and done as she’d been told and written Cersei’s letters to her mother and Robb to ask them to stop the fighting, that her father would be safe, and everything would be all right. Until the moment Joffrey smiled at her, and called for Ilyn Payne.

Afterwards, alone in the room in Maegor’s Holdfast, Sansa became suicidal with grief and guilt, knowing how her trust had been betrayed. Afterwards, Joffrey told her that Cersei had said she was stupid, and Sansa realized that the queen’s kindnesses and promises to help had only been lies. Afterwards, Sansa understood:

Once she had loved Prince Joffrey with all her heart, and admired and trusted his mother, the queen. They had repaid that love and trust with her father’s head. Sansa would never make that mistake again. –ACOK, Sansa I

#sketcheraserepeat #asoiaf #asoiaf meta #sansa stark #ned stark #cersei lannister #joffrey baratheon #ned's execution #grrm interviews #so spake martin #sansa meta

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wyrdsistersofthedas · 7 years

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Taint Resistance in a Bottle - Random Thought Blogs: The Blighted Entries 2

Totally just a random exercise in speculation this week after reading some very interesting ideas about whether the taint could be spread from Grey Wardens to their LIs or to those healing them. I highly recommend reading the excellent thoughts and evidence presented by the OP, @altalemur , @rederiswrites and @higheverrains. My thoughts took a tangent, of course, that eventually circled back to become this post.

I think there is a fairly simple, albeit probably magical, answer to the question. Whatever gives the Grey Wardens their resistance to the taint makes it nigh impossible for them to pass the taint on to others. Even with prolonged exposure to a warden’s body, like during a rare warden pregnancy, the warden is not contagious, including to the child. In fact, we know that Morrigan had to go to extreme, probably blood magicky, means to have a baby with the taint. Wardens just don’t pass it on. Examples:

If Morrigan is involved with a male warden who refuses to do the Dark Ritual, she still gets pregnant with a taint-free Kieran (which implies there must be some consent on the part of the warden in order for the ritual to work).

Side note: The fact that Morrigan could have a baby with the warden without the Dark Ritual implies that the ritual had nothing to do with increasing her fertility. The ritual was purely to pass the taint on to their child or create a connection with the archdemon. Ergo, Morrigan probably was using other means (again likely magical) to ensure she became pregnant.

Fiona gives birth to Alistair, taint free.

Side note: Fiona had been a warden for about a year when she became pregnant. Same thing happens with Morrigan, if you do the Dark Ritual or the warden is romantically involved with her. This suggests that a warden’s best chance at having children is during a 18-24 months window right after the Joining.

When griffons were forced to undergo a modified Joining ritual, they are completely unable to develop the Grey Wardens’ resistance to the taint. This leads to their (near) extinction because they can infect each other with the taint, unlike wardens.

I suspect that when the first Grey Wardens discovered how to do the Joining, they also figured out a way to magically block, or resist, the taint...at least for a while. If this theory is true, it would also give another reason for the Calling. If the Grey Wardens eventually lose all their resistance they would become no different than a ghoul, who can and do spread the taint to others.

“There are stories across Ferelden of these ghouls, maddened by the corruption of the blight, attacking their friends and spreading the corruption further. While it is likely that the sickness will eventually kill a ghoul, the dying strength of these poor creatures makes them nearly as great a danger as the darkspawn themselves.

They are no longer our friends, our family, or our countrymen. They are victims of the Blight, and must be given the same mercy Hessarian showed Andraste: a swift sword.”

It stands to reason that Grey Wardens who completely lose their resistance would then pass on the taint like other infected beings. (I wonder if the Architect’s accelerated ghoul program, which he used on Bregan, Genevieve, and Utha, allowed them to keep their resistance longer. Utha seemed pretty lucid in Awakening. I wonder if the Architect gave Seranni some form of the resistance too.)

A warden’s resistance to the taint is so powerful, in fact, that it literally blocks the song of the old gods in darkspawn. The Architect needed the blood of wardens to free the darkspawn of their compulsion, or rather their resistance to the taint.

youtube

So yeah, that resistance that Grey Wardens have to the taint is probably what prevents them from spreading it to their companions. Now the next question should be...what gives Grey Wardens that resistance? Like I said before, I think part of the resistance is part of the magic of the Joining Ritual, but that doesn’t explain why some can survive the Joining and other die. What makes a Grey Warden able to survive the Joining and develop that resistance to the taint? Is it some innate quality or biologic feature in the warden themselves? Or is it an outside force or aid?

Leliana seems to have a natural resistance to the taint. Maric is able to resist via potions concocted from “rare herbs” and, possibly, his dragon flavored blood. There are also suggestions that a person’s willpower can affect their level of resistance. Former lead writer and ex “word of god”, David Gaider, said:

“Insofar as how long a Grey Warden could remain on the throne, it depends. The taint will make a Grey Warden age faster, so someone like Loghain isn't going to be able to stay a Grey Warden for very long as he's no young man. The "thirty years" quote is about the maximum, but the reality is that it depends on how often one is exposed to the corruption and sometimes just personal variance-- even so, for a monarch to stay on the throne upwards of thirty years is no mean feat. I don't really think that's the limiting factor when it comes to this sort of thing.” (Bioware Forums, I miss your information if not the sea of negativity. More interesting taint related info here.)

Another quote:

“But the idea is also that it varies. Thirty years is the maximum that you could probably expect. It's going to vary for an individual according to their willpower and the level of their interaction with the darkspawn. During a Blight you can expect that the Grey Wardens are going to have shorter lifespans. Outside of a Blight the Grey Wardens would tend to live longer. We have instances in the game of people going on their Calling after five or ten years. Alistair's thirty year quote shouldn't be taken as gospel, that's the way I like it.” (Interview with Gaider, posted on Swooping is Bad LJ)

I’m going to have to investigate this further, but I am pretty sure the level of resistance in each warden varies and can be affected by several factors.

Taint Resistance in a Bottle?

“King Maric was given a leather satchel full of potions, each of them contained in a delicate glass vial. According to the First Enchanter, this was a precious mixture of herbs that would enable Maric to resist the disease spread by the darkspawn. He was, after all, the only one in the group without the Grey Warden’s immunity. One full vial was to be swallowed each morning; according to Duncan’s count, that meant the King had a two-week supply.

Rather optimistic of the First Enchanter, really.” (The Calling, p. 71)

I’m very curious about the “rare herbs” mentions in The Calling and in the Joining ritual description. I suspect that Marethari used a variation of the potion Maric took to keep Mahariel alive long enough to take the Joining. The fact that none of our companions were tainted while killing the oodles of darkspawn in Origins would make a lot more sense if we had to make potions to help them keep their resistance up. And here is the section of total speculation that began this whole post:

What could those “rare” herbs be? (Possible ingredients list lies below the cut.)

(I mean, this could be critical information for those of us that like to write fanfiction and don’t want to totally hand wave encounters with the darkspawn by saying, “Once again, we’ve all managed to not get tainted in spite of all the people around us who are totally tainted now because darkspawn!”)

The Wilds Flower: (rare-ish) Given that it these flowers can help a mabari suffering from the taint, it stands to reason it can help a human build their resistance. This flower would be available to the Dalish and was known to the kennel master at Ostagar, so it would very likely be included in the tincture. It can be found in the swamps of the Korcari Wilds.

Embrium: (common) This flower is often used in healing mists and potions, and to enhance regeneration. Sounds like qualities that could help combat the taint. It is commonly found in the regions around the Waking Sea.

Spindleweed: (common) A common ingredient in resistance potions, it stands to reason that a taint blocker would include this herb. It can be found in the valleys on either side of the Frostback Mountains.

Dragonthorn: (rare-ish) The leaves of the dragonthorn tree “enhance and stabilize other, more volatile magical compounds”, a helpful trait for a potion that combats one of the most virulent diseases in Thedas. It also is used in spirit resistance tonics. It can be found in the Forbidden Oasis and the Wellspring, but sample could theoretically be obtained from one of the Circles of Magi, the Wonders of Thedas or other merchants of medicinal/magical ingredients.

Vandal Aria: (common) Cousin of the Silent Plains rose, this plant can be used to craft healing potions and a rock armor tonic. This plant can grows in dry climates, like the Western Approach and the Hissing Wastes, but can be purchased from most medicinal merchants.

Deep Mushroom: (common) The right varieties of deep mushroom can restore stamina and help heal injuries. “The most common varieties used in the herbalist's trade are the Blightcap, Ghoul's Mushroom, and Brimstone Mushroom, almost all of which tend to carry the darkspawn's corruption. While they cannot transmit the disease, this trait often makes them quite poisonous.” Clearly, deep mushrooms are taint resistant themselves, but choosing the right variety and careful preparation would be needed in order to harness their beneficial properties and avoid accidental poisonings. Various varieties of deep mushrooms can be found in caves and in the Deep Roads.

Concentrator Agent: (common) Composed of distilled and purified Heatherum and Foxite, which are both common herbs in Ferelden, a concentrator agent would enhance the effects of a taint resisting potion.

Lifestone: (rare) Although lifestone is a rock, not an herb, it would a powerful ingredient to add to a taint repelling recipe. It can only be found in proximity to lyrium veins in the Deep Roads and likely was affected by it. “Lifestones enhance the natural properties of other materials used in item creation.”

Felicidus Aria: (near extinction, extremely rare) “Commonly known as the Silent Plains Rose” this flower is the only plant that can grow in Blighted lands. This implies that it has an extreme natural resistance to the taint. It would be nearly impossible to find and extraordinarily expensive, but it could be a powerful component in an taint eliminating elixir. Hawke has some (if you do Isabela’s quest). It could also be stolen from very rich nobles.

High Dragon Blood [living preferred]: (Rare. Super rare if the dragon was still alive! Damn near one of a kind, if the dragon was a great dragon. Be prepared for weird grand kids with that last one though! ;-} ) Dragons are, perhaps, the most naturally taint resistant creatures in Thedas and their blood might convey some of their power. Known side effects: Reaver-itis and scaly skin if too much is consumed. You might have to make friends with a dragon worshiping cult to get the blood of a living dragon, btw.

Magic also seems to be necessary in the alchemic process to create taint resistance tonics, so a knowledgeable mage healer would likely be required to make the concoction work. An experienced Grey Warden mage would likely be an ideal brewer and, according to the RPG, the Grey Wardens are aware of the existence of these herbs (or whatever they turn out to be), and have helped spread this knowledge across Thedas. Perhaps it was even the Grey Wardens at Ostagar who told the Kennel Master about the Wilds Flower.

And there you have it! My random thoughts collected in a slightly less random post.

Drink in good health!

-MM

#dragon age #dragon age awakening #dragon age the calling #dragon age meta #grey wardens #blight #taint #the architect #taint cure #thedas medicine #thedas magic #morta's musings #long post

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nedraggett · 7 years

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Run ragged

It didn’t work. And while I wasn’t surprised by that, I did want to tease out why, at least for myself.

I honestly was openly skeptical of Blade Runner 2049 for a while, so I can’t hide my bias there. I wasn’t totally ‘salt the earth and never mention it again’ then and am certainly not saying that now. But each new trailer left me feeling more ‘uh...really?’ and the explosion of immediate praise from many critics even more so. I wasn’t contrarian, and neither did I think groupthink was at work, but I suspected a massive wish fulfillment was.

So I generally avoided reactions after that and figured I’d wait for things to die down a bit -- even more quickly than I might have guessed, seeing its swiftly collapsing commercial performance over here. My Sunday early afternoon showing near here was about maybe 2/3 full on its third weekend, so it’s found an audience, but I’m in San Francisco -- I expected an audience there. Enough friends have posted theater shots where they were the only person in the room to know this is dying off as an across the board thing, and never probably was.

I’m not glad it failed, but I’m not surprised -- in fact, being more blunt, I think it deserved not to be a hit. The key reason for me played itself out over its length -- it was boring. It’s a very boring movie. It’s not a successful movie except in intermittent moments.

That said, of course not everyone agreed (I’ll recommend as an indirect counterpoint to my thoughts this piece by my friend Matt, which went up earlier today). And boredom is not the sole reason for me to crucify it -- there were a variety of things one can address. I’ll note two at the start since they could be and in a couple of cases I’ve seen were particular breaking points for others:

* The sexual politics of the movie, however much meant to be in line with the original scenario as playing out a certain logic, were often at least confused or hesitant within a male gaze context, at most lazily vile beyond any (often flatly obvious) point-making. I often got a mental sense of excuses that could be offered along the lines of ‘well...you know, it’s supposed to be like that in this world, it’s a commentary!,’ which is often what I’ve seen in positive criticism of, say, Game of Thrones. Maybe. That said: not that any sort of timing played into it, but the fact that Harvey Weinstein’s downfall began two days before release, and the resulting across-board exposure and on-the-record testimonials from many women against far too many men, couldn’t really be escaped. Further, since the fallout was first felt, after all, in the film industry, seeing any film, new or old, through the lens of what’s acceptable and who gets through what hoops -- and who is broken by the experience -- is always important. It’s not for nothing to note that the original film’s female lead Sean Young got shunted into the ‘she’s crazy’/’too much trouble’ file in later years where male actors might perhaps find redemption; the fact that she played a small part in the new film made me think a bit more on her fate than that of her character’s. (Another point I saw a few women brought up as well -- having a key to the whole story be pregnancy and childbirth as opposed to infertility wasn’t warmly received.)

* It’s a very...white future. Not exclusively, certainly. But people of color barely get a look in, a quick scene here, a cameo there. A black female friend of mine just this morning said this over on FB about the one African American actor whose character got the most lines, saying:

to have the only significant black character be this awful, creepy man who seemed to be an "overseer" type to the children, was really uncomfortable and another perfect example of scifi using an 'other' narratives or american slave narrative but within a white context. We all know what it's supposed to represent and so it's just straight up lazy writing at the end of the day and exploitative.

Meantime, another sharp series of comments elsewhere revolved around how a film perhaps even more obviously drenched than the original in an amalgamated East Asian imaginary setting for the Los Angeles sequences barely showcased anyone from such a background. Dave Bautista certainly makes an impact at the start, but after that? The fact that I can think of three speaking roles for actors of that (wide) background in the original, as in actually having an exchange with a lead character, and only one in this one, maybe two if you count the random shouting woman in K’s apartment building, is more than a little off. Add in a ‘Los Angeles,’ or a wider SoCal if you like, that aside from Edward James Olmos’s short cameo apparently has nobody of Mexican background, let alone Central American, in it, and you gotta wonder. My personal ‘oh really’ favorite was the one official sign that was written in English and, I believe, Sanskrit. Great visual idea; can’t say I saw anyone of South Asian descent either.

Both these very wide issues, of course, tie in with the business and the society we’re all in -- but that’s no excuse. And there are plenty of other things I could delve into even more, not least my irritation over the generally flatly-framed dialogue shots in small offices that tended to undercut the grander vistas, or how the fact that Gosling’s character finding the horse carving had been telegraphed so far in advance that it was resolutely unremarkable despite all the loud music, etc. My key point remains: boring. A sometimes beautifully shot and visually/sonically striking really dull, draggy, boring film.

The fair question though is why I think that. A friend in response to that complaint as echoed by others joked what we would make of Bela Tarr films, to which I replied that I own and enjoy watching Tarkovsky movies. Slow pace and long shots aren’t attention killers for me per se; if something is gripping, it will be just that, and justify my attention. Meanwhile, the original film famously got dumped on for also being slow, boring, etc at the time, and plenty can still feel that way about it. Blade Runner’s reputation is now frightfully overburdened and certainly I’ve contributed to it mentally if not through formal written work; it succeeds but is a flawed creation, and strictly speaking the two big complaints I’ve outlined above apply to the predecessor as much as the current film, it’s just a matter of degrees otherwise. But if you told me I had to sit down and watch it, I’d be happy to. Tell me to do the same with this one, I would immediately ask for the ability to skip scenes.

I’ve turned it all over in my head and these are three elements where things fell apart for me, caused me to be disengaged -- not in any specific order, but I’m going to build outward a bit, from the specific to the general, and with specific contrast between the earlier film and the new one. These discontinuities aren’t the sole faults, but they’re the ones I’ve been thinking about the most.

First: it’s worth noting that the new film brings in a lot of specific cultural elements beyond the famed advertising and signs. Nabokov’s Pale Fire is specifically singled out both as a visual cue and as an element in K’s two police station evaluations, for instance. Meanwhile, musically, I didn’t quite catch what song it was Joi was telling K about early in the film but a check later means it must have been Sinatra’s “Summer Wind,” featured on the soundtrack. Sinatra himself of course shows up later as a small holographic performance in Vegas, specifically of “One For My Baby,” while prior to that K and Deckard fight it out while larger holographic displays of older Vegas style revues and featured performers appear glitchily -- showgirls, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis in his later pomp, Liberace complete with candleabra. All of this makes a certain sense and on the one hand I don’t object to it.

But on the other I do. Something about all that rubbed me the wrong way and I honestly wasn’t sure why -- the Nabokov bit as well, even the quick Treasure Island moment between Deckard and K when they first talk to each other. The answer I think lies with the original film. It’s not devoid of references either, but note how two of the most famous are used:

* When Rutger Hauer’s Roy Batty introduces himself to James Hong’s Hannibal Chew, he does so with a modified quote from William Blake’s America: A Prophecy. (This fuller discussion of that quote and how it was changed from the original is worth a read; it’s also worth noting that Hauer brought it to the table, and wasn’t planned otherwise.) But he doesn’t do so by spelling out to the audience, much less Chew, that it is Blake at all. You either have to know it or you don’t. If, say, we saw Batty clearly holding a copy of the book -- or maybe more intriguing, a copy in Deckard’s apartment -- then that would be one thing...but it becomes a bit more ‘DO YOU SEE?’ as a result. Clunkier, a bit like how Pale Fire worked in the new film.

* Even in the original soundtrack’s compromised/rerecorded form, I always loved the one formally conventional song on the original soundtrack, “One More Kiss, Dear.” I just assumed as I did back in the mid to late 80s, when I first saw the film and heard its music, that it was a random oldie from somewhere mid-century repurposed, a bit of mood-setting. It is...but it isn’t. It’s strictly pastiche, a creation of Vangelis himself in collaboration with Peter Skellern, an English singer-songwriter who had a thriving career in his home country. It just seemed real enough, with scratchy fidelity, a piano-bar sad elegance -- which was precisely the point. You couldn’t pin it down to anything, it wasn’t a specifically recognizable element. It wasn’t Elvis, or Liberace, or Sinatra.

This careful hiding of concrete details -- even when the original film showcased other clear, concrete details of ‘our’ world culturally, but culturally via economics and ads -- is heavily to the original’s benefit, I’d argue. There’s a certain trapped-in-baby-boomerland context of the elements in the new film that, perversely, almost feels too concrete, or forced is maybe a better word. It’s perverse because on the one hand it makes a clear sense, but on the other hand, by not being as tied to explicitly cultural identifiers -- whether ‘high’ literature or rough and ready ‘pop’ or whatever one would like to say -- the original film feels that much more intriguingly odd, dreamlike even. I would tease this out further if I could, but it quietly nags -- perhaps the best way I could describe it is this: by not knowing what, in general, the characters, ‘human’ or not, read, listen to, watch in the original, what everyone enjoys -- if they do -- becomes an unspoken mystery. Think about how we here now talk about what we read, listen to, watch as forms of connection with others; think about how the crowd scenes in the originals feature people all on their own trips or in groups or whatever without knowing what they might know. We know Deckard likes piano, sure, but that suggests something, it doesn’t limit it. We know K likes Nabokov and Sinatra -- and that tells us something. And it limits it.

My second big point would also have to do with limits versus possibilities, and hopefully is more easily explained. Both films are of course amalgams, reflections of larger elements in the culture as well as within a specific culture of film. The first film is even more famously an amalgam of ‘film noir’ as broadly conceived, both in terms of actual Hollywood product and the homages and conceptions and projections of the term backwards and forwards into even more work. It is the point of familiar reference for an audience that at the time was a couple of decades removed from its perceived heyday, but common enough that it was the key hook in -- the weary detective called back for one last job, the corrupt policeman, the scheming businessman, the femme fatale, etc. etc. Set against the fantastic elements, it was the bedrock, the hook, and of course it could be and was repurposed from there, in its creation and in its reception.

2049 is not a film noir amalgam. Instead, it’s very clearly -- too clearly -- an amalgam of exactly the wrong place it should have gotten any influence from. By that I don’t mean the original film -- above and beyond the clear story connections, its impact was expected to be inescapable and as it turns out it was inescapable. Instead it’s an amalgam of what followed in the original’s wake -- the idea of dystopia-as-genre -- and that’s poisonous.

Off the top of my head: Children of Men. The Matrix. Brazil. Her. Battlestar Galactica, the 2000s reboot. A bit of The Hunger Games, I’d say. A bit of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (not a direct descendant of the original at all, of course -- George Miller always had his own vibe going -- but I caught an echo still). The Walking Dead. A fleck of The Fifth Element. Demolition Man, even, if we want to go ‘low’ art. But also so many of the knockoffs and revamps and churn. There could be elements, there could be explicit references, there could be just a certain miasma of feeling. But this all fed into this film, and made it...just less interesting to me.

Again, the first film is no less beholden to types and forebears. But the palette wasn’t sf per se, it was something else, then transposed and heightened and made even uneasier due to what it was. 2049 has to not only chase down its predecessor, it has to live with what its predecessor created. But did it have to take all that into itself as well? It becomes a wink and a nod over and again, and a tiring one, a smaller palette, a feeding on itself. And it’s very frustrating as a result, and whatever spell was in the film kept being constantly rebroken, and the scenes kept dragging on.

This all fed into the third and final point for me -- the key element, the thing that makes the original not ‘just’ noir, the stroke of genius from Philip K Dick turned into tangible creations: the replicants, and the question of what it is to be human. Humanity itself has assayed this question time and time over -- let’s use Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as a start if we must for the modern era, it’s as good as any. We as a species -- if we individual members can afford the time and reflection at least -- seem to enjoy questions of what makes us ‘us,’ and what we are and what we have in this universe. This much is axiomatic, so take that as read.

The replicants in the original film -- famously thought of differently by Dick and Ridley Scott, to the former’s bemusement when they met and talked for their only meeting before the latter’s death -- set up questions in that universe that are grappled with as they are by the characters in different ways. Between humans, between replicants, between each other, lines always slipping and shading. Their existences are celebrated, questioned, protested against. But we don’t live in these conversations for the most part, we tend to experience the characters instead; it’s often what’s unsaid that has the greatest impact. And if the idea of a successful story-teller is to show rather than tell, then I would argue that, again, flawed as it can be, the original film succeeds there be only telling just enough, and letting the viewer be immersed otherwise. (Thus of course the famous after the fact narration in the original release insisted upon by the studio, and removed from later cuts to Scott’s thorough relief.)

By default, that level of quiet...I would almost call it ‘awe’...in the original can’t be repeated with the same impact. The bell cannot be unrung, but that’s not crippling. What was crippling was how, again, bored I was with the plight of the characters in 2049. How unengaged in their concerns I generally was. One key exception aside, I never bought K’s particular angst outside of plot-driven functionality, and frankly they often felt like manikins all the way down from there. Robin Wright’s police chief had some great line deliveries but the lines were most often banal generalities that sounded ridiculous. Jared Leto’s corporate overlord, good god, don’t ask. As for Joi and Luv, Ana de Armas and Sylvia Hoeks did their best, and yet the characters felt...functional. Which given the characters as such would seem to be appropriate, but their fates were functional too. Of course one would do that, of course the other would do that, of course one would die the one way, of course the other would die that way, and...fine. Shrug.

So, then, Deckard? Honestly Harrison Ford had the best part in the film and while I found him maybe a bit more garrulous than I would have expected from the character, he did paranoid, wounded and withdrawn pretty damn well. Not to mention comedy -- the dog and whisky combo can’t be beat, and it’s worth remembering his nebbishy ‘undercover’ turn in the original -- and, in the Rachel scene, an actual sense of pathos and outrage. I bought him pretty easily, and it made everyone else seem pretty shallow. When K learns about the underground replicant resistance and all, the bit about everyone hopes they are the one was nice enough, but the rest of it, clearly meant to be a ‘big moment,’ was...again, dull, per my second point about the limited palette. A whole lot of telling, not much showing, and such was the case throughout. It was honestly a bit shocking -- but also very clear -- to myself when I realized how little I cared about humans or replicants or any of it at all towards the end. It all felt pat and played out, increasingly unfascinating, philosophy that was rote. It could just be me, of course -- maybe this is an issue where the stand-ins of replicants versus realities of robots and AI, along with the cruelties we’re happy to inflict on each other, means the stand-ins simply don’t have much of an imaginative or intellectual grip now.

Still, though, I’ll give the film one full scene, without Ford. As part of his work, and to answer the questions in his own head, K visits Ana Stelline, a designer of replicant memories. This, more than anything else in the film outside of certain design and musical elements, felt like the original, or something that could be there. It introduced a wholly new facet -- how are memories created for replicants? -- while extending the idea that instead of one sole creator of replicants there are multiple parts makers with their specialized fields in an unexplained (and unnecessary to be explained) economy. Stelline’s literal isolation allows for space and the limits of communication to be played out in a way that makes satisfying artistic sense, and Carla Juri plays her well. It builds up to an emotional moment that sends K into an explosive overdrive that is actually earned, and Juri’s own reaction of awe and horror is equally good. But -- even better -- the scene ends up taking a wholly new cast later in the film, when more information reveals what was actually at play, and what K didn’t know at the time, and makes the final scene a good one to end on in turn (and by that I mean back in her office, specifically).

The problem though remains -- one scene can’t make a film. One can argue that it’s better to reach and fail than not at all, but it’s also easily argued that one gets far more frustrated with something that could have worked but didn’t. I don’t think an edit for time would have fixed the film but it would have made it less of a slog while not sacrificing those visual/sonic elements that did work; it still would leave a lot of these points I’ve raised standing, but it would have gone down a little more smoothly, at least. But sometimes you’re just bored in a theater, waiting for something to end.

#blade runner #blade runner 2049

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rickhorrow · 5 years

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10 To Watch : Mayors Edition 52019

RICK HORROW’S TOP 10 SPORTS/BIZ/TECH/PHILANTHROPY ISSUES FOR THE WEEK OF MAY 20 : MAYOR’S EDITION

With Jacob Aere

“Game of Thrones” may be over, but the legend of Brooks Koepka grows. On Sunday, Brooks Koepka hoisted the Wanamaker Trophy and waded even further into fantastical lore. Perhaps USA Today said it best, “For a man almost childishly alert to perceived slights off the course, he moves through the choppy waters of a major like a shark focused on real meals and uninterested in the chum bobbing along the way.” Koepka overcame four consecutive bogeys on his inward nine Sunday – he led by seven strokes as the final round got underway – to beat Dustin Johnson by two shots with a final-round 74. The defending PGA champion, Koepka won for the fourth time in the last eight major championships he has played. He is guaranteed the top spot in the world golf rankings. Sunday’s victory netted him a cool $1.98 million. More importantly, it may have finally cemented ultimate respect and big paydays with potential sponsors. Koepka’s current biggest deals are with Nike and Michelob Ultra, and he doesn’t have an equipment sponsor. Dollar signs behind an equipment deal just went up big time.

It’s graduation season, and we’d like to suggest a gift. Our Sport Business Handbook recognizes the last 50 years as the formative era of the modern sport business industry. As colleges and universities graduate their 2019 classes of aspiring career professionals, this is a rare opportunity to hear from some of the industry’s most influential players. Consider that according to Forbes and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the U.S. Sports Industry will be an $80 billion annual category by 2022. Job growth across all sports-related industries is expanding at over 12 percent annually — more than double the national job market. In markets like Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Miami, Dallas, Jacksonville, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh, sports-related job growth is increasing at or above 20% annually. The global sports industry is estimated to be a $1.3 trillion category. Sports media is the fastest-growing segment of the industry. As a subset of that, legalized sports gambling represents a multi-billion-dollar category poised to grow exponentially, as evidenced by casino and mobile sports betting legalized in Iowa last Monday. So if you have a child poised to join the workforce post college, they could do a lot worse than a career in sports.

The NCAA is opening the door for college athletes to be compensated for their names, images and likenesses. The Washington Post reported that the NCAA is examining how its rules can be modified to allow the change. Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman and Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith will head a new working group on the topic. “This group will bring together diverse opinions from the membership — from presidents and commissioners to student-athletes — that will examine the NCAA’s position on name, image and likeness benefits and potentially propose rule modifications tethered to education,” Ackerman said in a statement. In most scenarios, NCAA rules forbid its athletes from receiving benefits or compensation for their names, images and likenesses from either a school or a third party, including commercial contracts. While the working group will not consider any concepts that “could be construed as payment for participation in college sports,” the NCAA says that its mission is to “provide [an] opportunity for students to compete against other students [that] prohibits any contemplation of pay-for-play.” A final report is due to the NCAA’s board of governors in October.

The Indianapolis 500 will likely be the first time a CBD sponsorship will be featured during an official IndyCar race. The development comes after Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports (ASPM) last Thursday announced a partnership with CBD-based sports drink Defy, according to the Indianapolis Star. The product’s name will appear on both James Hinchliffe’s No. 5 and Marcus Ericsson’s No. 7 entry. CBD has been legal in Indiana since March 2018, and the growing CBD industry has the "potential to become a new revenue source for teams." That comes amid plenty of examples of "drivers struggling to find sponsors," including Kyle Kaiser's No. 32 car from Juncos Racing. ASPM Team President Jon Flack said that fellow team sponsors, IndyCar and NBC were "all open to and approved the idea of allowing sponsorships that advertise products containing CBD." Interestingly, while THC level in Defy is allegedly well below the 0.3% allowed, IndyCar drivers can’t drink it because CBD is on the organization’s banned substance list. As the CBD market grows across the country, it is fair to wonder what sponsorship effect it will have on IndyCar.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed legislation "allowing gambling on college and professional sports in Iowa," according to the Des Moines Register. The new legislation "allows Iowans 21 years and older to wager on sporting events at any of Iowa's 19 casinos and online if they visit a casino once in person to prove they are at least 21." It also "legalizes bets on fantasy sports through websites and apps like DraftKings and FanDuel." The law "does not allow in-game proposition bets on college sports." While the legislation "takes effect immediately, some of the rules still need to be ironed out." The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, which will regulate sports betting in Iowa, previously said that it would "start to develop rules for casinos to implement after Reynolds signed the legislation." Those rules "would likely be implemented in July or August," before college sports and NFL games start. Iowa is only the latest state to allow legal sports wagering, and with every state that signs on, the stakes – and the potential revenues – rise considerably.

U.S. Club Soccer, a prominent member of the U.S. Soccer Federation and the leading organization developing soccer clubs across America – welcomes Dick’s Sporting Goods as its Official Sporting Goods Partner. The strategic partnership provides U.S. Club Soccer members with a valuable resource for their soccer-related equipment and sporting goods needs. U.S. Club Soccer members will receive special discounts to Dick’s Sporting Goods stores throughout the country and online, while Dick’s Sporting Goods is presented to U.S. Club Soccer’s growing community of members through various digital, social, and on-site marketing efforts. US Club Soccer’s mission is to foster the growth and development of soccer clubs throughout the country to create the best possible development environment for players of all ages in every club. U.S. Club Soccer also prides itself on fostering the safest environment for players in youth sports – to whit, they’ve implemented best-in-class background checks for all registered staff, and require personnel to complete an online injury recognition course, as well as SafeSport online training.

The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, home to the Oakland A’s and Raiders, is set to become the Ring Central Coliseum. Belmont-based communications firm Ring Central has sealed a three-year, $3 million naming rights deal for the 56,000-seater stadium, including an option for a fourth year. Ring Central will assume a role last held by Overstock.com, which pulled out of its $1.45 million-a-year deal with the Coliseum after the Raiders announced plans in 2016 to relocate to Las Vegas. Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum will soon become RingCentral Coliseum, as the California-based business communications provider is buying the naming rights and will pay $1 million a year for the "next three years, with an option for a fourth year." As the stadium authority approved the deal, the "name change would go into effect immediately." Even though the Oakland pro sports universe is undergoing seismic change, as the Raiders prepare for their Vegas move and the Warriors head to San Francisco, its signature sports facility remains an attractive target for brands.

Trump tariffs will impact sports, and sports fans. $11.4 billion. That’s the total value of the footwear imported from China to the U.S. last year as reported by SportsBusiness Daily. About 72% of sneakers imported to the U.S. are from China. The publication quoted CNBC’s Sara Eisen, who said of how the ongoing trade dispute is affecting the shoe industry, “These companies have been diversifying but there’s no denying that a lot of sneakers are still made in China.” So-called “sneaker wars” have long played a seminal role in basketball, soccer, and increasingly, in lifestyle brands popular in the U.S. and elsewhere. This may seem inconsequential compared to the toll expected in other industries like agriculture and electronics. But a prolonged sneaker tariff will have a lingering effect on the athlete pipeline, as those footwear brands have long funded the tournaments young athletes compete in in order to catch the attention of the pro ranks.

ESPN partners with Caesars for sports betting shows. According to Bloomberg, Caesars Entertainment Corp will have its odds data and branding integrated with ESPN programs. ESPN will put a studio inside Caesars’ Linq Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and build a new series of shows and videos aimed at the sports gambling market. The gaming corporation plans to contribute to programming on the ESPN network, ESPN’s website, and on the ESPN app. The sports betting content on ESPN’s betting-related content includes a few podcasts, segments on shows like “SportsCenter” and “Outside the Lines,” and a full sports gambling show called “Daily Wager,” which launched in March. Nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling which federally legalized sports gambling, TV networks have jumped on the opportunity to boost their viewership through sports betting as many consumers use other devices and OTT platforms for entertainment.

LeBron James is partnering with Wal-Mart to "feed the hungry and inspire positive change in Akron and across the country." According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, James will be part of the retailer's "Fight Hunger Spark Change" campaign, which "raises money through donations and the purchase of participating products." The effort to date has raised $74 million, providing 749 million meals, with a goal of 1 billion meals. Wal-Mart will "keep the pantry at James' I Promise School stocked with food, toiletries, clothing and basic necessities." James and Wal-Mart will "support each other's education programs" starting this summer with a Back to School campaign.

#10 #10towatch

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duaneodavila · 5 years

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Game Of Memes? HBO, Trump, And Trademark Parody

It seems that everything President Trump comments on receives a good deal of scrutiny, but when it comes to his Twitter account, the dialogue can be scathing. Recently, President Trump decided to tweet about the upcoming re-imposition of sanctions against Iran as a result of his decision to withdraw from a 2015 accord negotiated by the Obama administration. In tweeting about this point, President Trump decided to do his own take on a meme from HBO’s hit series “Game of Thrones.” More specifically, he modified the often-quoted line from the series (now a registered trademark of HBO), “Winter is Coming,” by tweeting “Sanctions are Coming” using a similar font over a picture of himself giving a stern look that, in my humble opinion, attempts to channel the Dothragi. Soon thereafter HBO took to the social media platform objecting to his purported “trademark misuse.” Apart from the turn of phrase (more on that below), the real issue seems to be his attempt at parody, and there is more to it than you may think.

President Trump’s tweets seem to get under a lot of people’s skin (yes, that is an understatement), and HBO is no exception when it comes to its hit series. HBO’s first response was in a statement to CNN, saying, “We were not aware of this messaging and would prefer our trademark not be misappropriated for political purposes.” HBO soon responded on Twitter with a far more tongue-in-cheek response: “How do you say trademark misuse in Dothraki?” Kudos to HBO for the witty comeback, but “trademark misuse” is a stretch, to say the least.

The doctrine of trademark misuse is simply rarely applied as a matter of trademark law, garnering little traction in modern courts. More importantly, trademark misuse is really a theoretical defense to an action brought by a trademark owner — it is a defense premised upon the trademark owner’s use of its own trademark in violation of the law. Ultimately, this has been couched in trademark cases under the defense of “unclean hands,” such as where the party seeking the relief from the court has engaged in fraud, deceit, unconscionability, or bad faith related to the matter at issue to the detriment of the other party. HBO obviously can’t claim trademark misuse against itself, so it seems better to say that the network takes offense to President Trump’s attempt at parody of its registered trademarks.

Trademark parody is a defense to trademark infringement, premised upon the fact that parodies can serve as legitimate First Amendment expression, but is a tricky area because the courts have handled this defense in different ways. Some courts have applied the standard “likelihood of confusion” analysis while incorporating the First Amendment as a factor, others applying balancing the First Amendment expression against the likelihood of confusion, with some courts simply favoring First Amendment expression over any likelihood of confusion. Even though there is no single test that is favored, whether such use is commercial does appear to matter.

In the present case, it is painfully clear that no one would confuse the “Sanctions are Coming” meme with the Game of Thrones “Winter is Coming” trademark. The font may be the same, but the content of the photo being of the president (rather than that of the Game of Thrones character originally associated with the phrase, Ned Stark) is different and leaves little room for confusion with the series. Further, the fact that the president’s tweet is not tied to a commercial product further supports the defense of parody.

A point worth mentioning, however, is that those engaging in trademark parody really need to get it right. The “Winter is Coming” motto of the House of Stark is not a happy one — it is an ominous phrase that engenders “warning and constant vigilance,” and may also interpreted as an intimidation to those enemies of the House of Stark. It appears that in the president’s turn of phrase he was trying to channel that tone within his own meme (and given his expression in the photo, he appears to be doing a good job of it). The point here, however, is that engaging in parody requires deft use of humor and satire, using enough of the original to allude to it, but not so much as to create any likelihood of confusion. Minds may differ on whether he did that in his meme, but you get the point.

Let’s not lose our heads like Ned Stark here — reasonable minds can (and do) disagree on the president’s “Sanctions are Coming” meme, but it’s not “trademark misuse.” From a parody perspective, the president may be resting on some reasonable ground, but remember that parody is merely a defense to a trademark infringement or trademark dilution action. There are a number of colorable grounds upon which HBO could take exception to the president’s meme. The bigger question is whether escalating the matter beyond Twitter to the courts draws more attention to the president’s meme, thereby exacerbating an already touchy issue. From my perspective, HBO’s witty yet legally inarticulate response was a step in the right direction, and should be left there. There is another quote from Game of Thrones that would be wise to heed here: “Some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word.” In the present case, it may be best to just let this Twitter spat pass.

Tom Kulik is an Intellectual Property & Information Technology Partner at the Dallas-based law firm of Scheef & Stone, LLP. In private practice for over 20 years, Tom is a sought-after technology lawyer who uses his industry experience as a former computer systems engineer to creatively counsel and help his clients navigate the complexities of law and technology in their business. News outlets reach out to Tom for his insight, and he has been quoted by national media organizations. Get in touch with Tom on Twitter (@LegalIntangibls) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/technologylawyer), or contact him directly at [email protected].

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narcisbolgor-blog · 6 years

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30+ Hilariously Incorrect Game of Thrones Quotes That Made Us Die From Laughter

Warning, moderate spoilers ahead. Ok, now that we've got that out of our way, it's time to celebrate the coming of winter with some Game Of Thrones. After the finale of the season 7 became history, I turned towards fan fiction to fill the void it has left. Turns out, one Instagram account is dedicated to pairing viral tweets, tumblr posts, and random bits of sitcom dialogues with stills from Game Of Thrones, and the result often comes out way funnier than the original scenes. Assuming you're caught up with the show and know what the heck is going on in Westeros, of course.

From Jon Snow trying to undress Daenerys to Jaime bonding with Brienne, these modified exchanges retain the relationships between characters while spicing things up with brilliant bits of comedy. Scroll down to recap Game Of Thrones in one of the most humorous ways possible and upvote your favorite moments!

HERE ; This post was curated using : TrendingTraffic

=> *********************************************** Article Source Here: 30+ Hilariously Incorrect Game of Thrones Quotes That Made Us Die From Laughter ************************************ =>

30+ Hilariously Incorrect Game of Thrones Quotes That Made Us Die From Laughter was originally posted by 11 VA Viral News

#11 VA Viral News

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lucyariablog · 6 years

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The Business Story Argument: A Working Framework to Pressure Test Your Story

Storytelling.

It’s got a bit of a buzz these days doesn’t it?

It seems every technology provider, agency, and consultant promises to help you tell a better story. But what does “telling a better story” even mean?

To tell a better story, do marketers need to be edgier and differentiate themselves to an audience numb to everything except the completely outrageous? Maybe. But that ultimately seems like a zero-sum game. How many more over-the-top content ideas do you produce before you jump the proverbial shark? Is BuzzFeed, with all its cat-video and which-Game-of-Thrones-character-are-you-quiz “trending buzz,” a huge success? Or, is it failing to differentiate?

And, the way things are going lately, today’s mainstream news headlines are probably going to be more outrageous than your brand ever will anyway.

Does “telling a better story” mean you just need to put more and more detail into your content? Give away all the thinking and bombard your audience with so much quality and detailed facts that they must appreciate the sheer amount of content (#AllTheEducation)?

No.

Neither of these approaches is at the root of getting to a better story. As so many of my mentors in storytelling drilled into my head – the heart of a great story is an argument for the truth. And, the truth has little to do with the number of facts or what happens, no matter how outrageous. As one of my mentors – the great storytelling coach Robert McKee – has written, “What happens is fact, not truth. Truth is what we think about what happens.”

If the last 24 months of the daily news cycle haven’t illustrated this “truth” in spades, I’m not sure what will.

Put simply: A great story is a well-crafted, entertaining, engaging, and (ultimately) convincing argument. With a fulfilling story, if I’m successful as an author, I’ve taken you on a journey and you believe (or are at least open to believing) something different at the end of it.

A great story takes you on a journey where you believe something different at the end, says @Robert_Rose. Click To Tweet

This is something you as a marketer can test as you create your content.

Prologue: The Business Story Argument Framework

I’ve worked with hundreds of marketing professionals and storytellers over the last 10 years. I’ve employed and customized a number of borrowed “tools” to help them get to better stories. If you read my first book, Managing Content Marketing, written with my colleague Joe Pulizzi, you might remember how we used a modified version of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey to help structure what we called the Brand Hero’s Journey.

If you read my book with Carla Johnson, Experiences: The 7th Era of Marketing, you might remember we’ve used the classic “5 why’s” as a means of helping content marketers get to a deeper, more meaningful story.

While I still use both approaches in coaching and in the content creation process, I recently found another approach that helps marketers pressure test a story to see if it has all the components that make it a good one rather than just an outrageous situation or a collection of facts. With a huge hat tip to my friend and writers’ coach Jeff Lyons and his Anatomy of a Premise Line, I customized a framework that I call the Business Story Argument Framework.

Now, the key utility of this framework is to know that it doesn’t write your story nor serve as a template. Its usefulness is in how it can help you pressure test an idea for a story you already have.

Getting to a satisfying story can be truly difficult. Add to that the fact that marketers are often pressed for time, and it’s just near impossible to truly settle in and think about how to create a meaningful, engaging, and convincing story that illuminates some greater truth about the world.

But if you can pressure test your ideas more quickly, perhaps you can at least improve the chances of focusing only on the best ideas or provide clearer direction for your existing content marketing initiative. Are you ready for the adventure? OK, let’s do it.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 5 Brands Share Their Content Marketing Process

Act 1: Every great story has 4 parts

We all know creative ideas come from random places. I love the quote from Nicholas Negroponte who asked, “Where do new ideas come from? The answer is simple: differences. Creativity comes from unlikely juxtapositions.”

You may come to an idea for a content marketing story from any number of places. The lightning of an idea may strike you in the shower or while you’re walking the dog. Or you might be inspired by an idea that comes out of your team’s latest brainstorming standup. Or you may inherit a story because your company just acquired a brand that has a digital magazine.

However an idea comes into your possession, know that every great story has four distinct parts:

The human – Every great story has a human soul at its core, even if that human is a talking Lego character. Nobody wants to hear the story of industrial manufacturing. They want to hear the story of Jane, the enigmatic heroine who finds herself challenged with leading a new industrial manufacturer.

The goal – A goal is a conscious or unconscious desire of the human. The desire to achieve a goal is what propels our human hero through the story journey. When the goal is conscious it is related to the greater “truth” (as detailed below). The superhero team’s goal, for example, is to simply defeat the monster. When the goal is unconscious, events transpire in the story that ignite the illuminated truth in our human hero. Think of the classic detective story, where the hero feels she’s getting too old and just wants to solve the last case so she can retire. However, by solving the most difficult case of her career the hero also discovers it’s the work that keeps her young. The best stories have both conscious and unconscious goals.

The resistance – Every great story needs a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. Occasionally, this comes in the form of a great human villain petting a white cat in a secret lair. Other times the resistance is simply a “mountain” that must be climbed or a giant shark that must be killed. The bigger the resistance and the more relatable to the hero, the better the story.

The truth – The truth is your argument – what you believe in and what you are arguing. Some might call this the “theme” or “message” of the story, but at its core the truth is simply the belief you are trying to inspire in the audience of your story.

Every great story has 4 parts: human hero, a goal, resistance, and the truth, says @Robert_Rose. #storytelling Click To Tweet

Now, if you are a fan of Joe’s book Content Inc., you can roughly map these four attributes to what he calls the anatomy of a content mission.

Human = core target audience – In most cases your business story’s hero is the audience you are targeting. At a broader storytelling level, your human hero must simply be relatable to your target audience. In every great story, the audience can see themselves in the hero.

Goal = what will be delivered – The content must meet the desire of your audience consciously or subconsciously. If it is conscious then you promise what the audience said it desired. If it is subconscious then you either illuminate something previously unknown by your audience or challenge a core belief and work to successfully alter it. Again, the best stories satisfy both conscious and unconscious goals.

Resistance = outcome for the audience – As content marketers, you help deliver challenges and adventures for the audience to go through. The bigger the challenges and the more satisfyingly you pull the audience through them – the more satisfying the story and the more convincing the argument.

Truth = content tilt. Joe calls his “content tilt” the “sweet spot.” This is the differentiator and should be the greater truth that you illuminate. This is your unique point of view, and ultimately what you want your audience to believe. As Joe points out, entrepreneur Ann Reardon started a blog called How To Cook That. Her truth, or content tilt, is that she believes that “a qualified food scientist and dietician who likes to cook (should teach you to make) ridiculously unhealthy desserts!” He didn’t make that up. It’s the first line of her About Us page.

That brings us to Act 2 – the tests and challenges.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Ex-SNL Writer Reveals How to Spend 5 Minutes a Day to Improve Storytelling

Act 2: The challenge of the 7 questions

To get to the four parts of a great story, break down this framework further and pressure test the component elements of your story. I created seven questions to which satisfying answers should be present in your story.

When you’ve created a great story, you should be able to provide satisfying answers to these questions:

Who is your human hero? Identify the person who will be on the journey.

What is the hero’s constriction? What is pressing the hero to action? Something in their world is broken and the hero is being pushed or pulled to fix it.

What is the hero’s desire? What is the conscious or unconscious desire of our human hero?

What relationships can help? What (or who) are the important relationships that will help your human hero move through this adventure?

What is the resistance? What is the active resistance to your hero? What seems impossible to overcome?

What are the adventures? What are the series of tests and challenges that must be overcome? Have you truly tested your hero? If you have holes in your story – where your audience will disbelieve your argument – it is usually because you haven’t truly tested your hero.

What Is the truth? – What is your argument? It may be connected to a conscious desire or the hero may discover the truth through the adventures that transpire.

The answers to these questions can be combined to get to your content mission or to pressure test the story you have in mind.

Act 3: The framework in action

Once you have identified answers to the seven components, you can combine them into the four parts of the great story to get to the anatomy of your content mission. To help put this into context, let’s look at an example.

Recently, I was privileged to work with an institutional financial services company on a new content mission. It was looking for a new and clearer focus for its digital magazine. The publication was working, but the articles from different parts of the business were becoming broader and less valuable. The team wanted a clearly defined – and differentiating – story for the magazine that they could communicate.

We worked through the answers to the seven components and combined them into the four parts of their new story. As you’ll see below, the components are well detailed but certainly not perfect. The team is still working on using this to polish the mission for internal and external audiences.

The human (combines the hero and the constriction) – The hero is the financial advisor who is under increasing pressure to perform for clients and to prove expertise and ability to manage money is better than an algorithm.

The desire (combines the desire and relationships) – These advisors need and want continuing education. They don’t need more noise; they need unique perspective and guidance from expert portfolio managers, trusted colleagues, and true thought leaders in the industry to remain relevant to their clients.

The resistance (combines resistance and adventures) – The advisor’s world is in danger of becoming automated by algorithms and artificial intelligence. It’s an atmosphere that increasingly devalues the human investor. Time is pressure. Today’s advisor must get to deeper meaning, perspective, and the long view as quickly as possible.

The truth. Human investing is the only investing. It is a higher calling. And once the advisor has this ability, he can not only deliver the long-term value for clients, the advisor can deliver sustainability in his career.

Can’t you see better stories, better posts, and overall a differentiated value coming from that framework? Remember, the framework and how you construct it isn’t itself meant to be the mission. It’s meant to help you convey the mission. You can use the four parts of your great story as the anatomy of a wonderful and differentiated argument, the heart of a great business story.

A wonderful and differentiated argument is the heart of a great business story. @Robert_Rose #storytelling Click To Tweet

To be clear, it’s not a template. I very much see this as Christopher Vogler, author of The Writer’s Journey, described Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. As he writes, the Hero’s Journey “is not an invention, but an observation … a set of principles that govern the conduct of life and the world of storytelling the way physics and chemistry govern the physical world.”

In other words, not every great story will have some earth-shattering, differentiating answer to every question. But the better the answers, the better chance you have something truly worth exploring. So, the framework can be a tool of expedience; getting to a better story more quickly. Or over a longer time, the framework might help you develop a bigger and better story where none existed.

Overall, I just hope it becomes another tool in your skill box, helping you to become an amazing storyteller in a world that will increasingly value that talent.

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from http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2018/02/business-story-argument/

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e-one-seven · 5 years

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That's it: Klei finally announced Winona's upgrade on March 7th. I am hyped, and not only because we are gonna have a new cinematic for the event (and I hope they are going to make a new, short cinematic per character because I love them and I want more). I know it's easy to say it right now, but I always thought that staying in the Constant changed people, giving them the powers that we know today: I always found weird that Wilson, canonically the last newcomer, was relatively normal compared to the other guys we got to play. And when Winona arrived too, she was so disappointingly normal people were upset. But lore-wise, it made sense: Winona is Charlie's sister, but Charlie lived in the Constant for at least fifteen years, Winona didn't. She is just a woman in her late 30s/early 40s at least who spent most of her life working. Even her new downside of her being hungrier when fast crafting fast makes sense: she works a lot, so she requires a lot of energies to keep working! She had not a real change, she just put her abilities to use to create new, exclusive items and that makes sense for her character as it was conceived.

I have no a real idea about how all the characters could be modified to fit new game mechanics and the new abilities about them: Wickerbottom could receive more books, WX-78 could use his spare gears to finally create his evil overlord army, Abigail could have learnt to fight for real instead of going Leeroy Jenkins on everything she should not attack, Woodie will probably confirm his secret Princess Disney status as Maxwell is already the master gatherer of the game (apparently he can stay friends with animals longer than any other characters and Wilba in Hamlet gives me hopes about the Werebeaver being fixed to be something useful and fun to play) and maybe they will fix some of Willow's most annoying mechanics (by that I mean not to bring her back like she was in DS: I understand why they downgraded her for multiplayer, but it could be done better). As for Wigfrid, Wolfgang, Wes, Maxwell and Webber I have no idea of what they could have done to improve them, but I'm pretty sure that from now on Wes will be a blast to play.

But there is the one character whose upgrade could really have some relevance for the lore, and for this reason I think he could be the last one to receive it: Wilson. Wilson was given the Forbidden Knowledge and he was tied up to the Nightmare Throne like Maxwell, but until now he never really put these experiences to use. Some quotes in game imply that most of DST exclusive items like the Telltale Heart were actually created by Wilson who explained the other characters how to create them so they would be still able to use them if he is not around anymore, but until now he never had exclusive items or mechanics. (He used to have the growing beard, but ever since Webber arrived he is not the only one in constant need to shave anymore). And as he is the main character, we can just expect his upgrade and the lore related reasons behind it to be a mind blown in every single way imaginable. I can't wait for it!

#dont starve #dont starve winona #lore #speculation #hype #dont starve together #game update #upcoming features

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workreveal-blog · 7 years

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Build tips: the best high-end gaming Computer

New Post has been published on https://workreveal.biz/build-tips-the-best-high-end-gaming-computer/

Build tips: the best high-end gaming Computer

Not all people can come up with the money for a high-five up gaming Computer. That’s partial because Computer components commonly aren’t cheap. However, it may also be the result of differing thoughts on what “excessive-end” apparently manner. Computer Gamer’s high-end gaming PC build guide aimed at a rate tier of $2,000 / £2,000.

computer

A $seven hundred or $800 Laptop is head and shoulders above any console you may buy. Certain, you may cross less expensive with a Laptop, however racing to the lowest isn’t what Computer gaming is set. And once you begin dipping beneath $600 it’s difficult to see the advantage of the Computer anyway. Console makers get their parts in bulk on the cheap, and it’s hard to fight towards that type of scale with local components. At the next tier of $1, three hundred, you can see advanced frame quotes and best settings because of the pics cards that emerge as to be had. And at this tier of $2,000 (supply or take $a hundred or so), we attempt to push a significant bit similarly with the highest quit snapshots playing cards within reason.

The fee factor additionally doesn’t account for the working device or any peripherals. Check out our purchasing publications to the first-rate mouse, keyboard, and gaming reveals for our favourite selections to pair with your new rig.

In our today’s construct, we’ve got up to date the CPU and motherboard to use one of Intel’s new Kaby Lake processors. It is not a massive performance gain over the Middle i7-6700K. However, the rate difference is mostly negligible, so it changed into a clean upgrade to make. To supplement it, we additionally moved up to a Z270 motherboard.

Final time this manual become touched, I idea approximately switching to a Haswell-E or Broadwell-E CPU. Then Kaby Lake processors arrived, with even better clocks than the previous generation, and we introduced a separate extreme construct. The X99 platform, in reality, belongs as a great option, and with SLI/CrossFire becoming increasingly more questionable, the i7-7700K finally ends up because of the first-rate excessive-stop desire.

Compared to the previous generation Middle i7-6700K, the i7-7700K isn’t always a huge improve. I should say the identical for the i7-4790K as nicely. The world of CPUs has turned into an increasing number of restricted via the cruel fact of physics. While processors with 10 (or more) cores exist, many programs don’t benefit from going past four-Center parts. With higher clock speeds (around 300MHz better for all Kaby Lake components As compared to Skylake), that is a mild speed bump; then the charge boom is also soft at handiest $10 more.

High-end gaming PC

With the potential to mechanically hit 5.0GHz through overclocking, the i7-7700K is the fastest CPU for PC gaming pretty much each recreation we’ve examined. Greater cores would possibly help if you’re doing video modifying, however, for gaming, better clocks blended with a more modern architecture beats out the more major cores of Haswell-E and Broadwell-E. What stays to be seen, and something we will know more approximately next month is how AMD’s Ryzen stacks up in opposition to Kaby Lake. Early indicators recommend performance may be just like Broadwell-E, with an awful lot lower costs, so in case you’re considering going eight-Core, Ryzen is likely to shake up the fame quo.

There are a handful of Z270 motherboards to pick from proper now, and the Maximus IX Hero sits conveniently within the midrange region of top-class boards.

The Hero is constructed with overclocking and gaming in mind but lacks some the extra pinnacle-shelf features that its larger brothers the Maximus IX Apex and the Maximus IX System. To be fair even though, the one’s forums run for $300 and $390 respectively. With those expenses in thoughts, we’ll take the Hero with a smile.

The Maximus IX has two USB 3.1 ports (one every Kind-A and sort-C), three x16 PCIe three.0 slots, and two x4 PCIe M.2 slots to accommodate our Samsung 950 Pro SSD. It makes use of Intel networking and has handy on-board buttons. It’s a standard ATX board, so it’s going to match in nearly any tower case.

RAM can often be a question mark while putting a high-end construct collectively. Need to you choose clock speed or quantity? In trendy, the portion of your RAM may have more effect than the clock velocity of the hammer, so we added this construct with amount—to the track of 32GB.

Commercial Maximum cutting-edge gaming systems Should truly have 8GB at naked minimal, 16GB for the top degree, and 32GB in case you need to be care-unfastened. Want to open 20 tabs in Chrome and play The Department in windowed mode? You can do it with 32GB of RAM.

RAM clocks are counted greater in case you’re going for excessive overclocking, and best begins to make feel while building systems that creep closer to $3,000 or $four,000.

Unfortunately, RAM is reasonably high-priced right now, because of extended DDR4 demand from both Laptop fans and telephone producers. The G.Ability kit we have chosen is a fantastic set of sticks, but your first-class bet is just to locate the most inexpensive set of RAM that meets your needs. Check out our DDR4 RAM shopping for a guide for more info.

Now that the GTX 1080 has officially launched the GTX 1080 Founders Version, the GTX 980 Ti has been knocked off its throne—along with the relaxation of the Maxwell line.

At $seven hundred, the Founders Version of this card gives a new blower layout and represents the “reference” version of the GTX 1080. The disadvantage to that is that the Founders Version card is set $100 greater than the GTX 1080 “non-Founders” MSRP of $600.

So we went with an EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 FTW DT Gaming ACX three.Zero photographs card, which is priced at $650. The EVGA is less expensive than a Founders Version card, however, gives the same performance. It would not use a blower cooler fan like a Founders Version, but its outdoors more relaxed is flawlessly suitable for a single-GPU gaming gadget. People who plan to SLI will need to take a look at playing cards that have blower-enthusiasts, as they exhaust the new air outdoor of the case. For open-air fans, there’s no need for issue in case your case is nicely cooled and has right airflow.

gaming PC

About energy materials, EVGA’s G2 series are a fave of mine. All of them sport an 80 Plus Gold Rating, and an entirely modular design to help hold cable mess at a minimal. But if there’s one aspect that sets the G2 other than its friends, it the ten-year assurance that it comes with. Masses of strength supplies provide warranties of 5 years, but knowing that your PSU Should hold to feature with regular use for a decade is the kind of peace of thoughts I love to have. And I’m pronouncing this as a person who’s had their PSU burn out and fail on them within the centre of a WoW raid.

The 850W maximum load is plenty for this ring and leaves plenty of room for a 2nd GPU Have to the want get up. I like to depart 50-100W of headroom above the estimated maximum load of the gadget, and this PSU gives greater than that for this configuration.

SSDs were higher costly than HDDs due to the fact, properly, for all time. The advent of non-unstable memory explicit (NVMe) is yet another step above the coolest of’ SATA SSD, both in overall performance and charge. With sequential study speeds of 2,200MB/s (that’s megabytes in action with 2nd, thoughts you), you received be spending a whole lot of time on loading screens.

The 950 gives blistering speeds for our working system, with sufficient room to spare for games and packages we want to launch exceptionally fast.

Samsung’s 850 EVO is the go-to SSD I advise for Maximum builds. The 850’s speeds are rapid, and overall performance is greater consistent than Most of its competitors. The largest thing preserving lower back the 850 EVO is the truth it’s riding on the SATA bus. However, it nonetheless offers excellent sequential reads of as much as 540MB/s.

Because the 950 we’re the usage of for our OS is only 256GB, we desired a larger pressure for our secondary one. Our previous construct featured a 500GB 850 EVO, with the choice for a further 2TB WD Black. This time around, we cut up the distinction and opted for a 1TB 850 EVO, which Must be sufficient storage for Maximum of your games without the want for a less zippy spinning disk HDD.

Corsair’s Hydro collection of CPU coolers is a good solid base With regards to all-in-one closed-loop answers. You can discover higher options, however, about fee and ease, Corsair’s services simply get the process executed. My contemporary cross to about Corsair is the H80i v2 and H100i v2.

The biggest difference between the H80i v2 and the H100i v2 are their shape factors. If established and hired successfully, their cooling capabilities are almost frivolously matched. Even as the H80i is ready $20 cheaper than the H100i, I went with the H100i here due to the fact it’s far a more green suit while top-set up in the Cooler Grasp MasterCase Seasoned 5.

I get to construct a variety of structures, so I understand what I like in a case. I love modularity, which the MasterCase five can provide in spades. I additionally like desirable cable management and a PSU partition in a case too. Check, and Test.

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