#but I guess English and in particular American English it’s on the other end of the spectrum of that

[emozionidinchiostro]

Anyway when one of my posts goes into the tumblr wilderness, outside the realm of my mutuals, I realize that people on here take things soooo literally and I am amazed because language to me is first and foremost a metaphor, for no language can translate the thoughts inside my head

There’s people who don’t experience the uncommunicability of existence

#i am amazed #tumblr #i remember when I translated Greek it made so much sense to me that a word could mean a thing and its exact opposite #but I guess English and in particular American English it’s on the other end of the spectrum of that #words are not as nuanced in their meaning #and so people who speak American English as their first language have a very different way of thinking about what is said #I am not including uk English in that because shakespeare could imply things ™️ with his wording #languages are fascinating #tumblr stuff #hellsite [beloved] #humans being humans

[the-arctic-commune]

Oh PLEASE go on with Techno and accents and portrayal?

LMAO this came in within SECONDS congrats.

I don't really have a ton of citations for you. I think this shifted a lot as the dream-team-centric part of the fandom incorporated and learned about Techno as a person and not just Dream's rival, and if I'm being honest I don't have Thoughts so much as I remember having Thoughts in like mid-2021. General attitudes towards Techno shifted wildly from his “monotone,” “emotionless” reputation in early 2021, and the things I remember thinking about kinda stopped applying. I don’t remember what posts bothered me or why I wanted to bring it up.

But. People talk a lot about Techno's speech patterns, and it's true that in an industry that encourages getting as close to newscaster-neutral as possible, his voice can stand out a bit.

In early days when Dream and Techno were very much set up as rivals and people were trying to justify who would/wouldn't win in certain scenarios, it was actually pretty common to claim that Dream has more mechanical and tactical knowledge than Techno. Techno was cast as the brute-force fighter in these essays - comparatively unknowledgable but mechanically gifted. This is a really bad analysis - Techno’s knowledge of the things he cared about was encyclopedic, and his and Dream’s strengths are a lot more similar than they are different.

Where this intersects with voice is that in a US speaker’s perception, Dream has a pretty standard urban American accent, and Techno, as has been noted by fanfic writers everywhere, does not.

The most notable aspect that gets commented on is "g-dropping," the change of the "-ing" sound to "-in." People who don't do anything else to indicate peoples' speech patterns in writing will make sure they write down that Techno's sayin' something, not just saying it.

(This is called an "eye dialect," the use of a nonstandard spelling to emphasize a pronunciation.)

But that's far from the only thing that marks out Techno's accent. If you've watched his introductions to people (i.e. SMPEarth), you might notice that it's not uncommon for people to assume he's from the South, especially Texas, and to be surprised he's from California. The most commonly-known "California accents" are all very urban- and middle-class-centric, while features of Techno's accent (he can sometimes sort of "break" dipthongs and slur or drop syllables, and most especially the g-dropping) are more associated with rural accents in the US, and especially the rural South. And I don’t think that’s entirely dissociated from the way that so many people were so quick to assume, all evidence to the contrary, that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Obviously we don't know a whole lot about Techno's background, so I have no particular thoughts on how he ended up with the accent he did (though it sounds to me like it shares some features with the poorly-described "inland rural California English"). The only thing I can say is how it's perceived, which is as containing a lot of features that US speakers are going to mark as rural and working-class.

(A really fascinating part of this is his seeming inability to really code-switch at all; his Sir Billiam voice contains just as much g-dropping as his normal speech, whereas most people attempting to sound like a rich person would focus on speaking "correctly" and get all those nasals in the right spots. My own g-dropping is markedly more noticeable when I’m with my family than when I’m [location redacted]. But this is more sidetracking linguistics than... ok ok uh back to the point.)

Well... I guess like I said I don’t have much of a point any more, and I probably should have written this post a year back when I did. I certainly don’t have anything quite as obvious and pointed as Xeph’s discussion of how stereotypes about Northern England get applied to certain people (esp. Philza, Jack).

I just have, like, people talk a lot about Techno’s voice, and other blogs brought up a lot of really good points about how perceptions of his speech likely intersect with his ADHD and how neurodivergence can effect speaking patterns (speaking of which, a lot of neurodivergent people can struggle with code-switching! hmm). But I think an aspect that got missed sometimes is the way that those perceptions can also overlap with accent.

And also sometimes I see people pointing out Techno’s speech in a way they don’t for any of the other Dream SMP members. If there's one feature that you consider notable enough to mark while keeping everything else textbook, I think it's worth taking a minute to ask yourself why the feature stands out, and what connotations highlighting it might have. It’s not always a bad thing to do so! It’s just worth taking a second look.

#technoblade #dream smp #words #long post

[haute-pockette]

Hot Soup Theory

Okay so the creators of Rise have said that Hot Soup is just a silly phrase they came up with as a joke that wound up becoming their catchphrase after pushing it so much. BUT I have a theory about it’s in canon origins! We all know Lou Jitsu is the Americanized stage name of Japanese Hamato Yoshi. They even had him using an American accent or at least dubbing over his voice. I have a feeling Hot Soup was originally a Japanese phrase they changed to English. Specifically the kanji 発 (Hatsu)** 

Like many characters it can have multiple meanings when combined with others. But it’s meaning generally lies in movement: to begin, to depart, to emit or discharge. My first guess is it’s used as like a ‘power up’ type yell. Lou started yelling “Hatsu!” instead “hyah!” to make himself stand out more among other action stars. 

To add to this particular theory, in Hunter x Hunter the same kanji is used to describe the act of releasing a character’s power essentially. But Hatsu in this sense is also personalized to how each person does it with the six different types of release. It’s not just a show of strength, it’s also a self-expression. And Lou Jitsu was all about becoming his own big personality in that part of his life. He’d absolutely give himself a catchphrase to not only express his strength, but make himself stand out and take the spotlight. 

Alternatively, 発 is used as a counter meaning when counting a specific object, action, or event, the numbers are combined with a character to measure by. In the case of hatsu, it’s used to count bullets, projectiles, punches, kicks, bombs, farts and more. My alternate theory is that instead of having a catchphrase, he’d show off how badass he was by counting out how many strikes he landed on his enemies. So throughout the fight scene he’d be yelling it out repeatedly, or at the end he’d yell out the final number (i.e. “NANA-PATSU!” after winning a fight with only seven attacks). In a sense it too would become a catchphrase. Whichever way he started using this, it’s clear his manager would Americanize his catchphrase just as they did with his name and accent. And hatsu sounds a lot like Hot Soup, right? Right. TLDR; Basically Hot Soup became a catchphrase in canon cause his Japanese catchphrase was Americanized and it sounded close enough. **DISCLAIMER: I am not super familiar with Kanji (I only know Hiragana and Katakana), but did my best to research the meanings and translations for this post. If I got something wrong feel free to correct me, just be nice please?

#Rottmnt #Splinter #Lou Jitsu #Theory #Headcanons

[comingfromastatechampionasshole]

Making Yorkshire Parkin: When You Want to Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November (but you forgot)

I bought Lyle’s Golden Syrup on a whim in our international grocers months ago, nestled between the Marmite and jarred clotted cream. I didn’t know what golden syrup tasted like, I had no use for it, and no recipe I had ever read included it. Naturally, I bought it immediately. Walking by the racks of Japanese candy and multiple incidences of ramen noodles, I asked myself, “Is there a particular reason I’m buying this, or am I just pissed they don’t have Walker’s and don’t want to walk away empty-handed?” 

Months later, I end up watching a video on parkin. Uses golden syrup. In this moment, the stars align. 

How did I stumble on this? Well, I’m interested in historical food, and even more so historical baking, and November was coming up. Try the Guy Fawkes day cake, it proclaimed to me, and as I watched it, and it was described to me as an English gingerbread-style cake, i thought, “There’s nothing about that idea I don’t like! I can make parkin, it can’t be that hard. Not like i’m going to be able to buy it here to try it.” 

And hard is not the word for it. Let’s go on a journey. 

So the first thing is, that Yorkshire parkin isn’t the only parkin in town and so, as I glanced at recipes, i discovered that there were multiple theories of the business, and many of these theories involved insulting each others’ grandmothers. Lancashire parkin uses mainly golden syrup, resulting in a sweeter and softer-flavored cake, and I guess that’s why the only things a civilized human being knows about Lancashire is that it’s in the North of England, and it features in the Merrily Song from the Wind and the Willows. No, the more I read, the more I realized I wanted Yorkshire parkin, a dark, aggressive form of the cake that makes heavy use of black treacle and threatens to kick your teeth in. It’s no wonder that Yorkshire gets all the great wonders of the North, like Wuthering Heights, The Secret Garden, and that one pizza place I really liked. 

It turns out that Yorkshire parkin uses a very small amont of golden syrup, and so you may be saying to yourself at this point, “Doc are you unnecessarily complicating your life to say you literally opened this stupid plastic bottle of sugar syrup?” to which I say, ‘No one asked you, okay?” 

Black treacle is the first thing on this list, and this was actually the easy part. One of the ‘fun’ things about reading recipes from English to English (and sometimes even to English!) is that you have to make substitutions, and people’s attitude toward substitutions for ingredients run the gamut from questionable to hysteria. The good news is that this unites us all, and I am sure there will be several fine Brits yelling at me that unsulfured molasses is nothing like black treacle, in the same way that many Americans lost their mind at the mere suggestion that a digestive might be more or less equivalent to a graham cracker. I welcome your hatemail, Hail Satan , Lord of Spiders, just use unsulfured molasses and you’ll be fine. 

But then we have the problem of “medium oatmeal.” The Brits are running on a completely different system than we are with our paltry three or so styles of oatmeal: Rolled, steel cut (often called Irish oats), and instant. There are some outliers, but they are mostly the exclusive purview of places where one might buy free-range ostrich farts and consensually squeezed oranges. Meanwhile, on a rainy rock in the North, we have seventeen separate grades of oatmeal, some of which are only found on one specific moor where young maidens cry over it, keening into the wind (An expensive delicacy not unlike kopi luwak) Try as I might, I found it near impossible to get medium oatmeal, and so I took the most reasonable out possible: Buying steel cut oats and frantically googling photos of medium oatmeal until I had processed it down to the rough appearance. 

This is medium oatmeal. Probably. 

The assembly of it is stunningly old-fashioned, and I’m not making a joke when I say it seems basically unchanged from the 1700s: You mix the sugar and butter ingredients together in a sauce pan until the sugar melts, and then throw it into the dry mix, putting it together and then throwing in an egg as some desperate attempt to give so loft to what is going to be a doorstop or perhaps the blunt object that was originally used to kill Guy Fawkes, as well as a splash of milk, though what it hopes to contribute to the action I can’t possibly imagine. 

Having read over all this at 9:30 pm on the 5th of November, I ready myrself to assemble the parkin so I can leave it out for King James or whatever. Then I read the cook time on the cake: Seventy to Ninety Minutes. 

“Fuck this shit, I’m American,” I said, cracking open a beer and heading upstairs with my sixteen guns while eagles cried and sang “God Bless The USA” overhead. 

REMEMBER, REMEMBER, THE SIXTH OF NOVEMBER, WHEN ALL THESE INGREDIENTS ARE STILL SITTING IN MY KITCHEN. 

So, I have followed the recipe. The cake is in the oven. What will it become? Stay tuned!

#Food writing

[kohakhearts]

hey that pokemon 2000 gifset + your jn dub analysis made me think about the pokemon 2000 dub - I've only seen it subbed once (compared to the hundred times I watched it dubbed as a child) so I could be misremembering, but didn't the dub completely change the themes of the movie with the chosen one ash thing?

i actually haven’t watched the sub nearly as many as times as the dub either :p but i have read extensively about this topic bc it’s personally my favourite pokemon movie and yes! the first and second pokemon movies are both victim to this (like mewtwo’s epic speech we all love so much at the end of the first movie…being a complete fabrication by the dub team :p you gotta give those writers credit - they were VERY good at what they did), largely i’m guessing due to cultural values and expectations. since they were trying to sell the anime to an american audience, not a japanese one.

tangentially, i will say i also think that’s the root of this like…subtle distinction some people have between the characters “ash” and “satoshi.” i don’t differentiate them in any big way myself because fundamentally they still are very much the same, but it is true that in japanese, ash has somewhat different mannerisms and responds differently to events at times, especially in the early anime when it was so much easier to get away with making big changes for…a big assortment of reasons haha.

in THIS movie in particular, some of those things are like…well. the prophecy is probably the most obvious change. the dub team rewrote it to include the chosen one reference, which works great because of the word play on ash’s name. in japanese, it just says “an exceptional trainer will appear to help calm the wrath of the gods.” ash’s response to this is more mild trepidation than outright fear. he doesn’t hesitate like he does in the dub. and tbh? both reactions make perfect sense for his character in my opinion.

in japanese, his concern is more "do you really think i can fit that role?" this...tracks pretty well with his character development by this point. like yeah he said he could win the indigo league, but he's also thinking about dropping out after gary loses; it's that little grain of insecurity he has, which he's normally good at covering up with arrogance (a lot of which is also very genuine, don't get me wrong). but he sees the opportunity to help and he takes it. that's just...what ash does.

in english, though, the prophecy is pretty clearly about him. there's no one else it could be. it has to be him. and he...doesn't like that? that scares him. which, fair. anyone would be terrified by being singled out like that. it's also so much...not ash's thing, even at this point in the series. his character development is about embracing having to work hard to do well. to keep trying until you get it right, no matter how many times you get it wrong. the idea of being a "chosen one" completely robs him of his ability to be so single-minded about what he wants his destiny to be that it manifests as pre-determined; it just...pre-determines it for him, if that makes sense. lol.

the thesis of the japanese version of the film is that no one person or pokemon can stand on their own. everyone needs help. it's about harmonizing with each other and with nature. about letting others help you, and helping them in turn. the english version rewrites that into a story about power and destiny. the title alone says it all, right? it's called "the power of one" - no reference to lugia, no reference to the birds. in japan, the title is about the revelation (or "birth") of lugia.

westerners love a good chosen one story, so this was a really good choice by the dub team in that respect. i mean, it's a narrative that's stuck really well. fandom loves chosen one ash! in general, western fanbases are really into this narrative. it's everywhere. and there's a lot that goes into that, culturally, and especially religiously, historically, etc. so at the end of the day, i don't think the change is so much about conflicting ideas about collectivism and individualism. it's more about goals and ideals, on a personal level.

let me say again for the 273456784th time, i love that they resolved ash's story by having him realize that the goal he's really been striving for all this time is to meet and befriend pokemon. to learn from them. to earn their trust. it's like...he did the thing that everyone else thought represented his goal, maybe even himself included, only to realize that his dream was never about the end of it anyway. it was about everything he learnt and everyone he met along the way. (i also suspect nobody writing in 1997 knew that that would be the ultimate resolution, either. but it makes sense in the entire context. it's kind of a nice irony, even. to only figure it out after writing the story :p)

and i think this little distinction is important to that goal! it's his whole character! which is why even though i too love chosen one characters, i don't necessarily think of ash as one. because even if he is, his whole Thing is that he wants to try. a lot of the chosen one narrative is about characters being reluctant to be used for a "greater good," or about them collapsing under that pressure. ash doesn't really have that. he does what he thinks is right because he...thinks it's right. sometimes, sure, others have to push him into it a bit, but usually they're actually pushing the other way - it's too dangerous, you're going to get hurt, etc. and to me, i don't know - thinking of times he's died, or nearly died, and some legendary or mythical pokemon has saved him at the last minute...i don't think that has to mean he's special in a cosmic sort of way. i think it just means he's special to them. that he did something for them, or for someone else they had come to care for (thinking manaphy responding to may's emotions, not just to the fact that ash was drowning, or in mpm ash convincing latios to trust him because of their mutual desire to save latias, etc.), and so they want to help him. which is completely opposite to the typical chosen one narrative, i think? because he doesn't do those things out of obligation...he does them because he thinks he can become a better trainer by doing them, and he wants to do that. and well. he did do that.

anyway my tl;dr here is YES they changed the theme a lot haha, but i find it fun that they also changed the characters’ responses to that theme. funnily that’s…kind of also what fanfiction writers do all the time, lmao, but that’s a whole other conversation.

#answered #im sure id have something more insightful to say if id watched the original recently but i havent Dx #*meta #i guess #also re: the chosen one narrative being very religious #its more to the idea specifically of a character who does selfless things for the sake of being selfless and it often ends with the #character martyring themself somehow. which i dont think it’s necessarily WRONG to say is what ash does. self-sacrificial is not a Bad way #to describe him. i think its a reasonable and compelling read on his character. its just not mine i guess because as much as i also love #chosen one characters what i love most about it isnt the fact that they are a chosen one #so much as what the consequences of that have been because what they really want deep down is to just…not have to save the world #but ash isnt really like that. saving the world is more of a byproduct of what hes actually trying to do. which is to help others #rather than being forced to save the world to help the ones he cares for. its kinda opposite. idk. maybe i’ll write a post about this #properly someday bc rn my brain is mush and i can only think of three major western franchises that even have chosen ones lol

[bleachbleachbleach]

11/26/23

In my last one of these I said that writing in weird rogue snatches was my way of confirming that I was alive, so I guess I'm dead now. I'm upset by the number high-intensity, maximal-effort Things that need to be attended to, and I am very stressed!!! and alternate between feelings of bitterness and despair. I'm mad about everything! 12 hours into an 8 hour drive the other day, I was thinking about my calendar and returned to my perennial thought that I should just give up on hobbies because accepting full-stop that they are not possible would be less upsetting day-to-day than continuing to desire them. Rolled back around to the same thought driving home last night. And this was AFTER I finally got days off. Everything is stupid! HOW DO I CHANGE IT. But I read a lot of fanfic on Friday and wrote for an hour this morning and a least part of the 1500 miles I have logged driving this week went to thinking about Rose and Kira and Hitsugaya and Rukia and not calendar despair. And I should be able to work 40-hour weeks for at least the first 2/3 of 2024, provided I survive December. So we persist.

This isn't from the chapter I'm working on (nor was most of that car time thinking), but here's what I consider the most outrageously self-indulgent segment of the entire fic, which I recently revised to make it even more self-indulgent and even more incomprehensible unless you possess a very particular knowledge set. I've kept it in mostly because it's my fic and I can put whatever I want in it, but also because I feel like it's 10000% an okay reading experience if Rose and Akon have a weirdly niche conversation and you don't understand wtf they're talking about. I feel like that's probably what's supposed to happen.

--

Outoribashi sighs. “Hacchi devised it as a way of masking reiatsu that’s more effective against Hollows than our usual. Tousen and I added the layers that would make it more effective against Quincy. We never finished the back end. That project got interrupted somehow."

"I see," says Akon.

"I always imagined its next iteration would be to create a pocket dimension—a place ripped from sensory detection because it exists on another plane entirely. Aizen had expressed an interest.”

“I see,” says Akon. "Exiled a hundred years in Living World, no IRB, no Central 46, and you didn’t use that time to perfect forbidden kidou?"

Outoribashi smiles thinly. "The Living World is no place for that. There is no there there."

"A rose isn’t a rose isn’t a rose?" Akon volleys back.

"Only for Emilys."

"Deep cut," says Akon. “In the English?”

Outoribashi shakes his head. “The French. I find meaning heightened in translation, and Coindreau is a master.”

"Touché."

"An impressive showing from you, as well. I would not have imagined Soul Society so well-versed in otherworldly literatures."

Akon shrugs. "Labwork. Waiting around. The whole 'world enough and time' thing. I keep myself entertained."

"Then you can imagine why, in exile, I would choose to entertain myself otherwise, rather than continue to tinker at failed kidou."

"Still, I wouldn’t have figured you a Modernist," Akon says, gesturing at the puff of frills at Rose’s neck. "Unless that’s your take on making it new again."

"I love Paris in any era," Outoribashi replies flippantly. "Even when the Americans are in town."

#stories for the sea

[citrus-cactus]

I know you're a major Daisuke/Wallace shipper, but may I ask which other ships with Daisuke you like too, if any? (^・ω・^ )

(in my case i multiship him with a ton of characters... Lately more into TakeDai thanks to Shiha lol)

Ahhh, sorry it took so long for me to answer this!!

Oh, Ni. NI. Do you really want to open up the floodgates of shipping with me?? (bless you)

So, I developed the habit of just not talking about Digimon ships on the Internet many years ago, despite it being the primary thing that was fueling my creative output for a significant period of time (like… 2007-2014, probably??). But yeah, for most of my time on Tumblr, there was no way I was gonna talk directly about Digimon ships, because I’m always scared about the potential backlash such posts may receive (trying to get over that, though!). A few ships have breached brain-containment: Wallsuke and Taijyou, obviously, Taishiro and Nishihime maybe less-obviously (these days). But I feel more comfortable talking about those since they’re (mostly) rarepairs, the haters are minimal/nonexistent, fans of those pairs are chill and awesome, and I guess they just feel “safer” than some of the rest of the Adventure/02/tri/Kizuna shipping minefield XD

I would LOVE to make a chart like the one @reliablejoukido did showing my OTP thru NOTP feelings though! Back in 2012 I know I made a numerical matrix-type thingy for my preferences, but I never published it anywhere and I’m guessing they’ve changed a bit ^^; If I ever found time to make my own template in this day and age, I’d do it, but alas, time makes fools of us all! 🥲

All that is to say, I’m also a multishipper, and I absolutely have other Daisuke ships!! I have ended up on kind of a personal crusade to put more Wallsuke out in the world these past few years, which is why it kind of accidentally ended up being my primary Daisuke ship (oops). It doesn’t mean all those other ships are gone and forgotten, though!

I’m generally using REALLY OLD American English Fandom ship names in this post, only because that’s how I refer to them in my own head. Please don’t think too hard about the spelling/order/capitalization/punctuation of them, because I’m not! I assure you these designations don’t mean anything in this context other than “the relationship between these characters in some platonic or romantic way, explanation to follow.” TL;DR for everyone reading this: don’t be rude about shipping on this post, and don’t nitpick my terminology, please! I’m old, and so, so tired of fandom drama.

And now, without further ado, and in no particular order… DAISUKE SHIPS! ᕕ(ᐛ) ᕗ

Daiyako (Miyako/Daisuke)

I love them as friends hanging out or casually dating. They’re so!!! Well, they’re pretty similar in how strong their convictions are and how open they are about their feelings, which means they agree on a lot of things but also have the potential to clash a lot, which is a dynamic I REALLY enjoy for them. In a romantic scenario, I can definitely see them as going from arguing about something inconsequential to making out in about 3 seconds flat (maybe with a side of “how did we end up here??” ehehehe). IDK, they both give off disaster bisexual vibes to me, and I’m 100% here for that!

Daiken (Ken/Daisuke)

Really great, obviously, either romantic or platonic. They were Jogress partners (cue chorus of “oh my god, they were Jogress partners…”). I actually um. Don’t have a lot to say about this ship, but I do enjoy seeing it on my dash! Daisuke and Ken’s Christmas Carol and the entirety of Revenge of Diaboromon are all-time classics in my mind and I do secretly like one-sided Kaiser/Daisuke or mutual Kaiser/Daisuke Kaiser… shhhh

Daikari (Hikari/Daisuke)

Like, honestly yes. Daisuke, I am rooting for you! I mostly enjoy them as a friendship or in a “falling in love once they grow up and mellow out a bit” context. This is also how I feel about Junpei/Izumi from Frontier, by-the-by. Both pairs give off similar vibes (to me), but I’m more likely to gravitate to thinking about Junzumi because I just. Junpei does NOT get enough love, respect, or attention in general, and I would LOVE to see more portrayals of fat-positive romance for him, specifically.

Daikeru (Takeru/Daisuke)

So, I’ll admit I have a really hard time writing Takeru, which means I don’t do a very good job of imagining him in Situations(tm), but I have read/seen a fair bit of this pair romantically and I like it, I just also don’t have a lot to say about it (I’m sensing a theme!). Once again though, I will happily read what others put out there. Please, fic writers, help me understand how Takeru thinks! He’s such a mystery to me.

Daichi (Taichi/Daisuke)

The admiration Daisuke shows his senpai in canon is very endearing, even if it can seem a bit lopsided (though maybe, by the time Revenge of Dioboromon concludes, the admiration IS quite mutual??). I do like thinking about them as a mentor/mentee pair though, or equals/brothers-in-arms, learning from each other as they compare notes on leadership and decisionmaking.

Daimi (Mimi/Daisuke)

I loooooove their friendship!! IDK, between the NY segment of the World Tour Arc and the Door Into Summer audio drama, it’s there, right? Anyway, I still say these two are the Treat Yo’ Self squad for the Adventure kids, and I love picturing that dynamic for them.

I think me answering this ask is a bit of a stealth request for (short) fic recs that feature these relationships, lmao. I used to casually browse fanfiction a lot more than I do now, I guess I’m too picky or something (plus I have a HUGE backlog of mutuals’ fanfics to read, augh sorry!). And I didn’t mention it, but romantic thruples are good too! I would be interested in reading… oh, I don’t know, pretty much any combination of the older 02 characters in a polyamory situation (Dai/Ken/Miyako, Hikari/Takeru/Dai, Ken/Dai/Takeru, Dai/Miya/Wallace, etc).

So yeah. Shipping!! I love it. Does this mean the floodgates are finally open? IDK, but you could try sending me another Digimon character to see if I’d talk about the ship(s) I have for them!

#thanks for the ask this was fun to think about! #digimon adventure 02 #daisuke motomiya #shipping #multishipping #asks #digitalgate02

[splodey-goat]

I don't think there are good enough words, in the English language generally but in Fandom Jargon in particular, to describe how someone can have a rich and complex inner life and backstory and all the unassailable justification in the world to believe what they do and act how they do, and still fall very straightforwardly into broad black/white distinctions.

And I tend to think of this as a very fandom-y problem because that's where the stakes are low enough but emotions are high enough that you see the most bombastic fighting about it, but also because I think if we can address this on the media literacy level we can stop it on the consequential political level.

Like I'm not a sociologist or a wordsmith so I hope this is comprehensible but like, The MCU and its fandom are the masters of this, right? Their recurring villain problem of "This person has real and valid reasons to be a villain, but since they're killing babies we don't have to address it" is more often (rightly) seen as just bad writing, often because the horrific action is non-sequitur to the sympathetic reasoning, but the mirror is "Oh Tony Stark has ptsd and ended up being right about his alien paranoia so you can't call him bad just for being Fascist American Exceptionalism: The Person" and because no alternative is never called you're encouraged not to think about it.

It's all the idea that like, if you can humanize someone you can't help but empathize with them, so you focus on the reasons and intents for the characters you wanna sympathize with, and then you focus only on the ACTIONS of the people you want the audience to hate. Heroic actions are FOR something but villainous actions are in a vacuum.

I guess you have anti-heroes and anti-villains but that's such a specific breed of thing and very definitely does not apply to the real world. It's easier to talk about in media because there IS a central narrative trying to push things and you can just blame the writer/exec/the framing, but irl anyone pushing a framing is also an actor in the system with independent motives informed by every other actor in the system. I dunno, I'm rambling but please someone tell me you get it, how blorbos and pathetic meow-meows are actually a hop skip and a jump away from "well my uncle's a cop and he's not racist!".

[baronessofmischief]

I think in terms of deciding whether or not to write accents phonetically (I’m against it) it mostly comes down to the fact non-native speakers will almost always do it incorrectly and it ends up being seen— however well-intended— as an insult, parody, or stereotype. This can also be said of (and has been said many times about) using other languages in a story. If you haven’t lived in and taken an active focus on actually studying the way accents form and evolve and function within a specific environment, including speaking extensively with people who have that particular dialect or accent, you are much more likely to do harm than good in including it in your writing.

There are innumerable places where it could be done incorrectly; accents, dialects, and language will be used differently across age, gender, class, social standing, environment, time period, subculture, context, and individual persons, even when the two people speaking are from the exact same culture. It’s not to say you can’t do it, it’s to say if you’re going to do it, you need to do it right. You need to be able to justify how and why you wrote something the way you did outside of “It sounded good.” Back it up with research and justify your reasoning, and above all be receptive to criticism and admit when you’re wrong or unaware of something pointed out to you.

I’m not even someone for whom English is a second language and I can frequently tell when an accent or dialect is being used incorrectly because I’ve seen it done even with American accents. It’s very easy to tell when someone who isn’t southern or midwestern or northeastern isn’t a native to those regions.

And I know it ’s hard! But guess what: writing is hard. If this isn’t something you’re willing to commit time to, best not to use it at all.

Plenty of other people can talk more about the foreign language aspect, but if you want advice for writing accents in English: don’t write it phonetically unless it’s an entirely different word (ex. “Y’all” being a contraction of “you all”). Number one: it’s harder to process and puzzle out in a written format especially since every writer is likely to do it differently using their own arbitrary set of rules, and number two, you’re much more liable to make your character look like a cartoon stereotype which any number of people will at best, simply back out of a fic and possibly not read your work with those characters again, or at worst, be insulted or harmed by the depiction. It’s worsened by the fact that if that reader says nothing, you the writer get away with it, and if they DO say something, they risk backlash or active harm. It’s a lose/lose situation.

Instead of changing the spelling of the word and adding a bunch of apostrophes, focus more on actual vocabulary and slang to the point you can give the reader enough flavor to ‘hear’ how that character speaks and move on. Additionally, don’t have them spout random phrases that don’t make sense in context of the scene just to emphasize the fact they’re “not from around here.” There are very few cases where someone is going to project random idioms as a means of announcing their presence to the room as someone with a different way of speaking.

Environmental context clues should inform the reader of what region the character’s voice is from. You the author know what the character is saying— so write what they’re saying and trust your readers to fill in the gaps. If you’re a native English speaker, writing broken English is going to come across as rude and ignorant no matter how well you think you’ve done it.

#Even as a white person I can tell when an author isn’t accustomed to writing black characters who use AAVE #And I can only IMAGINE the reaction black readers would have to it #I’m only coming to this from the perspective of someone who is mildly annoyed by seeing southern characters written as caricatures #Your readers can tell when you haven’t stuck the landing #writing

[this-has-returned]

This is a long rant. Strap in.

I'm not sure if this is an experience that other Americans have online, but it's something that I'm noticing more and more as we get deeper into the age of algorithm-based media.

I have spent years learning German for the express purpose of seeking out German media online and being able to understand it with little to no translator assistance. A lot of my favorite bands are from Germany, for example, and I feel really accomplished when I can understand what I'm hearing. It's an absolutely beautiful language and culture. I'm too poor to travel (and my neurodivergence provides other problems with travel as well), but I wanted to at least leverage the Internet's ability to take me around the world's data channels.

I've wanted to do this since childhood. I picked German in particular half on a whim, and half because two relatives on my dad's side sing in German for their church, and so he picked up some of the language from them before I was born.

I was already exposed to Spanish from my classmates (and I was correctly assuming I would take Spanish classes as a school requirement anyway), and was exposed to Japanese from my sister and her best friend (which was a language that seemed incredibly hard). So German, therefore, was the first language that I felt was within my ability to learn, and could be learned for fun (and not strictly for utility).

Neither of my parents are German (those two relatives at the church are apparently French). I have no other apparent connections to the country that would register in any algorithm online. I think this has given me an unexpected obstacle, because all of the algorithms have been like "YOU ARE AN AMERICAN. HERE IS YOUR AMERICAN MEDIA. HERE ARE OTHER AMERICANS TO FOLLOW ONLINE. I SEE YOU HAVE AN INTEREST IN OTHER COUNTRIES; HERE ARE SOME AMERICANS WHO TALK ABOUT THOSE COUNTRIES."

And, like, the fact that so many things are search-based makes it really hard too, because no matter how many search terms I awkwardly type in German, nor how many German content creators I follow, a lot of social media will not recommend me anything from the country; it just redirects to American and UK sources (because it translated my search into English), or to fictional sources made specifically for people learning the language in a classroom setting.

In fact, on Twitter and TikTok especially, I can follow as many German creators as the limited search results will let me see, and then it never shows me any posts from them, nor makes any recommendations based on them. I have to intentionally check on their profiles and scroll through every week or so, because none of it appears on my feed. It's as if these sites think it's fucking insane that I would ever speak another language, or be interested in anything outside of my own country. It's like the algorithms think that following these creators was a mistake I made or something, and best to not take seriously. Honestly, given the stereotypes (and realities) of how little Americans care about the outside world, I guess this shouldn't be a surprise to me.

Tumblr is honestly the first and only website where my attempt to land on the German side of content creation yielded anything at all. This is actually the first website that seems capable of handling users who speak other languages for fun.

Anyone else I know in America who gets content from Mexico, Puerto Rico, or Venezuela (for example) seems to get it because they have family from there, and I think online algorithms seem to keep track of that and cater content accordingly. Additionally, people interested in Japanese media, UK media, or Bollywood seem to get content sources as well. Meanwhile, these same high-end algorithms look at my activity and are like "What's this nerd searching 'Eisbrecher' for?"

The closest I've seen algorithms get is probably the Wehraboo community (oof), but all their stuff just seems to be Americanized hyperfixations on WWII German war technologies and Nazi iconography, which is absolutely nothing like what I'm trying to find (obviously), but there's a surprising number of pipelines leading to there from "casually listens to German music and plays BattleTech games". You can imagine how annoying most search results can be for me, as someone who likes Eisbrecher, Rammstein, Project Pitchfork, and BattleTech. I hope this point in particular highlights the problems I'm having with algorithms and search engines.

I know there's a meme going around about how Tumblr has no algorithm, or that its minimal replication of one is hilariously simple at best, but honestly I appreciate it. Other websites with advanced algorithms keep me locked in this fucking country as much as they possibly can. The fact that I am FINALLY getting recommendations from German Tumblr users after a DECADE of trying to land in German communities on other websites is absolutely wild.

My entire goal has been to utilize what I learned to explore more parts of the Internet and Human Experience (tm), but these algorithms have been keeping me locked here for so long that my skills in speaking, reading, and writing German have gotten rusty from lack of use.

I'm not looking for 2-page stories written in 1980 by teachers for beginners in the classroom. I want memes auf Deutsch, I want rants, I want shitposts (which are hard enough to understand in English, as I'm autistic, so I will probably spend 30 minutes trying to process them in German). I want to see Germany's autistic community talk about their special interests. I want to see the larger neurodivergent community there talk about their experiences, too! I want to see gay fanfic about characters that I wouldn't know from American media, so I would be forced to try and Google what the source material was for 15 minutes to get any context. I fought in the American public school system to keep them from dropping German classes from the curriculum, and was finally able to take it for 2 years, plus another year in a community college before my mental illness made it unsustainable to chase my degree any further. I was hunted down for sport by the Duolingo owl when I took German lessons in the app. I just want to finally feel validated for trying to learn a damn language that I chose for myself lol.

So, hallo LGBTQ+ side of German Tumblr! Happy Pride, and happy Neun Euro Ticket! I need to improve my writing, grammar, and my spelling, but I can at least read you!

Also, do any other Americans struggle with this shit, or has it literally just been me this whole time? Or am I just doing things the hard way, and there was an easier way all along?

#german stuff #bilingual #algorithms #social media #languages #germany #autism #special interests #neun euro ticket

[margle]

15 (ish) questions for 15 (ish) mutuals (but I didnt do that part sorry)

thanks @cowboycharmac , @translesbianvampire , @number-one-hog-hater , @23meteorstreet for the tags!

were you named after anyone?

sort of. I asked my mum and she listed a few people but the main one is a very hedonistic character from a book.so that’s a fun role to fill. the other people are a bit more daunting in their accomplishments.

do you have kids?

no and I dont want any.

do you use sarcasm a lot?

not very often, I guess. ive been told I am very difficult to read if im telling a joke or not. especially sarcasm. im mostly sarcastic when im being mean rather than funny. I guess im more likely to be dry?

what's the first thing you notice about people?

I honestly have no clue. definitely not their shoes. and probably not their face because I can never remember what people look like. I sat in a car with my driving instructor for months but could not tell you what he looked like. physically, I probably notice hair and clothes first? but otherwise if im meeting someone new I just notice whether they talk to me or not and how they hold a conversation.

what's your eye color?

blue/green.

scary movies or happy endings?

im a wimp and I dont like scary movies. so I guess I prefer happy endings, although I dont mind some tragedy. for tv I almost exclusively watch comedies. i dont watch a lot of films so i’ll mostly watch what other people want. im a fan of rewatching, so it is rare I will willingly watch something new on my own. as for books, ill read anything! but especially interesting gothic classics and translated books. I like slice of life and anything with great world building. not a huge fan of ya probably because it was all I read when I was younger so I got a bit bored of it.

any special talents?

I never know how to answer that. im decent at various things but nothing in particular. if you showed me a relatively common uk bug I think I would be able to id it.

what are your hobbies?

im into entymology. I like taking pictures of bugs and recording their species. there are other things I do, but im hesitant to call them hobbies because I dont do them that regularly. 

have any pets?

yes! a beautiful, wonderful cat.

what sports do you play/have you played?

I dont play sport regularly. did the usual sports at school. (I did some more interesting stuff but im trying to be humble. im big into baseball - Ive got a batting average of .328, have 118 home runs and batted in 1014 runs. im also in the baseball hall of fame. that’s right guys, im baseball superstar wade boggs. Im a true american - I love baseball and posting on tumblr and my family and beer)

how tall are you?

I honestly dont know. 5 foot something. that should narrow it down. 

favorite subject in school?

I liked english lit in later school. earlier on I liked all the arty stuff best. textiles was a lot of fun but the teacher was a prick. 

dream job?

games design but im shite at coding. :( conservation work would be cool. havent decided yet. when I was a kid I wanted to be a farmer and used to like planning my future farm layout. now I just play stardew valley.

im not sure who to tag because I think most of my mutuals have been tagged by other people already. or have already done it. ive spent too long deliberating over who to tag/not tag. and so this is an open invitation to whoever wants to do this. you dont have to be my mutual! I know this kinda defeats the point of these things but gah idk I never do these.

#personal

[slugtranslation-hypmic]

hypothetically: if you were directing an english dub of hypmic, what kind of accents would you pick for the osaka and nagoya characters to distinguish them from the tokyo locals and establish a similar feel?

I know next to nothing about dubbing, so take this with a saltshaker.

I don't think you'd necessarily need to have accents for the Nagoya crew. I think Kuukou's the one with the strongest accent, but it mostly appears in the way he pronounces certain things or ends his sentences with emotive particles (similar to ending sentences with "right?" or "you feel me?" in English). Still, it doesn't stand out much to me personally, at least when I read the manga, and I don't think it serves a larger purpose in story outside of making Kuukou's speech more easily recognizable. I think it's already pretty easy to make Kuukou sound distinct, so I wouldn't bother about it in this scenario. (If absolutely required to give them an accent, I guess I'd assign them something like a Midwestern, Kansas-ish accent. Nagoya is a big city, but it's mostly known for being... well, boring, I guess. It also has a lot of historical points of interest that are mostly related to religion like shrines or temples, so I'm thinking Bible Belt...? Man, idk. Maybe more of a Detroit accent for the auto industry? Again, I don't think their accent is really doing that much in terms of story, so it's hard to choose an important Nagoyan quality and find a similar American equivalent.)

With that being said, I do think there is some merit in giving Sasara (and, to a much lesser extent, Roshou) a distinct accent, but it'd be tricky to pull off. Sasara has made himself into a walking Osakan stereotype, so his accent and the dialect he speaks both serve to illustrate this idea of, "Hey, I'm Osakan! That means you should laugh at me!" But what good is playing up a stereotype if only a portion of the audience doesn't know what the stereotype points to?

In terms of stereotypes, Osaka is synonymous with the manzai (two-person comedy style Sasara and Roshou used to practice) industry. Osakans are also said to be more focused on making money (hence why money imagery keeps appearing in DH songs), typically in a hurry (hence why Sasara talks faster than most of the crew), and generally more blunt than other people (hence why Sasara acts blunt around people like Samatoki - note that when not playing up his image, Sasara is plenty evasive! He rarely talks to Roshou directly about his feelings and often hides his suspicions of Rei in internal dialogues). So Sasara's Osakan accent and dialect are less indicative of the fact that Sasara lives in Osaka and more that he's trying to staple a billboard to himself screaming, "Look at me! I'm here for your entertainment! Laugh at me!"

So how do you put that into English? It's tricky, because there is no "English Osaka". I've never written an accent for Sasara - partially because I didn't want to flub something and make myself into a laughing stock, and I am eternally relieved I made that choice - but in the past, I've tried to make his dialogue and internal monologue be wittier/jokier than other cast members. For instance, another character might say, "You're not drinking tonight? That's rich, coming from you," whereas Sasara would express this as, "You're not drinking? I thought your motto was that it's always five o'clock somewhere in the world."

But dubbing spacing constraints are much harsher than purely textual spacing constraints, so would that work in a dub? Maybe not. If pressed for one particular accent, the closest equivalent I can think of to a "showbiz" voice would be a Hollywood accent, but a Southern California accent might come off as too surfer-y. So I'd probably suggest a New York accent. I think there's a similar stereotype that New York City inhabitants are always in a hurry, interested in making money, and at least sort of related to the entertainment industry via Broadway, etc. Translators often use an American South accent or a generic "redneck" accent for Osakan dialects because they're easy to write and look very distinct, but I'm personally not a fan... because both of those are, to my mind, not at all what the original is conveying.

Would Roshou need a matching accent? I don't necessarily think so, even though he does have an Osakan accent and use the Osakan dialect in Japanese (particularly in casual situations). I would argue that it's less essential to the character, but a Brooklyn accent Roshou sounds fucking hilarious and I, for one, would love to hear that.

This is all assuming an American English dub, though. I don't know enough about British English, Australian English, etc. to comment on how a fictional dub would sound in another region.

#not a translation #asks #hypmic asks

[professionallyunprofessional]

ToonMakers Sailor Moon- The (No Longer) Lost Pilot episode

If you or someone you know is part of the Sailor Moon fandom, it’s very likely that you know about ‘Saban Moon’, the English version of Sailor Moon that almost was. Created by a company called ToonMakers and taking a page from the success of Power Rangers (which itself is a combination of action scenes from Japan’s Super Sentai series and newly created storylines for Western audiences), it was the original concept for Sailor Moon in the US and would have combined live-action with animation. It was never greenlit, however, and the only evidence of its existence for years was in the form of a music video that was shown at Anime Expo in LA. In the early 2000s, a few animation cels and a script *for* the pilot appeared. However, there was still no episode to be found. Until now.

YouTuber Ray Mona has spent months investigating the lost pilot episode, getting in touch with anyone who might be involved with the production, from directors to cast members. Her investigation is spread across two videos, which you can check out here. I highly suggest you do, because the amount of work that went into this is beyond impressive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdYD5StqHxk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L67YFwnQCQ

The second link, at the 1 hour and 45 minute mark, is where the lost pilot episode can be found. When I heard the news, there was no way I *wasn’t* going to watch it and review it here. As always, review under the cut.

Right away, the animated bits are very reminiscent of the 1985 version of She-Ra. As someone who grew up with that cartoon, I personally don’t mind the animation style. Slightly less successful is that the voice acting during these parts also reminded me of the 1985 version of She-Ra. I won’t say it was bad, but it was definitely a product of its time. I will say, though, that I love its dedication to keeping a few things from the anime. The Sailors’ respective color schemes, Jupiter and Moon’s attacks looking like those of their anime counterparts, even Tuxedo Mask’s signature rose throw. With the last one, I thought it was a nice touch that the rose actually did something and gave Sailor Moon a power boost.

The live-action parts were very 90s, in terms of both the acting and the way it was filmed, and I kind of loved it. The ‘dressing up for the dance’ montage, the quirky jump cuts and dance moves...it was kitschy and charming as only a 90s kid show could be. One thing that immediately caught my interest is that, in this version, Sailor Moon’s civilian name is Victoria. That’s the exact name used in the original promo for DiC’s dub of the series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLYx-sGdjUc

Does this mean we would have also gotten Blue (Sailor Mercury), Sarah (Sailor Jupiter), Dana (Sailor Mars), and Carrie (Sailor Venus)? I guess we’ll never know, as Victoria is the only one whose name is mentioned in the pilot. Speaking of Sailor Mercury in particular, she just by herself would have sold me on this series if it had aired. 1994 was about the time when I first started using a wheelchair myself, so seeing a girl in a wheelchair as one of the heroes would have blown my tiny mind.

Am I glad that we ended up with the dub that we got? Yes. DiC’s dub of Sailor Moon, despite its problems, paved the way for a lot of other anime to be introduced to North American audiences. Do I wish we could have gotten to see more of this version? Also yes, I won’t lie.

#professionally unprofessional #Sailor Moon #Saban Moon #Toonmakers Sailor Moon #Toon Makers Sailor Moon

[modgirlyreposts-revamped]

Ok thank you.

- I still haven’t decided where I stand on Shadow and spicy food. Thing is, he has a clear tolerance for… WEIRD foods, given he canonically eats straight coffee beans, so I don’t know if he would just be completely unbothered, like you could give him a ghost pepper and he’d eat it with a straight face, but it’s kind of an inside joke between me and Bread that he insists he can eat spicy food just fine, but literally could be taken out by a single buffalo wing and Sonic makes fun of him for it.

- As I’ve mentioned in the past I am a believer of the theory that Amy is a hybrid hedgehog/echidna. Given the echidnas were rapidly dying off, it’s entirely possible she and Knuckles have a shared parent if that’s true. Therefore, siblings. That or they at least share ancestry, and are the only two remaining of their tribe. Therefore, not really siblings, but I like to interpret them as having a familial type relationship.

- Amy is the only person he’ll really listen to even when her requests of him go against his plans. Otherwise he knows what he has to do and that’s what he’s doing.

- Knuckles is of Jamaican and Mesoamerican descent- Knuckles himself being intended to be Jamaican and the echidnas drawing from in particular Aztec and Mayan societies. Sonic is Egyptian, Tails is Japanese, Amy is Romani with Mesoamerican descent, Rouge is French on one side and American on the other, Silver and Blaze are Indian, and Shadow doesn’t really have an ethnicity on account of being genetically engineered. However, his sister figure Maria and her family are Slavic (Russian or Ukrainian is how I imagine them), so Shadow… kinda is?? I guess? And the above applies to Eggman as well because he’s… Maria’s cousin.

- Amy uses exclusively cute anime gifs to express herself over text. Every social media she has has the same y2k girly anime aesthetic. Sonic ends every worrying sentence he types with “lmao.” Tails uses emoticons like :), :[, ^^ and ^-^. Eggman types in all caps with full punctuation, and Knuckles uses no capitals but full punctuation as well.

- Amy doesn’t like horror movies, she thinks they’re gross, but she can sit through one easily. Shadow watches a lot of intense/thriller movies, so maybe on like Halloween, they get together to watch horror movies and Shadow sits super fixated on the story the entire time while Amy laughs at any jumpscare and sits super relaxed the whole time, talking about how she would try to survive if she were there. I feel like she would get PISSED at the ending of The Ring, and as someone else pops out the DVD to switch it for another movie, she’s furiously ranting about how the protagonist “just got lucky! that’s not fair!! what kind of storytelling is that?!” On the flip side, they watch Saw, and she just shrugs and says “it was fine, just an excuse to put some people in a torture room, but fine”

- Sonic can’t sit still for any movies, unless it’s like, John Wick mostly. He likes Keanu Reeves.

- Knuckles speaks both English and Spanish. Both pretty imperfectly, but he can speak both.

As someone who can live off of spicy things, being Asian and all, Shadow being weak af with spicy foods kills me-

#asks #answered #valleyfthdolls

[dayinhistory]

January 6th: Joan of Arc is born

Joan of Arc in the modern world is used as many things; a heretic, a saint, a feminist icon. Many question whether the things that happened under her command were true, and if they even happened.

Joan was an illiterate fifteenth century peasant girl who at the age of seventeen, was the liberation of France from the English in the 1420s. She was eventually tried by the church as a heretic and then burned at the stake. That’s the basis of the story.

But that’s really not the whole thing. Over time, she’s been warped into an image of various kinds for use by varying ideologies. So we will start from the beginning.

Based on testimony that was recorded during her trial in 1431, Joan had little to no schooling. She primarily cared for sheep and cattle and if not that then was inside with various house duties. When she was 12, or as she put it in her 13th year, she started to hear voices. She claimed that the voice was sent from god, and for the time the voices pushed her to be a good child.

Then it got interesting. They moved on to go to Charles VII and lead his armies to victory. And shockingly so, she did. In the clothing thrown aside by a servant, she somehow convinced the governor of the area to give her a small guard and made the 11 day trip to the king. Somehow making it, she was able to tell through Charles disguise he had worn to try and trick her I guess, and then moved on with troops to Orleans to aid the group there. Apparently at the battle, she ripped an arrow out of her shoulder and continued in the fight to bring victory to France. After that, the path to the Cathedral of Rheims was….easy.

After a long campaign of successful battles, she did end up losing and was captured by the Burgundians, who sold her to the English. The King made no attempt to help her. The English, unsure of what to do with her, turned her over to a church court in hopes to have her burned as a witch. Which, they did do eventually after a long trial.

This is all amazing, but there are still many doubts and controversy among historians, theologians, and psychologists about her mission and frankly her history as well. Specifically around the number and dates of her visits to Caucouleurs, Chinon, and Poitiers, how she was able to win confidence of the dauphin at their first meeting, and several other aspects of her story.

It wasn’t until the 1920’s that she became a saint, and eventually a symbol for standing against tyrannical powers during and after World War 1.

Sources:

Frank, John P. “The Trial of Joan of Arc.” Litigation 23, no. 2 (1997): 51–69. http://www.jstor.org/stable/29759909.

Lanhers, Yvonne. “St. Joan of Arc - Character and Importance.” In Encyclopædia Britannica, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Joan-of-Arc/Character-and-importance.

Peters, Julie Stone. “Joan of Arc Internationale.” Proceedings of the Annual Meeting (American Society of International Law) 91 (1997): 120–26. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25659110.

Taylor, Larissa Juliet. “JOAN OF ARC, THE CHURCH, AND THE PAPACY, 1429-1920.” The Catholic Historical Review 98, no. 2 (2012): 217–40. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23240136.

Tiefenbrun, Susan. Review of Why the Medieval Trial of Joan of Arc Is of Particular Interest Today, by Daniel Hobbins. Journal of Law and Religion 21, no. 2 (2006): 469–73. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30040603.

#history #joan of arc #french history

[allthemusic]

Week ending: 3 February 1955

Another two songs, both with some fairly generic titles compared to last week. That doesn't mean they're bad, per se, but I swear we've already had a song called Give Me Your Word (?). Ah, well, it looks like they at least both reached number 1, which, while not a guarantee of quality, is probably a guarantee that they're at least memorable.

Softly, Softly - Ruby Murray (peaked at No. 1)

Okay, perhaps what I said about being memorable was a little hasty. I'm writing this quite close to bedtime, and the overall effect of this song is pretty soporific. It's slow and seems to slow down as it goes down. Add to that the lullaby-like "softly, softly" refrain, and you've got a recipe for snoring.

It's not boring per se, but it's very deliberately gentle and inoffensive. I can imagine grandmothers everywhere finding this perfectly palatable - from the instrumentation, to the sentiment, to Ruby's very clear, generically British-sounding enunciation. It's genuinely a shock to learn that she was Northern Irish - not a touch of Belfast here!

There's a touch of Doris Day to the lyrics - in particular, it reminded me of If I Give My Heart to You as Ruby exhorts her love to "Handle me with gentleness / And say you'll leave me never". The only difference is that Doris has a slightly livelier style. I can't imagine this feeling quite so slow or gentle if Doris were singing it, even if it literally went at the same pace. She'd bring out the vulnerability of it all, or a sense of having been burnt already. Which I don't really get here, to be honest. It's not bad, but it's a much gentler, softer affair than it could have got off with being.

There really aren't many lyrics to this one, either - I'm looking at them, and they're shockingly thin on the ground. Really, it's a verse and a few lines of chorus that seem to have exactly the same tune and half of the same lines. Literally half the lines in the whole thing are "Softly, softly turn the key / And open up my heart". Which is a fine metaphor, I guess. It does the job and doesn't hang around too long.

Huh. Apparently this song was a French number originally, called "La Tamise et mon jardin" ("the Thames and my garden"), and was only adapted into English by an exec at the BBC. So at least it's a homegrown British affair, not some translation of an American original. And you know what, I can admire that.

Give Me Your Word - Tennessee Ernie Ford (1)

Well, after a homegrown British artist and song, Tennessee Ernie Ford has about the most American name possible. The song is pretty American too, though not as American as the other Tennessee Ernie Ford song that I know off the top of my head.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, we've got Give Me Your Word, which, true to its title, starts big and dramatic with a massive string ramp-up. I feel like when we're getting into "solemn vow" territory, you kind of have to go big or go home. And Ernie definitely commits to the former.

Once the big old string intro is over, we get a dramatic, deep voice, proclaiming to his lover that they should "Give me your word / Your love will never die". It's quite the performance, all forceful and passionate, and its perfectly underscored by some rather classical-sounding piano and some strings lifted straight from a James Bond soundtrack. It's great, very melodramatic.

And then, once your attention is suitably grabbed, we drop into a warmer, slightly less intense rhythm with some bass going on. It's a little more chill, but the lyrics do not let up, with Ernie imploring his love to "Give me one hope to guide me" and other such intense clichés.

It's not quite explicitly steamy at any point, but I feel like lines like "Give me your lips / And let your lips remain" are certainly skirting a line. If nothing else, it's definitely hinting at some proper making out, which isn't something we've come across yet. So there's that, I guess. I mean, I could be reading too much into it, but I like the idea that we've hit our first song about snogging already, in 1955.

We seem to be then building to a classic Big Old Ending. In particular, Ernie hits the word "Alwaaaaaays" with enough vigour to sell it, before dropping down for "give me your word". It's terribly effective, especially after such a big opening, since it sort of flips how songs usually work. You open with a closing line, and that lets the song sort of peter out gracefully, with an orchestral swell and a glorious timpani roll, fading then into a thrill of flutes and a hazy sort of resolution that's lovely to listen to. More songs should end with a quieter line and then this sort of hazily unfinished cadence - genuinely! I think it's neat, what can I say?

Well, there's a clear winner for me this time round. As much as I love the narrative whereby the homegrown British favourite beats out the big, American, glitzy song, I just can't overlook the quality and sexy instrumentation in Ernie's song. So...

Favourite song of the bunch: Give Me Your Word

#uk charts #1955 #ruby murray #tennessee ernie ford