#but in reading the forums its very clear most just

[greyliliy]

I vented a bit about this on Bluesky, but the rampant use of AI covers, as well as the encouragement to use it in the forums, is my biggest hang up with ScribbleHub.

Generally speaking, if I see a book for sale with AI cover art, I don't read/buy it.

On ScribbleHub, so many books have AI covers, it's hard to put that into practice if I want to be a social and active reader (i.e. your own stories get more readers and comments if you yourself comment).

I guess I'm just conflicted bc I am reading things on ScribbleHub with GenAI covers and feel hypocritical. Xd

*covers head with hands*

#Liliy Stuff #I made a cover in IbisPaint #using only built in assets #in like 20 min #so there's no real excuse #but in reading the forums its very clear most just #dont think about how AI hurts artists.

[yaymiyas]

THE TALK

warning: yandere!isekai!crown prince, he is very mean in this, female reader

a/n: this is TECHNICALLY not a part two to the introduction but it sort of is….. it jumps from the conversation to the breakfast……..enjoy! ALSO ALSO ALSOOOOOOOO technically its female reader bc you got reincarnated blah blah

looking at the fragments of bacon he didnt want to eat, he let his fingers drum against the edge of the white plate. the fact that you, the daughter of a whore, lover to none, and nuisance to all, was right beside him made his food hard to swallow. the two of you sat in the dining room, and while he sat at the very end of the table with his back facing the door to the kitchen, your usual spot would be that of the opposite side. right across from him, back facing the entering door, but it seems after the poison didn’t hit quite deep enough in your veins, it did affect your brain because, for some reason, you thought it was brilliant to sit directly next to him. you weren’t as talkative as he would have thought of you, ever since you have learned of the activities he had decided to partake in, you started to demand his attention. at first, it didnt bother him much, since he himself started to believe that he was focusing solely on gracie that your suspicions were bound to grow, and grow they did.

for weeks, months, up until the poisoning you were all up on him. he was certain that you were attempting to skin him alive and wear him as a coat it was all mildly unpleasant but more irritating. saer never had a taste for you; rather, he actually hated you. to no one’s fault but his own fathers, he was forced to marry you out of pregnant promises. your father, sir tudor, wasn’t the poorest dope saer’s father has ever seen, but he was the loyalist. he worked on the gwynn estate, doing a multitude of things for the family, automatically gaining the trust of the duke and then the king himself. at the time, king gwynn was more fascinated with how a man with such little knowledge could become his most loyalist man, but that he did. following the pregnancy of both the queen and your mother, he decided that the best course of action was to marry his second unborn son off to the unborn daughter of a freeloader.

an icy shiver runs down saer’s back, forcing him to shake his shoulders and head. looking up from your half eaten plate, raising your head to the sudden movement. he was quiet the whole time, poking at the small slivers of bacon like they were the nastiest things on earth. you werent surprised that he wasnt talking; no, you were actually relieved. it wasn’t because he wasnt attractive or anything, he certainly does look like the main lead; its just the talk you had prior to the breakfast that was replaying in your head. cynthia and amanda didn’t give you much information, since, from the looks of it, they didn’t want to say too much. either their heads were on the line or yours were. you never thought about asking tily, even though she was the one that brought you down here. it just felt too weird knowing she was the one who weirdly had something against you. from your fading memories of ‘obsession falls’, you remember reading online forums and tweets about the whole thing. it seemed like the only real crime edina committed throughout the whole book was wanting her husband to love her. she did everything he had asked of her, from the way she talked to her style of clothing, even to what letters she can reply to. in olden standards, she seemed like the perfect obedient wife. this might have been your first mistake, but you didn’t read too much on saer or his backstory, so you never really understood the reasoning for his hatred of his wife, but you knew it was deep and it was boiling.

clearing your throat, you believed it was a better time than ever to clear the air and get to your point. you never understood why edina allowed things to get as deep as they were, but she was made just to be killed. it sucks that no matter what you do or say, saer will always hate you because you are edina.

“saer,”

“ae.”

that stupid nickname. shutting your eyes tightly and fighting back against any light to seep through, you sighed heavily. the whole time, saer had been watching you carefully. even though it was from the corner of his eyes, he was indeed trying to calculate your next moves. it was kind of silly that your sudden change in physical response is making him antsy, but how can anyone fault him? the last time the air-headed cunt decided to change the way she was reacting, gracie was suddenly engaged to alastair and smiling in his face about it. it was enraging. other than the fact that you were in his life to begin with, knowing that the reason he couldn’t slit the throat of his ex best friend was all because you decided to breathe. those two minutes were the longest two minutes of his life. he watched as your head dropped down on the table, making a very sudden and loud noise with it. saer had sternly told any and all servants to leave the two of you be if any loud, disruptive noises were heard. he even double checked that he sent your nosey maids, cynthia and amanda, home around that time. he knew that if they were present in the building, you weren’t going to eat that poison.

it was infuriating to watch them care about someone as lowly as you. not just them, anyone. reading gracie’s letters, asking how you’ve been and to see you before she even utters a word about him, was beyond hurtful. it felt as if his whole world was falling apart, all because you decided to have superpowers and not die. this was the only way to get back at you. he has tried strangling you. he has tried slaying you. each attempt was caught by either maid, cynthia, or amanda. it made him sick to see you get dotted on. seeing the frilly outfits they were making you wear, as if you were a porcelain doll not worth anybody’s touch. you were disgusting. a disgusting being that deserved to die. so why. why were you here? why were you looking at him like he had done something wrong. 

“enough with the causalities, i would like a divorce saer.”

#female reader #yandere #yandere x reader #x reader #yandere oc #yay ocs #yandere oc x reader #yandere isekai #yandere x female reader #yandere prince #yandere crown prince #yandere isekai crown prince #yandere boy #yandere male

[bonefall]

So, I'm writing an essay on the whole STATE of misogyny in WC for one of my university classes, and I was wondering if I could ask you a couple of things! No pressure of course, please feel free to say no!

A) Could I reference your good takes with appropriate harvard referencing and links back to your blog?

B) Are there any specific moments from the books that you think should be covered the most?

C) The end result will be a visual essay, so it's like those fun infographics people on Tumblr make on like ADHD and stuff, so when it's done, would you like to be tagged to read it?

(Sorry for anon, I'm nervous lmao, but if you'd be more comfortable I'll resend this off anon)

AAY good topic! You've got a lot to work with. Absolutely feel free to reference anything I've written, and tag me when you're done.

While you're here and about to write something so legitimate, I'm also going to recommend you check out Sunnyfall's video on gender in Warrior Cats. She breaks down the arcs into numbers, directly comparing the amount of lines mollies have to toms, and examining the archetypes women are usually allowed to be.

I think it's a must-have citation in a paper about WC misogyny.

...and, I think it's insightful to look at the WCRP Forum thread about the video. Note how the respondents immediately come into the thread to complain about how the video is too long so they didn't watch it, dismissing Sunnyfall as not being entertaining enough to hold their attention, even whining that she starts with statistics to prove her point, which I'm convinced she did exactly because they would have cried that she "had no evidence" if she didn't.

I am not a scholar, so I don't know how to document or prove that the books have an impact on the audience outside of anecdotes. But I think if you do write a section about fandom, it would be worth mentioning the in-universe and metatextual apologia for Ashfur and its reflection in the real world discourse, the authorial killing of Ferncloud because of fan complains, and the utter defensiveness against the discussion of misogyny you see outside of Tumblr.

You may also want to check out Cheek by Jowl, a collection of 8 essays about sexism in xenofiction by Ursula K. Le Guin. There's a very unique manifestation of authorial bias in animal fiction, having a lot to do with how the author views "the natural world," and it's worth understanding even though Warrior Cats are so heavily anthropomorphized.

So... Warrior Cats Misogyny

I think discussing individual instances can be helpful, but I'd implore you to keep in mind what's REALLY bad about WC's misogyny is framing and the bigger picture.

Bumble's death is shocking and insulting, but it's not just that she died. It's that the POV Gray Wing sees her as a fat, useless bitch who took his mate so she deserves to be dragged back to a domestic abuser, and he's right because the writers love him so much. It's that Bumble's torture and killing only factors into how it's going to hurt a man's reputation.

It's how Clear Sky hitting, emotionally manipulating, or killing the following women,

Bright Stream (pressured into leaving her home and family)

Storm (controlled her movements and yelled at her in public)

Misty (killed for land, children stolen)

Bumble (beaten unconscious, blamed nonsensically on a fox)

Alder (child abuse, hit when she refused to attack her brother)

Falling Feather (scratched on the face, subjected to public abuse and humiliation)

Tall Shadow (thrown into murderous crowd, attacked on-sight in heaven)

Rainswept Flower ("blacked out" in anger and murdered in cold blood)

Moth Flight (scratched on the face for saying denying medical treatment is mean, taken hostage in retaliation against mother for the death of his own child, which he caused)

Willow Tail (eyes gouged out for "stirring up trouble")

Is seen as totally understandable, forgivable, or not even questioned at all, when killing Gray Wing in an act of rage would have been "one step too far" with the ridiculous Star Line.

"Kill me and live with the memory, and then let the stars know it would only matter if a single one of your murder victims was a man."

It's the way that fathers who physically abuse their kids out of their ego (Clear Sky, Sandgorse, Crowfeather) aren't treated anywhere near the same level of narrative disgust and revulsion the series has for "bad moms", even if they're displaying symptoms of a post-partum mood disorder (depression, anxiety, and rage), an umbrella of mental illnesses 20% of all new mothers experience but are heavily stigmatized with (Sparkpelt, Palebird, Lizardstripe).

It's Crookedstar's Promise giving him two evil maternal figures in a single book, while bending over backwards to make every man in a position of power still look likeable in spite of the fact they're enabling Rainflower's abuse. Leader Hailstar is soso sorry that he has to change Stormkit's name for some reason, in spite of leaders being unaccountable dictators the other 99% of the time, and Deputy Shellheart functionally does nothing to stop his own son from being abused or even do much parenting before or after the fact.

It's the way men's parental struggles are seen sympathetically, and they don't have to "pay for it" like their female counterparts (Crookedstar's PPD vs Sparkpelt's PPD, how Daisy and Cinders are held responsible for Smoky and Whisper being deadbeats, Yellowfang's endless guilt for killing her son vs Onestar's purpose in life to kill his own), even to the point where a father doesn't have to have raised their kids at all to have a magical innate emotional connection to them (Tree's father Root, Tom the Wifebeater, Tigerstar and Hawkfrost).

It's less speaking lines and agency for female characters, being reduced to accessories in the lives of their mates and babies, women getting less diversity in their personalities, with even major ex-POV characters eventually becoming "sweet mom" tropes.

You could zoom in on any one of these examples and have an amoeba try to argue with you that "Oh THIS makes sense because X" or "Ah well my headcanon perfectly explains this thing" or "MY mother/girlfriend was abusive/toxic/neglectful and I've decided that you are personally attacking ME by having issues with how a character was written or utilized," but the beleaguered point,

That I keep trying to hammer in, over and over, across books worth of posts,

Is that these are trends. More than just a couple one-off examples. It's the fabric that has been woven over years, showing a lack of interest in, or even active prejudice of, women on behalf of the writers.

LONG STANDING trends, which have only gotten worse as the series progressed. From Yellowfang being harshly punished with a born evil son who ruins her life in TPB and the mistreatment of Squirrelpaw that begins in TNP, all the way up to the 7 Fridgenings of DOTC and Sparkpelt's PPD being a major character motivator for her son Nightheart.

So, I would stress that in your paper, and structure it less as "the Sparkpelt slide" and "the Yellowfang slide," and more as "The paternal vs maternal abuse" slide, and "the violence against women" slide. They're really big issues, there's tons of examples for each individual thing.

Anyway to leave off on a funny, look at this scene in Darkest Hour that I find unreasonably hilarious,

"Everyone who matters to me; my truest friend, my sensible and loyal warrior, the wisest deputy I've ever known, and 2 women." -Firestar, glorious idiot

He can't even think of a single trait for either of them what the hell does "formidable pair" mean lmaooo, when I finished a reread about a year ago this line killed me on impact.

#bone babble #cw misogyny #warrior cats analysis #SO good luck!! Absolutely ping me when you're done I wanna see lmao #Full disclosure I'm bad at responding to DMs because I open them and then forget #But I can try to answer your questions #Feel free to send questions in tho. You don't have to come off anon if you don't want i don't mind #I cannot stress enough. I'm just a guy who likes to yell about cats.

[mewwfr]

Oh my god, staff.....

This auraboa issue with the lore being (most likely) unintentionally racist is especially maddening to me, because the concept they seem to want to portray (based purely on the encyclopedia entry) is very similar to an OC I have, and so I can say with experience, it's incredibly difficult to convey! ESPECIALLY when you try to portray it inside a short story where you're cutting lines for word count (their forum reply mentioned they left out some lines to keep it short)

Instead of getting across the concept the encyclopedia entry seems to allude to, the short story just accidentally walks into like 10 racism rakes in a row and its truly agonizing for me to watch, knowing what i assume the actual lore's intent is.

encyclopedia quote: "Older generations of Auraboa existed in a constant state of communion with their fellows. They refer to this connection as The Loop. In this persistent state they perceive time and memory in a non-linear manner; their intertwined considerations for past and present events are such that it became difficult for a dragon outside The Loop to grasp the intentions of these ancient wyrms."

what seems to be the intention is that the auraboa are a hivemind that doesn't experience time the same way other dragons do- they experience past, present, and future all at once and thus cannot communicate well NOT because they have a different language, but because they aren't experiencing TIME ITSELF in the same fashion as the dragons! However, in practice, in the story, the auraboa seem to speak with words in the proper order, just haltingly, since otherwise the story itself couldn't work at all.

another encyclopedia bit: "The newest generation of Auraboa is not linked to The Loop in their waking hours. While they move through the world, they are less directly accessible and read as "silent" to Auraboa who are within the communal state. This disconnection has allowed the young Auraboa to experience time in a linear fashion, and with this new understanding they have begun to form connections with other species of dragon that have never before been possible."

The encyclopedia seems more clear about the Linear Time thing, and that being why they can actually communicate sensibly, but in the act of having a story where the older ones DO communicate with the outside dragons and get a point across, they've kind of not shown the reason why dragons and auraboa COULDNT communicate before! which is! a big thing!

If they'd implemented the auraboa speaking with everything in the wrong order instead of halting single words at a time, i feel like the intention would get across better. As it is, it just smacks them directly into the 'simple native' stereotype with a truly awful tripping into the 'having our kids be taught by outsiders' which is. a really wretched parallel, as many native people have spoken of the unimaginable violence of residential schools.

I feel like the encyclopedia entry Alone isn't nearly as awful (still not great, but not as bad) as the extremely poorly implemented story that managed to ddr dance onto a bunch of horrible tropes.

they were literally so bad at conveying the fact that the auraboa are a hivemind that is unmoored from time, that i see people misinterpreting the lore as auraboa having their own weird language that other dragons can't understand! there was not enough effort put into conveying the ideas they tried to convey, and what WAS put forward was literally chock full of the most unfortunate parallels physically possible.

#flight rising #auraboa #fr auraboa #fr #fr lore #flight rising lore #tl;dr i dont think the lore itself is actually that bad purely based on the encyclopedia #but they sure as hell need to better explain it #because the story was THE WORST EXAMPLE POSSIBLE AND SOOO UNINTENTIONALLY RACIST IT HURTS

[cosmererambles]

Kelsier and Anti-Social Personality Disorder: An Essay

Thank you sooo much for editing this @ladyartichokie! You were a massive help!

Kelsier Essay

I hope the dear reader will forgive my use of a proper noun as I write this essay; it removes somewhat of a formal aspect from its words but I must admit, it does come from a personal place of my heart. While this essay is meant to be persuasive, it’s also meant to be constructive and to drive a point home that I have been musing on for quite a while. This essay has major spoilers for the entirety of the Cosmere. If you haven’t read up to SP3, please refrain from reading this.

In the endless expanses of the Cosmere, there are hundreds of characters whom many hold dear and just as many whom people hate. You could say this is due to the brilliance of the author, who, despite his busy schedules and near constant time spent behind a keyboard, finds time to sign sheets and answer questions. Why is signing sheets and answering questions relevant to beloved and reviled characters? Read on.

Brandon Sanderson answers hundreds of questions, many of whom are inane, innocuous, or silly. Some are deeper, others delve into the basis behind some of his choices while writing. Still others pertain to characters. We get to the meat of it. This particular character is known, through the writing, as a brutal man, who let nothing stand in the way of his goal, who, while cleaving the noble class of his society in twain, uplifted the peasants and upended the thousand-year reign of his deity and ruler. Yes, we’re talking of Kelsier, the Survivor of Hathsin, hero of the Final Empire, and a character that leaves many people puzzled.

Reddit forums are frequented by questions about him. r/Mistborn and r/Cosmere alike have had their fair share of debates, and there was one thing I noticed in many of these: they take the words of Sanderson very, very seriously. Why shouldn’t they? He’s the author, is he not? Back in 2013, Sanderson had a Q&A session where someone asked him who his most disturbing character was. The WoB is as follows:

I_are_pant

1.Which of your protagonist characters do you dislike the most as a person? Taking in account that you know all of their inner secrets and motivations. 2. On the flip side, which of your antagonists do you connect with the most? The Lord Ruler seems an obvious choice as he was misunderstood by everyone for so long. But still, I’m curious.

Brandon Sanderson  This is a tough one, as while I’m writing, I HAVE to like everyone. However, the most disturbing of them is probably Kelsier. He’s a psychopath—meaning the actual, technical term. Lack of empathy, egotism, lack of fear. If his life had gone differently, he could have been a very, very evil dude.

 This Word of Brandon has had a decided effect on the fandom, namely in the fact that critical thought surrounding Kelsier, his motives, his struggles, and his successes, has all but been erased. He has been branded a psychopath, and there is nothing anyone can say against it.

The word “psychopath” is a very negatively charged word. To preface things, I want to be clear that this essay is going to refer to “psychopathy” as Antisocial-Personality Disorder. The term psychopath is very old, and largely refers to individuals with this particular disorder. The traditional definition of psychopath is someone who both lacks a conscience and lacks empathy.

Through this essay, I plan to painstakingly showcase that Kelsier fits neither the outdated term nor the criteria for the actual disorder, through canon book citations. I will break down each diagnostic criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder (Henceforth shortened to ASPD) and Kelsier’s character traits at large. I wish to not only prove Brandon wrong (It is a very old WoB and I doubt very much he still believes this.) but to prove to the fandom at large that Kelsier is a good man. A flawed man, but a good man. I will also note specific character traits that I feel are of note in discussing him, his motives, and his current ideologies.

(Please note that there are plenty of individuals with ASPD that are not bad people. Your actions make you bad, not your mental health. I will be using terms such as “bad” and “wrong”, but this is in regards to a fictional character, NOT a real life human being.)

Antisocial Personality Disorder is a disorder characterized by the DSM-V as a Cluster-B personality disorder. It shares its family with Narcissistic, Borderline, and Histrionic disorders, and is characterized by a “continuing disregard and violation of the rights of others, occurring since the age of fifteen. To be diagnosed with ASPD, you must show a pattern of three or more of the following characteristics:

·         Failure to Conform with Laws and Social Norms

·         Deceitfulness (Repeated lying or conning of others for personal profit or pleasure.

·         Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead.

·         Irritability or Aggressiveness (Repeated physical fights or assaults.)

·         Reckless disregard for the safety of others.

·         Consistent irresponsibility. (Failure to keep a job or honor financial obligations.

·         Lack of remorse.

Psychopathy is a term that was coined before this disorder was identified and refers specifically to a person lacking in both empathy and a conscience. The term is still widely used today, along with the term Sociopath, often interchangeably. For this essay, I’ll be largely relying on the psychiatric standards set in the DSM-V.

With this in mind, let’s jump into the criteria necessary for one (In this case, Kelsier) to be diagnosed with ASPD. While Kelsier waits in the waiting room, rather annoyed, let’s overview his case file. I will be pulling The Final Empire (TFE), Secret History (SH), and Eleventh Metal (EM). To make things clearer, I am using the Arcanum Unbounded version of SH and EM.

Failing to Conform with Laws and Social Norms

“Yes, he pocketed the gemstones in the vault, but that was more out of pragmatism than anything else.” (SH)

“Individual must show a pattern of Failing to conform with laws and social norms.” This one is tricky, as we are speaking of a fictional character in a brutal society hell bent on slaughtering those like Kelsier. Him becoming a thief was his way of surviving. While a thief, he was known as trusting, fair, just, and great to work with. When speaking to Vin after saving her from Camon’s beating, he explains just what sort of thief and crew leader he is, which puzzles her for quite a few pages as she notices the level of trust he places in other people.

“…Well Dox and I, we’re scavengers too, we’re just a higher quality scavenger. We’re more well bred, you might say-or perhaps just more ambitious.” (Chapter 3, page 56, TFE). After Clubs leaves in a huff, Yeden exclaims that he has to be dealt with, and Kelsier shuts him down.

“You’re just going to let him go?” “…I don’t work that way, Yeden. I invited Clubs where I outlined a dangerous plan-one some people might even call stupid. I’m not going to have him assassinated because he decided it was too dangerous. If you do things like that, pretty soon nobody will come listen to your plans in the first place.” (chapter 4, page 80, TFE).

Clubs, upon his return, remarks he’s heard that Kelsier would never use emotional allomancy to sway someone to his side. “You’re a smoker Clubs. He couldn’t do much to you, not if you didn’t want him too.” “I don’t like Soothers…Men like that…well you can’t trust you aren’t being manipulated when they are around. Copper or no copper.” “I wouldn’t rely on something like that to get your loyalty.” “So I’ve heard.” (Chapter 5, page 87, TFE).

If we mark his thieving and conning as a pattern in this trope, we also have to mark it against Doxson, Hammond, Breeze, Vin, and Clubs, not to mention hundreds of other Skaa and half-skaa that are just trying to live. Thus, this particular criterion is being ignored due to the outstanding circumstances of the Final Empire and how it was run.

Deceitfulness for Profit or Pleasure

“And the third…well, that was Kelsier’s favorite. It involved a tongue coated with zinc. Instead of a knife it used confusion, and instead of prowling it worked in the open.” (SH)

As a con-artist and thief, Kelsier throughly enjoys his trade. He made it a mission in life to con his way to the top of the thieving world, becoming the most “Infamous crewleader in Luthadel” (Chapter 5, page 89, TFE). He loved terrifying the Ire out of their possessions and the orb of Investiture. The man enjoys his profession in life; he didn’t fall into it out of necessity or trick. He even states, in narration of his own in the Eleventh Metal, that when he Snapped as a Mistborn, he immediately gravitated towards Zinc and Brass, as they could “manipulate other people’s emotions.” (Eleventh Metal, page 159). “We’re thieves, gentlemen- and we’re extraordinarily good ones. We can rob the unrobbable and fool the unfoolable…” (Chapter 4, page 75, TFE). That being said, he doesn’t lie to his crewmembers. (Ghostblood’s are a bit different, and I’ll get to that later.) He is upfront and honest with his crew members, never expecting them to go into something without all the information. He has never used emotional allomancy to manipulate his friends. “Despite what Breeze says, it’s bad manners to use emotional Allomancy on your friends.” (Chapter 11, page 212, TFE).

His dealings with the Ghostbloods get a little trickier. I do not think lying to them about having powers has anything to do with profit or pleasure, more, it has to do with his position and what he is. A little mystery aids his position, and I’m sure those closest to him know quite well he lacks powers. 

To sum it up, Kelsier does meet this criterion. He enjoys the con, lives for it.

Impulsivity with a Failure to Plan Ahead

“Oh hell,” Kelsier said. “There’s actually a God?”“Yes.”Kelsier decked him. (SH) Impulsiveness, in regards to ASPD, is described as someone who is not only impulsive, but also fails to plan ahead. To quote the exact text. “Impulsivity with a failure to plan ahead.” They lack any way of preparing for large tasks or what they are going to do in the future. In regards to Kelsier, he can certainly be impulsive. Heat of the moment decisions is one of his major strengths, along with one of his major flaws. He’s fond of brash decisions against those he deems slighted him or others (Punching Leras/Ruin in Secret History.) He will jump headlong into danger in order to save those in helpless situations. (Running to save the army, only to be stopped by Vin.) His foray into Kredik Shaw could be called impulsive, though I read it as him believing that since he didn’t plan at all, there was no way he could be betrayed, as had happened last time. Him taking Vin was certainly a foolish choice, though I wouldn’t call it impulsive.

Speaking of his impulsiveness, other characters are aware of it as well. Vin, inspecting the crates that will be shipped to the caves, says that “Even the new, more responsible Kelsier was an impulsive man.” upon learning he planned to go to the caves with Yeden to inspect the army. (Chapter 20, page 331, TFE).

His slaughter of the noblemen and women in the town of Longsfellow after they murdered a young girl could be seen as impulsive. He did it without regard for their plan,  which angered Mare.

That being said, Kelsier does not fit this criteria, despite being an impulsive man, as he does not fail to plan ahead. All of Kelsier’s life as a thief was nothing but planning; job after job, all planned out and discussed with his friends/crewmates.

“It was an unfamiliar experience for him. [faltering/indecision] He’d always had a plan, before. Plans upon plans…” (Eleventh Metal, page 152).

“…all those plans, all of those heists, all of his grand visions.” (Eleventh Metal, page 164).

Beginning in Eleventh Metal, Kelsier forms his plan that we see enacted in The Final Empire. Specifically, this line. “Nobody fights, he thought, Nobody thinks they can fight. But they’re wrong. We can fight…I can fight.” (Eleventh Metal, page 165). “A plan began to bud, a plan he barely dared consider for its audacity. Vengeance. And more.” (Eleventh Metal, Page 169).

This plan carries us into the main narrative of The Final Empire. Every major event, barring a few hiccups, is fully orchestrated by Kelsier. He planned for the House War, long before he sat down with his friends and discussed it in Club’s Shop. The beginnings of it were at Trestings Plantation, where he “stirred up a little trouble.” (Prologue, page 12, TFE).

His death, at the end of the novel, was part of a plan; hidden deep under other sets of plans, a hidden leaf of paper among many: A plan to get the Skaa to rise up.

I doubt I need to fully list all of Kelsier’s planning and plotting throughout the books; it’s extensive and would fill several sheets of paper. While we can all agree that Kelsier is an impulsive man, I believe a suitable picture has been drawn up that proves that he doesn’t fit this particular criteria.

Irritability or Aggressiveness

“He’d been in street brawls before, but not many. He’d tried to avoid them-brawling had been an old habit of Dockson’s. For once, he wished he’d been less refined in that particular area.”

Kelsier’s anger throughout the first novel, and indeed Eleventh Metal, is mostly internal. In Eleventh Metal, he doesn’t lash out at Gemmel, despite the man deserving it. He instead focuses that anger on other, more deserving targets. Through most of the novel, he’s rather numb, incapable of any emotion, until he finds the Skaa, hanging up and nearly flayed from the experiments at Shezler’s hands. He murders Shezler brutally with a shard of glass punched to the throat. (Eleventh Metal, page 167). His actions with Hoid in the Well of Ascension could certainly be touted as aggressive, however I disagree with this line of thinking, for reasons I’ll outline in greater detail later in the essay. (Part 2, Chapter 1, page 231, SH)

“Kelsier kept smiling. He’d do so until it felt natural. Until that numbness, tied in a knot within him, started to unravel and he began to feel again. If that was possible.” (Eleventh Metal, page 149).

“…the only thing he could feel these days was rage, and that rage couldn’t guide him.”

Irritability generally means lashing out at those around you. Kelsier doesn’t do that. He gets his angriest towards “friends” in the caves, when manipulating Bilg to speak of his doubts. Diction is very important here. Kelsier wanted Bilg to die for speaking against him. (Something that was, unfortunately, very common in military groups in prior eras (of Earth). It was labeled as treason, and execution was the usual punishment.) “Kelsier paused. This man should die, he thought angrily. On the ground, Bilg groaned quiestly. Kelsier could just barely see his twisted arm, its bone shattered by the powerful strike. It was bleeding.   No, Kelsier thought. This is enough.” (Chapter 21, Page 351, TFE).

Note that, despite his anger and irritation, he changes his mind quickly. The heat of the moment, the trauma of being back in caverns similar to the ones he was tortured in, the looming threat of their deaths drawing ever closer, got the better of him, and he stoppered it.

Despite Vin disobeying him many, many times, following him, and contradicting him, Kelsier never snaps at her. When he catches her following him to Kredik Shaw, he sits down and speaks to her. Yet more evidence is seen in his speaking with his brother. Marsh gets angry; Marsh snaps; We can’t deny him this. Yet Kelsier, despite his inner monologue saying that Marsh is the only one that can get under his skin, keeps his relative cool.

““Oh?” Marsh asked, tapping the word atium on the board. “Why the games, Kelsier? Why lead Yeden along, pretending to accept him as your ‘employer’? Why act like you care about the skaa? We both know what you’re really after.”             Kelsier clenched his jaw, a bit of his humor melting away. He always could do that to me.””(Chapter 7, Page 130, TFE).

During Secret History, though technically before the events of Eleventh Metal and The Final Empire, Kelsier kills seven people in retribution for murdering a girl for spilling tea. He remembers this as he wanders into the town of Longsfollow. You could definitely argue aggression in this case. (Part 4, Chapter 2, page 282, SH).

Kelsier does not fit this criteria. Random acts of aggression spaced throughout a lifetime of traumatic events and death at every corner are to be expected, and throughout it all, he’s a wonderful man to those around him; supportive, charitable, and loyal.

Reckless Disregard for the Safety of Others

“The best practice is doing.” Vin said. “My brother trained me to steal by taking me on burglaries.” Kelsier shook his head. “It’s too dangerous.”

Kelsier is shown to care, deeply, for the safety of those surrounding him. We don’t see much of it in Eleventh Metal, but we can assume, based on him helping the Skaa get out of the city at the end of the novella, that he cared for their safety.

In TFE, he is constantly aware of not only his crew’s safety, but his army’s as well. They walk a very fine line; one that, if broken, would result in their immediate deaths. Multiple lines of safeguards and protections, of smoke and mirrors, goes into making sure there is no chance of betrayal or accidental mis-step. 

“...Renoux nodded. Ostensibly we’re sending this all via canal barges to my plantation in the west. However, the barges will stop to drop off supplies–and many of the canalmen–at the rebellion caverns. The barges and a few men will continue on to keep upon appearances.” “Our soldiers don’t even know that Renoux is in on the plan,” Kelsier said, smiling. “They think he’s a nobleman that I’m scamming.” (Chapter 20, page 329, TFE)

The security of his troops, and indeed, all of their heads as well, was paramount. The three guards at the entrances at all times, were stationed to keep everyone in that cavern safe from potential betrayal. After they find Marsh “dead”, Kelsier sends the entire crew to the bolt lair before leaving for the Pits of Hathsin. He also tells them to send for Renoux, to tell him to pull out. This happened after a night of thought; it wasn’t an impulsive act.

Upon the attack on Vin’s former crew…

“Should we move our base?” Ham asked. Kelsier slowly shook his head. “When Clubs came to this lair, he would have worn a disguise to and from the meeting, hiding his limp…We should still be safe. (Abridged, Page 208, 11)

Upon finding Vin tailing him as he observed Camon’s hanging…

“What are you doing here?” “I wanted to see what you were doing!” “This could have been dangerous! What were you thinking?” (Abridged, 211, chapter 11)

Upon Kelsier catching Vin tailing him, beginning a back and forth about Kredick Shaw, and Vin deciding she’ll tail him regardless of what he says, Kelsier reads her thoughts. “I’m serious, Vin! You can’t go with me.” “Why not?” she asked, abandoning pretense. “If what you’re doing is so dangerous, wouldn’t it be safer if you had another Mistborn watching your back?” “You still don’t know all of the metals,” Kelsier said. “Only because you haven’t taught me.” “You need more practice.” “The best practice is doing.” Vin said. “My brother trained me to steal by taking me on burglaries.” Kelsier shook his head. “It’s too dangerous.” (page 241, 13)

Upon Vin awakening from her coma the second time…

“Vin,” Kelsier said hesitantly. “I owe you an apology. I nearly got you killed.” Vin snorted quietly. “It’s not your fault. I made you take me.” “You shouldn’t have been able to make me,” Kelsier said. “My original decision to send you away was the right one. Please accept the apology.” (Page 268, Chapter 16, TFE).

“I don’t want to be responsible for something happening to you, Vin. Not again.” (page 287, Chapter 17, TFE).

  Are there instances where he disregards the safety of others? He doesn’t care for noblemen. He certainly doesn’t care much for the Ire, though they were trying to forcibly take his God. Many people may argue he doesn’t care for those on Roshar, but this has never been explicitly mentioned in the novels; we hear from players that are literal lightyears away from Kelsier, operating under his orders but without his oversight: they can bend rules and hurt people without being chastised.

 Kelsier does not fit this criteria, as the above examples clearly illustrate he cares deeply for the safety of those under his wing.

Consistent Irresponsibility (Inability to hold a job, etc)

“A successful crewleader needs to know how to divide labor, especially on a job as big as this one.”

Throughout the novels, Kelsier has shown consistent responsibility. Before the novels take place, we know he led a successful crew of thieves to the point of massive wealth and infamy. After the Pits, he takes the downfall of the Final Empire under his wing, organizing and spearheading the entire operation on largely his own dime and merit. (It was a multi-headed approach, yes; without Dockson, many things would not have gotten done as well as they had with him, but this just showcases Kelsier’s ability to organize work well.) If we’re getting into the more psychological definition of responsibility (the feeling of being responsible for a person, place, or thing(s) wellbeing) he takes responsibility for the entire planet in Secret History, going so far as to cheating final death, taking up a shard for safe keeping, and giving it up, all to keep his planet, and those he loves, from Ruin.

Leading the Ghostbloods is similar to him leading his crew, only on a far wider and grander scale.

As for him being consistently irresponsible, it’s safe to say he doesn’t fit this. There are a few times when he makes brash decisions that could be labeled as irresponsible, but they fit being impulsive better, which is a trait we know he has.

Lack of Remorse

“Kelsier stood up, turning his back toward the sight. For all his cleverness, he’d gone and broken the poor girl’s heart. I must be the smartest idiot around, Kelsier thought.”

Probably one of the most contentious topics in the fandom is Kelsier’s feelings towards the nobles he kills. Chapter 5 into the beginning of Chapter 7, we are confronted with how he feels towards the men he kills in pursuit of his goal.

It is very safe to say, he doesn’t feel remorse for these men. It’s explained as he descends from the roof, pushing two guards off the balcony to their deaths. He’s angry, he’s determined, and has no pity for those who hold up the Final Empire, especially if their skaa. He does, however, feel remorse for hurting those he cares about; those he wants to protect. The best example of this is Vin: he feels terrible when she’s nearly killed because of his stunt at Kredick Shaw, he feels bad for how he spoke to her before he died, and he’s stricken by his actions in “killing” Elend in an effort for her to keep the power.

“Vin,” Kelsier said hesitantly. “I owe you an apology. I nearly got you killed.” Vin snorted quietly. “It’s not your fault. I made you take me.” “You shouldn’t have been able to make me.” (Chapter 16, page 267, TFE).

Note the actions at the beginning of this scene: “Kelsier was there when she awoke. He sat on the stool by her bed, hands clasped with his elbows on his knees, watching her by the faint light of a lantern.” (Chapter 16, page 267, TFE) Based on Sanderson’s word choice, it is safe to say he’s been watching her for hours, agonized. This is further cemented by a later observation by Vin. “What did one make of a world where a crewleader agonized over his people?” (Chapter 16, page 269, TFE).

He’s also broken up by how he spoke to the army, leading Yeden to “test” the army by striking against a nearby garrison. The entirety of page 419 showcases Kelsier’s thoughts and emotions about this, but I’ll break it up.

“He sat with hands clasped before him…” Remember when he was watching Vin? Similar behavior. “Kelsier shook his head. So many dead. They’d gathered nearly seven thousand troops before this fiasco, but now most of them lay dead. Yeden had apparently decided to “test” the army by striking at night against the Holstep Garrison. What had led him to such a foolish decision?” “Me, Kelsier thought. This is my fault. He’d promised them supernatural aid. He’d set himself up, had made Yeden a part of the crew, and had talked too casually about doing the impossible. Was it any wonder that Yeden had thought he could attack the Final Empire head on, considering the confidence Kelsier had given him? Was it any wonder the soldiers would go with the man, considering the promises Kelsier had made?” “Now the men were dead, and Kelsier was responsible…But, he couldn’t get over the twisting in his gut…the fact that they’d likely died expecting some sort of divine protection from Kelsier…that was disturbing.”

Kelsier fully feels the weight of hubris here, of the secret plan he’s been working on by himself the past few months, that we get a window into during his time in the caves. He feels terrible for what he caused, he fully understands that this was because of him. Safe to say, he feels remorse. You could say this is the comeuppance for his actions with Bilg.

 When witnessing the executions, Kelsier opens up about his remorse, as well.

 “I wish to the forgotten gods that those boys hadn’t died. Unfortunately, we can’t change that now—we can only use the opening they gave us.” (Chapter 26, page 439, TFE).

Kelsier does not want remorse; he’s full of it. He knows when to put it aside, however, and not let it flood him. Kelsier does not fit this criteria. 

Deep Dives Specific scenes in Mistborn are contentious, especially with Kelsier. I have gotten into many arguments with people whom I feel miss the point of the books, and because they have a grudge on a character, fail to see things from their perspective. Therefore, I’m going to go into these specific scenes, break them down, and lay them flat. Imagine it’s a UV Map of a 3D model; all little edges exposed so we can get a good look!

Kelsier and Bilg: Chapter 20 of TFE

Kelsier’s manipulation of Bilg is a key point in the evidence FOR him to be a psychopath, and I want to point out that while Kelsier had very good reasons for doing what he did, I am by no means saying he was moral in doing it. With that out of the way, let’s discuss WHY Kelsier manipulated Bilg into doing what he did, and the emotions that brought him to this point.

It’s not explained outwardly in the text, but Kelsier has some pretty major PTSD surrounding his time in the pits. He pauses before entering the crack, and uses this moment to impress the men; but inwardly he’s not enjoying having to enter this thin crack in the earth and delve into darkness. We get to hear his inner thoughts, but to all others, he’s putting on an act of confidence and bravado. (Pages 346, 347, 352, 353 of Chapter 21, TFE).

During the first tour of the caves, Kelsier is thinking of Mare, her betrayal, and it gets to be so much he asks Hammond to tell him “what he’s thinking about.” Hammond proceeds to ask him a question that seriously disturbs him.

The question, which was if Skaa are meant to be ruled over by the nobility, stayed with him the rest of the week, along with his darkened mood. He realizes, as he’s eating the feast at the end of his visit, that the skaa don’t really believe they can succeed. They need a symbol, a sign, and Kelsier decides to use himself as that symbol.

The reason he chose Bilg and his friends at the table was to scapegoat them into taking the proverbial L for the army. It was all to use his allomancy to empower Demoux and show them they can and will overpower the Final Empire. The reason BIlg had to die was the keep up appearances; those who question their commanding officers were executed. You can argue we don’t know enough about how a militia is ran in the Final Empire, or that it’s nothing like Earth’s military, but as it’s written by an Earth bound man with Earth bound references, I believe it’s a safe thing to assume. Kelsier, whom we’ve already discussed is an impulsive man, got caught up in the moment: his anger from the week spent cooped up in a cave that reminded of hell overcame him. He truly wanted Bilg to die in that moment. He superseded this thought process, reigned himself in, and let him live.

The morality of his actions here can be discussed, and no, it wasn’t ok to manipulate Bilg and Co’s emotions like that. It wasn’t ok to use them as a scapegoat. But I can sure see how it was necessary for a single man to be sacrificed in order to bolster several thousand.

Hoid in the Well: Secret History

When it comes to this scene, I won’t argue that Kelsier was being extra here. The man has been cooped up in a 5x5 spot for a long time, with no answers and seriously questioning his logic at becoming what he’s become. His only companion is an insane, unraveling god who barely speaks most times he “visits.” So when an actual man comes by, floating on what looks to be a corpse, Kelsier is immediately on edge.

All quotes are taken from pages 228 – 233, of Part 2, Chapter 1, of Secret History.

“ “Who are you?” Kelsier asked, stepping to the edge of his prison, eyes narrowed. “A spirit?” “Alas,” the man said, “death has never really suited me. Bad for the complexion, you see.” He studied Kelsier, lips raised in a knowing smile. Kelsier hated him immediately.” “

Seen from Kelsier’s perspective, this is a man that knows things and is holding back. This is a schemeing, conniving man, that is similar to the nobles he’s dealt with all his life. It doesn’t help that Hoid and Kelsier have similar personalities. Note Hoid’s words, “bad for the complexion.” A similar line is used by Kelsier at the very beginning of TFE. 

“Fieldwork hasn’t ever really suited me.” Kelsier said. “It’s far too hard on my delicate skin.” (Prologue, page 6, TFE).

“Got stuck there, did you?” the man said. “In Ati’s prison…” He clicked his tongue. “Fitting recompense, for what you did. Poetic, even.” “What I did?” “Destroying the Pits, O Scarred one. That was the only perpendicularity on this planet with any reasonable ease of access.” Kelsier has no idea what a perpendicularity is. Yes, he destroyed it. Did he know what he was doing on a grand scale? No. He was, to his knowledge, destroying the Empire’s main economic driver. Hoid treats him like a criminal when Kelsier was fighting against an unjust Empire, one that Hoid is very familiar with, having been to Scadrial before. Calling him names doesn’t help.

“Who are you?” Kelsier said. “I?” The man said. “I am a driver. A miscreant. The flame’s last breath, made of smoke at it’s passing.” “That’s…needlessly obtuse.” Well said, Kelsier. Hoid plays games, this we know from dealing with him in Stormlight. However, with Kaladin and Shallan he gives half answers, or none at all, in a playful, non-demeaning way. Here he’s laden with vitriol and spite, for no good reason. It gets worse.

“And you claim to not be dead?” “If I were, would I need this?” the Driver said, knocking his oar against the front of his small loglike vessel. [Kelsier notices Spanky for the first time, not knowing what a cognitive shadow just is yet.] “A corpse,” he whispered. “Oh Spanky here is just a spirit. It’s damnably difficult to get about in this subastral—anyone physical risks slipping through these mists and falling, perhaps forever. So many thoughts pool together here, becoming what you see around, and you need something finer to travel over it all.” “That’s horrible.” “Says the man who built a revolution on the backs of the dead. At least I only need one corpse.” Hoid is being ridiculous here. Yes, Spanky is a cognitive shadow, but as I’ve stated, Kelsier has no idea what that is. To his knowledge, this man is riding a corpse around. Hoid is also forgetting that the people Kelsier murdered were far less than innocent; Kelsier can make distinctions here. A rapist and murderer who regularly abuses his peasants is different from a corpse used to wade down a lake of thoughts.

Kelsier folded his arms. This man was wary—thought he spoke lightheartedly, he watched Kelsier with care, and held back as if contemplating a method of attack.

Note the diction here; Kelsier is reading Hoid’s body language as he should; Hoid is planning to use the well to gain purchase in the spiritual realm and take that bead of Lerasium. He isn’t planning anything wrong per se, but Kelsier has no way of knowing that. All Kelsier sees is a man preparing to attack.

“He wants something, Kelsier guessed. Something that I have, maybe? No, he seemed legitimately surprised that Kelsier was there. He had come here, intending to visit the Well. Perhaps he wanted to enter it, access the power? Or did he, perhaps, just want to have a look at the thing Beyond?”

Wrong guesses, but good ones all the same for an ignorant man. Hoid does want something. So far, Kelsier’s waryness is completely justified. He tries to be polite, asking a simple question. “Well, you’re obviously resourceful,” Kelsier said. “Perhaps you can help me with my predicament.” “Alas,” The Driver said. “Your case is hopeless.” Kelsier felt his heart sink. “Yes, nothing to be done,” the Driver continued. “You are, indeed, stuck with that face. By manifesting those same features on this side, you show that even your soul is resigned to you always looking like one ugly sonofa—" “Bastard!” Kelsier cut in. “You had me for a second.”

Instead of even offering Kelsier a crumb of help, he instead insults him, for…very little reason. Hoid rarely kicks people when they’re down; he instead punches up. We notice this with the Rosharan nobility. He doesn’t insult the peasant waitstaff. Why is he insulting Kelsier? There is no reason to do so; he’s just being an ass to be an ass. Kelsier hasn’t even mouthed off yet.

So far Hoid has treated him like an inferior, insulted him and been “needlessly” obtuse, all while showing suspicious body language. Is it any wonder Kelsier is on edge and ready to defend the Well? He knows it’s for Vin; he means to protect it until she can have it.

The two go back and forth for some time, speaking of Kelsier’s bastard nature, skaa versus nobility, and Hoid applying some (I believe it to be dor, but I’m not sure) glowing stuff to his oar. (in an effort to prevent it from de-manifesting). As they speak, Hoid edges closer to the well. Kelsier has been watching him this entire time.

He begins to ask a question again, despite Hoid’s rudeness. “Is there a way to escape this prison?” Kelsier asked. “How about this?” the Drifter said. “We’ll have an insult battle. Winner gets to ask one question, and the other has to answer truthfull. I’ll start. What’s wet, ugly, and has scars on it’s arms?” Another insult to an innocent question, and now Kelsier is very on edge. He’s obviously deflecting. So Kelsier decides to be as extra as possible in an effort to scare him away. Now, a cognitive shadow would, realistically, be as scary as an earthworm to Hoid if it’s not on Threnody, but Kelsier doesn’t know this. Which is why he brings out his “I’m-going-to-murder-you” routine that goes into lurid detail and leaves Hoid speechless. Kelsier even throws in a shrug.

Hoid then dives for the well, and Kelsier grabs him, determined to disable him, kill him, or just prevent him from doing whatever he wants to do in the well. Which leads to their fight, where Kelsier does zero damage to Hoid and Hoid proceeds to torture him incessantly as a “lesson.” He did not need to go as far as he did. If Hoid had been truthful with who he was, what he was after, and perhaps offered explanations, Kelsier would have been less inclined to act rashly. Instead, Hoid is needlessly obtuse, rude, mocking, condescending and tortures him.

It makes his words at the end of RoW amusing to me, as Hoid cheats in this fight and was the aggressor in every definition of the word. Hoid strikes first by the very fact he jumped for the Well. Kelsier was merely defending it.

“Deal with your own stupid planet, you idiot. Don’t make me come there and slap you around again.” (Chapter 115, page 1238, RoW).

To tie this long, rambling, and somewhat insane essay up, Kelsier is not a psychopath. He fits only one of the criteria, and only somewhat fits another. Since one needs to fit three of the traits in order to be diagnosed, the man is free from ASPD. Through the essay, I have showcased his empathy, his understanding, his patience, his trust, and his love of those around him. Hell, he says as much in Secret History when wandering, his soul cracking from loneliness. He’s a flawed man; he can be arrogant, egotistical, and impulsive, but he wants what is best for his people. No one can deny that.

#kelsier #mistborn #cosmere #mywriting #Essay #The Final Empire #Secret History #Eleventh Metal #Brandon Sanderson #Marsh #Vin #ASPD #DSM-V #academic essay #long post

[gemini-care-barr]

For Barry and Hal-

What fandoms or franchises do you think they are in or follow? Could be podcast related, Reddit forums they are a part of, movie sequels or trilogies or novels!

Definitely something that should be mentioned more in canon comics so let’s use this as a manifesting moment by detailing it out 🤭

Right off the bat, I have to make it clear to absolutely everyone that Barry is 100% a Trekkie and Hal is most likely a Star Wars fan. And while we’re on the most heated sci-fi debate, I’ll add that once Hal and Barry became friends and Barry learned more about the Green Lantern Corps he undoubtedly introduced Hal to Star Trek and successfully convinced him that it was the superior sci-fi franchise, we stan two Trekkies 😜

Now then, I don’t think Hal would be very into book series or fantasy in general but he’d definitely have a particular interest in the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings trilogy and I think he’d try Game of Thrones and The Witcher because of everyone’s recommendations but would probably not like it very much. He’s the noble-type though and would be pretty easily convinced to read the Lord of the Rings books (including the Hobbit and Silmarillion) because of the nobility of the characters and story. Same reasoning goes for Donita K. Paul’s DragonSpell series. He’d also probably be into the writings of Henry David Thoreau, Ernest Hemingway, and Raymond Carver, not hugely into them necessarily but if he was super bored and he had access to their stuff he’d dig it haha. His favorite poem would also probably be Tennyson’s In Memoriam A.H.H.. I don’t see him being too into podcasts, but he’d definitely like rock bands like Foreigner and AC/DC. He’s also definitely into movies more so than tv shows and would love movies like The Right Stuff, Top Gun, Braveheart, The Patriot, John Wick, most blockbusters classics really, and probably anything with Bruce Lee haha. He’d probably think anime/manga was for nerds until someone pointed out that Dragon Ball Z was, in fact, an anime then he’d realize they can be pretty cool hahaha. And with video games, I’d say he absolutely doesn’t have the patience for long form RPGs but can probably be convinced to play some FPSs with friends like Call of Duty and Halo lol. Basically, this was a long way of saying that Hal is probably more sporty, not in an obsessive fan of sports way, mind you, just that he participated in mostly sports growing up and even as an adult probably prefers hanging out playing baseball with kids (Adams’ GL run has an adorable scene of just that) rather than watching/reading/listening to anything so essentially he’s just not very media-obsessed; he’s a doer! He also probably wouldn’t participate in the fandoms of any of the media he does consume because he cares more about engaging with the media itself rather than about others’ thoughts and feelings on it haha.

Onto Barry, honestly, Barry is kind of tougher for me to figure out purely because I feel like he and I are very similar so I’m inclined to list basically all my favorite things and my thought processes haha, but I’ll try to avoid doing that 😝. So, like I said, Barry is definitely a Trekkie, the Federation’s belief in preserving alien lives and lifestyles plus its dedication to exploration and science all appeals to his inner nerd. He probably loves the shows For All Mankind, The X-Files, and Bones because of their science-y natures (he definitely introduced Hal to For All Mankind and it’s one of the shows they watch together haha). We all know he’s a huge comic book fan (shout-out to Pre-Crisis that had him reading Golden Age Flash comics 😜), but I’ll also add that I think this love of Golden Age Flash, thanks to his mom, would have led to his own love of Greek and Roman mythology once he realized where the idea for Jay Garrick’s helmet and shoes came from! A love of mythology would eventually lead to a love of ancient western philosophy and writings then to Medieval romances like the Arthurian legends and the works of Chaucer. Old English stuff would’ve crept in there too starting with Beowulf. He was an old soul from a young age so all these things would’ve caught his eye on trips to the library and the old-fashioned romantic notions and chivalry has definitely stayed with him. All this appreciation for much older works would then slingshot back around to him loving and appreciating more modern works that took heavy inspiration from all this older literature like The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, the Percy Jackson series, the Harry Potter series, the Codex Alera, and the Dresden Files, oh and all the detective novels, just all, from Doyle, Christie, Poe, Hammett, etc. then when he found foreign detective fiction he’d go mental and just read them all haha. He’d also probably read the Remo Williams and Jack Reacher book series and convince Hal to do the same! I’d say he’s also into old movies and classic tv shows because they all make him feel good with their sweet morals and happy endings. He’s probably not much of a gamer except for the ones with good stories, he’s too interested in learning new things to just watch someone else play though, if a game’s story interests him then he’s definitely playing it himself. Mass Effect is probably one of his secret favorites. He’s super into podcasts, anything informational and/or scientific, probably conspiratorial and/or true crime stuff, too, if for nothing else than to help him get inspiration on how to approach his own cases, he may even try and solve some cold cases that he hears about (he’d probably stumble across Black Box Down then convince Hal to listen with him haha). He definitely grew up with both the Pokémon TCG and show and was actually aware that it was an anime so is likewise somewhat into other very popular anime/manga like Naruto. Music would be jazz (he’d try and fail to get Hal into it, too, see: New 52 Flash’s Annual #2), 60s rock like the Beatles and the Monkees, and probably 80s pop like the Culture Club, oh and Air Supply (which is also Hal’s guilty pleasure band hehe). He likes sports a lot, both playing and watching, but was still more likely to be found reading/watching/listening to something rather than playing; still, the same way Hal can be convinced to play a video game in order to hangout with friends, Barry can be easily convinced to join in some sporty endeavors if it’ll mean bonding with a friend or loved one. Finally, like Hal, I don’t see him engaging too much with fandoms, he’d probably try when he was younger but wouldn’t find too many people who were into the same things then when he did find people things would devolve into arguments instead of just joy for whatever the thing was so he eventually would resign himself to just enjoying the thing itself, our Barry is a soft boy 🥹. He likes discussion though so once he found people who were his safe space they wouldn’t be able to get him to shut up hahaha.

…I …I can’t believe I wrote this much ahahah 😅. I swear I wasn’t going to get this involved! I was just going to name a few popular franchises that each would be into, but then I started thinking about mediums and how they’d appreciate different ones and then… all this came out lmao 😅😂. I apologize for the long walls of text! Just remember: this is your fault 😜

(Note: forgot to say, Barry would 100% be into Jurassic Park (books and movies) and would convince Hal to read the books (he definitely already watched and loved the movies)!

#comic books #dc comics #green lantern #hal jordan #the flash #ask me anything! #barry allen #comics #opinions #thoughts #star trek #lotr #codex alera #chronicles of narnia #literature #books #movies #tv #music #podcast #literally someone tell me to shut up #I just couldn’t stop writing #I’m pretty sure I still have thoughts #it’s truly never ending #I’ll spare you all and stop now haha

[shai-manahan]

Hello!

I am a person who is writing his own Interactive Fiction game. I currently have about 50k words written for it and will probably be making a forum thread soon. But I really need some advice from you as your game is one of my favourite.

The thing I am struggling with is my plot seems a bit bland to me and I just don't know what to do about it. Like I at the start only decided my game is going to be very reactive to choices and I have loads of meaningful choices and lots of variables remembering lots of things. But when I read through what I have written so far it feels a bit meh. Like your game is soooo intriguing as a reade. So my question was how do I make the plot more intriguing?? Sorry for the long ass post

I'm probably not the best person to ask about this; I go through cycles of self-doubt at least a few times a month 😞

But I'll do my best to help!

First of all, 50k words for an initial demo is impressive! HM had around 28k words when I first uploaded a public demo (which was just the first version of the prologue), so you're doing very well!

I think it would help tremendously for you to sit down and figure out what themes you wish to put focus on. It doesn't mean that you can't tackle a few others as you write, but it's always good to set goals like this to maintain consistency and make their presence strong in the story. It doesn't have to be something "grand"; it just needs to be clear in your head.

It's cool to aim for your choices to be meaningful, but watch out for scope creep. Not that I can talk; I have way too many variables tracking the MC's actions/dialogue choices as well as routes that not many will ever know about. And they can be fun! Just remember that fun doesn't always remove the stress attached to those boosts of excitement. I'd say try to focus on choices/variables you're sure you can deal with, particularly those that can enhance the quality of your plot, and you can decide to add more once you're certain you can handle them.

I have no way of knowing you're not already doing this, but well-developed characters help the impact of the plot grow stronger. Their fears, motivations, what they need to see vs what they have currently. Humans are complex beings, and for me, it's always interesting to try and explore that complexity. I love exploring it.

Try to talk to a friend about what you have at the moment! It helps to have some who'd never mince their words and are willing to give honest feedback while being helpful at the same time. In a way, it can be encouraging to know you have someone to depend to, and I hope you can find them if you haven't met such a person yet.

It's a first draft!! This is something I also keep telling myself, though it doesn't necessarily help me clear out all doubts all the time. But you should at least be aware of it. This is the first time I'm creating an IF, but I did a lot of film screenplays before, and my first drafts always sucked. It's why rewrites are not a foreign concept to me, and why I know HM might go through a lot of changes before I settle on its final version. But I do think both readers and writers should be aware of the fact that first drafts aren't supposed to be perfect; and WIPs, no matter how long they are, shouldn't be expected to have no flaws at all.

I cannot stress this out more, but taking walks outside or even doing the most mundane of errands can help to clear your mind! Try to take some rest; it might even give you some perspectives you haven't thought of before :))

I think that's all I can give for now, and I hope you're having a great time writing so far! I do want to remind you that you'll have to find methods that personally work for you as well, whether you're a plotter, a pantser, or something in between. It's why I haven't been too specific with the things I said; it's best for you to try and see what actually works for you as a writer. Best of luck <3

#writing #interactive fiction #anon #ask

[minggukieology]

Hello, first of all I really love your tweets and posts. Also, my question isn’t related to Minnie or Koo, but Bangtan and Korea?! I remember an RJ mentioning that it was surprising that the song Dope was not censored. Do you know why she’d have said that?

Hi, thanks a lot for your message!

I guess you are aware of the social commentary that even the most upbeat BTS songs include, and Dope is also one of them. For reference I always like to refresh my memory on the clever word play and messages in each lyrics by checking out Doolset's blog.

Dope might on a very superficial level appear as 'Bangtan is so cool' 'We work our ass off' type of a song but when you listen more closely and actually dissect what the lines say (or try to say), they refer to a lot of struggles of the younger generations of Koreans that they are experiencing in their modern society. And the boys come from one of those generations themselves (for more of that try to search for 'sampo' or N-po generation in Korea). Another layer or type of metaphor that can be noticed is that with their outfits worn in the MV and during live performances they are representing different types of occupations, which can be interpreted as them trying to show support towards the working class and highlighting their important yet very struggle-filled role in the society.

With all of this BTS are in a very clever way 'protesting' the way the Korean society operates and provide an additional voice for the struggling generations.

Another point of this conversation then comes to censorship in S. Korea. The tool of censoring media was widely used and misused in Korea especially under oppressive authoritarian regimes before democracy was instilled in Korea in the 20th century. Though SK now functions under a modern fully democratic regime, the remnants of the past are still very much present. One of those is their censorship laws and the role of the government, which basically still has all the power to step in and ban or force alteration of certain media in case it deems it unsafe or harmful towards its society; and art is also subject to this censorship. This of course becomes a powerful political tool in the hands of the ruling party, which tend to frequently apply Korea's censorship laws to any loud voices that undermine their role or express criticism that could reach a wider audience or cause a stir in the public forum. When BTS release songs that include signs of 'revolt' or 'criticism' against the status quo of the country, they have to do it in a very clever way that doesn't directly address the current government, using metaphors and word play that wouldn't rile up any politicians to the extent that would warrant a reaction in the form of censorship.

Dope was released in 2015 during Park Geun-hye's presidency, which was riddled with corruption and massive use of censorship of her and her cabinet's critics. I have to say BTS were very brave for releasing such a song as the promo single in that specific political climate, something that is perhaps not talked about enough. Yet the reason I think they didn't get outright banned (although some lyrics had to be altered for live broadcast if I remember right) is that I don't think anyone in the ruling party considered them important or big enough (at that point) to go after; and their metaphors with the combination of signalling through outfits was just enough to get the message across to the audience that was willing to listen closely without causing any controversy.

(Once again, another very lengthy answer sigh... I am sorry for making you read all of that but I hope I could provide some clear answers to a certain extent.)

#ask #bts #bangtan #dope #anonymous

[greenwire]

kiwifarms is down

I am, admittedly, not familiar with this. I was checking kiwi farms and found this message, below the cut because it's long.

My thoughts are below the statement. The double standard is interesting. Curious if anyone else is following this and can tell me more.

General Statement

The Kiwi Farms is an online discussion forum about people on the Internet. It is without agenda. If you want to talk about a public figure and their presence online, there is likely space to do so on my website. All I ask of my users is that they keep a cool head, a good sense of humor, and stay strictly within the boundaries of US law.

In the digital era, personal reputation has become a very valuable form of capital. Google, Wikipedia, online news outlets, and other large websites allow a public figure meticulous control over their public perception.

When a community of random anonymous nobodies can setup a forum and talk about a person candidly, where this control does not exist, it creates problems for influential people.

The opponents of this forum lie about its purpose and character. They misrepresent our speech as violence, our information as harassment, and our discussions as stalking.

Google cleans up their search results, the news prints their hit pieces, and Wikipedia canonizes those stories as truth. Instantly, the general public is left with one narrative available to them.

The mob then harass innocent people running unrelated third party services by sending emails in the thousands and threatening their families. This mob claims to be oppressed, when they can summon a hundred thousand dollars out of thin air and bend multi-billion dollar organizations to do what they want.

Meanwhile, our website is down through criminal behavior. Any outlet I use to discuss the ongoing attack is also targeted.

They have tried to justify this behavior with the logic that we "do not respond to anything except fear." What I fear more than losing my site, being sued, or dealing with police is living in a world where fat eunuchs can groom little boys and girls into mutilating their bodies and taking drugs in secret, while normal people are not allowed to even discuss it.

The mob has already planned subsequent targets. Should we stay down, they will then attack 'gender critical' communities - especially those ran by and for women. No place can exist online which allows criticism of their fetishistic lifestyle, and nothing would excite them more than this power and domination struggle being inflicted on a female space instead.

They've made it clear that I and my family will be targeted for abuse and violence regardless of if I keep the site up or let it stay down. I have no reason to do anything but continue forward. Fuck these people.

See you soon, Joshua Moon

(bolding mine)

While women's spaces and gender critical spaces have already been/are already being targeted (most older receipt posts have had images and links scrubbed via tumblr & wordpress), I think taking down KF is a relief to most of the subjects discussed on there. Getting JK Rowling accepted as a bigot by people unwilling to actually read her essay was a huge win for this cause. Taking people and websites completely off the internet, on the other hand, will be tougher.

Most people don't know what KF is and if this movement is going to get them taken down, and they have to do a take down without drawing an audience there. I know KF were targeted many times. They were targeted after a video game emulator (nobody knows his real name or location) likely faked his suicide and disappeared. These attacks have been apparently sophisticated, and the website is now linking to a former Google employee (a total of four people are listed, all transwomen, who according to evidence posted there, are sending minors controlled substances, what they call "HRT"). These are technologically-savvy individuals who want opinions of them and records of their words and actions taken off the internet.

I was just having a rant about this yesterday. We all have the right to access the same public information and draw our own conclusions. You can't have it both ways. You code and use a tracker that tags internet users and journalists as guilty of wrong-think. You can't demand we all pretend we never saw the things you posted, that you made publicly available of your own free will, and break the law to scrub it from the internet. It's hypocritical and it won't work.

#fuckin hypocrites #kiwifarms #content moderation crisis #long post

[hirugaymi]

lemme tell you about the new football anime please

It’s called Blue Lock and it’s my brand of absolute shitshow;

TLDR: the soccer anime is a shitty gay as fuck battle royale and your op here LOVES it.

First thing I want to make clear is that sports anime is a very vague definition because people who create these stories will literally just fucking do anything. Love it. You got your serious sports drama that inspire you to become better, like your KazeTsuyos and your Haikyuus. You got the fujobait/yuribait bullshit that’s just kinda themed around sports so it has a plot to follow along (Free!, Sk8 the infinity, that one about the golf girls dressed in lingerie I think).

and of course, the biggest contendant of the sports genre: the anime bullshit. Prince of Tennis, Kuroko’s basketball and, most recently: Blue Lock. 

Blue Lock is a battle royale manga that uses football as a plot but it is impossible to make any statement on said plot because the manga is kinda silly and is constantly contradicting itself but that’s not the point I want to make. This huge post is not a criticism, but mostly about me sharing my new favorite cringe. 

The art is stellar, I’m an absolute sucker for good dyanamic art in manga and BL (will purposely use this abbreviation that always makes me cackle) has so much power to its art, actually! Nomura Yusuke-sensei, the responsible for art and character designs, is very very good at his job!

(It’s hard not to get spoilery with these examples)

Anyways, when I started reading this thing the battle royale and the “anti-sports anime” aspect were the things that got me thinking I should keep going and, let me tell you, this thing does not go where you expect it to go and I will spoil you a little bit on very later plot details on this story, so just skim with your little eyes closed in case you...really don’t want spoilers for  BL anime

I realize this post will not sound coherent at all, I’m mostly spitting out thoughts about a manga that I, admitely, have not thought about that much.

Yes, they have bullshit powers in this thing. They have SPECIAL MOVE NAMES they have JOJO STANDS they have ELDRITCH FOOTBALLIC ABOMINATIONS. 

and it’s EDGY, good lords it gives the 13 year boy who watched too much anime vibes. I dig that cringe so hard.

The best part though? As every other representative of its genre, Blue Lock, the manga that has BL as its IN UNIVERSE ABREVIATION, is so unapologetically gay. 

As gay as a battle shonen gets, which is a lot, may you not lie to yourself. You like your BL with childhood friends and cliche high school scenes, they got you a WHOLE ASS SPIN OFF AROUND YOUR FAVORITE GAYS. 

Do you like your gays extremely on the nose and horny, I GOT YOU SOMETHING FROM BL 

WHAT IS THIS BULLSHIT YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN

This manga has been my personal source of campy madness for a while now. I purposely look for the chapter discussions on manga forums just to see how people react to these and most of the time you just get guys talking about actual football (boring) but sometimes.... sometimes you get these

(TL: BL is about repressed homosexuality with a bit of football sometimes sprinkled on)

the purpose of this post is just to tell you, this manga/anime may look like a serious shonenfied reading on japanese football but that is far away from its best asset. The crazy levels of drama and the homoeroticism are what you should be here for, because those will not require any critical thinking (or eye-straining, let me tell some panels are REALLY hard to get through, geez, the protagonist keeps turning into puzzle pieces)

If you got curious about it and want to have any idea of what awaits for you in Blue Lock, trust your friend over here, this is what you should expect.

#blue lock #sports anime #anime review #sort of a shitpost #haikyuu #run with the wind #kuroko no basuke #shonen anime #fall season #new anime season #honestly if you want your quality slice of life just turn in to mob wednesdays #football #why would there be football fans on tumblr #meme review tbf #uhhh reddit

[forthedancingandthethriving]

"This is so strange.." Abyssal mutters to themselves as they land on the platform. They look around the universe they had been sent to, eyes narrowing. It was a place consisting mostly of cloud platforms, leading up to some buildings at the top.

"Why would Crash make me do cleanup here?" they tilt their head. "It's fine."

They pull up their chat box and access the one from Crash. They go to ask for clarification, only to watch with shock as the screen glitches. It becomes covered in a shade of neon green, and a black lock appears over it.

That, and the message behind it glitches.. showing that Crash had never even sent a message telling them to do clean up here.

"Apologies, Admin Abyssal." a voice from somewhere around them states, making the Admin look around, confused. "But you were the only one I could think of using in such short notice. I couldn't even consider using Admin Domain or Admin Forum due to their.. track record."

"Who are you?" Abyssal demands, their blades appearing in their hands. "What do you mean by 'think of using'?"

"You will see in due time." the voice speaks, and from nowhere, bright green cuffs linked to chains erupt from the ground, clamping around their wrists and neck. The Admin is forced to their knees, and their blades clatter against the platform.

"I assure you, this won't hurt a bit."

Abyssal's head is held down as they feel a paw touch the top of their head.

They try to shout, but it goes black

...

"So, what am I doing again?" the body of Abyssal rises, hands rubbing their wrists as the cuffs vanish.

"You're to go to the Adminspace and find any information on the first Administrator, Virus, and Program." Overseer states as it's body forms besides Abyssal's. Its eyes narrow down at them. "However, I would've preferred if you let me do this, Blotch."

Blotch, in control of Abyssal's body, snorted and rolled their eyes. "Oh please, and let you get found out? I'll be fine."

"I can escape Computer Hell, Blotch." it shakes its head. "You cannot, and I'll be risking a lot if I break you out. Possessing the body of an Admin is no doubt a serious crime."

They smile. "I'll be okay, I promise."

Overseer nods with a sigh. "Very well. Just be cautious of Viality. She's one of their most well trained medics, and she'll probably be able to tell right away that you're possessing Abyssal."

Blotch nods. "I'll steer clear of her then."

The overseer nods one final time before flicking its hand, and a small ring appears on the ring finger of Abyssal. "Use that to contact me in case anything gets dire. Break it to stop possessing Abyssal once you've found what info you can."

Blotch smiles. "You got it."

They snap their fingers, and a portal opens behind them. They wave to Overseer before walking through, and it closes behind them.

Overseer sighs and crosses its arms. "Be safe, Blotch."

○●○

Things had been going.. well, for the most part. Blotch had been possessing Abyssal for a week, and going through files and databases, finding whatever information they could. However, they did their best to limit contact the other Admins, not wanting to accidentally give away their ruse.

That, they realized to late, was their downfall.

There was a knock on the door of Abyssal's office, and Blotch glances up. "You can come in."

The door opens, and in steps Umbra. He's smiling a bit, though he's looking at them with concern and worry. Blotch feels their heart twist a little. From what they learned, Umbra and Abyssal were very close friends, and so to have to push Umbra away for a bit no doubt concerned him.

"Abyssal, are you doing okay?" Umbra asks, voice tinged with concern. He pushes the door open a bit more to show Ping peering around, his face laced with concern as well. "You've been really distant the past week.. and you've actually been doing your job with complaining."

Blotch pauses and glances up from the datapads they had been reading and copying. "Is that a bad thing?"

"No!" Umbra shakes his head. "No, not at all! We're just.. worried about the sudden change, that's all."

"It's fine, I'm fine." they wave, looking back down at the datapads.

"Well, then.." Umbra glances back at Ping before looking at them. "Do you want to go and visit the kids? Its been a while since you've seen them."

"I'd rather not, I'm busy-"

"That's it!" Ping growls, walking in and over to them. He yanks them out of their chair, making Blotch screech, and he throws them over his shoulder before marching out. "We're getting you checked out!"

"Wh- Ping! Put me down!" Blotch protests, squirming in his grasp. "Why are you so strong?!"

"Hell no!" Ping grumbles, ignoring any confused looks as he and Umbra walk past several Admins. "You've been acting weird all week, and we're getting you checked out!"

"Checked out by who?!" Blotch demands, glaring at the back of his head.

"Viality, who else?" Ping snorts.

Blotch nearly relaxes before remembering. Viality was the one Admin who could figure out the ruse.

"NO!" they shout, kneeing Ping in the stomach.

"AH, MOTHERFU-" the green and pink Admin curses, and his hold on them loosens enough so they can push away and bolt.

"Abyssal!" Umbra shouts before he runs after them, Ping grumbling expletives before chasing after them.

"What is going on out here?" Buffer asks as she steps out of her office, eyes narrowed. Her expression turns flat as she watches the three younger Admins run past in a blur of their colors. She grumbles and shakes her head. "Dare I even ask?"

"Buffer, some help would be appreciated!" Umbra calls as he tries to grab at Abyssal.

"What is going on?" she places her hands on her hips.

"Abyssal is acting weird, so we're trying to get them to go to Viality, but then they freaked out and ran!" Ping informs her, grasping uselessly at the other's outfit.

"Alright, alright." Buffer shakes her head before a lasso of code appears in her hands. "It'd be more fitting if CPU did this, with his cowboy looking ass. All he needs is the hat," she mutters before throwing out the lasso, which quickly latches onto the arm of the pink Admin.

"No!" Blotch cries as Buffer drags them over to her. "I don't need to see Viality!"

"Yes, you do!" Umbra frowns as he walks over. "Everyone's noticed how weird you're acting, Abyssal. It's just a checkup. You'll be fine."

"No! Let me go-" they squirm around as Umbra picks them up, but they know there was no hope of escaping, not with Buffer still holding the lasso and Ping following close behind.

It was only a few minutes later, but soon, they were in the medical ward and greeted by a red and colored Admin, who was no doubt Viality.

She stood at the height of Ping, whilst wearing a normal white doctor's coat. However, Blotch could see that her feet (possibly legs) were that of a peacock's, and she also had peacock feathers behind her, which were currently closed.

"And dare I ask why Abyssal is here?" Viality raises an eyebrow, tapping her foot.

"They just need a checkup." Umbra sighs, setting them down on a bed. "They've been acting weird all week."

"I've noticed." the Admin snorts, and she pulls up a command box, beginning to sort through everything.

Blotch tenses up and reaches for the lasso of code, ripping it off of their arm, just as Viality brushes her hand against their other arm to peer into their code.

As they get up and bolt, they don't need to look behind them to see how Viality tenses and locks up.

"What the-!?" Buffer glares the way the pink Admin ran. "What is their problem?"

"That's not Abyssal." Viality speaks, making everyone jolt. "Someone is possessing their body."

It's quiet for several moments before Ping and Umbra both turn and bolt out after Blotch.

"We can get possessed..?" Buffer mutters, disbelief radiating off of her.

"I had no clue either." Viality shakes her head.

○●○

"This is so bad!" Blotch whispers, dodging several ropes of code that were sent after them. They had been running from Umbra and Ping for a while now, still not used to Abyssal's body.

But if anything, it didn't really matter. They had what info they could get and they just needed to-

"AH!" they shriek, feeling a blade shoot past them.

"PING!"

"What?!"

"That's still Abyssal's body!"

Blotch looks down at their hands before gasping. Thats right, the ring!

They raise it up to their face. "Hey, Acid?"

"I told you to stop calling me that, but what?"

"Huge problem, I got found out!"

".. break the ring, I'll grab you."

Blotch nods, slipping off the ring and crushing it in their hand.

The body jolts, and suddenly Blotch is out of Abyssal's body, falling rapidly, and so is the Admin whose unconscious.

"ACIIIIIIIIIID-" they shout, but they're soon caught by a pair of arms, and whisked away into a familiar space.

Overseer sets them down with a sigh. "At least tell me you go some info."

"Hello to you too." Blotch remarks before nodding. They tap their bracelet, and several boxes appear. "It's not a lot, but there's a good bit."

"It'll do."

○●○

"Ow.. ow.." Abyssal mutters, eyes fluttering open as their hand comes up to rub their forehead.

"Oh, good." the voice of Viality makes them jolt. "You're up and functioning fine."

"What.. what happened?" they ask, sitting up on the bed.

"You got possessed." the red and white Admin informs them, scrolling through some command boxes. "Do you remember anything?"

"I.. I remember being tricked to head to some universe," they explain, "and that two beings worked together. One.. held me down, or something, and another possessed me..."

"Hm." Viality sighs. "Well, it'll be looked into. Stay here for a day or two until your body recovers, and then you'll be put on some light work for a while."

"Grrrreeeeeeaaaaaat.." Abyssal grumbles, laying back down.

#admin: abyssal #sona: blotch #sona: overseer #admin: umbra #admin: ping #admin: buffer #fanfiction: my writing! #!posts! #admin: vitality

[practicingbushiho]

Sorry, but I have to get this off of my chest-- because being told that I am romanticizing something that I chose for myself in order to offer some perspective to minds that tend to hyperfocus on labor vs capital is to me, pretty insulting. But I will do a read more, to spare those of you who don't want to see me grandstand about art and the creation of media, something that is extremely important to me on principle whether or not it is divorced from out current economic hellscape.

To me it seems strange that people can't seem to wrap their heads around the ideology that there are some artists who, contracted for manga publication or no, work more happily or productively in long crunches that sometimes result in sickness or hospitalizations, and it's easy for the media to sensationalize that to promote a talking point about unfair labor practice and in recent events I can understand why people would kneejerk about that.

People deserve to rest when they feel they want to or need to; but the thing is, that everyone has a different threshold and opinion about what that means to them. I think creatives should be able to have more control over that, obviously! I do not like the idea that the average manga ka has to produce 20 pages a week; even with assistants, that is extremely taxing! I am not claiming that the act of overwork is inherently good or bad by virtue of its conceptual existence by default, which may be why I was dismissed-- we have to see overwork as bad because it kills people unequivocally, but I have KNOWN artists that died young but still gave me the impression that they would NOT have taken it another way.

So, to be CLEAR, what I was SAYING is that I myself have DEFINITELY gotten sick from overworking on art, but it's not so cut and dried! I didn't do those things for an employer or for poor pay, and mental/artistic labor does not function in the same ways as overworking on hard labor, or overworking for bad benefits or poor capital-- I VERY transparently criticize Capitalism wholesale for PRESSURING people into overwork but I cannot stress enough that for some artists they don't SEE IT as being pressured into overwork, because for some artists we feel a great deal of emotional distress when we feel like we can't do something (or that we are not allowed to)!!

The sickness I sit through when I overwork with art is sickness that I accept because I am doing work that I am happy with and proud of. I am NOT implying everyone that does art needs to feel this way. Most people never even get an opportunity to produce a serial comic, and if they do get that opportunity, for some artists the overwork can feel like performing an act of gratitude in their personal and artistic lives, and it is not romanticization to make your own choices about the amount of time you spend actively working-- especially if you are making the distinction that it is a choice you are actively making.

It becomes a problem when you feel FORCED to by an outside force, that is true of ANY labor! That isn't up for debate! But to say that overwork would (or even should tbh) just disappear for artists the second they are given more breaks is naive-- because even on days where I'm not working on client projects I am STILL DRAWING for hours, and I am not the only one by a WIDE margin! And that is considered to be overwork! And when I burn out, which is an inevitable fate you will experience as an artist no matter what your workload is, I take my few days to recover before going back at it!

and if you can't grasp that concept because you are knee jerking on the labor vs benefits element of the discourse, then praxis can't be achieved, and I will disengage. People shouldn't have black and white stances about these subjects, and saying so shouldn't be a point of contention, alas

A public forum is no place to have a contrary opinion about labor and work ethics, but with art and making comics/animating/time intensive mediums in particular I will merely accept that most people who weigh in on these things usually are not themselves contracted working comic artists full time, or they do not comprehend the idea that sometimes the compulsion to tell a story just outweighs to health risks for some of us. Shrug.

Guess I'll just romanticize it for myself. That is my choice. I think every artist should at least be able to choose how they feel about it. Because one day for me, I will die; but I will die feeling like I was doing something instead of just rotting and waiting for my life to change or resolve itself in some way. That is my right just as it is anyone else's to NOT want to work 50 hours a week on art lol

#art disk horse #my apologies for the TL clutter #honestly i really should just stop trying to shed light on anything that could be considered a dissenting opinion #bc people online are just so incredibly combative and divisive now that there is no room for actual discussion #on what i discern to be an inter-industry affliction that is dangerous but also easy to misunderstand

[voskhozhdeniye]

CNET reporter Jackson Ryan published an article last month describing how ChatGPT, an AI that can generate human-sounding text, would affect journalists and the news industry: “ChatGPT Is a Stunning AI, but Human Jobs Are Safe (for Now).”

“It definitely can’t do the job of a journalist,” Ryan wrote of ChatGPT. “To say so diminishes the act of journalism itself.

The article said AI isn’t coming for journalists’ jobs just yet, but the very publication that ran Ryan’s article has been quietly publishing articles written by AI since November, according to Futurism and online marketer Gael Breton. The AI-written CNET articles bear the byline CNET Money Staff which is identified on the outlet’s website as “AI Content published under this author byline is generated using automation technology.”

CNET did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment.

The first article written by CNET Money Staff was published on November 11 with the headline, “What is a credit card charge-off?” Since then, the news site has published 73 AI-generated articles, but the outlet says on its website that a team of editors is involved in the content “from ideation to publication. Ensuring that the information we publish and the recommendations we make are accurate, credible, and helpful to you is a defining responsibility for what we do.”

The outlet says they will continue to publish each article with “editorial integrity” and says, “Accuracy, independence, and authority remain key principles of our editorial guidelines.”

The most recent versions of consumer-facing artificial intelligence have taken the tech community by storm with their ability to write passable essays, articles, and computer code in seconds, though the quality varies, and ChatGPT has been banned from several high-profile forums. CNET is not the first news outlet to utilize AI technology, as the Associated Press has boasted of being “one of the first news organizations to leverage artificial intelligence,” since 2015, according to its website. “Today, we use machine learning along key points in our value chain, including gathering, producing, and distributing the news,” the site reads. It’s not clear whether the AP uses AI to write the stories themselves.

Other major news outlets have incorporated AI technology into their work,with the Washington Post announcing it was using AI to provide live updates for the 2020 Presidential election on its podcasts. The goal, the outlet said, was to keep listeners up-to-date during the steady stream of election-based news that would be coming out.

The question of whether AI is supplanting jobs is yet to be answered. Ryan wrote that ChatGPT’s inability to understand or read emotion makes it useless in the context of journalism. ChatGPT, he says, doesn’t have the ability to describe the feelings seen on a player’s face when they win the World Cup, or talk to Ukrainians about how the Russian Invasion has changed their lives, and would definitely have “no hope of covering Musk’s takeover of Twitter.”

Although CNET is now using an AI-generated tool to write its explainers, as Ryan puts it, “it’s no arbiter of truth, and it just can’t read the room.”

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

A new player

(This story was originally posted as a comment on The Northern Caves Forum. It was reposted here while the Forum was still up. However, due to the technical difficulties of maintaining a website for a defunct website, this forum is no longer available, and my comment -- including its contents -- is likely to disappear forever soon. I'm posting this for posterity, on the off-chance that anyone will still be able to get the Forum to load someday in the future.)

Morson is a hard world, even if it is a nice world.

The little community where Morsonians live and play has a lot in common with any such community. Its people are mostly kind and pleasant and generous, for starters. They're also quite intelligent and well-read -- they've read books and seen plays that have made it to a broad public, and the more widely accessible a book or play is, the more they are likely to take it seriously. They know each other well enough, after all, that their preferences and values can be known pretty well. And they are more or less tolerant of one another, though they have their rivalries and small disagreements (which are not worth quarreling about if they would do it in front of people).

At first, this seems to set them apart from most of the people who populate this world. Their social behavior is very different from that of their counterparts in other parts of the world, who tend to be relatively unsociable -- at least, compared to each other. They are more outgoing and talkative than other players, which makes them popular with other players. But this is not because of some special interest or affinity in the world's social life, but just because they have a lot of opinions and a lot of funny things to say about those opinions. They make lots of jokes and tend to express themselves through humor and hyperbole. They are not shy in these ways. They are well-liked, but not above suspicion -- after all, other players (and their creators) are aware that it is often not clear which players are Morsonians and which ones are simply funny and likable.

To outsiders, it seems as though the Morsonians are somewhat odd. What does it mean to be a "Morsonian"?

Perhaps it means nothing at all, for all that Morson is a place where people actually live. It could be argued that in this world people who are very good at playing the role of someone else without playing that role, are Morsonians. In that world, they're the ones who seem to get along with one another without ever meeting in the flesh.

If you take the more "metaphorical" view, though, Morsonians are the players who are very involved with their own play worlds. They have strong beliefs and ideas about the games they're playing, and about the people in their games, and they express these ideas through their play. They are the players who take their games very seriously, as though they were real. They often have deep emotional attachments to their worlds and sometimes even to their own personas, which are almost as real to them as their real selves.

As though these matters were not complex enough, Morsonians often use these games as their primary source of social interaction. They spend more time playing these games than talking to each other about anything else. This is what has been driving the Morsonians apart over the years, because the Morsonians do not see much value in interacting with each other in this way, and many Morsonians (including some of the most avid players) do not see much point in their own play sessions. The Morsonians and outsiders have very different experiences and understandings here, both of the games and of the players.

Morsonians who try to speak to outsiders about these differences tend to find themselves being either dismissed as confused or laughed at. That is not very satisfying, but it is something. As the years went by, Morsonian players had less and less patience for this social climate. They wanted outsiders to understand the reasons they valued their own play sessions so highly, and to respect those reasons. They didn't want to be mocked just for playing games differently than other players did. The fact that other players would continue to play their game in the ways that they liked was only part of the problem. There was also the way Morsonians would inevitably be dismissed as strange or naive, even if they expressed their opinions in a measured, well-thought-out way. (As if this world had nothing more than those bizarre jokes to offer.) If only Morsonians really got it, then why did they have to be so pretentious, as if Morson wasn't really a nice, beautiful place where no player was alone and no one was cruel to any other player? That was what bothered the Morsonians. They wanted that world, and others just wanted their games.

So they started coming up with their own ways of communicating. This was hard, because it wasn't just that they couldn't find a way to clearly explain to outsiders why their own play sessions are more important to them than others' play sessions are. That would have been a hard problem. But the other problem was deeper: the Morsonians themselves were struggling to agree on what they were playing.

A long time ago, Morson's population had grown very large. That population was mostly the same population that the players in most parts of Morson call "The Players." Most of them have some kind of "real life" of their own. The Players have lives in their own little worlds and spend part of each day immersed in them. Some of the Players play more than one game simultaneously, in different games at the same time, while many more do not have more than one world in play at one time. Many play only one game, or a small number of games, and spend a large portion of each day playing, day after day. (Others prefer more intermittent play, and spend much less time actively engaged in their games.) As for the non-players, they tend to have other hobbies, and they get so immersed in those activities that it becomes difficult to maintain any other activity for them. They get out of the habit, sometimes, but this takes a long time. Many of the Morsonians simply do not have other interests.

Of course, this is only part of the picture. As Morson got bigger, so did the Players. More players came to Morson, brought their friends along, brought their lovers and even their enemies with them. Some played more frequently than others. Some played games alone, or games with very few others -- sometimes even games with no others at all. Some players were so immersed in their worlds that no one else could get in -- so immersed in them that the idea that anyone else, anyone who was not also playing, could enter the play sessions they were in, and participate at all, seemed absurd to them. These players, the Morsonians would later call "The Excess."

The Morsonians had a lot of internal debates on what the nature of their own play was -- it was a complicated mess -- but the Players' play

#original fiction

[broe51ryan]

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#using scheduling app will help maximize productivity

[haysbenson00]

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Technology moves at a rapid pace and keeping up can be frustrating. TalknMeet is that a company without a website is missing out on many customers that they won't be able to get any other way, so implementing technology in your favor is important. Read on to find some techniques and secrets which will help you get into the game. Use JavaScript to include a custom font on your webpages. Libraries like Typekit and Google Web Fonts make it easy to include esoteric fonts on webpages, even if most visitors don't have those fonts on their computers. It works by embedding the font itself into JavaScript so that it can be decoded by the client on the fly. To help keep your site visitors happy, do not underline words. Underline words on the internet signifies that the word is a clickable link. If you have too many words on your pages that are underlined with being clickable links, then your visitors will be frustrated after continuously trying to click on them. Learning some basic HTML will help you add some interesting extras to your site. For example, you can have words that follow your cursor, or a banner that flashes important information. Make sure to change the colors and fonts occasionally, so you seem more involved with the web site and its design. Every page of your website should have a way to return to the main page, or "home." This ensures that when users navigate deeper into your site, they always have a way to start over if they lose place of what got them to the page they are on currently. Organize your links and avoid putting too many links in one area of your site. Doing this can confuse visitors and make them leave your site. If you do have many low- to mid-importance links, emulate the "blogrolls" seen in many blogs and tuck them away in a column on the right side of the page. Optimize your website's load times. If a visitors has to wait long periods of time for items on your site to load, then they'll wish to exit your site. Reduce graphics, scripts and Flash consoles on your web page, optimize HTML and utilize SSI files. Try including real customer testimonials. Very few want to be the first to try a product or service, so let customers know that others have tried your wares and that they were pleased with them. Try asking some clients that have done projects with you to create a short paragraph about their experience with your company, to put on your site. Have talk with strangers . When a visitor comes to your site, make sure they can go through your site. You must have clear navigation to do this. Have all important links in prominent places. Try linking many pages in your site. Allow information be found from every part of the site. Be sure there are no broken links on your website. All links should be double checked before you upload them. Broken links are one reason for web visitors to leave a site. To maintain your site integrity, test it every time you make a change. To help you design a good site, you need to make it so it is simple to navigate. Navigation encompasses everything and is the backbone of your site. So construct a site that flows easily from one area to another, otherwise your site will be very confusing and people will not visit it. Keep in mind that the Internet contains a plethora of website design examples. You can look at an infinite number of websites to obtain inspiration. Find an interesting site and borrow features that will work on your site. Remember that if you want your website to succeed, you will need to do more than just borrow an idea. Make those elements better so your site truly shines. In the end, web design has become so simple that anyone can do it. From your 8 year old neighbor who has her own Pokemon site to my 90 year old Grandmother and the Quilting forum she set up, everyone seems to be active online. Get your company set up with its own presence and enjoy the profits it brings!

#talk with strangers #talk to strangers