#i am 1000% number 6

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

mid year book tag <3

thank you for the tag @soleciito, unfortunately i'm gonna embarass you and everybody else cause i really haven't read much this year 😔😔😔 my bookworm reputation is in shambles

amount of books you’ve read so far: ...6. i don't have any excuse either

best book you’ve read so far in 2022: the hero of the ages by brandon sanderson!!!! it had been a while since i'd read fantasy, which was my favourite genre as a kid and teen and oh god discovering mistborn was one of the best things to happen last year, it felt like home.

best sequel you've read so far in 2022: well, the hero of ages lol! it's the third part of the mistborn series :)

new release you haven't read yet, but want to: i am very bad with modern books sorry, i don't even know what books are popular now :( the only one that i can think of is the seven husbands of evelyn hugo, i gifted it to my mum for christmas and after she reads it i want to give it a go as well!!

most anticipated release for the second half of the year: again, i don't really know what books are coming out sorry!!

biggest surprise favorite new author (debut or new to you): the only new author would be gonzalo fontana elboj, he is a classicist and i really enjoyed his anthology book about supernatural stuff in ancient rome; i think it's his first book as well so i look forward to his future publications!

newest fictional crush: ophelia from hamlet was a super interesting character that reminded me of medea, antigone and other ancient heroines! not a crush in the romantic sense but definitely a character i'll remember for years!

book that made you cry: i'm pretty sure i cried with the hero of the ages!!!

book that made you happy: in her kitchen by gabriele galimberti!!! i loved seeing all the grandmas all over the world sharing their stories and their recipes, it was a very feel-good book :)

most beautiful book you've bought so far this year (or received): i saw this super beautiful edition of the odyssey in a bookshop with my dad and even if i tried to prevent it, he ended up buying it for me and it's so pretty!!

what books do you need to read by the end of the year?: i don't really make a plan of the books that i am reading next, i usually just choose randomly. i am for sure reading at least the next two mistborn books, they're in my local library so i'll borrow them from there (i'm also trying to go to the library more and buy less books so that's a start!)

i'm tagging @sarcasmisalifechoice @claimedbytheearth @looselysealedkrypton @skamesp @afolksongs @sonechkaandthedynamos :)

#tag #my 12 yo self who read 1000+ books in a week is shaking crying throwing up rn #*pages not book #i usually read more on summer so i hope to up that number soon!! #but not 31 jack i am so impressed with you rn 😳😳😳 #anyways if anyone's wondering i'll leave the books i've read cause like... they're only 6 lol #the hero of the ages by brandon sanderson #wilder mann the image of the savage by charles fréger #in her kitchen by gabriele galimberti #the song of achilles by madeline miller #hamlet by william shakespeare (bilingual edition) #and sub luce maligna by gonzalo fontana elboj #i've already chosen the next book i'll start which is leyendas y narraciones by gustavo adolfo bécquer!! #something more modern than shakespeare so it's something i guess lol #also i kept thinking i had read anna karenina this year and wanting to add it into the answers #the grip that book still has on me...

[grimrester]

i am really so sorry to continue harping on about the watcher entertainment streaming service. but this kind of stuff (internet content as a business & marketing it as such) is truly my obsession, and i think i will implode if i don't talk about some of the takes i'm seeing.

i'd like to emphasize again i don't have strong feelings about watcher either way. i like ghost files, i watch mystery files sometimes, i watched worth it back in the buzzfeed days. i don't watch any of their shows religiously.

anyway, here's the main things i keep seeing crop up and my thoughts on each:

"watcher has 25 employees they have to pay, and employing people in this economy is good, so we should be banding together to pay them."

employing people is good if you currently have the capacity to pay them. i checked watcher's linkedin page, and many of their employees were hired within the last year or two. if they hired people they cannot pay with the business model they had before, something is seriously wrong with their internal bookkeeping/decision making. it means they either didn't know they couldn't pay these people long term, or they did know and were content with risking newly hired employees' livelihoods on a huge content pivot in the next year.

of note is that none of their employees' titles have anything to do with managing the finances of the company. they are the size of a small business but have no one aside from the figureheads of the company in charge of their finances.

this is the kind of company decision making that leads to downsizing and layoffs, which can be devastating. but you know what's worse than laying off a portion of your staff? laying off everyone because your business is going under.

"not everyone can afford the subscription, but those who can should pay it to support the watcher team."

no. $6/month for a couple hours of content (depending on what shows you actively watch and the natural fluctuation of their release schedule) is a fundamentally bad value. i can pay that much for a few movies on amazon. i can pay that much for dropout, if i want to support a smaller business instead.

and to be totally frank, even if people do sign up, i don't think they'd get enough to compete with the amount they get through patreon/sponsorships. and the fact that they didn't know how many of their subscribers would realistically sign up is a bad sign.

a pretty good conversion rate of free to paid subscribers of a service or content is 3% (usually accomplished through a free trial). given the very poor reception of the announcement, let's say about 1% of their 3 mil youtube subs pay for their service. that's 30k people paying for their new platform. that's $180k a month in their pocket.

(they currently only have 12k subs on patreon so we are being generous here.)

a sponsorship deal (based on my googling, i have less direct experience with this) is anywhere from $10-50 per 1000 views. they've gotten about 1 mil views on their last few videos. 3 mil subs is nothing to shake a stick at, but let's say they're on the lower end of the payscale at $25 per 1000 views. that's $25k a video, $100k a month if they release 1 video a week. their lowest patreon tier is 5 bucks, so even if all their subs are at that tier, that's another $60k, so $160k total. it's entirely likely they're bringing in much more than that when you factor in merch, adsence, etc.

did anyone on their team crunch numbers on how many people would need to sub to make the switch worth it? did anyone do market research on how many people they could convert to paid users? because if not, if they really didn't have a game plan for this, the subscription service was always doomed to fail.

"this was their only option to continue making the content they want to make, with the production value they want."

i watched their announcement video. a key point in that video is that they have done sponsored videos and that's what used to pay for their content, but they did not like the amount of creative control the sponsor had over the content.

look, i get that's no fun. we'd all love creatives to be able to make whatever they want. but when you are a small business with a team of employees relying on you, you have to think about making money, sometimes at the cost of creative liberties.

and they had so many other options to make money for the projects they want to make without jumping to a subscription platform.

they could have started actually promoting their patreon, and maybe done some restructuring of the tiers. why not a highly produced, special series just for patreon members? or a special high-budget episode of each series, while the main series is lower budget?

bite the bullet and continue taking sponsorship deals on some less-produced shows, while axing sponsorships from the ones the crew feels more passionate about.

schedule larger, blowout-production shows only when they can be afforded. this is what Notorious Amongus Guy streamer jerma does. he saves up for big productions like his baseball or dollhouse streams, so he can really get creative with them.

they had other options and they've tried very little, especially when you compare them to other content house business at similar scales. try guys and good mythical morning both put out significant content with significant staff, and have had to diversify their income streams with auxiliary products, shows with widely varied levels of production, etc. but it seems to be working for them. watcher has merch and that's about it, and seems to only want to increase the production quality of ALL their shows.

really, all this just boils down to a terrible business decision. it's hard to say if the watcher team is working with a consultant or anyone outside of their team, but they certainly don't have anyone internally who is experienced with running a business like this. to me, it seems very much like they got in a room together and did some extremely optimistic income ballparking with no research behind it.

and that might have been fine for three dudes running a channel alone, but if they're a business, they have to start making decisions like one.

#i encourage discussion on this in my notes btw! #you can even be mean to me if you disagree. i dont actually care #watcher

[stephaniejuhnay]

Since Peacock released season 5 of the superfan cuts I of course had to start from season 1 again bc I’m a completionist. Every time I watch, I’m so intrigued by the choices that were cut bc while it’s still the same show…tonally the directors cuts were a DIFFERENT SHOW. Lol. I love doing the comparisons and seeing some of the storylines that didn’t make it to the final cuts.

#the office #I would LOVE something like this for community #also #the number of times I’ve watched the office through to season 6 or so is…insane #and the only reason it’s not all the way through is bc I was rewatching the office over and over while it was still airing #back before streaming kids! #had a little site called couch tuner and another called channel 131 #so I’d watch the seasons on a loop up thru the current season #until abt season 6 or 7 #I’ve watch thru to season 9 a few times but not nearly as much as those first 6 seasons for sure #used to be my most viewed show but I am 1000% sure community has overtaken it bc I’ve seen seasons 1-5 probably close to 100 times #and likely thru to season 6 in the double digits (s6 was hard to come by after yahoo and I never bought that season on dvd)

[dashboarddiaries]

on our most recent episode, we read an incredible email that we got from a listener, Mackenzie, in which Mackenzie gave us this incredible information:

You asked if anyone had read all of Destiel fanfiction, and I am here to tell you that it is physically impossible. After estimating the average length of a Destiel fic and multiplying that by the number of Destiel fics on AO3, it comes to 1,171,662,455 words. This would be like reading LoTR (including the Hobbit) and the Twilight Series 1000 times, which is about 6 years and 10 months worth of reading. This means that if someone read Destiel fic 12 hours a day, every day, since Castiel was introduced as a character less than 14 years ago, they would almost be caught up. Of course, if you include all Supernatural and RPF fic, the total reading time is 18 years, 10 months, which is longer than the show has existed.

#DD 03 #destiel #supernatural #fanfic #ao3 #stats

[ywpd-translations]

Ride 756: The third Inter High!!

Pag 1

1: The Inter High starting line is impartial

2: Those aiming for victory

3: Those filled to the brim

4: Those who are scared

5: Everyone who put on their number bib

6: The line calls everyone to a new path

Pag 2 / 3

1: No2, Onoda Sakamichi's last Inter High!!

Pag 4

1: “Kyushu” was once divided into nine countries, and that's why it has that name*

(NdT.: The “kyuu” in Kyushu means nine)

(Currently is divided in seven prefectures: Fukuoka, Ooita, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Miyazaki, Kagoshima)

2: It has a lot of active volcanoes, and people coexist with the harshness of nature while enjoying hot springs, geothermy, and tourism

3: Trade with the continent has been active since ancient times

4: Formerly, the distribution of goods by ships, which was the mainstream

5: Passed through the Kanmon Straits, separating Honshu and Kyushu

6: And transported to Osaka, Edo, the Japanese cities by the sea, and every corner of the country

Pag 5

1: Even today, the Kanmon Straits, which passes through Shimonoseki, and Kitakyushu City, and Moji, is the shortest route that connects the Inland Sea and the Sea of Japan, and is a key point for the shipping through sea

2: 1000 ships a day pass through the complex strait, which is 500m wide in its narrowest point

3: As for the land route

4: An highway crosses the Kanmon Strait with a huge bridge 1068m long

5: Ordinary national roads and railroads pass through specialized tunnels

6: As for bicycles and people... they use the “pedestrian bridge tunnel” at the bottom of the huge bridge

From Honshu to Kyushu, they can cross over the Kanmon Strait by walking

Pag 6

4: Waaa

We're at the bottom of the sea here?

That's right

5: So above us is the sea?

Yeah

And we can walk to Kyushu?

That's right, it's around 400m from here

Amazing....

6: There's even people with bikes

Yeah

7: Look! There's a line!

It's the prefectural border

8: One, two-

9: Yes! I landed in Kyushu!

Pag 7

1: The entrance to Kyushu is in the northernmost town, Moji, in the prefecture of Fukuoka, Kitakyushu City

Pag 8

1: This is where this year's Inter High will start

Pag 9

3: Where do I put this baggage?

Put it in the tent for now

Thank you, senpai

4: Look, The bikes are all lined up

So pretty

Pag 10

1: I took a picture

So cool

2: Two portions of Mijiko curry, please

Yessir

3: A pressure of 6.5?

Six, please

4: Do you have an allen key?

Yes

Pag 11

1: Ohhhh

2: There's so many huge buses!!

Teh!!

3: Nara

4: That one is from Miyazaki

5: Na-Nagano!!

6: And there's so many people, too, teh....!!

7: Are they participants in the race!? All of them!?

You're kidding, they look so strong!!

8: The attendance!! Is on this scale!!

So this is....

Pag 12

1: A national competition!!

2: Teh?

3: Ohh.... suddenly my knees started trembling, teh

Ho- how do I stop it, teh, Ki....

4: Kinaka-kun!!

6: Ki.....

7: “The competition is in Kyushu, so there's no way we can bring everyone along”

8: Kinaka.... kun

Pag 13

1: I'm here!!

Ah, you're here....

2: I'll be a mechanical help for the next three days

And I was entrusted to be your lucky charm

De-he.... oho, ohoho, fuhoho!! What's that enigmatic way of laughing!!

3: Don't act like I didn't come!!

No... I just wanted to reaffirm again how grateful I am that you came, Kinaka-kun...

Ah!? That doesn't make any sense

4: It does!!

Pag 14

1: Because I really am grateful to you, Kinaka-kun!!

3: And I think this jersey is for the both of us!!

5: Don't say you're grateful so directly

It's embarrassing!!

6: Let's go to the tent!!

Yeah!!

You

7: It's your first Inter High but you're not all that nervous!!

That's somehow incredible

8: Yeah!!

After all

Pag 15

1: We have the strongest senpai!!

Pag 16

1: Ohhh

Waaa

2: It's Sohoku!!

It's Sohoku, the two-times in a row champion!!

Sohoku is in Kyushu!!

3: What a terrific aura!

Waaa

Onoda.... Naruko, Imaizumi!!

They look serious!!

Are they aiming for the championship again this year!?

Pag 17

1: They're going to get their number bibs

They're heading straight for the reception!!

Yes, all the participants are lining up in a row there

2: Oi, you're interrupting....

3: Sorry-

Ah

Soho-

Waa

Waaa-

5: -ku's...... bibs....

Pag 18

1: ….. please

2: Is he..... nervous....!? The reigning champion, Sohoku!?

Did he have a nervous aura?

Maybe the two guys behind him.... were supporting him?

3: They were supporting him, but the jersey came off

5: They're going back to their tent....

So that's Sohoku... right

7: So-so- sorry, I got nervous!!

Yeah

Right

8: La-la-la-la-la

La?

La?

Pag 19

1: I was thinking it's the last Inter High!!

3: For us

Pag 20

4: Yeah

5: That's right

6: That's right, Onoda-kun

We're third years

7: It's our third and final

8: yearly grand stage

Pag 21

1: Once this is over, we'll retire

This Inter High is our last race!!

Pag 23

1: Honestly speaking, I my heart too was pounding when we were on the ship coming here

I was really nervous

2: Naruko-kun....

3: Naruko

4: But then I thought

When we were first years and ran in the Kanagawa competition..... maybe, at the starting point in Enoshima

5: The old man, Kinjou-san, and Makishima-san, too, were as nervous as we are now

Pag 24

1: They must have been

3: But they didn't show it at all to us kouhai

4: Well, we can't afford to show it, either

5: That's why, Manager, we talked and decided to go back to our beginning!!

6: We chased and caught up with those people's back, but this time we're gonna surpass them!!

7: Huh

8: We're changing our numbers from last year!!

Pag 25

1: The old man carried number 172, so I'll take number 2!!

Hotshot will take the number Kinjou-san wore, number 1!!

Pag 26

3: And Onoda-kun....

I....

7: The number Makishima-san carried

Pag 27

1: I'll run wearing the number 3!!

#yowamushi pedal #yowamushi pedal translations #yowapeda #yowapeda manga #yowamushi pedal manga #yowamushi pedal spoilers #ride 756 #what do you mean the ih is really starting #what do you mean this is the last IH and after this yowapeda is over #WHAT DO YOU MEAN NARUKO THAT AFTER THIS RACE YOURE GONNA RETIRE #yes i know its gonna take literal years before it ends BUT im just crying already #what a beautiful beautiful chapter!! #starting with a japanese geography lesson from watanabe-sensei #which is always interesting tbh yowapeda is a very educational manga #then there my babies my boys my children Roku-chan and Kinaka #i need to write more fics for them because- BECAUSE!! did you see theeeeem???? #i really thought for a moment that kinaka wasnt there and i was about to start crying for real #but he's there of course he's there!! he could never leave rokudai alone that boy would panic too much #roku-chan's jersey is for the both of theeeem!! he really said that ;A; #and kinaka being all embarrassed asfdasgfd how are they so cute omg i love them #and then there's THE trio- my boys my babies who have grown up so much!! #Onoda who is a disaster as always whenever hes not riding a bike!! And naruko and imaizumi there being his knights!! #Not so good at their job sinc eonoda still falls and destroys everything and theyre left with only his jersey lmao #that was the funniest sequence of panels ever sagdhka #then end made me so emotionaaal ;A; theyre wearing their senpai's numbers ;A; they really are going to surpoass them this year #but also also hear me out #if theyre like the three senpai two years ago then roku has precisely the role onoda had #meaning HE is going to take the win #imma manifesting this #btw i really need to write fics this chap left me with the need to do it

[fuckyeahbaldursgate]

Viconia - Plot Support extraordinaire

Just to preface this as I don't want this to seem like I am hating on BG3 as a diehard fan of the original series because I really do love BG3. I've completed it twice now and think it will absolutely be joining my annual rotation of BG1/SOD/BG2 playthroughs but it has its problems, much in the same way that the originals themselves have problems as well.

So after my Sarevok post I wanted to treat Viconia to the same critical analysis as unfortunately I think she also gets the short end of the evil plot stick. I get it, evil characters can be hard to get right but again similar to Sarevok, in my opinion, her character regresses to evil Shar mook number one rather than actually being Viconia. Worse still she's entirely at the mercy of being wrapped up in ShadowHeart's backstory.

Anyway this is a bit of a deep dive into Viconia's issues in BG3. Spoiler warning for both BG3 and BG2.

1. No Grey DeLise.

Again, similar to Sarevok, another prolific voice actor that has done recent video game work seemingly not approached for the role. I can't help but think that some of this is down to the rushed nature of act three generally and Larian just having to get whoever they could for the job in the time that they needed it. Unlike Jaheria and Minsc there's no attempt to mimic her original VA or get someone who sounded like her so she ends up sounding completely and utterly different.

This version of Viconia sounds haughty and stuck up which while the original Viconia VA has a degree of arrogance, she is also pretty sultry. Haer'dalis even comments that she has 'the throaty voice of the most expensive courtesan' and Viconia deliberately plays on the stereotype of the sensual female drow with certain male party members for her own benefit e.g the male Bhaalspawn, Edwin, Sarevok and even Anomen (I cover this a bit here and here).

2. Her in game design...just isn't great.

Let's be honest, combined with the voice, Viconia's design basically makes her unrecognisable. She looks like a generic old drow lady to the point that I did have 'Is that meant to be Viconia?' moment when I first met her.

Now I appreciate there is minor controversy with Viconia's original BG2 portrait (which is probably the most recognisable image of her) because the artist actually used a famous porn star as the base for it.

For info, this was a common practice at Bioware at the time as they used to use lots of different images as bases for portraits. They finally got into legal trouble for it in NWN where due to various copyright claims they had to change quite a few portraits.

More recently, I think that Beamdog actually did quite a good job of recreating a faithful adaption of her original portrait in Siege of Dragonspear while presumbably navigating the original copyright issue.

In comparison to her BG3 portrayal, my first impression was she looks incredibly old. Now as far as I'm aware we've never been given a canon age for Viconia but we do know she was around for House DeVir being defeated by the Do'Urden house so she has to be at least 100 years old by the time of BG1... but her character level is between 2 and 6 (depending on the party's XP) so a relatively inexperienced cleric. With that in mind I definitely assumed she was on the younger side (maybe 200-300?). Either way 5e elves can live between 750 to 1000 years although there are instances in the Forgotten Realms books of drow living to over 2000. Now tack on the additional 120 years for BG3 in my mind it would definitely put her in the middle aged category but not necessarily anywhere near the end of her life. Critically she would be aging much slower than Jaheria but with those wrinkles she looks WAY older than her. I honestly feel cheated of an interaction between the two about how hagged and old Jaheria looks in comparison to herself.

In terms of her outfit, although initially she wears the Sharite mask and hooded outfit, which is good for concealing her identity, we eventually end up with Viconia in a spider adorned dress. This seems like a strange choice given the spider motif when she literally stopped worshipping Lloth for Shar - maybe she's being ironic? The lack of armour,when she's a cleric that knows there's a good chance she's about to have a fight seems kind of stupid. If you do choose to fight her, she then looks entirely comical in her light dress accompanied by an enormous oversized shield and mace.

For me though this really identifies her design problem: her leather armour was a critical part of her original design. Given that we only see portrait style headshots of BG characters, the decision not to include her leather corset with the three straps and the head band is really what makes her unrecognisable. It would be like removing Minsc's head tattoo or Jaheria's braids or Sarevok's armour (which even with all the problems I talked about in my post, at least he got to keep that).

My hope is that some enterprising modder out there makes a more BG2 accurate version of her in future. Larian, please give my lady her leather armour back or maybe even a justicar outfit!

3. Ignores her BG1/2 alignment, motivations and twists her original epilogue.

Now I do appreciate BG3 deliberately assumes that the events of BG1/BG2 are a little bit fluid, which Jaheria confirms this when she talks about the bards that tell stories of her slaying gods or bedding them depending on which one you listen to. But the game goes onto confirm certain events in Viconia's history that don't really make sense:

A.) The game confirms that Viconia did travel with the Bhaalspawn but not for the entirety of the game. Minsc informs you that after trying to dissect Boo she was expelled from the group. I have to admit this story didn't gel with me at all because it implies Viconia is some sort of chaotic evil idiot (reminder: Viconia is neutral evil with a 16 INT score and 18 WIS score in BG2) who would deliberately provoke a giant raging berserker man by murdering his beloved pet. Like that's the sort of thing I could see Xzar (who is completely and utterly mad) doing but not Viconia. What benefit would she get out of it? Maybe it would be a good tribute for Shar but that would be a pretty short term benefit. In fact in BG2 Viconia offers begrudging respect to Minsc for his effectiveness in battle, she knows he's powerful and she wants to be on the right side of that. Minsc for his part does what he does with many of the female characters, particularly in BG2 and makes her a proxy substitute for Dynaheir offering to protect her. That's not to say she won't insult people (Aerie and Jaheria or characters who she perceives as weak often get the brunt of it) but she's generally smart enough to stay out of an actual fight. Important to note that in any of NPC conflicts that end in a fight in BG1/2 (e.g. Kivan, Ajantis, Keldorn) it's never Viconia that's starts the fight.

B.) The Waterdeep cult.

In Viconia's epilogue, which you only get if you kept her for the end of Throne of Bhaal and you didn't romance her, Viconia goes on to do a few things which you can see below (obviously massive spoilers for BG2) :

So it feels like Larian has taken the first part of this ending but nothing else, which really leaves a lot of questions. We know Shar isn't entirely happy with Viconia based on her diary entries so why is Shar still giving powers to a woman that basically killed a whole bunch of her followers? Why is Viconia still working for a goddess that hates her? Why is she so accepting of Shar's plot to groom Shadowheart as her replacement? Why on earth hasn't Viconia got the fuck out of dodge, which is pretty much what she has been shown to do in the past? And this comes neatly onto my next point.

4. Viconia is just a plot device for Shadowheart.

I love Shadowheart and I love her arc but honestly Viconia being the Mother Superior just felt like a way of inserting her into the game in a way that didn't really fit especially when Viconia's diaries in BG3 show that she knows that Shar intends for Shadowheart to essentially replace her as one of her prominent followers/chosen. The whole plot ignores two critical points about Viconia and her backstory:

Firstly the reason Viconia left the Underdark in the first place was because she refused to sacrifice a child to Lloth and Lloth turning her brother into a drider after he saved her from being sacrificed. Now Viconia is many things, she's self serving, cruel and dedicated to her own survival at the expense of anything and anyone else (quintessential neutral evil through and through) but at the same time she threw away her position, caused the downfall of her house and got most of her family murdered to save a child. You're telling me she would then willingly go along with Shar's plan to deliberate plan to kidnap and repeatedly torture a child for YEARS whilst also training said child to replace her? My girl doesn't have many lines in the sand but harming children definitely seems like one of them. I actually wandered whether Shadowheart not liking to harm children / prefers saving them is not just about her being a secret Selunite but also a potential a hint of Viconia's influence.

Secondly, that plot seems to ignores Viconia's other primary driver, which is to survive: it's why she leaves the Underdark, it's why she travels with the Bhaalspawn, it's why she worships Shar and it's why she murders an entire cabal of Shar's followers after one person betrayed her. Now if we ignore that she has qualms about children, you're telling me that she would instead essentially train her replacement to be an amazing cleric who is 99% likely to murder her? I'm pretty sure Viconia would have tried to kill Shadowheart way before her becoming a justicar or simply skipped town as she has done before.

The alternative?

Personally I would have liked to have seen Viconia ultimately involved in a plot to overthrow the Mother Superior or maybe doing something even crazier like going after Shar herself out of revenge following her fall from grace after the events of the Waterdeep cult. Maybe she works with the Absolute to get her revenge and keep her divine powers - hell who better to help Ketheric with the Nightsong in Shar's temple then an ex priestess of Shar?

If not the Absolute then Shar's got plenty of enemies and Viconia has converted before. Maybe she could have joined the team to achieve a particular goal while giving fans of the original series the opportunity to have one of the original evil characters to join the crew. I would have loved to see the contrast with Minthara who is still fairly fresh from leaving drow society and a complete blunt instrument compared to Viconia's more subtle ways. Maybe Viconia would take the paladin under her wing, maybe introduce her to a new patron god (something I don't think is ever explained is how Minthara still retains her divine powers given neither Lloth or the Absolute are fueling them anymore). Shevarash the elven god of revenge, would be a fantastic fit for both of their back stories (which would also be a nice little throw back to Viconia's heated / sometimes fatal arguments with Kivan in BG1) presuming that Viconia could get over her disdain for the elven pantheon by that point in the timeline. The fireworks with Jaheria of course would be grand while Minsc I feel would be very conflicted given his mind's tendancy, as noted above, to sub in any female magic user as Dynaheir.

#baldur's gate #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate 2 spoilers #baldur's gate 3 spoilers #viconia #viconia devir #discourse #spoilers

[utilitycaster]

I just want to say, that I agree with almost all of your Critical Role takes and you have 1000% better and more nuanced takes than all of Twitter and I greatly appreciate it! The takes over there regarding Liliana and the gods are just wild and you bring some much needed sanity to the content I see

Thanks! I hope you don't mind because I've been thinking about this re: the Twitter takes but the thing about Twitter and Liliana specifically that I've seen is that there's this really bizarre fetishization of like, the fact that she is a (white) southerner (this also weirdly happened for Birdie though to a much lesser extent, and the person who spearheaded that wasn't even American so I have to assume this is a specific corner of Twitter Culture At Large). And like, here's the thing. It's true that fantasy tends to be very British in its accents, and it's also true that accents in a fantasy world are used to convey the same things we'd assume in our world - RP British for educated, southern American for rural, Cockney for rougher types, etc.

It's also true that laying the exact socioeconomic parallels from our world onto, say, Liliana and Orym (who reads to me as non-regional but I, like Liam, am from the Northeast originally) is a recipe for disaster. Or rather, it's not, but it is going to reaffirm your own biases, some of which are dangerous to reaffirm.

There was a popular post on Tumblr a while back, probably not long after Trump was elected, of someone talking about how they were convincing a relative with the confederate flag towards socialism by appealing to the idea of "isn't in unfair how uneven wealth distribution is and how a small group has so much control" and a number of people were rightfully like "uh, maybe you should focus on the racism" or "hey OP ask your relative who they think that small group in control is because I'm getting a really bad feeling they're going to say it's The Jews." And I feel that a lot of the empathy for Liliana from those spaces feels like that OP. Or in other words: I get that you see your relatives in Liliana. Unfortunately, I cannot help but see me and mine in Orym.

You see someone trapped by circumstance and desperation in a dangerous ideology. I see the fact that I haven't gone to a synagogue in easily 6-7 years without there being a security guard present and usually, the doors locked with someone looking through the window to let you in, and then in the sanctuary there's been an installation so that you can quickly bar all the doors in case an alarm goes off or you hear shots in the lobby.

I think there's a great case for seeing yourself in Imogen, who is in a painful struggle with the fact that her mother does love her very much but is in dangerously deep and has done a number of incredibly terrible and harmful things. That latter point is important, incidentally; I get that cult members sometimes rise through the ranks but all but the leader are being manipulated. But the fact remains that a brainwashed person can still commit atrocities, and in this story, they have, many times over. It's especially true because like...sure, plenty of people are like "I lost my relative to a cult and I just want them back and I couldn't harm them," but also, as we've seen, this cult can and will harm Imogen! Plenty of people are also like "yeah I gotta cut them off, it hurts but unfortunately my horribly bigoted and violent relative, while a victim of brainwashing, is a threat to me too." It's not even the full picture of the Temult side of things, let alone the picture that includes the Vanguard's victims.

I also think the Southern gatekeeping is unhinged because it's like. guys there's QAnon members and other cults across the country; the Confederate flag example above was actually notable in that OP wasn't even Southern so you couldn't even write the flag off as deeply misguided heritage but rather was explicitly being used as a hate symbol. It's awfully presumptive to assume all southerners have the same experience (especially since the Temults are portrayed, physically and in accents, as white southerners, not that the experiences of white southerners aren't also incredibly varied). It's awfully presumptive to assume that people find Liliana threatening because they have no personal experience with people like her; often, it's because they have all too real experience with people like her, and it says something even worse about you if you can say "but you guys, I see me and my family in Liliana" when people are telling you that they see them and their families in Orym. I would not, personally, publicly admit that one's empathy extends to the people who remind you of your family but runs out before it reaches their victims. Nor would I publicly admit that I assume everyone who disagrees with me clearly has never had personal experience with this topic.

I should also note that, as I've noted a number of times before, that these are fictional characters and not real people. Twitter seems to be really fucking bad at grasping that. Like, yes, this is the other thing; I do not think that OP should kill their Confederate flag-toting relative, whereas if Imogen did so to Liliana I'd be like "hell yeah." The former is a real person who I do hope gets deprogrammed, just, you know, maybe adjust those priorities; the latter is a fictional character in a story.

#answered #anonymous #if steel had a southern accent do you think people would feel differently about her? sound off in the comments i guess. #cr spoilers #it really is like. with the people who can't separate characters from real people...there's this assumption #that everyone who doesn't agree with them lacks the same experiences or is bigoted #don't like liliana? well it's because you're not southern. don't like laudna? it's because you're neurotypical and straight and hate women. #notice how none of these carry within them any argument within the text? notice how they just rely on the assumption #that you can only understand things through direct personal experience and not like...thought and empathy? #that if you fit certain demographics you obviously Will hold these exact opinions bc clearly all nd people or wlw are a monolith? #it's like. yeah man i see why you have more sympathy for the vanguard than their victims...you think like a cultist even if you're not one #you say There's Those Who Understand And Have The Mandate of Heaven Because We're (southern or nd or queer or whatever) #and then there's Them The Ones Who Don't Get It And Never Will Bc They're Not Like Us (even though plenty of times...they are) #anyway. as always i am sorry that twitter sucking hurts the careers of countless creatives #but i think it does foster this sort of no-nuance no-argument Me First thinking so. can't be too sorry. #long post

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

An Update from anonymous in Israel and a personal note from me:

*Hamas threatens execution of the hostages.

*1000 Israelis murdered on Israeli soil. The numbers keep rising. There are a few hundreds struggle for their lives in hospitals.

*At the strongholds of Hamas in Gaza whole neighborhoods were wiped out.

*Deputy commander of a Brigade killed in a confrontation with terrorists from Lebanon. Must be Hezbollah. Israeli doctrine is the commanders physically lead which can have a high price.

*The White House was lightened with blue and white Israeli colors. Solidarity. Will take it even if don’t like the occupants right now. We miss Trump.

*The Head of the Joint Staff of the US had a talk with the IDF Chief of Staff about making American Military support in the region stronger. My Interpretation: American fleet is on the way to deter Iran and Hezbollah from joining the war. We in Israel don’t like it. Israel should not rely on anyone else. Specially not Biden. Again , we miss Trump. On second thought it does feel good to know we are not alone even if the move is symbolic.

*Netanyahu -“What we will do to Hamas will eco for generations.” “We will treat them like ISIS” (like treating ISIS.)

*Biden – “11 Americans were killed in the attack”.

*My ____told me that the largest hospital in the North (Rambam Hospital) is converting the parking structure to a hospital space. It’s the north. Could mean preparation for a war in the north with Hezbollah.

*IDF- “Tens of terrorists were eliminated in the past day.”

*IDF – “So far we attacked 1707 targets.” Air Force.

*The leaders of the US, Germany, Italy, UK, France in a joint statement condemning the attack, warning others from joining the war and saying they support Israel. The Globalists are supporting Israel. I wonder why and for how long?

*The popular Telegram channel in Gaza is pleading not to publish names of terrorists because “the IDF is bombing their homes”. Some terrorists will be homeless and familyless. There is a black list of all the involved. Israel is known to have a long memory. All the involved directly or indirectly are going to die. I am sure.

*American Israeli in Miami – a wealthy guy- is organizing an operation room with volunteers. Arranged and arranging flight tickets for Israelis who are reservists abroad who want to come to fight. The numbers are confidential but I am sure that there are thousands who are coming back to fight. But the airport is closed. But airlines are getting prepared to help with this effort as soon as they can.

*Speaker of the National Security of the US (or whatever it is called) John Kirby is choking on live TV when asked about the images of the kidnapped. He is saying they have no direct intelligence of Iran’s involvement in this attack. (Israel will know the whole chain to the top shortly. From prisoners and other means).

Love, Shalom & God Bless you all my friends.

From me, GRITS on Tumblr:

I'm sharing the updates to encourage prayer. God loves EVERY human being, no matter your family of origin. Even those who deny his existence or seek to destroy Him are loved by Him. Why? Because He is Elohim who created everyone. He made a covenant with Abraham and God will NOT break His promises. If the entire world turns against Israel (and according to prophecy Ezekiel 38 & 39), that day will come), God alone will fight for them. This does not mean their government is good or righteous. Their government is corrupt just like the American government. It does mean that God keeps His promises in spite of politics and in spite of governments.

If you would like to pray for our world, I recommend reading aloud & meditating on the Psalms. We all have our favorites but in light of current events, start at Psalms 120 and just keep going. There are many translations. The ESV The NCV The CEV are more modern but less flowery/romantic.

If you are a Christian, you are commanded to "Pray for peace in Jerusalem" (psalm 122:6)

We don't need to understand the politics. Our job is to pray for peace.

For my friends here who are not Believers, I offer you the psalms. There is something very special about these words. We believe they were inspired by God Himself and preserved for thousands of years by a small group of Hebrew people. It was out of these tribes that God gave us our Lord Jesus who we believe is the prophesied Messiah, the Christ.

The Jewish leaders were expecting a political messiah to rescue them from a corrupt government---a political KING. God sent them a lowly, adopted son of a carpenter who waited until age 30 to begin a 3 year ministry. Jesus came not to be served but to serve. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Unfortunately they didn't realize their greatest need was not political, but soul salvation.

Jesus, God's only son came to be the bridge between us and the Father.

Allegedly (Steve) founder of Apple Computers said, "God sent His son on a suicide mission but we forgive Him because He gave us trees."

I can see how people feel that way, but it was more than a suicide mission---It was a redemption mission: Him for us. One day we will all stand before our Creator and none of my "good works" will be enough to overcome my sinful heart. I was born a sinner but Jesus stands in the gap for me. I deserve death as the penalty for my sinful heart but Jesus defeated death. Now I will live forever with Him. You can too.

Maranatha!

#israel #pray for the peace of jerusalem

[the-wip-project]

SloMo WriNo: Failure Proofing Your Goals

A Novel in one year.

So, what are the numbers for that?

If you’re so inclined, you’ve probably already done the math, and come up with some numbers for yourself.

Numbers like projected length of novel (I’m going to use 80k for this, but don’t get married to that, once you get into it the work with find it’s own length) and how many words a day you would need to write to hit that goal. (220)

That’s all very nice, but the problem with word count goals, is that you can create a situation where your writing becomes a pass/fail situation.

A situation where if you perceive yourself as failing (did I meet my word count goal this week? No? I AM A FAILURE!), and the pressure rises, it starts to feel safer to simply quit, rather than face repeated failures.

I’m against that sort of thing. (The quitting and also the negative self talk.)

So how does one measure progress without creating that sort of situation? How can you win the psychology game of getting words on the page?

Of course everyone is different. But here’s two methods (tricks? hacks?) that work for me at various times.

Low Goal, High Results. (The Min-Max zone)

The idea with this is to set a daily, or per session word count goal that feels too easy.

By now I hope you’ve figured out a good time and place to write. So go there, at that time, and do a timed 15 minute sprint. However many words you got, halve it. Repeat this exercise a few times to make sure you’ve got a good average.

Unless you’re a power writer, you will most likely end up with a number that is below that 220 we mathed out earlier, DON’T PANIC. In fact, for this example lets say that you managed to write an average of 200 words in your 15 minute sessions. Which means that your daily goal is now 100 words.

Of course with that number, even if you write every single day for a year that will only give you 36 500 words. Not a novel. Barely a novella!

The point here is not to write only 100 words a day. It’s making the daily task of writing feel easy and approachable. Not scary. If you know you only need to write 100 words, and you know you can get that done easily in less than 15 minutes, then why not do it? And once you’re writing, writing a little more generally happens easily enough. If getting started is the hard part, this should really help.

It’s a common psychological trick. But it’s common for a reason. It works!

Once you’ve set your (very easy) minimum goal, I also encourage you to set a maximum daily goal too. Especially if you’re the type of person who tends to go on 10k writing binges and then not write again for two months. Set your maximum at what you can comfortably write in 1.5-2 hours. So let’s say that’s 1000 words. Meaning your goal is to write 100-1000 words every time you sit down to write, and consider everything, from barely getting 102 to maxing out at 1002 an awesome, winning, writing day.

What does that look like? On a bad day, a day you don’t fee like writing at all, it means you tell yourself that all you need to do is write for ten minutes. Just get down 100 words (or whatever your minimum goal is.) And then if you haven’t found your mojo, you stop. No guilt or regret. You’ve met your goal, even though you’re having a bad day. You’re doing awesome!

On a power day, when you feel almost possessed by the muses, it means that when your timer beeps, or you see that number on the bottom of the screen hit 1000 (or whatever your number is), you make yourself stop. Yes. Stop mid flow. (It’s painful, I know! But please try!) Why stop? Because you’re learning how to have a healthy long term writing habit.

Write yourself some notes, and come at it fresh tomorrow. The goal is teach yourself that your creativity isn’t actually a unreliable muse. You are not subject to it’s whim. With time and practice your creativity will be there whenever you reach for it.

This is the method that I use most of the time, and I strongly recommend you give it a decent try (6 weeks at least.)

However perhaps you’re really just convinced that particular kind of psychological trickery just won’t work for you, or perhaps you’ve tried it in the past without success. Maybe it creates the opposite effect for you, and you find daily writing skippable because the minimum goal feels so low that you think you can make it up later (you won’t, but ahem, brains are weird.) So here is an alternative method that is also quite effective.

2. Higher Goals to Plan For Misses

Instead of setting your goal ridiculously low, you can try setting it high enough that you can miss writing days while still staying on track.

This will only work if you’ve been able to carve out a larger chunk of time for daily writing, thirty minutes to an hour.

So, lets run the example numbers. Using the 80k novel template, we already know that it would take 220 words a day if you write every single day, and never delete anything.

Writing every day is almost impossible, so you’re setting yourself up to fail if you set 220 as your goal.

So instead you plan for writing 6 days a week. Perhaps you intend to take Mondays off. They suck and you know you usually don’t feel like writing then anyway. Awesome. Let’s make that our schedule. Writing 312 days a year means a daily target of 257 words.

But still, that leaves no margin for error. No time for bad days, illness, that one scene you have to cut because it wasn’t working, etc.

So we double it. Your goal, with a plan of writing 6 days a week, is 500 words a day. And also (and this is the important bit) 2000 words a week.

Wait! That’s 4 days, not 6! Yes. That’s the point. It allows room for misses. To allow you to fail without failing. For days when you can’t reach 500, for days when you don’t have time (and with a larger daily goal like this, that’s a lot more possible.) For days when you just can’t.

Of course if you can only count on writing 5 days a week, or 4, or whatever your life situation calls for, adjust your goals accordingly. Always keep your goal word count about 1/3 higher than needed, to give yourself that cushion. If the numbers gets too large to manage, then it’s time to change the long term goal.

Yes. Really. Change it. Setting a goal that you’re bound to fail at is not going to help you.

Perhaps it’s more feasible for you personally to write your novel in 18 months, or two years. As always, your health is more important than an arbitrary time line, and you’ll still be awesome if you write your novel a little slower.

But what if both of those methods still stress you out, or if focusing on the numbers like that kills your joy?

Here’s a bonus method, that I personally use when things get to be a real struggle.

3. Gold Stars

This is for the times when the thought of tracking word count is just one step too many, and becomes an obstacle for writing at all. However when you abandon tracking completely, it’s often a way to abandon writing too.

So having some sort of way to confirm that yes, you’ve written for the day still helps, whether that’s putting a gold star, or an X on a calendar (you can find printable month/page calendars online for free, or you can buy those little book calendars very cheap), creating an art or craft piece (one time I wrote an entire novel assisted by a scarf where I only got to crochet a row after I’d written for the day), or whatever other way you can think of to mark that you wrote. Having a way to look back at your week or month and confirm that yes, you’ve written most days, is often enough keep you honest (with yourself.) As long as it’s something that feels like a reward and not additional work.

So there you have it. 3 methods for setting word count goals and tracking what you’re accomplishing.

Let me know what you’re going to try, or what sort of tricks work for you! (and feel free to ask me for help figuring out how to apply this in your own life.)

—Maree

Subscribe to my substack to make sure you don't miss a post, chat with me on the WIP Project discord, and tag any posts you make about the challenge with #slomowrino if you want me to see them!

#slowmowrino #failure proof goals #word count goals #writing advice

[yourbonesarenowmycoat]

Some tips for people wanting to recognize the letter in the binary monster's name

(Leer esto en español aquí)

As you may know, the last few times the binary monster attacked the eggs, its name changed depending on the specific egg it was targeting:

[Image description: Two screenshots of "player bleeding" messages in chat. The first one reads "Tallulah is bleeding. Tallulah was slain by 01010100." This binary number translates to a capital T.

The second screenshot reads "Dapper is bleeding. Dapper was slain by 01000100." This binary number translates to a capital D. End ID.]

This is a relatively recent development; when the monster attacked Bobby, its name translated to "A I." The first time the CCs started to think about the monster targeting specific eggs was when it typed "r" in the chat before targeting Ramón; however, its name at the time was a nine-digit number which didn't translate to any letter. (Specifically, it was 100101001, the number 297.)

Regardless, the CCs have taken notice of this new pattern and are hoping to use this information to better protect the eggs. So for anyone who's thinking of memorizing binary letters for this purpose, I thought I'd offer a couple of shortcuts to help in learning.

The basics

In binary, all capital letters are eight-digit numbers that start with 010. If you know you're looking at a capital letter, you only need to pay attention to the last 5 numbers.

These range from 1010 0001 (A, or binary number 65) to 0101 1010 (Z, or binary number 90). If you know basic A1Z26 cipher, this is basically just that, except you count it in binary!

I'm not interested in your nerd shit, just tell me what number corresponds to what (possibly) alive egg

0100 0010 - B (Bobby) 0100 0011 - C (Chayanne) 0100 0100 - D (Dapper) 0100 0111 - G (Gegg - I will lose my shit if we ever actually see this one) 0100 1100 - L (Leonarda) 0101 0000 - P (Pomme) 0101 0010 - R (Ramón, Richarlyson) 0101 0100 - T (Tallulah)

So far, we haven't seen the binary monster name itself a lowercase letter. However, if it did, the last five numbers would be exactly the same, but it would start with 011.

I AM interested in your nerd shit. Please tell me how to count in binary

In our normal number system, every digit is ten times the digit to its right - so we have a ones place, then a tens place, then a hundreds place, etc. (E.g. 347 = 300 + 40 + 7)

In binary, every digit is twice the digit to its right. A five-digit binary number has a ones place, a twos place, a fours place, an eights place, and a sixteens place.

To add in binary, you just always carry the one. 1 - 0001 2 - 0010 3 - 0011 4 - 0100 5 - 0101 6 - 0110 7 - 0111 8 - 1000

See the pattern?

So if you wanted to figure out T for Tallulah on your own:

- T is the 20th letter of the alphabet - We know it will start with 010

- For the last five digits:

1 in the sixteens place (we have 4 left over)

0 in the eights place (we have 4 left over)

1 in the fours place (we're all done!)

(010)1 0100

#mcyt #qsmp

[skinny-kittyxo]

How I lost 60 lbs and how I’m doing it again

Disclaimer: everyone has different food rules and this is in no way anything I condone, this is just what works for me. Practice harm reduction! Safety is more important than any number or goal you have in mind!!!!

I eat low sodium everyday. I’ve been doing this for three years on and off. I really don’t recommend this for extended periods unless you get at least weekly to bi weekly blood work bc low sodium is super dangerous and super easy to get if you’re doing this and drinking a ton of water. I only restrict sodium because I also restrict water.

I only drink two small glasses of water a day. Laxative tea and caffeinated beverages are unlimited tho. Anything I drink when faint or with meds is free.

I only drink caloric liquids if I feel my electrolytes are off or I’m really faint at work.

I go for at least a two mile walk at 6:15 every morning. I’m extremely structured with my time so this helps my mental health a lot to have quiet time in the morning.

I get around 80% of my calories from raw fruits and vegetables.

On week days I eat below 300 cal and on weekends I can eat up to 1000.

Binging is natural and not shameful but it is not something I want to do. I actively avoid binge triggers.

I focus on self care beyond food. I make sure to do therapy assignments. I color when stressed. Skin and hair care and dressing nice when I can always makes me feel better about myself. It’s also a good way to distract from cravings!

I practice affirmations. “You will lose x lbs” “I am strong willed” “I am productive” “I am disciplined” are my favorites. Thinking of weight loss as a certainty makes you more likely to achieve it.

Stay safe lovelies<3

#my post #ed not sheeren #tw ana diary #ana bllog #ana trigger #anorexcya #pro for me not for thee #thinspø #ed disorder #tw ed sheeran #ed rules #4n4blr #ana discord #ana meal #aneroxic #ed bllog #edblrr #🕯️as a 🪶 #🕯️as a feather #🌟ving #🌟ve #light as a feather #light as a 🪶 #i want to ⭐️ve #i wanna ⭐️ve #i will reach my ugw

[creativepromptsforwriting]

Written by sakafamily:

Whoa, I didn’t notice you also accept prompt submissions! Or I’m just that dense. Anyway, here are some IT company customer service prompts. I draw them based on real-life experience (well I am an IT company CS afterall).

IT Company Customer Service Prompts

Your customer’s web hosting service was suspended because they are caught phishing the national bank. That customer contacts your CEO and attempts to sue you personally for not lifting the suspension, bringing a lawyer even for the purpose. You try your best not to laugh realizing that the lawyer they hired is actually a cop in disguise.

You get a phone call from an angry customer saying that the product they purchased was delivered to the wrong address. After investigating, it turns out the customer made a mistake by writing capital letter I as non-capital letter L and the package was sent to their significant other. Cue hilarity ensues after discovering how embarrassing the package contents is.

You and your coworker are trying to figure out why your customer cannot install SSL on their Linux Virtual Private Server. The customer is furious for the time you two take to solve their issue. It turns out every attempt to install it failed because they haven’t setup a web server on their VPS.

“Hello there, my name is (NAME). How can I help?” “Yeah, I’m so horny about you babe.” “Dear you’re drunk again and its the 288th time this year.” “I know. That’s why I’m being honest about my feelings for you.”

“Why are my phone services suspended?” “Dear, you have outstanding phone bill for (insert hilarious number here) that have been pending payment for 6 months.” “This is ridiculous. I want my services but I don’t want to pay.”

“Why are you making things so complicated?” “I understand your confusion, but mistaking Twitter for a brawl ring and making up a conspiracy theory about it is not against our Terms of Services.”

“I want a refund of my services right now!” “Dear, you have purchased it via cryptocurrency.”

“Why is my email service suspended?” “I understand your frustration, but sending ‘I love you, please come back to me.’ to the same email address 1000 times per day is the cause of your UBL blacklisting.”

“What do you wish to use the domain for?” “Yeah, I want to use it for phishing and criminal activities. Can it be not suspended?”

---

Very interesting! Thank you for sending them in, they are great!

- Jana

#submitted #submission #it prompts #customer service prompts #prompt list #sakafamily #writing inspiration #writing ideas #writeblr

[spacehostilityy]

NNT Rewatch s2ep1-6

(This was written weeks ago but was in my queue. I am moving back to my college town Saturday so busy days are to come but now I have things to procrastinate 😈)

So YAYAYAY time for season 2 (my fave season overall) !! I’ve rewatched this one before, so i actually remember some of this lol

Ban: I quit

Meliodas: your face is the only joke we can handle

HE GOT HIS ASS DAMN

i love both of diane’s orange fits, but s1 leotard hits different

i have thots abt the introduction of power levels that will be told beneath the cut

i mean it’s all very dragon ball (which i love, but in a very different way). I feel like they are just better executed in manga format, because saying the numbers out loud just kinda breaks up the flow of dialogue and action. Plus the numbers never stay accurate since the characters are always powering up and nakaba lowkey just stops using them at one point. so like assault mode!Meliodas has a power of 142,000. BUT he defeats enemies with powers higher than that and is shown to gain even more power. But this is the highest number we have for him. Overall, theyre clunky, not updated enough to be accurate, and just kinda cheesy :/ I feel like plot could have been added to justify and explain the eye of Balor (AKA Drole if i remember correctly) but it’s just used as an excuse to quantify the characters’ strength since this season is mainly focused on physical and emotional growth, as seen by the Ishtar Arc (one of my fave arcs hehe)

merlin’s friendship with hawk is actually so cute tho

so Meliodas’s beginner stats (still missing his powers) are magic 400, strength 960, spirit 2010. The way I see it, his insane spirit strength could mean one of two things: bitch is just hella determined in his quest to end their curses and protect his friends (likely) or merlin taking away his power only affects his strength and magic since spirit has to do with your mind (also likely) anyway what do y’all think?

how the fuck is gowther’s strength 500??? The average person who can lift 50-100 lbs has a strength of 30. HOW IN THE FUCK?? IS GOWTHER SECRETLY SWOLE????

Meliodas being like “no idk who the ten shadows could be haha” when he and merlin literally formed the sins to fight them and HE WAS THE LEADER OF THE 10 COMMANDMENTS is so funny like so tru king lie to their faces

the first thing Zeldris says is “3000 years... please tell me that he’s still alive” which tells me two things: 1) he doesn’t know about Meliodas’s curse, which could explain why estarossa kills him when he’s just going to come back a rival to the throne of the demon king and 2) the listed life expectancy of 1000 years for demons is probably not accurate lol

maybe it’s driven down due to number of battle deaths like the mortality rate of the middle ages lol

we are introduced to a demon who hopes mel is alive, shares a voice actor, AND HAS THE SAME FACE yeah the brother coding is very thick

AJSDBJKBHJEBFNWKFH YESSS THIS IS MY ALL TIME FAVE INTRO SONG AND ANIMATION

ban’s refusal to get jericho’s name right makes me laugh every time

Jericho: is scared and runs to Ban

Ban: 🤨 yeah. i don’t remember asking you to grab my arm🙄

im sorry but king rlly was a bad fairy king like mans didnt even know the forest was there 😭 its ok tho i love that for him

King hating Ban at first bc he “killed elaine and destroyed the fairy kings forest” only for Ban to pull THE BIGGEST uno reverse on him will never not be funny

wait does that mean ban is technically the 4th fairy king and king is both the 3rd and the 5th bc that would be rlly funny and does happen quite a bit historically

I love how as much as a smug asshole Ban is, he’s not rubbing it in King’s face and is showing him he’s still his friend

so if Gil is Margaret’s guard and Griamore is Veronica’s, does that mean Howzer was Elizabeth’s ?? bc that would be so fucking funny

Helbram got King’s ass with “and you’re short”

KASBDFNJBSDKF HE LOOKS SO GOOFY😭

MY BABYGIRLS ARE HEREEEE

Best girls Melascula and Derieri fr

i love that they said slader is gay, how can we let the audience know and then gave him the smoothest, gayest voice imaginable

merlin calling og gowther a great magician when we know he was the one to train her is actually so sad, i want to give baby merlin a hug

slader is hot, thanks for coming to the ted talk

how the fuck does he walk like this tho??

is there a reason i just don’t remember why they never really bring up albions again or do they just ~disappear~ conveniently from the story lol

So the whole concept of sacred treasures is really cool to me because they are clearly something unique to the Sins, despite all of the sacred treasures being very different and made of different materials. I mean Gowther’s is straight up made of light Still, them having weapons that serve as a constant and grow with them as they become more powerful is just a neat concept to me. I just wish we could have seen Ban use Courechouse more than just a few episodes. There really isn’t a plot reason he couldn’t have had it beforehand.

Gerheade being a bitch to Ban bc he’s a human makes literally no sense when we learn her backstory with Rou. Like NO sense at all lol

I honestly love that Meliodas destroyed the albion on his own. Like yes, he is my OP blorbo BUT he’s also supposed to be incredibly powerful in canon, which we haven’t seen him go all out with an enemy yet. Not only does he know all about albions (bc he’s a demon), but as leader of the 10 Commandments, he probably was on the controlling side of the golems. Then, as a member of Stigma, he fought against them. Not to mention, this is when he finally gets Lostvayne (the DEMON sword) back. This moment for me is when he gets to show off the perks of him being a powerful and high ranking demon. Might fuck around and do a full post later on Meliodas’s relationship to his own race and what/who he is lol

Ban screaming “you bitch!!” is... a wonderful experience

Yass king (hehehehe get it? bc his name is king? hehehe)

Galand petting Gloxinia is actually so cute lol

Merlin covering Arthur’s eyes 😭😭 she’s his mom fr

“its been a while meliodas” oop galand just let the Meliodas is 3000 years old cat out of the bag ehehe

(stay with me bc im about to get delusional) WAIT so galand says “to think that after all this time has passed youd still be in that form” in this essay i will prove that Meliodas looks like a young teenager because he essentially is biologically young for the demon race. Galand doesn’t know Mel was cursed, so he would think that he had aged in the past 3000 years. Plus, I think the demon king’s possession of Meliodas AND Zeldris can be (somewhat) compared to Sariel’s aging up of Solaseed. Anyway, i feel like this can support my hypothesis of Zeldris and Meliodas are just babies who will eventually look like adults. Also, I think them being super young just enhances the angst quite well.

everyone is fucking terrified of galand but hes just a silly foolish little fellow to me lol

ban and king being brothers-in-law makes my heart happy like theyre so cute

Ban threatening Gerheade and actually being pissed and serious has suddenly reminded me that if i saw a grown ass man who couldn’t die and was a 7 foot tall violent alcoholic i would be fucking terrified

like a demon 14 year old? creepy ig but not a 7 foot tall masochist with an 8 pack

I love how hard Diane always goes for the ones she loves, she’s just so devoted and passionate Best Girl tm behavior

*Merlin being incredibly confidant and nonchalant starting a proposition*

Meanwhile Merlin’s thoughts: SHIT SHIT I HAVE 10 SECONDS TO THINK BEFORE EVERYONE I LIKE DIES

Meliodas doing the same thing Hendy did by reattaching his fucking arms using Darkness and the sins still being like wait?? is Meliodas?? a... demon ??? 🤨

okay so we DO see him in this mode again. But what is it called? and why does he become no thots head empty? its not like he died. and even in assault mode, he has thoughts and emotions (when they’re not stuck in purgatory) 

Im ngl, i forgot everything about this episode entirely lol

obvi i hate that derieri died, but at least the souls she fucking ate got returned lol

do we think arthur has a tiny teenage gay crush on meliodas? Discuss.

(the answer is yes ehehe)

gowther walking around with his dang a lang swangin hehe

Gil crying in annoyance and defeat as griamore and howzer bicker is literally so hashtag real

HENDYYY MY BABYGIRL IS BACK BAYBAYYYY

very suddenly realized that Hendy’s probably only like in his 30s. Mans is just not that old

exactly 3 seconds after I had that though Howzer calls him old man LOLLL

i forgot about hendy’s childhood trauma. damn. thats actually rlly sad :/

look how cute he is tho 😭😭

hendy and dreyfus are in love. thanks for coming to another one of my ted talks

so do we think dreyfus is half druid (and zaratras is full) or zaratras is half druid? i mean they’re half brothers but only one is a called a druid sooo

IM SORRY BUT THIS IS THE FUNNIEST FUCKING SCREENSHOT ASDFFHSLDH elizabeth scandalized, meliodas accepting his fate, slader leaning in closer and blushing ITS JUST SO GOOD

The ass shot of Diane 🤨😑

Damn Idk how i never realized that all of them pretty much only call Meliodas captain. Merlin, Ban, and Elizabeth are the only ones who will call him Meliodas, but even merlin and ban typically go with captain.

“im a giant, why arent you afraid of me?” hes a fucking demon. lol

#tess rambles on her nnt rewatch #nanatsu no taizai #seven deadly sins #nnt #7ds #tess rambles #meliodas #elizabeth liones #elizabeth nnt #melizabeth #ban nnt #diane nnt #merlin nnt #gowther #gowther nnt #zeldris #demon bros #jericho nnt #king nnt #helbram #monspeet #derieri #monderi #slader nnt #arthur pendragon #arthur nnt

[lovethistoomuch]

10 characters 10 fandoms

I was tagged by @birdkeeperklink thank you so much! I really had to think on these since, as per my url you can guess there are a lot. (sorry for the late reply. I got no excuse, really, except life continued to happen around me and deciding who to pick was really hard.)

in no particular order (though Loki is Number 1, I'm sorry everyone else), here we go:

1. Loki Odinson from MARVEL

I just love him so much I've written a 78K fix-it fantasy novel (not finished) to give him the happy ending he deserves. there is no other character I identify with harder than this one: a younger sibling full of rage, always feeling overshadowed by the older one, just wanting to prove their own worth and show the world that they are capable (i got over this a lot in recent years but my love for him still remains.)

Tom just plays him so perfectly and I am so heartbroken that the writers at MARVEL did not know what to do with him, so they killed him off (the Loki show doesn't count because that's not him okay.) he's always having a good time, he's snarky and clever and desperately needs a hug. how can you not love him?

2. Mr. Spock and Leonard (Bones) McCoy from Star Trek TOS

Yes, they are two people but I just couldn't choose between them!

The grumpy surgeon with a heart of gold an the emotionally suppressed but deeply loving vulcan live in my heart rent free ever since I was a child. Spock was my first crush ever and his complicated relationship with McCoy has always fascinated me. they are two incredibly complicated people and there isn't enough space here to describe why. writing them is just as much fun as watching them and I actually own the autographs of both Leonard and De.

3. James Wilson from House M.D.

he's a man of many contradictions: he is kind but also House's best friend, he loves people dearly but can also tell them to fuck off. he is confident and funny and he helps people without being a pushover. he loves all of his his wives but cheats at least once. he is a walking mystery which makes him a great friend for House and a nightmare to write. I just love him! also, that smile!

4. Castiel from Supernatural

Cas is the character, truly! he can go from nerdy to badass in the blink of an eye. a cosmic being that plays dress up just to make one human smile, who should be nothing but an ant to him. he fiercely protects the people he loves and always tries to do the right thing. the character that inserted himself into the story against the writer's will and changed the narrative for ever. when he came on the show, I hated his guts. and look at me now...

5. Zuko from Avatar the last Aribender

you simply cannot talk about redemption arcs without mentioning Zuko at some point. an exceptional character amongst a cast of exceptional characters. I once joked that 90% of his lines were just him screaming but that poor boy has so much rage inside him, and with all that trauma, can you really blame him? he is the epitome of character growth and a fascinating example of how the villain can become a hero without taking any shortcuts.

6. Stephen Maturin from the Aubrey-Maturin series

if you read the books, you'll know why. this fucking lunatic is so oblivious to his own eccentricities that you just have to love him. nobody does it quite like him to be honest. no, Stephen, people will not think you're eccentric because you practice sword fighting on deck, however they might think that because you let loose 1000 bees on the ship and run around naked. he has no sense for proper etiquette and i love him so much for it. also, he get's on a ship without being able to swim and performs open brain surgery on deck. he is incredibly skilled and the best damn doctor in the entire fleet. also, his dynamic with his best friend/captain is one of the best friendships I've ever seen/read.

7. Scrooge McDuck

this might be an unusual choice but i grew up reading comics and at one point in my life i figured out that all of my favourite stories were writen and drawn by the legendary Don Rosa, who in his book "the life and times of Scrooge McDuck" created one of the most fascinating and fun to watch characters i've ever seen. starting from humble beginnings and rising to the top through his percevierence, fearlessness and ingenuity, inevitably losing everything he loved and ending up alone, only to be found by his family again, his story is one of my absolute favourites in literature. i know that due the never ending nature of comic books, he can never truly get his happy ending but I really wished he could.

8. Keeley Jones from Ted Lasso

I don't think I've ever seen a woman like her in any media to be honest. she is so clearly feminine and embodies all the traits of a woman that would normally be depicted as bitchy, toxic and self obsessed but she is just none of those things. she is a girly woman who loves pink and cries and she is just so human and lovely and i love her so much for it! her friendship with Rebecca is also so amazing and feels very real and true to what friendships between woman are actually like. I just love her as a beacon of healthy femininity and can only hope that there will be more characters like her in the future!

9. Kim Kitsuragi from Disco Elysium

the voice, the looks, the everything! the moment I met him I knew I wanted him to be my best friend for ever! his deadpan delivery combined with his dorkyness and his shere competence had me on the floor on multiple occasions. I have not finished the game yet but I have never had a companion this incredible in any video game ever! I could listen to him read the phone book for hours. when he went "daba doop doop dead" I died. also him jumping in when I fail a check has to be the most badass thing ever. I love you, Kim. please be proud of me. (also, I know he probably has a darker side to him that I am not seeing right now because I am always choosing the nice options but hey, the best characters are the complicated ones.)

10. Cole Turner from Charmed

this show was so much better when he was in it! the half demon who crosses over to the good side without ever really changing his ways. he burns someone alive and laughs about it, drags a detective to hell and doesn't give a shit about civilians. even when he is completely human his solution to assholes is to punch them in the face. he loves power and controling others and looking good while doing it. I know him beind "good" was a whole thing on the show but to me the most fun about him was that he continued being evil but was now using his powers to help the good guys. show me another character that got redeemed into the hero team without losing his evil edge. Cole was just so much fun to watch but unfortunately his character got totally buthcered by bad writing.

No pressure of doing this but tagging:

@catzy88, @uponxhorhaus, @accrov

#tag game #favourite characters #wow this got long #whoops #long post #about me #i guess

[jikookao3recs]

a cute fanfic game I've posted on twitter so I will also post it here ☺️

1. a fic I discovered this month:

"Moon jar by rkiveink" and I'm so glad I've found it, a new favourite of mine 🌙💜

2. a fic that always makes me smile:

Raspberry Vodka Series by serendiplini 💗

forever my favourite mood booster, as you already know 🤭

3. a fic that makes me cry:

oh, I have a lot.. like A LOT (some of them I will gatekeep lol)

Carry Me Home by mnsg

Falling for you again by Rose_gold715

Nevermind by rkiveink

One Little Chance by Ashlyn17

Tiger Lily (Don't Forget Me) by Ocean_View_Song

4. a fic I reread all the time:

Learning Curve by Rozoir

tell me you'll come home (even if it's just a lie) by spudcity

Glory Series by eumorious

The scent of lemons by Portent

5. a fic that proves I have a good taste:

every fic I have on this account 😌

6. a fic with less than 1000 hits:

a prayer in your name by jimjungoo

7. a fic that's title has three words:

Bronze Medal Baby by dovekook

La Petite Mort by caughtinjimin

All in Bloom by annie_vi (DLC, LEG too)

Stitch my heart by merigoldaround

In All Ways by wonce_km

Love is Blind by BerryKookmin, starlitvantae

8. a fic from an old fandom:

I'd rather not expose myself like that 😂😂

9. a fic that reminds you of summer:

Seven Flowers That Make Me Dream of You by dreamofaspringday (it's a minimoni fic 🥺)

10. a fic that you'll recommend to anyone:

Stockwell by rkiveink

The tides in you by Portent

Armed With a Spray Can Soul by annie_vi

Blind Switch by Charmander

11. a fic that has lyrics in the title:

my cold breath, take it away by allurie

Drop Like Confetti by annie_vi

Wild Things by kittyganggang

12. a fic from a ship I don't usually read:

cookin' up one hell of a crush by pandexi

13. a fic that I wrote:

my wolf JM x merman JK one 🥴

14. a fic that my friend wrote:

I don't have friends 🥲

15. a fic that fucked me up (in a good way) :

hmm maybe..

a touch of sin by orphan_account

Like Everything Glows by annie_vi

16. a fic that's best read at 3 am:

Mono No Aware by eumorious

Stories Above Concrete by annie_vi

the time I've loved you by busanpjm

yes, I'm a monster 🤪

17. a fic with a number in the title:

30,000 foot view by pieces

18. a fic that comforts me:

Screwed Up and Brilliant by annie_vi

Learning Curve by Rozoir

The scent of lemons by Portent

Cherry Wine by serendiplini

Blind Switch by Charmander

Bronze Medal Baby by dovekook

tell me you'll come home (even if it's just a lie) by spudcity

19. a fic with parenthesis in the title:

baby it's cold outside! (seriously, it's a fucking blizzard) by kittyganggang

told you not to worry (but maybe thats a lie) by spudcity

20. a fic I wish I could read again for the first time:

I have sooo many, but I will pick one now.. Screwed Up and Brilliant by annie_vi.. that's my forever favourite story for reasons I won't tell haha

#jikook #jikook fanfic #jikook fic #jikook au #jikook fic rec #jikook fanfiction #kookmin #kookmin fanfic #kookmin fic rec #kookmin au #kookmin fic #bts fic #bts fanfiction #bts fics #bts fanfic #fic reccomendations #fic recommendation #fic rec #fanfic rec #fic recs

[ifyouhappentoremember]

Quick Toughts - Phantom of the Opera - Broadway - March 6, 2023

The main trio was Laird Mackintosh, Julia Udine and Paul Adam Schafer

For those unaware, this performance was Laird’s last day with the Broadway company and his last performance as the Phantom. 

Every time I see Nehal Joshi’s Andre I just appreciate new details of his performance. Like he awkwardly bump into Meg during Hannibal Rehearsal on two separate occasions and then after the number was over he had a conversation with Meg (presumably to apologize). When Andre is introduced to the company, he gives a courtly little bow. I truly love those details.

Okay, I’m not gonna talk about anyone else now. The rest of this post is going to exclusively focus on Larid. 

There is an old school quality to the way he moves. There is an inherent graceful, yet somewhat non-human about the way he moves.

The way he said the first ‘sing for me’ during the title song??? It was so deep and resonant. It made me sit up straighter in my seat. 

The intense eye contact with Christine during “I have brought you’ only for him to break it during the ‘my music’ bit.

The man was vocally batting 1000 on this performance.

The way Laird’s Phantom would flinch when Julia’s Christine got close to him (right before the line ‘turn your face away’ and a second one!!!! right before the line ‘let the dream begin’).

Laird may have the fastest STYDI crawl I’ve ever seen? It was so unsettling, like he didn’t have any control of his limbs (but also somehow he did?

“a ToAD, madam? Perhaps... it is you... who are ... the toad.”

The quiet, whispered “stop” when Raoul and Christine are singing during All I Ask of You reprise hurt.

When the Phantom pops out in ‘Before the Performance’ scene, Laird knocked over the little table (maybe another chair?) that was in box 5 lol.

I think Laird’s Phantom wanted to go in for a kiss during the proposal. The way Julia’s Christine unmaksed him you know she did it to make him stop.

Laird get really in Julia’s face, shoving his deformed side during the line ‘an eternity of this...’

Oh god, his Phantom got so sad when Raoul said the line ‘why make her lie to you...” almost like he truly hated himself for what he was doing and was about to just about to let them go but them Julia’s Christine reaches out to touch his back and his resolve just hardens. The way he then just tossed away the veil he had been clutching was almost cold-hearted.

The ring return hurt. He is so happy for a moment. When Christine breaks her hand from his grasp, he lets out a sharp gasp of pain. When he finally lets out a second I love you, Christine is long gone and Laird said it in such a child-like way.

When Raoul and Christine are sailing away, singing, Laird’s Phantom almost relaxes, when he hears Christine sing.

I’m used to Ben’s Phantom singing the final line to the audience, so Laird directing the first half of that iconic line to the disappearing figures of Raoul and Christine was a nice old-school touch.

I did cry, but surprisingly at the line “it’s over now...” I think it really just hit me that Phantom really is closing and I am rapidly approaching my final visit :(

#also not related to the performance #but the usher let two late comers in RIGHT BEFORE IL MUTO STARTED #act 1 is basically over and these people finally show up???? #it was so strange #quick thoughts #poto broadway #laird mackintosh