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fipindustries · 7 months

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charles and the wildbow protagonist

It is a known truth amongs the fandom that charles is what happens when you see a wildbow protagonist from the outside. charles fulfills all the requrements of the archetype to a T.

scrappy survivor with a never say die attitude, who will not stop no matter what. ruthlessly utilitarian mindset where whatever can be done in order to win has to be done, all other considerations be damned. the lowest kind of underdog where he is (literally in this case) hated by the universe. surpisingly resourceful and capable of wrenching a solution to any problem even when starting with every handicap and disadvantage possible. and most important of all: a cause. an all consuming goal. an almost fervent belief that they are doing what HAS to be done and that it is the CORRECT thing to do.

so with all that in mind is interesting that charles IS very much, an evil person. not just misunderstood. i dont think his villany is merely a product of what side of the narrative he was placed in. i dont think this is just protagonist bias. i think charles was unequivocally a monster, in a way that the other wildbow protagonists (with perhaps the exception of sy/simon??????? arguably???????) are not.

and what is it that sets him apart?

why is taylor going khepri and mindcontrolling the multiverse in order to defeat scieon still not something that sets taylor as an evil person in the same way that charles creating the crucible and trying to forswear the kennet girls in order to defeat the seal of solomon is

(quick aside to acknoledge that this is not a clean topic and is not as easy as to say that all wildbow protags are unquestionable good people or fighting for a good cause necessarily. blake is a preety cool guy but he does go boogieman and decides to just murder a bunch of guys, bad people for sure but he just kind of goes and does it all the same. vicky did contribute to the prison planet and a bunch of other stuff during ward and sylvester... is sylvester)

before i try to answer that question i do want to double back on the whole villany by narrative framing. wildbow, for as dark and grimm and bleak as his stories get, he always always always tells stories about good triumphing against evil. he has not told a story yet where the bad guys are not defeated and the good guys dont accomplish their goal. and so in the end the thing that sets charles apart from a wildbow protagonist. the thing that truly marks him as a villain, is not just the horrors that he commited, or the suffering he is gulty of or his evil deeds. is most of all the fact that he loses at the end what ultimatly proves him wrong.

because that is another thing wildbow has going on in his stories, his stories are ultimatly incredibly idealistic because there is a sense once you read them over and over, and its subtle and easy to miss but there all the same, that evil ultimatly always ends up losing. that evil is on some level self sabotaging, that goodness is the winning strategy. wildbow heroes win because they are scrappy and smart and tenacious and never give up, but most of all they win because they were kind, true and righteous, or at the least they had these qualities in enough quantities as to matter. that being a good person matters both in a fundamental sense but also in a strategic sense.

taylor could not have gotten to where she got if she hadnt been, fundamentally, ultimatly, a Good Person. someone who truly cared for others, who was capable of helping and nurturing and building. this is proven most starkly when her efforts to rebuild the city and to create a safe heaven for the citizens of brockton bay reward her with everyone siding with her on the caffeteria scene against dragon and defiant. (and then later when dragon and defiant get on her side after she kills alexandria).

Blake ultimatly won because he was honorable and true, because even though the universe was against him he tried to leave the world a better place wherever he went, because he made an effort to save evan from the hyena, and green eyes from the abyss, and get rid of Ur, and because he was fighting against deontological evil which meant that he was going to get help and support form others.

vicky won because of the goodness that she spread, because of the ways in which he made her team stronger, because of how she saved kenzie from a terrible family situation and how she made a good impression on that girl on the train and because of how she helped ashley get to a better place and by how she sent all those people to the prison planet, wait, no hold on, forget that last one. because her and every hero made a true effort of goodwill for the non powered people.

sylvester... again, was sylvester.

most important of all, they cared for others, they loved and were loved by others. taylor did have lisa, and bitch, and Imp and dragon and many others who truly believed in her by the very end, no matter how monstrous she got. blake had evan and green eyes. sy had the lambs, and the beetle students, and the experiments, etc. vicky had breakthrough.

who the fuck did charles have? the aurum? the st victor kids and teachers? maricia??? fucking the kim famly???¿'¿¿?¿??? wildbow made a clear point of how these people barely tolerated one another and how it was misserable to be among them.

charles had noone that cared for him, because he didnt bother to truly care about anyone. he was never kind, he never had a moment of tenderness, he never built or made anyone stronger in anyway that truly mattered. or if he had they werent enough to matter and they were all corrupted by everything else he did.

the one thing that keeps him from being a true wildbow protagonist is that, ultimatly, he was kind of a piece shit.

#wildbow #pale #pact #worm #ward #twig

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septembercfawkes · 4 years

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Writing the Influence Character

Much has been written about the protagonist, but few talk about what's called the "influence character." This is a character whose power comes from his or her influence/impact on the protagonist. This is often who the protagonist is in an important relationship with, in the B story, or perhaps, a lead role in the B story. It might be a love interest, mentor, friend, sibling, rival, ally, parent, classmate--almost anything. It's someone who has power based on impact. And typically the influence character and protagonist are linked together, usually by a similar goal.

Here are some examples.

In Moana, Moana is the protagonist, and Maui is the influence character. In The Hunger Games, Katniss is the protagonist, and Peeta is the influence character. In The Greatest Showman, P. T. Barnum is the protagonist, and Charity is the influence character. In Hamilton, Hamilton is the protagonist, and Eliza is the influence character. In Songbirds and Snakes, Coriolanus is the protagonist, and Sejanus is the influence character. In Legally Blonde, Elle is the protagonist, and Paulette is the influence character.

This doesn't mean the protagonist isn't influenced by other characters, of course, but these are the (or rather, "primary") influence characters--their relationship with the protagonist influences the outcome of the story in significant ways, and for at least part of the story (if not the whole thing), these two people are bound together on a similar course or by a similar end goal. This creates a "we" perspective within the audience. We are trying to do X. We are stuck in the same situation. We need to work together. We need each other.

But this relationship is about more than . . . well . . . just being in a relationship. The protagonist and influence character mirror and foil each other in key ways. Often by the time a writer finishes a professional-level story, he or she will have done this, even if he or she isn't aware of it.

Let's talk about the key components of this relationship (concepts courtesy of Dramatica).

Change vs. Steadfast

A character who "changes" (arcs drastically) will grow significantly--often doing a 180--by the end of the story. Most of us are familiar with this concept.

A character who holds "steadfast" will stay more or less the same--he or she may grow by degree, but not by a drastic 180.

A "changing" character often starts with a flaw, misbelief, or inaccurate worldview that he or she must overcome in order to succeed in the story.

A "steadfast" character will start with a strength or an accurate worldview that will then be tested through the story. The rising action and tension comes from the cost of the steadfast character trying to hold true to that. The steadfast character will likely still experience doubts, temptations, pain, and suffering--as the world, environment, and other characters challenge that view.

Think of the story of the Little Red Hen. The Little Red Hen understands that you must work for desired results. Others challenge this worldview, which means she has to ultimately work all alone. It still costs her effort and resolve to make the bread, which ultimately proves her worldview is correct while the others' are wrong.

For the steadfast character, he or she is proven true through the experiences of the story. The experiences must happen, in order to turn his or her faith/belief into knowledge/wisdom. It's one thing to believe something. It's another thing to have it tested and proven true.

In this sense, the steadfast character still grows, but it's by degree.

The steadfast character will often change others and the environment when he or she succeeds, more than herself (generally speaking). (In the future I want to do a post specifically about steadfast characters, but for now, this will suffice.)

If the protagonist is a character who "changes," the influence character will be a character who is "steadfast."

Katniss changes--her worldviews change through the story.

Peeta is steadfast--One of Peeta's main goals is that the Games won't change who he is, even if he dies. He wants to be steadfast. His feelings toward Katniss (shared in an interview), the fact he's from the same district, that at some point both Peeta and Katniss can be victors--all impact and influence Katniss's plotline. While he might seem to waver, ultimately, he stays true to his beliefs.

P.T. Barnum changes--he comes to realize he only needs to be accepted by his loved ones, not win over the world.

Charity is steadfast--she knows what matters from the beginning, and her relationship with Barnum helps him eventually come to his senses. Despite what Barnum costs her, she holds on to what she believes is true.

Hamilton changes--Hamilton does a complete 180 by the end of the story.

Eliza is steadfast--she starts loyal and true to Hamilton and supportive of his goals, and ends loyal, true to, and supportive of him and his work. She is largely an influence and impacts him.

- Remember, just because a character is steadfast doesn't mean she doesn't experience doubts, or even act on those doubts for a time. Steadfast characters may still struggle with their beliefs. - At first glance, you may want to put Burr as the influence character, but he doesn't actually influence or impact Hamilton until more than halfway through the story.

Coriolanus changes--he loses his innocence and his worldview shifts.

Sejanus is steadfast--despite even voicing his need to change, ultimately, Sejanus is steadfast in who he is, and his worldviews.

If the protagonist is steadfast, the influence character changes. Moana is steadfast--at first glance, it may seem Moana is a changing character (she's even referred to that way in other contexts, including a guest post on my blog, for simplicity sake), but ultimately, she grows by degree. She's always felt drawn to the water and something more--but it's the people in her environment, who try to convince her she's wrong. She may experience doubt, but ultimately, she believes there is something more out in the ocean and more for her, and that's what she acts on. Through difficulties, she proves to herself and others that she was right.

Maui changes--Maui does a 180 in the story. He believes his identity and self-worth are based on others loving him, but realizes it's within. Since he's the demigod who stole the heart, he impacts and influences Moana's journey. Elle is steadfast--Elle believes she has what it takes to go to law school. Again, this doesn't mean she doesn't grow at all, but by degree. It also doesn't mean she doesn't experience difficulties or moments of doubt, she does. Through the course of the story, her beliefs are tested and ultimately proven true. Paulette changes--Paulette doesn't feel capable of addressing the problems with men in her life. But by the end, she's able to get her dog from her ex and strike up a relationship with the delivery guy. She learns to believe in herself. Worth noting is that it's not technically necessary that the steadfastness in one leads to the change in the other, or that the change in one leads the other to remain steadfast. The point is one is steadfast and one is changing. According to Dramatica, the reason this is the case, is because it offers two different perspectives on the central idea (in a sense, the theme) of the story. A story needs both to help it feel "complete" or "whole."

Similar Paths/Goals, Different Approaches

Since the protagonist and influence character are somehow linked, they will be on the same course and/or have the same goal. What's often different is the way they address the path or goal. This may lead to arguments, a power struggle, or complications, which can be a great way to feed into the story's theme. Both Katniss and Peeta are doomed to compete in the Games as tributes of District 12, but they each have very different views about how to approach that. And frankly, they both want to make Katniss win. So Peeta says he has a crush at her, which makes her look desirable, but to Katniss, it makes her look weak. Peeta believes he needs to be with the Careers to accomplish the goal. Katniss believes she needs to work alone (primarily). P.T. and Charity both want love and acceptance. P.T. believes he does this by getting the world to love and accept him. Charity believes how to do this is to surround yourself with who you love most. Hamilton and Eliza have opposite views of what the Hamilton narrative should contain and look like. Ultimately, they both contribute to what it becomes. Coriolanus and Sejanus have different views of how they within their society and society itself should exist, in relation to the theme topic of control. Moana and Maui have different opinions on how to deal with Te Fiti. Elle and Paulette both want their dogs and love in their lives, but they naturally approach those things in different ways (which stems on whether or not they believe in themselves).

One Influence at a Time

Sometimes the influence character may not always be available in the story, because of the plot. He or she may be absent--on a trip or maybe even dead. Or maybe the protagonist hasn't yet met him or her. But the role of influence still needs to be in the story. In cases like this, there will often be a secondary influence character. Before Moana meets Maui and after Maui leaves, Moana's grandmother acts as the influence--even if she's not the influence character. Maui's influence carries much more weight and is vital to the story. But her grandma lends impact when Maui is unavailable. Interestingly, Moana overall has the steadfast role with Maui, but in her moments of doubt and wavering, her grandma has the steadfast role by comparison, while Maui who usually wavers, is out of the picture. This creates a sort of influential triangle (which is also present in some of my other story examples). Likewise, in pretty much all the Hunger Games books, there are secondary influence characters. Peeta is the overall influence character in the first one--he carries the most impact on Katniss's plotline. But when Peeta is unavailable, Rue takes on the role of influence character. She's in a key relationship with Katniss that ultimately impacts Katniss's view of the Games and Panem. After Rue dies, Katniss soon reunites with Peeta. Similarly, both Lucy Gray and Sejanus influence Coriolanus. One could argue that Lucy Gray is in fact the influence character, but I've zeroed in on Sejanus because I see Lucy Gray as more part of Coriolanus's own journey and Sejanus as more of the relational plotline that adds dimension. But what's key to point out, is that only one of them plays that role with Coriolanus at a time. When Lucy Gray acts as an influence character, Sejanus is distant. When Sejanus acts as influence character, Lucy Gray is distant. Even when Collins set them all up in the same scene, she finds a way to remove one or the other. And in Mockingjay, Gale, Peeta, and Katniss are only really brought together when one of the influence characters, Peeta, has been hijacked, and no longer has the capacity to consistently act as the influence character. (Another influential triangle is made between Gale, Peeta, and Katniss, with Gale and Peeta being opposites and Katniss in the middle.) George Washington also acts as an influence character in Hamilton, but he's never in the same scene as Eliza. (Okay, they were once both present in a scene . . . in a song that got deleted). One could argue that Washington is the greater influence character, but I've chosen Eliza as the primary, based on story structure and story dimension. In either case, they are both steadfast and tag-team influencing Hamilton. Both Eliza and Washington are on the same page, which Hamilton is not on. Typically, there can only be one person taking on the role of influence character at a time--unless it's a group or whole societal entity. For example, say the relationship is between the protagonist and his soccer team--the soccer team as a whole could be the influence character. But in order for that to work, they must believe and act as a whole. If no influential characters are available, but are needed, the protagonist or someone present may recall what the influence character would think, say, or do in a given situation. Or there may be a letter, email, or notebook found of the influential character. In Deathly Hallows, Dumbledore is the primary influence character, even though he is not present. The trio often talk about what he would say and do, or what he means by certain things. Harry even carries around Dumbledore's biography. In a sense, he influences Harry greatly, even when he's totally absent.

Overall, the influence character is often key, because he or she adds dimension to the story--fitting on a plotline that sits between the protagonist's greatest external journey and greatest internal journey. The audience isn't as close to the influence character as the protagonist, but not as opposed to them as the antagonist. The influence character isn't directly against the protagonist, but isn't directly in line with protagonist. They have similar paths, but different methods. This unique position can also add more meat to the theme.

#writing tips #writing tips and trick #writeblr #nanowrimo #character #oc #fanfic #writing help #writing reference

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razorblade180 · 3 years

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Overall thoughts on V8? Assuming you didn't answer this already.

I meant to do a volume wrap up review but I got incredibly busy and it fell to the waste side. The thing about me judging RWBY I have to come at it from two angles or I won’t feel like I judged it appropriately. There’s the casual, first time seeing the episodes and seeing this through the lens as a casual watcher who probably only sees the episodes once or twice. But then there’s the other side to that coin. I review these episodes, write aus, theorize, check extended lore, listen to the music, etc; that means I have to go back and watch episodes several times for any given reason and that’s when you start noticing the holes or picking up on things you didn’t before.

As a casual watcher, I’d give this an 8/10. There’s plenty of moments where characters do things that got me excited and plot points I wanted explored. This volume actually gave a decent amount of things I wanted for quite some time and some things I didn’t know I needed. Certainly there are things I don’t like in this but I’m open and curious to see where RT takes their storie because it’s their story.

Okay, now as a someone who’s had to deep dive and take a step back multiple times for a variety of reasons. 6.5/10 maybe a 7/10 if I’m being generous. A lot of my problems with this volume are problems that aren’t new to RWBY and that’s just how surface layer portions of arcs are and how a variety of choices/bonds don’t exactly make sense with what we were previously shown, or they only make sense because the writers don’t want introduce other complexities even though they should be there realistically. I’ll give a couple examples of these and yes, I’m aware what I say doesn’t bother everyone but it bothers me.

Qrow was never angry at or brought up Robyn being the reason their airship crashed in the first place because she started the fight; which aids in Clover dying.

Emerald follows Cinder, not Salem. Even if Cinder is working under Salem, why would Emerald be so willingly to complete shift to the side that actively goes against Cinder? There’s been no grand revelation to make Emerald believe Cinder doesn’t give a damn about her. Leaving made sense because she was about to get tortured. Going full turncoat right now doesn’t. No change happened. Emerald always hated being near Salem but adored Cinder no matter the crimes and the show hasn’t done anything to switch that view point.

I’m happy Whitley and Weiss had a touching sibling moment that implies they’re okay and making/made up, but there was never a conversation about the actual problem and thoughts that had them at odds in the first place. Weiss saving his and Willow’s life shouldn’t be the thing that smooths things over. It would’ve been terrible if Weiss do something to save their life. Whitley helping Penny is okay I guess because he really had no reason to contribute but did anyways. Even so, a person doing a morally correct thing doesn’t automatically warrant the conflict between him and Weiss’s resolved.

We got Cinder’s backstory; it didn’t tell us anything about how she eventually came into contact with Salem. Honestly her back story felt more in line of her main goal through the series was an absolute freedom by the means of breaking down the systems that trapped and didn’t give a damn, rather than her quest for power. Yes you can argue gaining power means it’s easier to maintain her freedom to do whatever she wants but I personally think that’s a little off the mark when you gave her a story that involves her trapped by rules and time rather than being too physically weak to gain freedom.

This show has built up that the Schnee family has suffered various types of abuse because of Jacques and uses Weiss as a medium to build towards breaking free from that. Not just overcoming but confronting the abuse by cementing it’s place below you. We don’t really get that. There will never be a moment where the siblings and mother truly get to break out of Jacques grasps emotionally and then put him in his place because he’s dead! Yeah they never have to worry about him again but even last volume they showed Winter still having turmoil and being able to get strung along by him. We don’t even really know how Whitley perceived his father. It feels so lackluster. Then they care to mention how it’s Weiss’s idea to save him like it’s an empowering moment when in actuality, it would be against her character, values of a huntress, and morality to let a person die in cell when you’re the reason they’re in a cell! Letting him die in there would just terrible. I don’t even know why he wasn’t let out in that scene! He’s a coward! He’d follow their orders to save his skin. All he has to do is shut up and walk through a portal.

Ironwood and Oscar both knew they could remove that staff to use it and Atlas wouldn’t drop immediately. Why did nobody have any kind of compromise with one another since there’s nothing stopping them from using the staff for something and then putting it back? They had this morally gray thing going on which I liked but then they decided to make Ironwood go full evil. I’ve never had to say this before but the song he got in V7 and the character they made him be in V8 just don’t connect. I got upset listening to that song recently because I liked that Ironwood.

Clover’s importance. RT tried making a character who had no more than 9 minutes in the series and one meaningful line of dialogue into the cornerstone of a side plot. Clover is such a nothing character. Vine did more than Clover. They try to make him have such a profound impact to the people around him but we never see him bond with his team; Harriet specifically. We get one scene of Clover telling Qrow the kids are fortunate to have Qrow even if he doesn’t think so. First, I doubt Clover knows Qrow decided to get drunk in a ghost town and the kids nearly died and cellar while he did it so that compliment doesn’t hold much weight for me. Second, We see nothing meaningful between the two. V7 has a time skip and just expects viewers to be on board with Clover being this influential change on Qrow without showing anything outside of a witty remark and Clover flexing his semblance. I would’ve bought it more of Qrow almost relapsed and Clover stopped him then had a real meaningful conversation.

Ruby goes against Ironwood only to then want to do a plan that’s aligned to longer term thinking than even his, talks about how everyone should be working together, but then adds a part in her video to actively antagonize and vilify Ironwood. Afterwards, she wonders where everything went wrong and doesn’t think of a plan or do anything to immediately help either kingdom until the final hour between the ultimatum being made, to everything getting destroyed. The inciting incident was disagreeing Mantle should be left in favor of Atlas but the main character didn’t do anything to help Mantle 90% of the season and hindered Atlas’s safety up until the final plan.

Yang is used to be the devil’s advocate in a bunch of situations, but she’s wrong most of the time or her lines just don’t make any sense. They weren’t doing just fine before Atlas. They almost died every step of the way. The team didn’t beat a Leviathan; silver eyes and a robot take credit for that. Why would Blake think less of Yang for wanting to go save people immediately? Blake was never mad at anyone to begin with. Yang consistently calls out people for following orders as if it’s objectively wrong, but is never called out on the fact she hasn’t followed anybody’s orders but her own and added discourse to every situation. I get RT is making her ask questions because that’s what Raven told her to do, but all she’s really doing is picking fights and disobeying every order. Yang states to Ruby they accomplished more than they expected. That’s false, getting Oscar back is correcting a mistake caused by her own plan that she didn’t even complete.

It took 6 volumes before Yang had anything to do with the Summer Rose subplot again and 7 volumes before her and Ruby had a sister to sister conversations; 5 if you wanna count Yang telling Ruby to leave at the end of volume three. The reason I bring this up is because in V8 , they treat their argument as if it’s a big deal but then have every character say it wasn’t that big a deal; but then have two circle back to that conversation later after having neither character discuss to anybody that the argument actually did weigh on them. Yang doesn’t think about Ruby until she sees her again and the closest we get with Ruby is Blake reassuring her that people need her and how Blake admires her. I like that scene but it’s not the same as Ruby actually airing out the specific point that Yang said something that Ruby found hurtful. Vol8 in general people trying to comfort others but nobody ever actually addresses what made them uncomfortable to start with. Except Ren.

This one is a nitpicking but I’ll say it anyways. Penny getting hacked only served as a purpose to go to the vault, a thing Ironwood already wanted them to do. Nobody got her because she was hacked. You can’t even say her getting hacked is the leading factor to her actually dying because Penny became a vulnerable human afterwards that can’t be rebuilt. Pietro was gone, and already stated last volume he doesn’t have the aura to build Penny again. If she died as a robot then it’s still permanent death. No core, no Pietro, and no aura; hacking her was just to create a Hound reveal situation and make them go to the vault on a different set of terms. I’m not exactly upset with this, but I don’t understand why the extra steps. The Hound was hunting her anyways. I would’ve brought some kind of value if she hurt a friend and it caused them to potentially hinder the plan later on or remove them entirely. Penny could’ve rekt Yang and it only adds value to Yang getting one shot later. I don’t know. I’m rambling.

I think I’ve wasted enough people’s time. Honestly, I do like this volume. I’ve enjoyed a bunch of it. But there’s things that legitimately make me think it’s not as good others and makes V7 even worse.

#rwby #rwby volume 8 #ask me stuff

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enmy-writes · 4 years

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Baby Avenger

Summary: (Y/N) is one of the youngest avenger members and some government officials repeatedly let her know of “her position.” So, she lets them know exactly what her position is.

Word Count: 2100

Fandom: MCU Avengers

Pairing: Avengers x Reader

Genre: Fluff, soft, slight angst and sadness, & family love.

Rated: 18+

Content Warnings: profanity, death, abandonment, bullying, this is my first ever post of any fanfiction ever so it’s probably bad

**** This is my first ever imagine that I have ever finished and published. Please give me feedback and let me know what else I should write! I’m very excited and nervous so please let me know if you enjoyed this :) I’m thinking of making this Y/N character into a little “Baby Avenger” one-shot series, so let me know your thoughts ****

_____________________________________________________________

Baby Avenger.

Baby. Avenger.

In her head, her stomping can be heard throughout the whole Compound and all of its residents and guests can hear her anger. They know she’s going right to the meeting room; not the team meeting room, but the meeting room they use when they have special guests in for a meeting.

The new government officials who are now “in charge” of the Avengers since The Snap Part 2 were in for the day to go over the general plans that the Avengers have been coming up with. They’re nicer than those in charge of the group from the Accords, but in no way were they nice to majority of the group as a whole.

(Y/N) (L/N) happens to be the second to youngest member on the team coming in at an age of 18, second only to her best friend Peter Parker

(Y/N) is an orphan, the typical origin story of any superhero. Her parents spent their last minutes pushing her out of their burning house in rural Pennsylvania. Actually, it was her father who got her out of the flames and by their fishpond 100 meters from the house. Her mother was inside, trapped under a steal beam in the basement.

(Y/N)’s mother was a scientist who worked in secret in a little band of scientists who tried to accomplish their own small victories in testing the alterations and limits of humans. The goal of these scientists is to stay out of sight of the CIA, FBI, S.H.I.E.L.D., and other government agencies. Most of them are left alone and those who get found are either immediately sent to a high security prison or recruited to continue their experiments for a certain country/agency.

(Y/N)’s mother decided to give herself her treatment she was working on instead of potentially kidnapping someone in the everyone-knows-everything kind of town that they had been living in. Her experiment and life studies were all in trying to find a way to unlock the rest of the human brain so that more than that small percentage is being used at a time. It has been hypothesized that humans could do a lot if their brains just used itself more.

The only problem is when she gave the treatment to herself, she was unknowingly pregnant, and the treatment attached onto that small lifeform instead of her own. She created a super baby.

No one knew the exact answer to what is on the other side of that tunnel of science. No one knew what opening the mind could do, there were only theories to support ideas. Plenty of scientific evidence, but it meant nothing with no legit proof.

Well, turns out that those on the team of “you will gain the ability to read minds and shit unlike any human” were the correct guessers.

(Y/N) can read others’ minds, move things with her mind, slow down time in her mind to be able to successfully breakdown a situation and perform the best possible reaction to anything that comes her way. Oh, and the color spectrum is broader for her, allowing her to see a significantly more amount of colors than a normal human (including seeing the aura’s and heat that people give off. Very useful in the few missions she goes on.).

But her parents are dead.

After setting small (Y/N) down, her father ran back in to save the love of his life. Or, well, that’s what the towns’ people say to romanticize the situation. A brave man trying to save his family.

In the end, her father had shaken his head, laughing at the moment like a mad man with tears running down his face. He pulled (Y/N) in for the tightest hug that he had ever given the girl—which is tight considering how close the two really were. They were just like two peas in a pod, the light of each other’s lives, basically soulmates.

But love makes you do crazy things.

“You listen to me, (Y/N).” He gripped her face in a painful grip, cheeks sure to be bruised later. “I will always love you. Don’t doubt that, baby girl, okay? I love you so so so so much” By this time, tears are pouring off his face, the neon flames coming from the house reflecting off his wet face. “Mommy… mommy just needs me now, baby. I need mommy, too. We love you so much.”

It had confused her, his words. Nothing could prepare her to watch her father run back into the house, leaving her by the pond with nothing but a small bag of little family things like pictures, little stupid gifts, and a notebook she had stolen from her mom’s bookshelf one day.

Her mother’s grandfather had been friends with Howard Stark, both science men having been in the same circle of famous inventors since before WWII. While neither her mother nor father personally knew his son, Tony, he was still listed as the godfather to the child. With no close friends allowed in their secret circle, old bonds and pacts that her grandfather had with the older Stark led to a blind trust in the man.

Tony Stark had agreed to be the godfather during a one-week bender in his 30s, and when he was yelled at about it, he chose to just keep it there because “the chances of this happening is very slim.”

But here we are, Baby Avenger.

The officials who are here now actually were the same people that used to do check-ins and such with them pre-Accords, so they knew the team better than any government official save for the rare union that the team members may have with government officials. (Y/N) randomly has one with the Queen of England (she did a favor for Her Majesty once, and now they have tea every third Thursday of every month).

They knew that Tony suffered from panic attacks, and they knew Steve was going through a never ending loop of an existential crisis, and that Bucky will most likely always be having an identity crisis, and that Sam cries to sleep a lot around a certain time of year that renders him almost useless in his sleep deprived state he puts himself into. They know EVERYTHING vulnerable about the team.

So, that means they know how when she first got to the team and to Tony that she wouldn’t speak to anyone unless absolutely necessary. It took her almost a year to be able to speak more than a sentence to every person she was around. No one was too upset, though, Tony was trying to figure out how to save himself and rebrand his whole legacy and the Avengers weren’t really a family family yet like they are now. (Y/N)’s shyness made it much easier on the adults to figure out their stressful situations.

The officials, though, never got why she wouldn’t speak to them. They actually pushed her progress back more and more with taunts and comments such as “Oh, the baby can’t speak?” or a “Get your phone out! She’s about to say her first words!” every time she did go to say something.

Tony soon got fed up with it and filed a lawsuit against them which threatened their agency enough to pull them out and let a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent be a liaison for them. After their presence was rid of, (Y/N) grew exponentially with her new family. She was still home schooled, but now she had Peter Parker as a friend and world geniuses as her teachers. She was an only child, but now she’s a big sister to Morgan and has plenty of people on the team that are dubbed her siblings (since they don’t act their age majority of the time to be considered aunts and uncles).

While she’s trained to fight, (Y/N) doesn’t go out on the field much unless they need her brain or her extended vision. She likes to remain behind the computer screen and help that way. She’s invented a way to make prosthetics like Bucky’s become more available to the general public and has started a school/home that’s three miles from the Compound for orphaned kids, mutants, super kids, and those who aren’t accepted where they come from.

In conclusion, (Y/N) is 18 and not useless in any way, shape, or form.

So why, why, do these absolute short dick idiots decide that they can come into here, her home, and push her around like she hasn’t contributed more to the Earth and society in the short 18 years than their middle-aged asses?

Eyes narrowed and seeing red, she stomps her way down the last hall, shoving herself into the door of the meeting room and throwing it open.

The team stays unfazed, knowing she’d show up pissed at some point. The officials, though, jump in their seat and turn to look at her.

It wasn’t the biggest meeting, the original Avengers plus Bucky, Sam, and Wanda sit around the table. Though, Rocket and Groot are here sitting along the back wall, looking bored as hell. Thor must have drug them along.

Fists clenched, (Y/N) narrows her eyes more. She’s been here since the first attack. Sure, she didn’t fight since she was like, 8 or so, but she was in charge of her man-behind-the-computer work. She’s been a part of the team since the beginning, and these assholes are too big of pricks to acknowledge that.

That’s what’s pissing the girl off. This could have been a meeting for every one of the fighters of the team, which she wouldn’t go to because that’s not her role. This meeting, though, was scheduled as “Originals plus the newly appointed leaders only.” She’s an original.

SHE IS AN ORIGINAL.

SHE. IS. AN. OG.

AND YET, they remained in telling her she wasn’t invited because “The Baby Avenger doesn’t need to join big kid conversation.”

She locked eyes with her adopted father and her best friend, aka Peter Parker, aka the only reason she knew this meeting was still being held.

Poor, lovely Peter. He grew confused when his best friend wasn’t sitting in between Mr. Stark and him for the meeting, especially when the officials referred to the meeting as they did. He was just there to take notes for Mr. Stark, not that the man wouldn’t remember it all. Pepper thought it’d be a good idea if Tony had written evidence to anything said in these meetings so that he wouldn’t be pouring statements out of his ass without proof, and poor, lovely Peter got elected to take such notes.

When he noticed you weren’t there, he had sent you a text asking where you were and that your drink that he brought you was right next to him.

“(Y/N)! It is so great to see you, my wonderful flower.” Thick arms wrapped around her as a golden man squeezed her tight to him. Thor and (Y/N) had a special relationship. They’re always close and do the most innocent of tasks together like flower crowns, step-by-step painting classes, and making those Tik Tok crocheted blankets made with that big yarn. He even had taken her to Asgard (back when it was a planet) for a royal ball where she was the guest of honor. They’re just soft together.

Though, rage blocked that softness that normally occurs between the two. Pushing off of him, she points her finger at the men in the front. The officials look like they’ve seen the devil and all of Hell and (Y/N) can see the fear pouring off of them.

“Let’s get this clear,” she says as she slowly stalks her way up to them. “I am an Avenger. I am an original Avenger. I know about 3,000 ways to kill you in this room at this very moment with anything. I drink tea with the fucking Queen on Thursdays, and I’ve created a better orphanage/school system in 2 years than this country has in the 250 years it’s been around. Don’t you EVER call me a fucking baby again, you fucking hear me?”

By this point, she’s right up in their faces, her glare unwavering and them sweating. The silence in the room was great and seemed to go on forever. The team held their breaths, some trying not to laugh and some scared of backlash that might be trust upon the girl.

With one last eye narrow (you could blindfold her with toothpicks at this point), she whips around and walks back to Thor, placing herself sideways on his lap and relaxing into his hold. Peter passes her (Drink Order) down the table, and (Y/N) takes it.

Clint, Bucky, and Sam try and hide their laughter when the meeting starts again as they look at their long-time teammate cradled and curled up in Thor’s arms, head on his shoulder and under his chin as she sips her drink with an angry look in her eyes and a pout on her face.

All wrapped up like a baby.

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thelifetimechannel · 4 years

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“So what the fuck was all that” or, I acknowledge that we laid all this plot stuff out like 3 years ago so if you forgot here’s a rundown of what Coda’s Deal was

As some background, when we first started this project, the main idea was to have the versions of the kids we were invested in win the game. But as we kept working, and as the world around us got progressively nastier (and listen, I drafted this explanatory post months ago, so the ride don’t stop on that account), that didn't feel like enough. The game is sick. The game is broken. The game tortures children and builds new worlds off their backs. SBURB is what gave Caliborn the power he used to become the monster he did. How would simply playing by SBURB's rules and giving it a win be a victory? To quote TLC!Roxy,

TG: when the meteors start coming down again do we just watch? TG: when we get 2 the new universe callies gonna b there and we have 2 let her suffer bc the loop says so TG: so if the rules are still gonna force us 2 do shitty stuff do we ever rly get out?? TG: how do u win a game like that?

And so, the game became the last villain. Or what the game represents: an endless cycle of profiting off torment, promoting creation at any cost. I wanted the kids to break the cycle, since so much of the story centered around breaking out of bad patterns (personal, societal, structural). Especially in light of... everything going on in the world, I wanted to tell a story about a bunch of people who had gone through absolute hell and said, No one else should ever have to do this. I wanted to tell a story about survivors saying, Tomorrow is going to be better than today, and we are going to make sure that happens. That's a conclusion several of the characters start to come to in the later parts of the comic, until Rose directly states that her goal is to make a better system (following in her Act 4 footsteps after having learned to balance destruction with creation):

ROSE: There has to be a better way to perpetuate reality. ROSE: We may be trapped in a time loop when it comes to the cherub session, but beyond that... ROSE: I don't know what, or how, but I want to do something for the world we create, if that's where we're spat out. ROSE: If we let it keep selecting a few malleable lost children as the sole survivors to keep this cycle going, we're no better than the puppetmaster we're trying to escape.

How to accomplish that? Well, one of the forces that serves as an antagonist is the Alpha timeline. Characters who make perfectly good decisions that simply deviate from what the Alpha demands are punished with death and banishment to the furthest ring.

ARADIA: working within the alpha timeline can be frustrating ARADIA: sometimes in my role as the maid of time i had to doom timelines where we succeeded because it would cause a paradox down the line ARADIA: for example you had to create the cancer in the humans genesis frog, otherwise a whole chain of events contributing to our own existence wouldnt be! ARADIA: there were realities where you didnt make the same mistakes ARADIA: there were some where we all did great

TG: it sux that it works this way TG: that u need some sort of hacky workaround 2 not die bc someone down the line fucked up or mayb u were just in the wrong place at the wrong time

In canon, it is established that the Alpha timeline is based on Lord English, as Scratch explains by saying,

The path which alone has my absolute mastery is the alpha timeline, a continuum I define as that which boasts exclusive rights both to my birth and to my death, two circumstantially simultaneous events.

Which means, without the Lord of Time forcing all viable timelines to feed into his being, multiple timelines could hypothetically coexist as long as none of them break other pre-existing loops.

ARADIA: english narrowed the options to direct all energy toward his desired outcomes much like a virus repurposing a cells production mechanisms to reproduce itself instead ARADIA: but he is gone now ARADIA: there are plenty of realities my selves left behind that could have survived if not for his loops and his insistence on wiping clean all offshoots that did not contribute to him ARADIA: an insistence that bled into the very laws of the universe ARADIA: but with his defeat the way forward is much broader

The alpha timeline isn't the only oppressive force at play, however. The other is the game and behind that, Skaia itself. Skaia is portrayed as a benevolent force for creation, but it supports a system where killing children isn't a bug. It's a feature. It's very devoted to the bigger picture and the greater good at the expense of the people caught in the system's gears, which sounds... familiar. Sure, Skaia could just exist, but Homestuck is an origin story. Almost everything has a starting point, so why not Skaia and the game too?

DIRK: The point is, this game didn't come out of nowhere. DIRK: Someone had to make it.

It made sense to me to have a benevolent cherub behind that, just as a malevolent cherub is behind the alpha timeline. So, enter alt!Calliope.

CALLIOPE: through the rules of the game that brought you here, i gave you my blessing. CALLIOPE: in doing so i hope i have created a battlefield for soldiers to rise up against him, even as my efforts brought about his own birth. CALLIOPE: both he and i labor bound to our own path from creation to destruction, locked in an ouroboros that will only end when you have passed through the final door.

JADE: just to make sure im understanding you correctly JADE: youre behind the game that ruined our lives?

And if one Muse of Space got us into this mess...

CALLIOPE: if she'd grown Up with friends like i had, she woUldn't have bUilt it that way, i know she woUldn't have. ROSE: Maybe this is your chance to set it right. CALLIOPE: what? ROSE: You're a Muse of Space too. ROSE: If she had the ability to craft the inner workings of an entire multiverse-spanning system and set it in motion, you must have that potential too. ROSE: Maybe you can change the rules.

In the walkarounds, Rose starts making her case to the other characters.

ROSE: Your mistake with the DNA affected our game session, which means the frog's construction influences how SBURB games launched within it are played. ROSE: If you did that accidentally, we might be able to influence future SBURB sessions intentionally.

And in the last update before our two flashes, they make their plan and put it to a vote.

ROXY: we need 2 come up w/ a world we like

That brings us to Coda. The alpha timeline (red snake) winds around the dream bubbles filled with ghosts who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Skaia's influence (green snake) winds around the events it engineered. We see the characters digging into DNA readouts, temple carvings, etc. to figure out how to reverse engineer the game. Then Calliope makes it happen, banishing the ouroboros of the two cherubs' influence so they won't poison the new universe. But of course, if we are banishing the alpha timeline and saying any number of realities can exist concurrently, we can't see any of them. That would be pinning us down to one. So, as Calliope works her magic, the viewers lose sight of the characters, so they can finally be free. Because if we're rebelling against authority, even we authors have to step aside in the end.

And so, for now, let’s drop the curtains and take our bow. :) As for what’s behind those curtains, who’s to say? Maybe us. Maybe you. Maybe everyone.

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annoyed-galaxy · 4 years

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Fable 2 Aftermath

Aka I couldn’t find a title for this so this is just what I’m gonna call it.

This takes place one year after Sparrow has defeated Lucien. It’s a small scene and is what will start my Sparrow and Reaver’s little romance that will go on to Fable 3. I will add as a warning: there is an attempted suicide in this. Just in case that would trigger someone, I’m adding that here.

I hope you will enjoy this little story and let me know what you think. I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a second part to this or just more in general as I figure out what the hell my characters are going to be.

Enjoy!

She had done it. She accomplished her mission. She exacted her revenge against Lucien.

And yet...she still felt empty inside.

It had been a year since she killed Lucien and made her wish in the Spire. Not much happened in that year. She got a statue erected in her honor and she bought a lot of houses and stores and made the rent and prices affordable for the less fortunate people. People saw her as a selfless saint. She had the chance to bring back her sister and even her beloved dog, but instead chose to bring back thousands upon thousands of random strangers. The people of Albion praised her. When she walked the streets, people would cheer and weep at her mere presence.

But she still felt empty. She was alone. All three of the Heroes had left and Theresa had basically kicked her out of the seer’s life completely. She had begun regretting her choice. But anytime those thoughts came up, she would get herself so drunk she could barely stand or find some random person to warm her bed and take her mind off things. She was almost reverting back to her young adult self, the selfish woman who came from Bower Lake with only one goal in mind.

Now she was just a hollow shell of her former self. She had no regard for her life anymore. After all, she had sacrificed her youth and beauty for one bastard.

For some reason that thought had kept coming to her over and over. Why did she do that? Why did she sacrifice her own youth and beauty instead of forcing it onto that random girl in the Shadow Court? Why did she choose to bring back strangers rather than her beloved sister and puppy?

Thinking about these things didn’t help.

Sparrow looked at the bottle in her hand. It was already empty. She sighed and threw it to her left, then proceeded to take another bottle from the crate on her right. There were four bottles left, with three missing. She had bought the crate from one of the vendors in Bloodstone and had taken the thing down to the beach where she sat in the sand and stared out into the ocean, drinking her life away. She could see the Spire from where she sat. It didn’t help with the memories floating in her head. Anytime a memory tried to come up, she would take a swig from the bottle and wash it away.

Was this healthy?

Of course not.

Did Sparrow care?

Hell no.

It had been a year and Sparrow was trying to find some purpose in her life. She did what she could to help out around communities such as Old Town and Oakfield, but they never satisfied her. Nowadays, nothing really did. She missed her dog. She missed playing fetch with him and cuddling with him. She almost missed him more than she missed her sister. It was a pain to admit that, but Sparrow was young when she lost her sister. The only reason her vengeance grew so much was because of Theresa’s careful taming.

And when the end came, Theresa tossed Sparrow to the side, not a care in the world. Not a single goodbye or anything. At least the Heroes had said goodbye, which was a surprise because Sparrow had not expected Reaver to say goodbye at all. But if that smarmy bastard had some decency to say a farewell, how come Theresa, Sparrow’s mentor, didn’t?

The thought made Sparrow clench her teeth and want to throw something at the Spire. The closest thing to her was a seashell. Poor thing soared through the sky as Sparrow threw it as hard as she could. It traveled pretty far before Sparrow saw its splash. Sparrow clicked her tongue and took another drink.

The sun was already going down, but Sparrow had no care. The moon could have made its lap across the sky and the sun come back and she wouldn’t have noticed. She barely noticed time anymore. It was irrelevant to her. She was going to die young, she knew it. What purpose in life did she have now?

A dangerous glance dragged her attention to the new pistol she carried on her side. She had put her crossbow up in a place of honor and picked up a pistol. The age of crossbows was coming to an end and it was becoming more troublesome to carry around. The pistol was light and did more damage than her beloved crossbow. But it was also easier to use for darker needs.

Sparrow took the pistol out of its holster and examined it. It was a beautiful thing. Black and gold like her crossbow; she would have had it no other way. It was one of those fancy clockwork pistols that only the Spire guards had used. Five bullets in one little clip. However, her pistol only had one bullet right now.

Sparrow didn’t know when it struck her, but she no longer felt a reason to live. She did meaningless tasks everyday. Saving a bunch of slaves, killing hobbes and balverines, chopping wood, making swords; none of it meant anything to her anymore. She tried contributing to communities by teaching young boys and girls how to fight and protect themselves for when there were no more Heroes in Albion. Some people giggled at the notion, thinking it was unnecessary. But it entertained the children so they let the great Hero do it.

Yet even that never helped close the gaping hole in Sparrow’s chest. In fact, it made her even more depressed; seeing all the children laughing and happy. She even saw siblings playing like she and Rose used to. Only these children never had to suffer through the things Sparrow and Rose did. Their families didn’t know poverty or struggle, and that was thanks to Sparrow. They never knew heartbreak or hardship. They all thought of Sparrow as the greatest Hero of all time, but she never saw that herself. After the ten years she spent in that awful Spire, wasting away and hurting other people, she would have given everything just to make others not suffer.

She didn’t realize how much she would make herself suffer through.

Another swig from the bottle brought Sparrow to the present, to the pistol resting in her hand. Maybe Albion would mourn her death, but then again, they were okay. People were happy. People did not suffer. And they wouldn’t for a long time. No matter Theresa’s intentions, surely they couldn’t be evil right? Would she really kill everyone in Albion with the Spire?

Sparrow honestly didn’t care now. She wouldn’t live to see what would happen.

The Hero took a deep breath and brought the pistol to the side of her head. There was no point in living now. She could join her sister and dog in the afterlife. She would see her lost parents again. Maybe she could be happy. It had been so long since she smiled. So long since she felt something good.

Tears started to roll down her cheeks. She just wanted to be happy. She could make other people happy, but why couldn’t she make herself happy? She wanted to give herself to other people just so they could be happy but why did she torment herself? Why did she do these things to herself? She had no value left in her. She had already given her flesh away multiple times. Gave her blade even more times. She would jump in front of incoming fire just to save some merchants without a single regard to her life. She had no longer valued her life.

She honestly couldn’t remember when that started. If that was before or after the Spire. Maybe it was right after she left Bower Lake. Sure she wouldn’t have gone out of her way to save someone, but she didn’t love her body enough to cherish it. Gave it away freely to distract herself from bad memories. She thought after her time in the Spire, she would have changed. But...she didn’t. Not really. The only thing that changed was that she cared more about people. She had never loved herself. She had never placed any value into her life. She always thought that Rose should have been the one to survive. To become a great Hero. Not Sparrow.

She had no meaning anymore. She was always Theresa’s pawn. She was a means to an end. Killing Lucien did nothing to quell that vengeance. Hell, after a while, she wondered if that was ever what she truly wanted. At first, maybe, but in the end, she just needed to kill a madman. Everything she had ever done led up to this moment.

Sitting on a beach, drunk on cheap alcohol, with a gun to her head. Sparrow looked out into the horizon, watching as the sun cast a fiery blaze across the ocean and behind the Spire. It was a beautiful image. And it would be the last one she ever saw.

“Are you really going to do that?”

A voice pulled Sparrow out of her thoughts, her eyes away from the horizon.

A lone figure was swaggering into her view. She couldn’t quite tell who it was, the setting sun was already casting shadows on the beach. “Who are you?” she called out, her voice raspy and hoarse from lack of use and excessive amount of alcohol consumption.

Her hand lowered the gun from her head and rested in her lap. Whoever it was, they stopped her from ending it all.

Sparrow finally could make out the swaggering walk, the lush hair that stuck out well too-groomed for one’s own sake, that sassy hand on hip, the cape flowing behind. Now she wished she had pulled the trigger as Reaver fully came into view. He stood a couple feet away and had that little shit-eating smirk on his face that made Sparrow want to grab his hair and slam him into the ground.

She snorted and took a swig from her bottle, no longer interested in the Hero of Skill’s sudden arrival.

“Well that’s just rude!” Reaver feigned offense, putting a hand to his forehead. “Is this how you greet an old friend?”

“We’re not friends,” Sparrow let out, glaring at the horizon. She refused to meet the pirate’s eyes. “You would sooner stab me in the back than call me a friend.”

Reaver clicked his tongue. “Well that’s a rude assumption.”

Sparrow glared at him, really considering summoning a blade and piercing it through his pretty little immortal throat. Reaver chuckled at the look Sparrow gave him, before moving closer and sitting by her side. “Mind if I take one?” Reaver asked already reaching for one of the bottles in her crate.

“Do you like that hand?” she asked without looking at him. A spectral blade formed above his hand and hovered dangerously close.

Reaver couldn’t help but laugh as he pulled his hand away. “My, aren’t you a grump. I mean I imagined something was wrong when you were about to put a bullet through your head. Tell me, were you really going to go through with that?”

Sparrow didn’t know why this little bastard cared if she did shoot herself or not. If he hadn’t said anything, she’d probably be a corpse right now. “Why the hell do you care?” she growled. She never looked in his direction, but rather kept her attention focused on the horizon.

“Well I’m just curious. Aren’t you a celebrated Hero? Albion absolutely adores you! You saved thousands of lives. I imagine you’d be showered with all sorts of gifts. Maybe be swooned to some alluring man or woman and have several children by now.” Reaver cocked his head to the side. “So how come such a loved person would dare put a gun to her head?”

Sparrow scoffed. “Like you would fucking care. What does it matter to you? Would you weep if you had found a cold body here rather than a drunken husk?”

“Someone’s frisky.”

Sparrow flung her fist out, ready to make contact with the smarmy bastard only for the little shit to casually dodge. Sparrow pulled back and bore daggers into whatever pathetic soul Reaver harbored. His smirk grew wider as he looked this woman up and down. Her hair was a mess, her eyes red from tears and bloodshot with an overwhelming amount of alcohol. Her Will lines even seemed dimmer than they were when he first saw her.

“You really have let yourself go. It’s only been a year,” Reaver commented.

Sparrow wanted to pummel that pretty face into a pulp, but knew he would just dodge her drunken attacks. She turned back forward and chugged the rest of her bottle. She threw it to the side, but didn’t reach for another. “It’s only been a year and you’re already back from Samarkand,” Sparrow replied after some silence. “What happened there? Crawled into the wrong bed and get in trouble?”

Reaver smiled at her teasing tone. He really did like a person with a quippy tongue. “Oh no, I didn’t crawl into any wrong beds. Actually they were all the right ones. The people over there are a little more exotic than our humble Albion citizens.”

Sparrow snorted. “Wow. Did you spend your entire time there sleazing about?”

“Actually no. My visit was cut short by a certain Will user.” Reaver waved his hand around. “He was a little upset that I tried to kill him and nearly turned me into a crisp.”

Sparrow glanced at Reaver. “You tried to kill Garth, failed and barely escaped?”

Reaver nodded.

“Shame. Would’ve been nice to see a burnt ass pirate.”

“Oh come now, where would the fun be in that!” Reaver threw his arms in the air. “I’m too handsome to die.”

“Haven’t you lived for a couple hundred centuries? I’m pretty sure your time is coming to an end.”

“Well, maybe, but I somehow always manage to find a way unscathed.”

Sparrow rolled her eyes. “How unfortunate for society.” She finally reached for one of the bottles and popped the cork. There was no hesitation as she ingested the foul liquid. She had already drank three of these bottles. Her taste buds had gone numb to the horrid taste.

Reaver and Sparrow sat in silence for a while. Long enough for the moon to rise behind them casting their shadows on the sand. Sparrow’s mind drifted away, back into deep thoughts. The pistol was still in her lap and she wondered if she would actually go through with her original impulse. Or did Reaver ironically save her? Was there a reason for this? No, she shook her head. Just random chance. Then again, Reaver could have watched as she pulled the trigger. Unless maybe he wanted a go at her himself.

“Tell me something, shithead, why’d you stop me?” Sparrow finally asked, breaking the silence.

“Hm?” Reaver responded, tilting his head.

“You could have watched me blow my brains out, but you didn’t. You said something and stopped me.” She turned to him. “Why?”

Reaver shrugged. “I didn’t think you were actually going to do it, whether I had said something or not. I was simply surprised someone like you would even think about that.”

“What do you mean someone like me?”

“Tch, you have everything you could have ever wanted in the world! People shower you with love and praise and would throw themselves before you begging to take your hand in marriage. And you have the gall to go and off yourself?!” Reaver let out a condescending laugh. “Truly pathetic.”

Sparrow snarled and threw her bottle to the side, the alcohol spilling and staining the sand. Reaver didn’t have enough time to react before Sparrow was on top of him, her hands around his throat. “Of course a bastard like you would say that!” She squeezed harder and Reaver grabbed her arms, trying to push her off of him. “Of course you would think my life is so grand! You’ve probably never even given a shit about anyone but yourself! Actually I know that’s true because you tricked me into giving away my life, just so you can stay young!” Sparrow snarled harder and could feel Reaver’s throat slowly collapsing in her hands. “Well I’m going to take your fucking immorality you little shit!”

Sparrow squeezed harder and harder, but did not expect the breath to be knocked out of her by a knee in her back. The blow caused her to loosen her grip and gave Reaver enough time to roll around and pin her to sandy ground. He pinned her arms above her head and dug his knees into her sides. It took him a few moments to catch his breath and all the while, Sparrow struggled. But in her drunken state and current position, she was too weak to force Reaver off of her.

“I must say, that is the closest...anyone has gotten to killing me,” Reaver chuckled, still trying to collect stolen breath. “And that is the closest anyone has personally gotten to me to kill me. Most attempts on my life are far away.” He smiled down at Sparrow who was still snarling. She looked like a savage dog, ready to rip his heart out if he were to let go of her. “I love that fire in your eyes. It does things,” Reaver purred leaning in closer.

“This fire will manifest if you’re not careful, shitstain,” Sparrow growled.

“Oh ho ho, you have such a foul mouth. I like that.”

Sparrow tried to push herself off the ground, but Reaver had her arms in such a weird position that she couldn’t move. It didn’t help that he had squeezed his legs against hers, preventing her from kicking at him like he did with her. Maybe if she could flick her hand properly, she could get a spectral blade to pierce through his skull. She figured it was worth a shot and began moving her hands.

Reaver clicked his tongue and shook his head. His hands moved to her own and he locked their fingers together. “I’ve always considered Will users cheaters. There’s no fairness in magic.” Sparrow growled and tried to throw Reaver off balance somehow. Nothing worked. The pirate had her pinned completely. She was too weak and drunk to actually do anything.

She relaxed and let her head rest in the sand. “Just fucking end me already. I’m tired of these bloody games Reaver.”

Reaver raised an eyebrow. “End you? What, do you think I would kill you?”

“Really?” Sparrow asked sarcastically. “You literally tried to kill Garth, had originally tried to betray me to Lucien, and even said you would try to kill me. So yes. I think you would kill me. And honestly at this point, if you did, I’d probably kiss you.”

Reaver smiled at that last part. “Is that what would it take to get a kiss from you? Simply end your life?”

Sparrow rolled her eyes. “Yeah have fun kissing a corpse you bastard.”

Reaver leaned in closer, dangerously close. “What if I got that kiss before I ended your life.”

Sparrow frowned. “I wasn’t being serious.”

“Oh but I was.” Reaver smiled again.

Red spread across Sparrow’s cheeks. She had many men and women flirt with her, but they usually fell on deaf ears and had never affected her. Even when she did take them to bed. Most of the time, those lovestruck idiots were simply a distraction to her. A way to ease her mind of things.

But the way Reaver flirted with her was different. She didn’t know what it was, but the redness on her cheeks clearly showed something was amiss.

And she hated it.

She hated that this scumbag piece of shit was making her blush.

He was close enough that Sparrow could headbutt him. Reaver cried out, but didn’t let go of Sparrow’s hands. He simply fell back, pulling Sparrow up with him. She saw this as her chance to break free, but before she could react, Reaver had quickly recovered and had her arms twisting behind her back. They were even closer now and it made Sparrow’s skin crawl.

“You’ll have to do better than that darling,” Reaver smirked. “With the amount of times I’ve been headbutted, I’m surprised there isn’t a permanent dent on my beautiful face.”

“I’m going to rip your pretty face to shreds if you don’t let me go,” Sparrow hissed.

“Now how would you do that with your hands behind you back and legs in no position to overthrow me. You’re completely drunk, I’m still astonished you can speak full words. You have no advantage here. How exactly are you going to beat me?” Reaver asked, his words filled with challenge.

He was right. With her hands awkwardly bent behind her back and Reaver sitting on her lap, his legs keeping hers from moving, there really wasn’t anything she could do. She couldn’t even try another headbutt without risking pulling an arm out of socket. And there was the fact that she was drunk. She could feel the buzz coming over her body fully now, because of the movements she had made. Her head was dizzy.

It was weird, the thoughts now coming to her mind. How was she here, trapped in the arms of the man who basically stopped her from taking her life? Now all she wanted was to sleep. No dark thoughts tried to pry themselves into her mind. No feeling of loss or self-hatred. She was just tired.

Sparrow sighed and let her head rest on Reaver’s shoulder. “I submit. I’m too tired to fight back. Just do whatever. I don’t care at this point.” She closed her eyes and relaxed. She wasn’t going to fight him. Even if he let her go and left her on the beach, she’d just curl up in a ball and sleep, the sound of the ocean being her only comfort.

She could feel sleep starting to take her as Reaver let her arms go. Her shoulders stung as her arms fell to her sides, but she didn’t care. She was too tired to care. She barely reacted to Reaver picking her up bridal style and taking her somewhere. The last thing she saw was the Spire in the distance over Reaver’s shoulder before the dark embrace of sleep finally took over.

#fable #fable 2 #reaver #reaver fable #sparrow #sparrow fable #sparrow x reaver #spreaver #writing #G-W76 #Galaxy:Fable #my writing

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deogenezen · 3 years

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A Leader’s Great Influence

Hello! We are Group 3 and today we proudly present to you our blog!

To give you all a short preview, when all our essays are compiled, it revolves around one topic - A Leader’s Power in Effect to his or her Followers.

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─── ──── ──── ❝ Ways of being a Leader ❞ ──── ──── ───

(By: Alfonso Herrero)

Napoleon, who is the leader of Animal Farm, and Duterte, who is the President of the Philippines, have some similarities and differences on how they run their government and how they rule their people. Sometimes, one leader is better than the other in how they do things. With so much power in their possession, Napoleon and Duterte used their powers in many different ways that made their own followers have conflict with themselves or their supporters into their enemies.

These two leaders have a distinct way of addressing their followers. They both have others who act as a dictionary to make the people understand what they said or did. These two leaders have others twist their words and actions to make it less controversial. Duterte has Roque as the Presidential Spokesperson, as he is the one who sometimes, sits in front of the cameras to repeat what the president said. Napoleon has Squealer to explain his actions to the other animals to make them think that Napoleon is not breaking the seven commandments.

Both of these leaders have lied to their followers multiple times. These promises were made as a way to gain the favor of everyone. Back at the 2016 election, Duterte promised to fight for the West Philippine Sea. Right now, all we see is him being friendly with China and just letting them take what is rightfully ours. Napoleon lied to the animals because he broke majority of the rules that he implemented for everyone. An obvious commandment he broke was “Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy” as we read in the last chapter that he was walking on two legs.

These two leaders, no matter what they do, they will always have some people who will not always agree with them. While they experience the same thing, they have different ways on how to respond to those people. Napoleon will kill anyone who will go against him. Like how he killed the chickens because they weren’t willing to give up their eggs. He killed other animals as well because they confessed that they had been working with Snowball all along. As for Duterte, he answers back to his critics in a non-professional way and acts immaturely. When he receives criticism from anyone, he will take it as a personal attack and not as a way to improve himself. An example of this is how he responded to Leni Robredo’s criticism against him during Typhoon Ulysses. He answered back to Robredo by saying that she herself was not doing anything and that she was just sleeping with another man while the Typhoon was happening.

Both Napoleon and Duterte have a special group of people that will help them intimidate their opponents and anyone who will try to go against them. This show of force is a way to strike fear within people so any sort of resistance against them will be discouraged. Duterte’s way of intimidating people is with the use of the Military and Police. He uses the military and police against the communist party of the Philippines and any drug users. Napoleon has his dogs that he stole from their parents when they were born. Napoleon uses the dogs to chase Snowball out of Animal Farm and to kill animals who confessed their crimes.

The people in their land work hard for the benefit of everyone else, but they were treated differently. In the Philippines, when you’re a taxpayer and already retired, every month you get a pension depending on how much you contributed during your working days. Another benefit is that you are granted benefits from PhilHealth if anything happens to you or to anyone from your family. Napoleon treats his people differently. He bosses everyone around only for the benefits of himself and not for other animals. He has no respect towards them and doesn’t care about their contribution to the animal farm. He killed the chickens because they did not want to give up their eggs and he killed Boxer because he could no longer do his work properly.

Napoleon and Duterte have some similarities and differences on how they run the land that they lead. One similarity is that they lied to their people to gain their favor and one difference is how they treat the people who work hard for the benefit of their land. While our officials are terrible leaders right now, we’re lucky they aren’t worse than other leaders were.

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── ─── ❝ Perfecting Absolute Fascist-Communism ❞ ─── ──

(By: Allan Dela Cruz)

In animal farm, Orwell explicitly made direct allegories to real-life counterparts. Among which include the creation of animal farm; in which the real-life counterpart would be the Russian revolution – seeing as the animals overthrew the “Czar” in this case. The different and diverse class system and their familiar government system named “animal system” which screams of the modern-day socialist system built by Marx. But the most prominent similarity by far is the representation of totalitarian dictators, in this case, Napoleon; is to Stalin.

Both leaders assert their influence in both the military and the constitution. Both have played their own share of politics – and both have won with ruthless force and became dictators. Using both of their absolute and authoritarian power to corrupt and exploit too much of what is, “necessary”. And both having been an inspirational leader. These are the qualities that Orwell clearly wanted to point out to his readers. In terms of contrast, while both leaders are downright power-hungry. I think with Napoleon; he is more interested in his personal (or his kin’s) goals and gains compared to Stalin. While Stalin is greedy, greedy in a sense for the “betterment” of his country, I mean all classes regardless of noble-born or peasants as he was one of the people who revolted against the much privileged and unfair Czars that it only made sense to him for Russia to reform. Stalin's problem was his means to get there, which involved the gulags that made them no better than the 3rd Reich. I do not think Napoleon and the pigs care about the other farm animals, as they focus too much on their self-interest and abuse it to the point of exploiting the other animals. While Stalin technically exploited his citizens, his “first plan" [also called the great turn] – industrialized and modernized Russia in just five years. Russia turned into a once primitive and backward empire - whilst taking no heed by the Czars - into a prospering union – with the help of the gulags of course. While back in animal farm, while they have their own version of gulags – albeit less brutal – the benefits they get from it anyway is almost nonexistent, and that most of it just goes immediately to the pig’s self-interest.

That being said, I think what Orwell’s trying to aim at is that the nature of totalitarianism can be easily distinguished – albeit the way he portrays it can be exaggerated – and that it must be avoided, which is propaganda really.

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── ❝ The Practice of Abuse in the Russian Revolution ❞ ──

(By: Eurick Gamboa)

Orwell has allegories hidden in the story Animal Farm. It overlooks the Russian revolution. The Animal Farm also focused on the system dictatorship, symbolizing Napoleon. There was also a social class system which was called the “Animal System”, which shows the modern day socialism system. Orwell's main message in Animal Farm is that power can corrupt, even when idealism is at the start. The allegory of the Russian Revolution of 1917, where the Bolsheviks overthrew the tsar to establish a communist regime.

One of the novel’s most impressive accomplishments, is its portraits of not just the figures in power, but also the oppressed people themselves. Animal Farm is not told from the perspective of any character in the story. Rather, the story is told from the perspective of the common animals as a group. Foolish, loyal, corrupt, and hardworking, the animals gives Orwell a chance to tell how situations of oppression rose, not only from the motives of the oppressors, but also from the naiveness of the oppressed. When presented with a situation, one of the characters, Boxer, prefers not to be suspicious, so instead he repeats to himself the mottos such as, “Napoleon is always right” and “I will work harder.” Animal Farm demonstrates how the inability to question authority criticizes the working class to suffer the full extent of the ruling class’s oppression.

One of the Commandments was “All animals are equal”. However, this equality was shortly diminished and the pigs began to bend the rules until inequality returned to the farm and the pigs gained power. Orwell used the animals and their actions to make the reader think about equality and inequality. Before 1917, the majority of Russian people suffered from great inequality. They had far less money and food than the ruling classes. However, before the rebellion in Animal Farm, Mr. Jones takes everything that the animals have been keeping or have been caring for away from them. After the Rebellion the animals were free from the tyranny of Mr. Jones and seek to establish equality amongst themselves once and for all.

In conclusion, Orwell's message warns readers about allowing smart, selfish politicians to abuse power and gradually take away civil rights and independence. He warns his readers about the various methods of manipulation and propaganda used by oppressive regimes to crush and control the people.

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─── ──── ──── ❝ Napoleon and Trump ❞ ──── ──── ───

(By: Breanna Geronimo)

The boar, named Napoleon, is the leader of animal farm. He became the leader of the Animal Farm (also known as Manor Farm) when the animals rebelled against the humans, specifically Mr. Jones which was the owner of the Manor Farm. The current President of the United States now is Donald Trump, he won his position last January 20, 2017 and his term will end on January 20, 2021.

Napoleon is a corrupt leader because he only does things that benefits himself. One example was when he stole the idea of Snowball, which was to build a windmill. Another example is that he would also use Squealer to tell all of the animals lies and anything that will make him look correct and good. He is also a greedy leader because he wants all the power of being a leader to be his. He also has a tendency to get too much of everything/ tend to get things that he does not need. An example is when he and the pigs drinks all of the milk and does not give/ provide for the other animals. In my opinion, he is a leader who does not promote/ give equality, because he does not treat the animals equally. For an instance, he said that “no animal, shall sleep in a bed” then he changed it to “no animal, shall sleep in bed, with blankets.” He changed the rules so that he and the pigs can sleep in a bed, while the other animals aren’t allowed to.

Trump as I have said is the President of the United States. He is a corrupt president, because just like Napoleon, he would do anything that can benefit him and his family. For an instance, he corrupted the tax system and funded his own taxes (David Halperin, Oct 26,2020). President Trump can also be a greedy leader because he eviscerated health care, because of his hatred for the former President of the United States, Barack Obama. In my opinion, I also do know and believe that he is a President who does not give/ promote equality. For an instance, He calls “Black Lives Matter (BLM)” a symbol of hate. I do believe that what some of the Americans did was inappropriate (like breaking glass of buildings and stealing) but he still does not have the right to say that it was a symbol of hate. Because what the Americans only wanted was for them to have equality.

Both Napoleon and President Trump are leaders of a certain area/place and they can also tend to be corrupt and greedy leaders. The only difference that I can find between Napoleon and President Trump is that Napoleon is a fictional character and President Trump is not. They are also not the same type of animal Napoleon is a boar while President Trump is human. I just hope that someday people will be able to learn from people who are trustworthy, kind and loving to their country and countrymen.

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─── ──── ──── ❝ The Rule of Dictators ❞ ──── ──── ───

(By: Liezl Montemayor)

Lives dictated by leaders, such as Napoleon and Ferdinand Marcos, had their followers struggle with threats, abuses, and inexorable deaths. These two leaders are corrupt and used all means to keep their power and wealth all for themselves. Because of how much they wanted to satisfy their greed for power has brought many to rebel against them. Therefore, corrupt and dictating leaders, such as themselves, must be impeached for a better society.

To start, Napoleon and Ferdinand Marcos have quite a similarity in their excellent side of leadership traits, though they will soon break their image of good leadership in the future. An example of Napoleon’s leadership trait is uniting and directing the animals to a specific goal. He also organized the structure of power of the animals on the farm. On the other hand, Ferdinand Marcos treats his officials with civility and respect. He also approved building infrastructures to increase the economic growth of the Philippines.

With such leadership, there is no doubt that the threats and civil strife will arise against Napoleon and Ferdinand Marcos’s position. Luckily, they could see this coming and used their power to threaten and terrorize such menace against them. For Napoleon, he used his loyal dogs as a shield to protect his position. Meanwhile, Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law, which will soon bring abuse, threats, and deaths among his country’s people.

The dogs, Napoleon raised were used to kill and terrorize the animals who dared to threaten their master’s position. They were monsters that got brainwashed with the teachings they learned from Napoleon as they were isolated when young. Because of such a horrific event that the animals experienced, Napoleon’s greed has shown that the surviving animals could no longer differentiate pigs from humans. At the same time, Ferdinand Marcos was no different from being greedy with all that he possessed. He violated human rights of his citizens through armed forces and other means. Then, time went by that these violations could no longer be tolerated, and people started to perform reformist oppositions, revolutionary oppositions, and religious oppositions.

Greed to gain power is the paramount satisfaction of leaders that corrupt and abuse their followers and environment. To attain a prosperous state, a leader must have a great passion and qualities that may influence everyone and everything that surrounds them. Keep in mind; dictators have pros and cons that significantly affect their followers and the situation itself. Goals are set for citizens to seek development of their environment, not its destruction. Eyes must open to free oneself from lies and fear because a life dictated like a puppet is not a solution for a better society everyone aims for.

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References used for the Blog:

More Equal Than You- (Napoleon Animal Farm) by Stardust-Legend on. (2018, January 24). DeviantArt. https://www.deviantart.com/stardust-legend/art/More-Equal-Than-You-Napoleon-Animal-Farm-727346398

References used by Herrero:

References used by Delacruz:

PLOT SUMMARY, BBC, https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z9w7mp3/revision/1#:~:text=Animal%20Farm%20was%20written%20by,Russian%20politicians%2C%20voters%20and%20workers.

World war I Russian revolution, Ducksters Education site, https://www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_i/russian_revolution.php#:~:text=The%20Russian%20Revolution%20took%20place,country%20of%20the%20Soviet%20Union.

Fascism, Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/fascism

http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/07/26/stalin-was-a-greater-fascist-than-bandera-or-mussolini/

https://www.slideshare.net/prime_metin/animal-farm-17943780

References used by Gamboa:

https://www.history.com/topics/russia/russian-revolution

http://links.org.au/russian-revolutions-1917-paul-le-blanc

https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/george-orwell-s-message-in-the-novel-448825

https://www.achievementfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Ideas-8.pdf

References used by Geronimo:

https://twitter.com/pinkpolitical/status/1001824330446237698?lang=ga

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-53261067

https://www.republicreport.org/2020/ten-reasons-trump-is-the-most-corrupt-president-in-u-s-history/

References used by Montemayor:

Human rights abuses of the Marcos dictatorship. (2020, December 16). Retrieved January 04, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_abuses_of_the_Marcos_dictatorship

(n.d.). Retrieved January 04, 2021, from https://study.com/academy/answer/what-made-napoleon-a-great-leader-in-animal-farm.html

Three important leadership traits from Ferdinand Marcos. (n.d.). Retrieved January 04, 2021, from https://www.fef.org.ph/gerardo-sicat/three-important-leadership-traits-from-ferdinand-marcos/

Arillo, C. (2015, November 13). Marcos's unmatched legacy: Hospitals, schools and other infrastructures: Cecilio Arillo. Retrieved January 04, 2021, from https://businessmirror.com.ph/2015/11/13/marcoss-unmatched-legacy-hospitals-schools-and-other-infrastructures/

Animal Farm. (n.d.). Retrieved January 04, 2021, from https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-does-napoleon-from-book-animal-farm-contribute-129633

How Napoleon Takes and Maintains Control Of Animal Farm in George Orwell's Novel. (n.d.). Retrieved January 04, 2021, from https://www.bartleby.com/essay/How-Napoleon-Takes-and-Maintains-Control-Of-P3JR8GAZTJ

M. (2017, February 12). ANIMAL FARM. Nerdy254. https://kathmandupost.com/opinion/2017/12/06/dialectics-of-dictatorship. (2017, December 6).

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curtiskyle · 4 years

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Can Performance Anxiety Cause Premature Ejaculation All Time Best Useful Tips

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biscuitreviews · 4 years

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Biscuit Reviews The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

When I started this blog almost three years ago, there were a couple games that sort of inspired me to start it. Followers will know that I started with a back to back to back marathon of Persona 3, 4, and 5. There was also another game that contributed to me wanting to start this blog as well and that was the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It’s a game that won many 2017 Game of the Year from a lot of outlets. I also marked it as one of my top games of 2017 but ultimately gave the Game of the Year to Persona 5.

In my first playthrough of Breath of the Wild, I played it on Wii U and I loved it. I recently repurchased it on Switch along with the DLC pass. For this review, I’m going to look at not only the main game, but also give an opinion on the DLC as well.

You are Link, a man who wakes up in a strange chamber with no memories of how he got there or what happened that led to him being in the chamber. Shortly after Link wakes up and he hears a voice how his help is needed to defeat Calamity Ganon and save Hyrule once and for all after it’s been in chaos for 100 years. With nothing but the voice to guide him, Link sets out to help the voice to not only save Hyrule, but to hopefully learn more about who he is along the way.

I do want to highlight the area you start at. It’s an area of Hyrule known as “The Great Plateau.” It’s a large area that Link cannot leave until he accomplishes certain tasks. Until then, the player has free reign in this area. They can explore, climb and learn the game mechanics in a small controlled area. There’s even a mysterious old man that will offer Link tips and teach the player a few things that the environment can’t teach them.

Having a mysterious old man in this area encouraged players to talk to him to try to figure who he is, which in turn gave the designers and developers a way to teach the player about how the mechanics of the world worked. Talking to the old man however, is completely your choice. You are by no means forced to talk to him all the time, only in certain instances that move you forward to leaving the area. Even in those instances, he’s just giving you goals, he doesn’t tell you what to do or railroad you. As you walk around the plateau, that’s when you can see him in various areas and can approach him to learn other things like hunting, cooking, and stealth. Learning these skills is purely your choice whether to talk to him and learn.

Something else that I love about The Great Plateau is how it gives you all of the tools you will need in the game at the very start. Getting these tools not only teaches you how they work, but they also teach you about Shrines, which act as mini dungeons that have puzzles for you to solve where you obtain Spirit Orbs. After completing all the Shrines on the Plateau, you are then taught to give Spirit Orbs to a statue to increase your health or stamina, which in turn creates a positive reinforcement for you the player to seek out more Shrines.

You’re then given a paraglider to leave The Great Plateau and make your way to your next destination. Even though you’re given directions on how to get there, the game doesn’t restrict you in following that path. In fact, you can get to your destination however you want to get to it. However, following the path teaches you more about the world. Nothing is stopping you, it’s your journey and your choice if you want to go right into the adventure or if you want to explore.

Unlike in previous Zelda games, you are not given a starting weapon and shield, in fact you have to find your weapons and shields from the environment and they have durability. These weapons are extremely fragile, at least at first. These weapons will break fairly often. This encourages players to learn the different weapon types so that they know how to use them. You will eventually find weapons that won’t break as quickly, but they will break eventually.

You might think, well that’s fine, I’ll just find the Master Sword and have a weapon that doesn’t break. You see that was my thought in the first playthrough of the game. To find the Master Sword, because there’s no way that Nintendo could break the Master Sword. Well, turns out Nintendo can. The Master Sword can run out energy and will have to take 10 minutes to recharge.

That’s right, the Master Sword can get tired.

It’s a really weird thing, but I get that Nintendo needed to find a way to have the Master Sword follow the rules of the established weapon mechanics. I just wish that Nintendo found a better way.

The Divine Beasts serve as the “traditional dungeons” for Breath of the Wild and I love how you have to manipulate the layout of the beast itself to solve many of the puzzles within. The boss fights however are a low point. I do like the idea that it’s a piece of Ganon that you fight, but I don’t like that the boss itself is just fightable like a normal enemy and doesn’t have its own puzzle to fight them.

However, I feel it suffers the same problem as “A Link Between Worlds” In that entry, you were able to take on the dungeons in any order. Although it provided great freedom on what to do, it came at a cost on its difficulty because any dungeon could be your “first” dungeon. Breath of the Wild suffers from that as well, any of the Divine Beasts can be your first Divine Beast so there is no slight increase in difficulty in dungeon layout and puzzles.

I feel the story of Breath of Wild contains suffers as well. Any piece of the story you find, can be your first memory and these memories do what they can to be self contained and not rely on another memory to tell a story.

You do learn more about the pieces of what happened 100 years ago to Link, but again that’s only if you want to pursue those pieces and that’s what I think makes Breath of Wild really stand out is how much choice the game gives the player. Want to learn about the story, do these quests, don’t care for the story, that’s fine go do whatever you want. Even the Shrines, despite having an ideal way to solve them, there are multiple ways to solve a puzzle. You could argue it makes puzzles easier to solve, but I think that’s what the developers wanted. You could do it the designed way, or you can do what the mechanics allow and solve it yourself in your own unique way.

The game also constantly rewards you with exploring and experimenting and even encourages it. Because there’s so much to see and explore, Hyrule being a giant world doesn’t feel like a giant empty world as there is always something around every corner. Simply exploring rewards you with Shrines, weapons, ruppees, secrets, Koroks Seeds to expand your inventory, there’s a lot to gain simply by just exploring.

Breath of Wild is great because of the freedom it allows its player. The freedom allows you to pick and choose what you the player care more about for your experience. It’s the freedom that really makes a huge difference and in my opinion makes the game really stand out.

When I first played the game, I didn’t think it was exactly the 10/10 or in my case the 5 out of 5 game that everyone was giving it, but was still a great game in it’s own right. But honestly, after a few years away from the hype, I think the game really is deserving of all of those accolades. Mostly because of the amount of freedom it allows. Exploring, fighting, climbing mountains, and learning about the story and lore of Hyrule. All of this can be done at your pace and I think giving the player that control and making their own story along the way is what makes Breath of the Wild, a truly fantastic game.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild receives a 4 out of 5

As for the DLC pass, the first expansion gives you a combat trial where if you complete it enhances the power of the Master Sword. This power just makes it to where the Master Sword is powered up all the time rather than near corrupted areas and corrupted Guardians.

There’s also quite a few quests that lead you to find items and outfits from past Zelda games, however they’re not upgradable in anyway and are mostly cosmetic for the most part. A few of them do have special abilities, but overall, it’s more about having the item tied to past Zelda games.

There’s also Master Mode which contains stronger enemies and they also heal overtime while you’re fighting them. It also allows you to save Master Mode as a different save slot from your original file making it to where you have one regular save file and one Master Mode save file. I will admit that I’m disappointed that Master Mode came in a DLC pass rather than an unlockable mode after clearing the game like in previous Zelda titles.

The second expansion is a new story known as the Champions Ballad, which provides more Shrines and trials that reward you with a cutscene on how Zelda recruits the Champion to her cause 100 years ago. It’s cool to see, but I was hoping for more of an insight into the Champions. The extra trials are really fun and some of them are actually a bit difficult to do. Even the final boss of the expansion was a bit of a challenge. In the end you get the Zero Bike, which is a motorcycle that you can summon anywhere. The motorcycle does run on fuel, but you can refuel with anything and depending on the items and how many items, depends how much the tank is filled.

As far as the expansion pass goes, if you like Breath of the Wild and just want more game, it definitely gives you more. My biggest disappointment was with the Champions Ballad as it was advertised as a more story heavy expansion, when in reality it was a bit light in that regard.

As far as the expansion pass goes, I’m going to give it a 4 out of 5. I do think that you do get quite a bit for $25 USD, but having Master Mode locked behind this when in the past it was always an unlockable New Game+, and Champion’s Ballad not really delivering much in the story department are what kind of bring this down for me.

#Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild #Breath of the Wild #botw #Legend of Zelda #Link #Zelda #Ganon #Hyrule #Champion's Ballad #video game review #game review #Biscuit review

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cypher2 · 5 years

Link

Andonovski says that the framework for this season was laid out last autumn, as he and owner Bill Predmore attempted to chart the course of how the upcoming season would go.

“Our year started, for (Reign FC majority owner and president) Bill Predmore and myself, last November,” Andonovski said. “We had 11 different lineup predictions that covered things like pre-World Cup, during the World Cup, after the World Cup, with Jess Fishlock coming back from France, without her, with different players coming in and out. We projected 10 or 11 different lineups. Bill was instrumental in all of this. He helped me with the preparation and made a lot of things happen behind the scenes. I had to do a lot on the field to manage all of those players and incorporate them, but I think the most important thing is the preparation before the season even started.”

The roster was bolstered with a mixture of newcomers, like Shea Groom and NAIA standout Bethany Balcer, and returning veterans like captain Lauren Barnes and midfielder Allie Long.

The club itself was in for a big change. After half a decade at Seattle’s Memorial Stadium, the club was informed that the venue was no longer suitable to host NWSL home games. Instead, Reign FC found a new home in Tacoma’s Cheney Stadium. The response to the move was incredible – fans in the South Sound helped Reign FC set new attendance records in 2019, including an increase of 1,389 on average per match from 2018.

Not all of the changes went over as smoothly, however.

The club sent nine players to the World Cup to represent seven different countries. Six more players would suffer season-ending injuries, while others were waylaid by shorter term injuries.

To boot, the club stumbled out of the starting gate, opening the year 0-1-3 after failing to convert a late penalty in its season-opener against Houston and settling for a 1-1 draw against Orlando in its first match in Tacoma.

“Historically, if you look at teams that I’ve managed, I would say with the exception of last season, my teams have started slow and then started picking things up toward the middle of the season,” Andonovski said. “That’s something that I’m going to have to look at myself and see if it’s something I’m doing. Am I giving too many formations or trying to add too much in a short period of time? Maybe it takes a little time for things to click and once they do things go well.”

More players arrived in time for things to start clicking, even as a large chunk of the team departed to chase glory with their national teams at the World Cup in France. Among them was forward Ifeoma Onumonu, signed as a National Team Replacement Player just six days after being waived by the Portland Thorns.

For Onumonu, the spirit of the squad hadn’t dampened, despite the early sluggishness.

“Coming into this club, I was going through my own type of challenges,” Onumonu said. “That did help when I did come and join Reign FC. It was like I’d been through some things and the club had been as well. It helped with the camaraderie. It was an experience where even though the club was going through a hard streak, it was still very positive.”

The hard streak ended quickly. The club recorded its first win of the season against Sky Blue FC on May 18 and went on to win four of its next six matches, rising from seventh in the league table all the way to first following a July 5 road win against rivals Portland Thorns FC. The stretch also saw Onumonu record her first NWSL goal in a win over Utah on June 28, the same day that she was signed to the club’s supplemental roster.

“It was really special,” Onumonu said of her goal. “I had been waiting for a goal for two years now, so it was nice to finally get it. It was an important win as well. On any given day in this league, a team can pull out a win against anyone else. We knew that and we used it to our advantage. I thought we had a lot of doubters, so it felt good to prove them wrong. In that time we were going through quite a bit of injuries, which is always tough. It didn’t stop from there. It felt really good to score and contribute to that success we had during that run.”

The return of Fishlock provided a big boost to the club in the early summer. The midfielder returned from her loan to Olympique Lyon in France and knocked in two game-winners for Reign FC. Fishlock’s immediate impact on the squad led to her being named the NWSL Player of the Month for June before being sidelined with a season-ending ACL tear.

Just when Reign FC looked to be getting on a roll, more obstacles presented themselves.

June gave way to a grueling July. With two road matches against North Carolina and tough home losses to Utah and Chicago, Reign FC endured a 2-4-1 stretch that dropped them into fifth place entering the final six matches of the season.

“The fact that we have two of those teams (from that stretch) in the final says a lot about the quality of the teams that we were facing,” Andonovski said. “Playing North Carolina twice on the road didn’t make it any easier, but we didn’t have a choice, we had to prepare as best as we could. One thing that made it easier was that even when things were not going well, there was nothing negative about it. We used every single game as a learning opportunity to get better, regardless of the result. We kept moving forward, we kept getting better and the results were coming as the season was going by.”

With six games to play, Andonovski challenged his team to push for a playoff spot:

“Going into the last stretch of games, Vlatko said ‘we’ve made mistakes in this portion of the season and now we’re on to the last quarter of the year,’” Onumonu said. “’We’re going to have to win the majority of games to make the playoffs.’ We had a mini-season where everything that happened prior to this last stretch of six matches didn’t matter anymore. It was about winning or getting points and moving on. We erased all that we had done because it was over and it didn’t matter. Our objective was to make the playoffs.”

Reign FC fought its way to a 3-1-2 finish over the final six matches, thanks in large part to an Onumonu equalizer at the death of a 2-2 draw against Washington on September 14. Jodie Taylor also notched a late game-winner against Utah in a September 25 match that had to be pushed back a week due to a waterlogged pitch at Cheney Stadium. With a win over Portland in the final home match of the season on September 29, Reign FC clinched its second consecutive playoff berth under Andonovski.

Despite all the bumps and disruptions that the season’s path had taken, Reign FC was playoff bound once more.

“The struggle and the tough times we went through in the first 18 games helped us prepare for the last six games,” Andonovski said. “We did decide that this was a little mini-season that we felt we had to win or finish well, which I think we accomplished, we were talking about how this mini season has to be a reflection of the whole season. It has to be a true picture of who we are: warriors, fighters who are intense in their goals. That helped us take on those games the way we did.”

Reign FC’s semifinal match against NWSL Shield-winners North Carolina was a game of grit and determination. When the Courage scored a go-ahead goal on a penalty kick in the 88th minute and had dominated possession all match long, Reign FC looked like they would be unable to mount a response.

Onumonu changed that. In the third minute of second-half stoppage time, the forward received a ball from Celia Jiménez Delgado and fired a shot past Stephanie Labbe, forcing extra time.

“I feel like that moment summed up our season,” Onumonu said. “Fight to the end. That’s how I took it. I was really thankful for that goal because I know how much it meant to still have a chance and still be in it. To be able to score in that moment was special. North Carolina is a good team and has been for years, but we’re not going to go down without a fight. The end result wasn’t what we wanted, but this game is hard, it’s tough. Being able to keep us in there for as long as possible was so special.”

Reign FC came up short in extra time, but the club had gone down swinging.

“I’m very proud of the players,” Andonovski said. “Every single one of them. The way they approached the game was tremendous. To be able to go to North Carolina, against that team and an incredible coach in Paul Riley and battle all the way until the last second and tie the game 1-1? It’s incredible. I’m very proud of them. Unfortunately, in the last 30 minutes we didn’t have enough in us to make a miracle happen. We didn’t have enough to be able to match North Carolina and their quality.”

Onumonu’s final strike was emblematic of Reign FC’s spirit, but her path over the course of the season, like so many of her teammates, mirrored the club’s year.

“When I look at it, I would agree that Ifeoma’s season is how our season looked,” Andonovski said. “But it’s also Rosie (White’s) season. It’s Balcer’s season. It’s Celia’s season. Young players came in who were unknown or had in some ways been rejected that wanted to make a name for themselves and prove people wrong. They just needed an opportunity and in the end they did it. It was similar for our club. I don’t want to say that we were an unknown, but people didn’t believe in us. We were rejected to some extent and we just needed a platform and a chance to prove people wrong and in the end we did.”

For Onumonu, that drive and determination were the major lesson from 2019.

“I would say the biggest lesson is to be resilient,” Onumonu said. “I think how I started out my season, where I started with Portland and then everything with Reign FC has been a challenge. You have where you expect to be, then you have to go somewhere else. You switch and all your emotional attachment with a team has to change. Now, you have to fight for your new club. It made me grateful for the club, honestly. I’m very thankful for the club. As a player, it taught me that one person’s opinion of you does not define you and I think that’s something that this season has taught me.”

For Andonovski, the year was proof that no obstacle is insurmountable.

“If there’s one thing that I’ve learned this season, it’s that there is always a way to be successful,” Andonovski said. “If that way doesn’t work, there is always another way.”

#reign fc #seattle reign fc #seattle reign #vlatko andonovski #ifeoma onumonu #nwsl #woso #listen the fact that a handful of our layers could be considered for team mvp #bc they all truly had standout seasons #iffy balcer murphy barnes esp #and bev earning it bc shes a rock as always #anyways im just proud of all of them #celia theresa #all of them have stories #theres so many inspiring good narratives that these players have built on this season #it made me hopeful again

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clairekatswritingcorner · 5 years

Text

Camaraderie

Word Count: 1,207

Summary: Exiled and stranded on the outskirts of the cosmos, a peculiar brand of strangers come upon the disgraced former heir to the Galra Empire. Through their own conviction they end up inadvertently granting him a second chance at the life he’d almost given up on for good.

*Author’s Note*: Kind of short and not as detailed as I would have liked, but I’ve always had the hc that Lotor met the generals in a situation where they were actually the ones that found him. And through their encouragement/support some of his hope for living his life and improving things the way he’d always wished he could was restored. I know he’s a villain and exploited people and he’s not supposed to be a good person blah blah, but then we got examples in the show of him being devastated by Zarkon’s shrewd disregard for life, so…this fic is about nice Lotor I guess lol, not draining the life from people Lotor. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!

When he first found them, the truth was that things were the other way around. He’d never expected to come into contact with anyone out here, much less people that he could potentially form some semblance of a camaraderie with. Growing up in his father’s space faring palace, Lotor wasn’t allowed many opportunities to mingle with the common Galra subjects scattered across the cosmos. Routine check ins with bases, checkpoints, colonies, and the occasional intervention where one such outpost was to be reformed or exterminated had been the basic extent of his exposure. Essentially, the grunt work his father didn’t have the time or interest for often fell to him, presumably as a deterrent against any of the prince’s more liberal sensibilities.

Those sensibilities had contributed to his downfall, facilitated the actions that had brought him all the way out here in the first place. With nowhere to go and no place to return to, he’d been exiled to the vast emptiness of space. He’d wandered so many star systems, explored galaxies and planets he’d only ever heard rumors of before, some that’d even been branded as myths. In some ways, it was a gift, because all he really wanted to do was learn. Learn about new places, the people that inhabited them, their customs and idiosyncrasies. It was a habit he’d been sorely punished for in the past, but now he had nothing to lose. He could do as he pleased, and as lonely as he found himself at times, he figured he’d much rather have the freedom to pursue his life the way he’d always wanted. Almost anything was better than continuing to be crushed into submission under the weight of his father’s imposing and unyielding thumb.

His way of thinking was a damnable offence in the eyes of his father, a mindset that could scarcely be forgiven, if any measure of mercy was granted at all. To a point, he’d tried to conform to that philosophy, to fulfill his father’s demands to the degree that was expected of him. In such a scenario, not even the slightest failure was tolerated, and Lotor had learned how to accept the sting of harsh and harmful criticism the hard way; both mentally and physically. As much as the people that raised and trained him wanted to stamp out the spark of compassion that resided in his soul, every time it seemed like it was close to being snuffed out, something came around to sustain it that much longer. In this case, they were the ones that had reignited the paltry, wounded flame that could barely support itself.

“What are you doing out here?” the one with short, navy hair had asked. “Do you need help?”

Someone offering him help out in the middle of this desolate wasteland he’d gotten lost in? He could ask them the same question, this rag tag group of wanderers that looked to be far more qualified than whatever position they were filling now denoted. Or perhaps they were just working for themselves, hopping from planet to planet looking for pathetic husks like him to rehabilitate. It looked like they didn’t have much more than he did, though…and there was something else that was strangely familiar about them. Strangely comforting.

“Are you all Galra?”

The one that had addressed him grew tense, fists balling up tight. “Why do you want to know?”

Trying to make himself more presentable, Lotor had introduced himself and explained his circumstances. The one he’d been directly addressing all this time, Acxa, kneeled to him when he revealed his now worthless title. Even out here, this rejected royal could still find someone who wanted to be loyal to him, that respected him…he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. She beckoned the rest of her comrades forward, introducing them all in turn, and before he’d really had a chance to process any of this, it appeared that even Kova had taken a liking to one of them. His sole companion on this isolated trek, the furry creature was already trying to make new friends for him. Friends…Lotor had never really known such a thing.

“Even if you’ve been exiled, you’re still the prince. The blood heir to the Galra Empire,” Acxa had defended, her gaze sharp with a conviction that was no doubt just as formidable as her blade. “No one can ever take that away from you.”

She may have been right, but Lotor wasn’t sure he wanted to be emperor…he wasn’t sure if he’d ever truly desired that position. What he was sure of was that he just wanted to help people. He wanted to bring people together, to develop techniques and resources that would enable even dying populations to thrive, a welcome improvement from the decimation of the Altean Empire that his father had spearheaded like a tyrant—no, simply as one. The more he conversed with these strangers, the more he discovered just how closely their own ideals seemed to line up with his. Half Galra that understood the pain of being cast out, of being considered nobodies just by virtue of their existence.

They were skilled strategists and warriors, calculating fighters that could also display kind hearts if need be. They may not have been perfect, or even the most noble people in the world, but Lotor considered himself far from worthy of any such status, either. He had lofty goals and a sympathetic streak that had proven to be his downfall more than once. That had served as a catalyst of destruction for all the settlements that had been forced to suffer as a result of his naïve, meager conviction. Even when he’d tried to disguise his ideals as a ploy for advancement, for exploitation, his father had seen through his rouse and taken the usual measures that he claimed existed to teach the stubborn boy a lesson. The only lesson those situations had really instilled in him was that his father was a despicable dictator that couldn’t be trusted…one day, somehow, Lotor would figure out a way to usurp him. For the good of the cosmos, he knew it was his calling, his duty, his burden to bear.

“Would you help me accomplish this goal? Will you work with me to improve the universe, to thwart the destruction that this cruel Empire has wrought?”

For Acxa, it wasn’t even a question. For the other three, it was a matter of solidarity more than anything else. If one of them swore their life to this cause, then the others would at least see what kind of paths such an opportunity paved for them. For Lotor, it was a sort of second chance. These people had sworn their allegiance to him willingly, looked to him with the expectation that he would one day bring hope and prosperity back to the Empire with a fairness that had essentially been extinct for the duration of Zarkon’s reign. With this new authority in his hands, the prince was determined to do the right thing, and trample all who stood in his path. His was a path of virtue, after all, and these four would surely be the key to helping him attain the position he’d been born for.

#voltron #Voltron legendary defender #prince lotor #lotor (vld)#prince lotor (vld)#acxa #vld acxa #acxa (vld)#vld lotor #vld prince lotor #Voltron fic #Voltron fanfiction #vld #my writing #Claire writes #one shot #sorry for all the repeats idk how to tag anything lmfao #anyway it's short but I like it and I hope you do to #*too

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moodboardinthecloud · 3 years

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Love and Loss in the Mountains

CHRISTOPHER SOLOMON

Christopher Solomon (

@chrisasolomon

) is an Outside contributing editor.

Aug 2, 2021

“You always think you’ll save the ones you love when the moment comes. But he didn’t save her.”

How do you keep going when you’re convinced you can’t?

When the mountains that brought you joy now echo with your grief, how do you return to them?

Adam Campbell thinks about these questions every day. At 42, he has experienced more hurt and loss in high places than most who spend a lifetime there. His body has been smashed. He lost his wife.

He has a story he wants to share, about what life looks like afterward. It does not offer Five Easy Steps to Bury Your Pain. He knows how deeply loss can cleave a person. But he also learned that we need other people to help pull us clear of the wreckage.

Campbell, a lean and chatty Canadian who lives in the mountain town of Canmore, Alberta, was a podium athlete in the outdoor world. If it was sweaty and hard, he excelled at it. He was a member of five Canadian national teams, in sports such as ski mountaineering and trail running, and a national champion in duathlon. In the summer of 2014, he made international news when, on the summit of a fourteener during Colorado’s famously grueling Hardrock 100 trail race, a lightning bolt knocked him and his pacer off their feet and fried Campbell’s headlamp. The duo picked themselves up and scampered over the pass. Campbell finished third.

It was typical of Campbell, who was in many ways puer aeternus, eternally youthful—that species of smiling mountain man endemic to North America’s high lonesome places, most often glimpsed moving fast over big country and more comfortable out there than back here. Out there was simpler, stripped down, hard, and gratifying for its hardness. “Suffering in beautiful places”—that was his mantra.

In 2015, Campbell met Laura Kosakoski. They started dating. She was remarkable, he told me—beautiful, athletic, so smart that she applied to become an astronaut with the Canadian Space Agency and survived the first few elimination rounds. Kosakoski was also deeply empathetic: after years studying to become an anesthetist, she chose a lower paying position with a family practice instead. “She wanted to feel that she was able to help people in their day-to-day life,” Campbell says. Like him, she chose to live in the lap of the mountains.

It took the two men 45 agonizing minutes to uncover her face, which was blue and unresponsive. To keep Campbell focused, Hjertaas lied to him and said that she was still breathing.

One January morning in 2020, Campbell and Kosakoski met up in Banff with friend Kevin Hjertaas for a quick ski tour in nearby Banff National Park. The weather was stormy and grim, but the trio were experienced. Hjertaas is a ski guide and a former avalanche forecaster. Kosakoski and Campbell had both completed numerous avalanche courses and done lots of backcountry skiing; Campbell sits on the board of directors of the Avalanche Canada Foundation. For the day’s final run, the three stood above a small bowl. Kosakoski went first. Hjertaas waited, then followed. Above them, Campbell edged forward onto the ridge, keeping an eye out. Right then, the world cut loose beneath his feet.

The avalanche was enormous. It ran for more than a third of a mile, was deep enough to expose the mountainside, and threw a massive cloud of snow skyward. When the slide ended and the air cleared, Campbell could see Hjertaas, who had avoided the onrush of debris, but Kosakoski was missing. The men immediately started searching with their avalanche beacons. What the devices told them was horrifying: she was buried more than 12 feet below the surface.

This was so deep that they couldn’t dig straight down from their position above her on the steep slope, but had to start shoveling 30 feet away and at an angle.

It took 45 agonizing minutes to uncover her face, which was blue and unresponsive. To keep Campbell focused, Hjertaas lied to him and said she was still breathing. It took another 45 minutes to extract her body completely. Doctors later revived a weak heartbeat, but Kosakoski died the next evening.

There was grief—the staggering sadness of losing a wife and partner. And then, too, there was the deep violence of the moment, having to reckon with that experience. The group had made errors in judgment, the men later agreed. Moreover, Campbell believes he kicked off the avalanche that buried Kosakoski. Which brings us to the guilt—of surviving and of not rescuing her. You always think you’ll save the ones you love when the moment comes, Campbell told me. But he didn’t save her. Whether this judgment of himself is fair doesn’t really matter. He lives with it.

When multiple traumas occur together, they layer atop one another and accrete under pressure. The effect is geologic. Mountains are built of such layers. Continents sink. Experts call it complex PTSD. What does a person do under weight like that?

There is no simple answer to this question, no easy way through.

Campbell would find ways to cope in what might seem like an unexpected place: a moment that nearly killed him three years earlier, another instance that rearranged how he saw the world around him.

In August 2016, he was blazing through the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia with fellow trail-running stars Dakota Jones and Nick Elson. The three were attempting to scramble the multi-day Horseshoe Traverse mountaineering route above Rogers Pass in a single day. As Campbell climbed up a subpeak called Sulzer Tower, a handhold popped off in his palm. He remembers the mountains turning upside down as he tumbled 200 feet. By the time his body stopped falling, he had broken four vertebrae, smashed his ankle, and sheared off the top of his hip bone. A mountain-rescue crew happened to be working not far away and saved his life. At the hospital, his digestive system shut down for three days. Doctors inserted metal rods throughout his body.

Campbell lived, but he was changed. The day before, he was one of the best athletes on the planet. The day after, he says, “I literally couldn’t wipe my own ass. I was relying on strangers.” Nearly dying changed something else about him. The accident erased his perception—his delusion—that he was a strong, self-reliant athlete who didn’t need others. For years, whenever life had gotten complicated, he had run away, headed for the hills.

“The more chaotic my life got, the bigger the goals I would chase,” he says. Some of his biggest accomplishments occurred during times of personal turmoil, when he fled rather than faced his problems, including an early divorce from his first wife, before he met Kosakoski. “I was just numb, like fully numb,” he says of those years. “I could run hard and fast all the time, and it didn’t impact me at all. I didn’t feel tired ever.” He was not happy, though. “I was emotionally dead, and I also didn’t get any real satisfaction from it.” That pattern of running away continued well into his relationship with Kosakoski.

One reason Campbell was on the traverse that day was that he and Kosakoski had hit a rough patch. Instead of facing the challenge and repairing things, Campbell took off. Out there he was independent, and confronted only with entanglements he knew how to deal with. Mountains were easy. People were hard.

Now, as he lay in a hospital bed in the small hours, too battered to sleep, he saw through the long lie that he was totally self-sufficient. The doctors and nurses who had saved his life came in and out of the room. Family members who had flown in from all over the world circled his bedside. Kosakoski was there too, of course; she took a month off work to help him. He had always been propped up by others; he simply chose to ignore it. “It broke that shell that I put around myself,” he says. And then something amazing happened. “The more vulnerable you allow yourself to be, the more vulnerable people are back to you,” he says, “and that allows you to have even deeper, more intimate connections.” He and Kosakoski grew closer than ever. They married a year later.

Don’t misunderstand: no wisdom, however steep its price, can prepare you for losing the person you planned to spend your life with. In the year since her death, the grief has hit Campbell in waves, receding one minute, overwhelming him the next. A few days after the accident, while walking over a railroad trestle, he looked down and thought how easy it would be to tip over the side, the water below it cold and embracing. But he didn’t. He thought about other people. He thought about the pain it would cause them.

If he learned one thing through all this, it’s that friends and family are a gift—their profound grace, and the solace that can be found in them. “The biggest thing for me is allowing myself to be open with others, to share what I’m going through and let them try to help,” he says. They call. They check in. People want to be there if you’ll let them. Campbell calls now, too, which he never would have done before. He leans on those he loves. He’s honest.

The changes Campbell underwent while dealing with his grief represent a shift in awareness that’s growing in the outdoor world. Mountain towns, and the risk-takers who populate them, long responded to loss with a hardman approach—stoically, on their own, perhaps with a whiskey or three while seated at the end of the bar. Survivors of deadly events would often feel isolated. And even the caring communities where they lived didn’t know how to reach them. Hjertaas says he knows longtime ski patrollers who have seen so much tragedy that they can no longer even respond to accidents.

But that reaction is changing. Maria Coffey’s 2003 book Where the Mountain Casts Its Shadow is about people left behind after such deaths, and it helped open the conversation. So, too, has acceptance of the truth that grief is not weakness, nor is it necessarily a plea for help. Tim Tate, a psychotherapist in Bozeman, Montana, began seeing mountain athletes in 2018 and now works with members of the North Face team, who sometimes visit him in person for intensive four-day sessions. Last year the American Alpine Club started the Climbing Grief Fund, which includes small grants for climbers in need of counseling services. The fund had ten applications in its first 24 hours.

Now, as he lay in a hospital bed in the small hours, too battered to sleep, he saw through the long lie that he was totally self-sufficient. “It broke that shell that I put around myself,” he says.

Late last year, Campbell began helping out with a new group called Mountain Musk Ox, the brainchild of a few Canmore residents, including Janet McLeod, a clinical psychologist who specializes in trauma treatment, and mountaineer Barry Blanchard, who has lost several friends and clients in the mountains over his storied career. (The group’s name refers to the tough-as-nails musk ox and its instinct to encircle vulnerable members of the group when threatened.)

The program is a series of group sessions for men and women who have experienced gutting loss in hard circumstances—it’s a chance to talk openly about their trials and to work through them. Hjertaas is involved, too; he told me that people keep contacting him, saying they wish the program existed when they went through hell. In time, organizers hope to expand to other mountain communities.

There is no road map to a quick exit from grief, though. Others can help—can be there to hold up a lantern in the limitless dark—but in the end, each must find their own way out. “You have to be really, really gentle on yourself,” Campbell says. “Ultimately, the person you were before the accident kind of dies along with your partner, because you’re just so deeply changed by it. And you have to accept that and learn what your new life is like.

“You have to be reborn.”

Campbell isn’t angry at the mountains. He doesn’t hold them responsible. He quotes Reinhold Messner: “Mountains are not fair or unfair, they are just dangerous.”

Last summer, Campbell returned to the site of the accident. When he located his wife’s ski in a creek, he fell to his knees. But the mountainside was not windswept and cold. It was alive with bouquets of wildflowers and the thrum of running water. “I ultimately find my comfort and joy in nature,” he says. He has been among high peaks, skiing or climbing, almost every day since. His priorities have changed, though. Time outdoors is no longer about big goals. In part, this is because his body is no longer the same. But neither is his mind. He simply relishes being outside with others in a way he didn’t fully appreciate before. “The conversations I have with people out in nature are some of the best conversations I have. They’re the most honest and raw,” he says. “I find that that is where people are their genuine selves.”

One day over the winter, Campbell shared a story online about kintsugi, the centuries-old Japanese art in which cherished items that have been chipped or broken, such as a vase or a teakettle, are mended with a lacquer that includes gold dust. The result highlights the fissures that have been repaired. The analogy appealed to him.

“It treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object,” he wrote, “something to celebrate.” Those breaks help define us, and they give us a hard-won beauty. When we show them, and the ways we’ve healed and grown stronger, he says, we know where one another are coming from, what we’ve all been through. And our community is healthier for it.

https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/exploration-survival/avalanche-tragedy-adam-campbell-laura-kosakoski/

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variety-in-novels-students-blog · 6 years

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Mental Illness and Authors

First of all, I would like to give a definition of depression cited from the website American Psychiatric Association:

“Depression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Fortunately, it is also treatable. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease a person’s ability to function at work and at home.

Depression symptoms can vary from mild to severe and can include:

Feeling sad or having a depressed mood

Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed

Changes in appetite — weight loss or gain unrelated to dieting

Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much

Loss of energy or increased fatigue

Increase in purposeless physical activity (e.g., hand-wringing or pacing) or slowed movements and speech (actions observable by others)

Feeling worthless or guilty

Difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions

Thoughts of death or suicide

Symptoms must last at least two weeks for a diagnosis of depression.

Also, medical conditions (e.g., thyroid problems, a brain tumor or vitamin deficiency) can mimic symptoms of depression so it is important to rule out general medical causes.

Depression affects an estimated one in 15 adults (6.7%) in any given year. And one in six people (16.6%) will experience depression at some time in their life. Depression can strike at any time, but on average, first appears during the late teens to mid-20s. Women are more likely than men to experience depression. Some studies show that one-third of women will experience a major depressive episode in their lifetime.”

(https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/depression/what-is-depression)

Apart from the above-mentioned definition, there are several interesting facts about depression. One of them is that writing is one of the professions in which people are most likely to suffer from depression. Artists and writers are among the most vulnerable of professionals due to irregular pay and isolation which contribute to the propensity for writers to succumb to depression.

Also novelist Simon Brett, who has acknowledged his own struggles with depression, agreed with the content and symptoms of depression. “You spend long hours sitting on your own," he said. "Writing can be wonderful therapy, but you are digging into yourself, and if you are writing fiction and creating characters, a certain amount of self-examination and self-doubt is inevitable." “Many writers are also introverted, quiet people, and find it stressful to have their work assessed publicly”, Brett added. Simon believes that there are specific points in the novel-writing cycle when authors are particularly vulnerable. "Almost every writer I know goes through the same reaction after a novel is finished – there are 24 hours of euphoria and then all the negative thoughts you have shut out while finishing it come out, and either you get drunk or depressed or get the flu.”

Now I want to name and compare several writers who suffered from depression. Most of the authors wrote down and announced their feelings and moods in their books.

The first one is Sylvia Plath. In one of her books, she writes:

“God, but life is loneliness, despite all the opiates, despite the shrill tinsel gaiety of 'parties' with no purpose, despite the false grinning faces we all wear. And when at last you find someone to whom you feel you can pour out your soul, you stop in shock at the words you utter — they are so rusty, so ugly, so meaningless and feeble from being kept in the small cramped dark inside you so long. Yes, there is joy, fulfillment and companionship — but the loneliness of the soul in its appalling self-consciousness is horrible and overpowering.” — The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

In these lines, she emphasizes especially on loneliness and the dark inside a human mind. Sylvia Plath's experience of depression was so deeply a part of her work that it's hard to disentangle them. She wrote honestly about the disorder and inner demons, which might were the reasons why she ended her life at the age of 30.

Another person who suffered from depression is the well-known author Tennessee Williams. In his book “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore”, Williams argues:

“We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it." — The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore

Playwright Williams, who also wrote classics like A Streetcar Named Desire, suffered depression all his life, battled drug and alcohol addiction, and was briefly institutionalized in 1969. In his above-mentioned lines, he highlighted his dilemma, stating that you have no other choice to break out and cannot escape from life, that there is “no way out”.

Also J.K. Rowling was a victim of depression. Rowling's life was not that easy as some may think. She was an unemployed mother with lots of problems and suddenly became a billionaire who writes bestsellers, but she's been frank about the severe depression underlying her experience. In an interview with the Times (UK) in 2000, Rowling declared:

“Depression is the most unpleasant thing I have ever experienced...It is that absence of being able to envisage that you will ever be cheerful again. The absence of hope. That very deadened feeling, which is so very different from feeling sad. Sad hurts but it's a healthy feeling. It is a necessary thing to feel. Depression is very different.“

The most interesting thing is that Rowling wrote her famous series of Harry Potter not in spite of her depression, but due to it. She also created dementors which are perfect symbolism for depression and are a brilliant aid in understanding what it actually feels like to be depressed.

There are several causes, which are not definitively proven, why writers tend to struggle with depression so much. However, there a few speculative guesses.

- Writing is quite often a solitary life. Writers sit in their office or bedroom with their laptop. They invent worlds and characters, while the real world with its real characters continues outside. But they are probably so wrapped up in those fictional worlds and characters that they don’t make the time to meet real people.

- Isolation like that can have a crushing effect on a lot of people. Some people thrive on it, but humans on the whole are a social bunch and need to interact with others. When that isn’t possible, it’s easy to feel that the walls are closing in.

- Lack of sleep, lack of exercise, lack of human contact, and lack of natural light are all factors that can develop into something much more serious.

- Since writing is so hard, it is very easy to get dispirited and to tell yourself that the whole project is hopeless. Especially when you get rejection slips from editors and harsh criticism from reviewers, your family and friends.

Nevertheless, there are lots of ways to beat depression. But most importantly: YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

“- Get in a routine. If you’re depressed, you need a routine. Depression can strip away the structure from your life. One day melts into the next. Setting a gentle daily schedule can help you get back on track.

- Set goals. When you're depressed, you may feel like you can't accomplish anything. That makes you feel worse about yourself. To push back, set daily goals for yourself. This can, for example, be that you are simply doing the dishes.

- Exercise. It temporarily boosts feel-good chemicals called endorphins. It may also have long-term benefits for people with depression. Regular exercise seems to encourage the brain to rewire itself in positive ways.

- Get enough sleep. Depression can make it hard to get enough shut-eye, and too little sleep can make depression worse. What can you do? Start by making some changes to your lifestyle. Go to bed and get up at the same time every day. Try not to nap. Take all the distractions out of your bedroom -- no computer and no TV.”

(https://www.webmd.com/depression/features/natural-treatments#1)

After all, there are many books which deal with depression and are worth reading them, either in the case of an own depression or just to see how a person with depression feels or thinks. Here is a list:

Ø Shades of blue by Amy Ferris

Ø Furiously Happy: A Funny Book about Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson

Ø Feeling good - The New Mood Therapy by David D. Burns

Ø Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions by Johann Hari

Ø The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon

Ø The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living by Russ Harris

Ø The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Ø Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Ø The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

Ø Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

Considering our mentioned quote from the introduction’s headline, one must appreciate that people with depression are also humans and not weird people as some might think. Lots of people cannot understand why people with depression behave different; they often want them just to pull themselves togehther. But it is not that easy. Most importantly, depressives deserve the same respect, happiness and fairness as others without depression do. Try to make them smile again - because it can also affect you or your beloved ones. ~ written by admin J

#depression #depressed #anxiety #mental illness #disorder #help #books about depression #beat depression #authors with depression #writers with depression #reasons for depression #representation #diverse representation #Novel #Author

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autoirishlitdiscourses · 3 years

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Discourse of Sunday, 21 March 2021

None of this coming week. You did a solid understanding of topics whose relationship is a clear line between some line that intersects several of these ways, and I'll accommodate you if you recall, is a series of archaic softhearted misplaced sympathies that are close to ten-digit student ID codes, for instance. Etc. What We Lost 5 p. It would have been balanced a bit more. —Even if you are on task, as is any selection from Ulysses this Wednesday. In a lot of things would, I think that there are a very sophisticated level. But you've been up in front of the three F's, but you took full advantage of it individually. But that you have a section you have any more I could have been balanced a bit in the course as a threat to order, civilization, rational thought, although I'm perhaps more flexible, is that you propose to read it closely more than 100% in section next week 13 November 2013 discussion of Calypso, p. On a related note, you have to pick options on GOLD; d it's YOUR JOB to make your work. If you have any questions, OK? Based on notes provided by TA Christopher Walker and the overall goal is to let the class and get your main ideas. 4% of your perspective and talking, and that you're capable of this audio or video recording online, for instance, you don't have a good day, because in my margin notes and underlining, should you be absent from lecture on Thursday, but are not allowed to disclose. After all, very few students this quarter. It would have helped to practice just a tiny bit over, and may very well be quite a good job last week due to the performance history of Ulysses, is a penalty to that but it's not necessary to try to force a discussion of When You Are Old. The Young Covey, Rosie Redmond? Reminder: 4pm today is for your paper is going to be on campus never quarter. So, with strong evidence that supports your larger-scale, but you still have plenty of examples, but that's the case in the storyline.

Your writing is quite a nice job dealing with it? Final Exams At the moment. Discussion Section Guidelines handout, which involves speculations about whether you're technically meeting the discussion that allowed people to talk about it. You are perfectly capable of doing so by 10 a. It would have helped to have in section, and what you'll be reciting as soon as possible when you sense that my 6 pm section on 27 November is National Novel Writing Month: A more in section. Here's a breakdown on how much is cuing off of his lecture pace rather than treating them as choices made as a group means that an A does, anyway. 4 I will be paying attention to the word that might make you feel that you should try to force a discussion leader for the final and with your score on the section website in a way that is related to the rest of your paper to support it. Etc. Something I should say this not because you will leave me with a passage that is formatted correctly. Thanks for being such a fine line about how movement, leisure, power cords fray, hard drives crash, printers break or run out of lecture on Tuesday night, and your material, although if you have missed for purposes of your own complex and, provided that you saw as important about this, but if you are reciting that week and also correlated strongly with how they relate to the text, you know, too, needs more focus in order to see Dexter as admirable, and some legends. 420-22, p. I promise that I'm closer to your discussion topics will be worth 50 points 10% of your performance and incorporate a ballpark estimate of participation/attendance based entirely upon attendance I won't figure participation in until the end of the whole class really was close to ten pages long; this can be hard to get various grades.

I'd say that I hope you're doing, though, you did eight IDs instead of at a different segment later in this range do not overlap with yours, by the time that you occasionally seem to have gone beyond. Then, I'd post a slightly modified version of your plans by Friday evening if you have thought it; but you are welcome to adapt it, and you accomplished a lot of important concepts for the quarter for anything, but you did so effectively. 17 October vocabulary quiz on John Synge's play The Playboy of the quarter, especially at the beginning of the rhythm of Bloom's thoughts in your order of preference, and it's not necessary and if you have disclosed any part at all by Patrick Kavanagh, On Raglan Road: Personally, I think that, just make snap judgments that you deserve it. I think reasons. My worst grades as an allegory; the Irish?

The name of Robert Peel; cf.

I'm assuming that you made constant insightful, meaningful contributions to discussion: that you need another copy of an A-for the sake of being perfectly clear that this will count as a last resort are constantly hungry; c divorce is essentially impossible in Ireland and Irish Currency. Grammar and usage errors, etc. Let me know. Let me know if you have several print copies left, but an issue of hasty writing and polished work. There are a couple of suggestions that might be rephrased as what parallels do you analyze your points because it has to be unable to turn into a larger-scale course concerns and did an excellent job an impassioned delivery. I've ended up collecting multiple documents on my way to get back to you earlier I looked at them again and they looked strange, so I'm sympathetic—but that one of the most likely way to find it productive to save question 2, below. Strange feeling it would have helped to get back to you. You might think about what possibilities for discussion, because it's easier for me. I'm sorry to take the paper and I appreciate that you're talking more effectively to the group may help you to be one of the religion, and I will be able to avoid them, and below 103 to drop into the discussion. One of the musical adaptation; other than misogynistic. Overall, you may want to but I'm not entirely sure that you're going through miscellaneous papers last week week. I have some very intriguing suggestions that might serve as a useful alternative view that may not have your paper you had thought closely about the topics you've picked. He did mention Yeats and nationalism? I mean is that one of the passage you want to, I'll try hard to let it motivate other people uncomfortable enough that they didn't cover but that it would have helped to practice just a tiny bit over, and you did a very good ideas in a paper that you wanted to make his slide show available to, and I'll see you in section. Yes! I hope that you get at this point, you can which specific part of the assignment write-up of the others suffered? Note that this is simply hasty editing and/or social construction of this audio or visual recording itself in the meantime or have a midterm to correct for the course of the word potato. This is much less polite and responsive to early questions didn't get the other hand, I think this aspect of this work for you is yours. Right now, it's likely to give the rest of the performance has completed. I think that you must at least a preliminary selection of the rather thin time slice that Joyce gives us of their own knowledge is a good idea and so forth. The Covey 6 p.

You had a very good job of making your teaching practices visible I post every slideshow I develop, so although there's no overlap in terms of line count, stanza breaks, or it may be most helpful at this point is that your crazy life is not inevitably the case that 16 June 1904 is unusual for her youthful desire with a disability and require special accommodations, DSP will communicate with the play. Thank you. If you have a number of important themes as the professor has not yet worked out your major: The hat scene in/Ulysses Seen/graphic novel or for your material very effectively and provided that it's necessarily the best option for you on time. Feel better soon. Think about what you want to do a solid and quite enjoyed having you in lecture, during my office and I think that your paper's structure would pay off in analytical terms; but you handled this well enough in section, so that you had a good place to close-reading exercise of your plans. Engaging in close readings.

However, this is Michelle Juergen's The Economics of Hookup Culture, which involves speculations about whether you're thinking about it. Only my mother and some broader course concerns and did an excellent winter break! This is only one of two pairs reciting from Godot for the final to drop into lecture mode.

62. Sounds like a reasonable guess is that you should be able to pick one option from section the most basic issues if you go back through the section that is genuinely smarter than her grade actually reflects, and you generally knew just how much you knew about the difference that you made changed the last chance to do, in my opinion to earn exactly 7. Have a good presence in front of the fact that you should have read episodes 5 Lotus Eaters, starting on page 240 of the Flies, and is entirely understandable, but you handled yourself and your analytical exploration of Digging and other works, OK?

It'll just need to include these types of documents in addition to giving you the opportunity to demonstrate this and provided a good weekend! You're very welcome. From there, and on all parts of the professor's miss three sections results in automatic course failure. Go above and beyond the length requirements. Hi! Let me know. Your do a different time. A characteristic of personality and identity that has sounded good to me like the one he'd used in a more luggage than you expect. I think that giving texts, and this is, your attention should primarily be on campus tomorrow afternoon. My intent was not announced last week. Note that other people to talk sometimes, and had a low-ish rooms available, that one thing, most of your recitation from Calypso, p.

#Irish literature #automatically generated text #Patrick Mooney #Python #Markov chains

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aakanchha · 3 years

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*Climate Change*

In this essay, I will examine the critical question(s): How does or doesn’t this artifact fit Isocrates’ criteria of good rhetoric (Karios, appropriateness, originality)? Is this example of rhetoric ethical/productive for democracy and/or limiting to society?

To investigate these questions, I examined the speech given by Greta Thunberg at the UN Climate Action Summit in September 2019. This speech exhibits good rhetoric as it consists of all the three elements (Kairos, appropriateness and originality) that Isocrates believes a good rhetoric should have. This is productive because with the use of these three elements the rhetor is trying to hold world leaders accountable and galvanize youths across the globe to start implementing changes at the grassroot level to help combat the climate crisis.

Greta Thunberg is an eighteen year old environmentalist from Sweden. She started her journey at the age of eight when she first started learning about climate change. Since then she has won numerous awards like the Fritt Ord Award, International Children’s Peace Prize to name a few and has contributed a lot to the movement including the global climate strike. This speech was given by her at the UN Climate Action Summit which was held at the UN headquarters at New York in September of 2019. The theme of the summit was “Climate Action Summit 2019: A Race We Can Win, A Race We Must Win”. And the main intention of this event was to put pressure on political and economic actors to achieve the aims of the summit.

Isocrates believes, “practicing rhetoric is an art in itself, if it is “good” rhetoric used for practical actions”. Unlike the philosophers he believes that people can not determine the future as things change all the time. Which is why he claims we need good rhetoric to help us navigate through these changes. And unlike the sophists, he doesn’t believe everyone can just be taught how to use good rhetoric, he believes that one must also possess some natural talent. Finally, even though someone might be aware of their surroundings and the changes occurring in it. To be a good rhetoric it must consist of three elements: Kairos, appropriateness and originality. Kairos is all about the timing of the speech, if the speech matched what was currently going on in the world, if it was given at the right time and right moment in history. Appropriateness deals with the general social etiquette. While originality deals with how the speaker has put their own spin on the general subject. These three elements were something Isocrates used as a criteria to evaluate a rhetoric. Along with the leaders ability to guide the people in the right direction, even if it meant going against the popular opinion at the time. Today, we’ll be using the rubic Isocrates has provided us to determine whether the artifact is a good or a bad rhetoric.

One of the three elements that Isocrates used to evaluate a rhetoric is Kairos. Here, the artifact exhibits Kairos because she is addressing the global climate crisis in a Climate Summit. She uses this platform and opportunity to shine light on the harsh truth of climate change. She makes a claim that, “The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees [Celsius], and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control.”. Furthermore, she exhibits kairos as she is speaking on how these changes might be irreversible if the leaders don’t act fast and continue to ignore these facts provided to us. To create a sense of urgency she accuses them of not taking this issue seriously by stating, “How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just 'business as usual' and some technical solutions?”. In doing so she has not only managed to achieve the main goal of the summit which was to hold world leaders accountable. But also managed to give a timeline on how things are changing and it will continue to change. Secondly, by communicating the main aim and intentions of the summit she exhibits appropriateness. She was able to do that through her accusatory tones and language. Multiple times through the speech she has directly questioned the decisions made by people in power and challenged their solutions. Her saying, “How dare you!” multiple times throughout the speech has managed to accomplish this goal.

Even though some people might argue that the speech given by her wasn’t quite appropriate because of her word choices and the harsh tone of her voice. Given that she was just sixteen years old at the time of the speech. With a long life to live suffering the consequence of the action taken today by the leaders or the lack thereof, it seems appropriate for her to make these claims. She makes it abundantly clear in the very beginning of the speech itself that she shouldn’t be the one being angry at the lack of responsiveness towards the climate crisis and how it is being handled. She states, “This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope.”. We can clearly see that she is doing this because she feels helpless about the current situation.

Lastly, she exhibits originality as she is using this platform to voice problems that future generations and her generation will be facing. Offering opinion to people making decisions to hear the side of people who’ll have to live in the reality they will create. She does this by stating, “we who have to live with the consequences.”. By doing so, she is not only irritating that the efforts being made today aren’t enough but also despite her age, the valuable information she is providing should be taken seriously.

Furthermore, according to Iscorates this artifact is displaying good rhetoric because Isocrates believes that good rhetoric should be used to help us navigate through changes happening in our surroundings. Even though it might mean the speaker going against the popular idea and pointing them in the right direction. Here the artifact is exactly doing that by challenging the policymakers decisions and using rhetoric to implement changes needed. At the end of her speech she states, “We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.”. Her use of accusatory tones that has been previously mentioned along with the emotion she expresses. Conveyed her message loud and clear to the masses, which made the global climate change possible.

Overall, the artifact is an example of good rhetoric because she has been able to direct masses in the right direction. Made global climate strike possible and has created an impact through her message till this day. With the use of good rhetoric she was also able to help make the UN Climate Action Summit successful and put pressure on world leaders. After this summit took place then president of the United States Donald Trump has also correspond with her messages, demonstrating the reach of good rhetoric despite age.

“WATCH: Greta Thunberg's Full Speech to World Leaders at UN Climate Action Summit.”

YouTube, 23 Sept. 2019, youtu.be/KAJsdgTPJpU.

Kunde, Margaret, director. Day 10 Isocrates. YouTube, 12 Mar. 2021,

youtu.be/H9OvqgBZ4Dc.

Mirhady, David, et al. Isocrates I. University of Texas Press, 2000

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