#just in case you want context

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

i have a Scene - a Plot if you will - that backs this as context. y'all are gonna have to trust me on this one <3 or read the tags...

#the song is 'in your eyes' by peter gabriel #boombox serenade lets GO!!! #in my mind immediately after this the others came over to say hi (or in sallys case tell him off) #and at first howdy's like 'oh ofc wallys there that makes sense. sally too? strange but alright' #then eddie appears and ohhhh boy its Jealousy Central Babey and howdy's train just pulled into the station #scribble salad #laughingstock #welcome home #barnaby x howdy #howdy x barnaby #OK CONTEXT I PROMISED CONTEXT #so in my mind howdy is an oblivious dumbass when it comes to his own romantic feelings. #he's so in love with barnaby (its very obvious) but Doesnt Realize It. despite being a god tier flirty fruity motherfucker #so when barnaby - thinking theyre on the same page - confesses #howdy's all like 'ohhh um. gee barn im flattered truly but - i just dont like you like that' #yk breaking barnaby's heart right down the middle #so barnaby shuts himself in his home and wally is hovering. yk Worried #and eddie - who's been helping barnaby come to terms w/ his own feelings & gauge if howdy feels the same - asks sally to check in for him #& sally goes over and Immediately involves herself. she takes personal offense on barnaby's behalf #also she lives for the drama and wants every juice detail Hot Off The Press #so while howdy is having a lil crisis as he slowly realizes Oh My Fucking God I DO Love Barnaby Like That- #barnaby / sally / wally / (eventually) eddie are all having a sleepover where they just play card games and chat #a good ol bitch n' stitch night #and howdy shows up to try and talk to barns (obvs in my head he doesnt have a boombox he just Knocks) #only to get RE-RE-RE-REJECTEDDDDDD!!!! thats how it feels you wormy mf! #bc barnaby is a) having a girls night & b) needs to emotionally prepare for That conversation #aaaaand THATS the context <3

[royalarchivist]

Phil: Daedalus! Oh you - Oh it’s just reminded me of something, f**k. Ok Chat, quick heads up, it’s lore, it’s about lore. I was gonna have a line that I was gonna say, and I couldn’t say it because I was getting choked up when I went into Techno’s house. I was gonna talk about -- I was gonna mention very briefly about the code name that Techno gave me, “Zephyrus”, and how I initially wanted “ Daedalus” because I thought it was more appropriate. I was like “ Daedalus is probably --” like, I pitched Daedalus to him, and then he said, “No, I like Zephyrus.” [...] He was like, “Zephyrus suits you better.” So now you know, I was gonna say that, and then couldn’t. Amongst other things. It just reminded me, just seeing the name.

#Emerald Duo #Philza #Technoblade #DSMP #Lore #Phil plays Hardcore #I could've stopped this around the 1 minute mark but I wanted to include the other stuff he said for context\ #in case people aren't familiar with the mythology #I just watched the Techno video and it reminded me I had a bunch of stuff I hadn't shared #because it made me too sad to share day-of #Miss you Techno

[thunderboltfire]

I have a lot of complicated feelings when it comes to what Neflix has done with the Witcher, but my probably least favourite is the line of argumentation that originated during shitstorms related to the first and second season that I was unlucky to witness.

It boils down to "Netflix's reinterpretation and vision is valid, because the Witcher books are not written to be slavic. The overwhelming Slavic aestetic is CDPR's interpretation, and the setting in the original books is universally European, as there are references to Arthurian mythos and celtic languages" And I'm not sure where this argument originated and whether it's parroting Sapkowski's own words or a common stance of people who haven't considered the underlying themes of the books series. Because while it's true that there are a lot of western european influences in the Witcher, it's still Central/Eastern European to the bone, and at its core, the lack of understanding of this topic is what makes the Netflix series inauthentic in my eyes.

The slavicness of the Witcher goes deeper than the aestetics, mannerisms, vodka and sour cucumbers. Deeper than Zoltan wrapping his sword with leopard pelt, like he was a hussar. Deeper than the Redanian queen Hedvig and her white eagle on the red field.

What Witcher is actually about? It's a story about destiny, sure. It's a sword-and-sorcery style, antiheroic deconstruction of a fairy tale, too, and it's a weird mix of many culture's influences.

But it's also a story about mundane evil and mundane good. If You think about most dark, gritty problems the world of Witcher faces, it's xenophobia and discrimination, insularism and superstition. Deep-seated fear of the unknown, the powerlessness of common people in the face of danger, war, poverty and hunger. It's what makes people spit over their left shoulder when they see a witcher, it's what makes them distrust their neighbor, clinging to anything they deem safe and known. It's their misfortune and pent-up anger that make them seek scapegoats and be mindlessly, mundanely cruel to the ones weaker than themselves.

There are of course evil wizards, complicated conspiracies and crowned heads, yes. But much of the destruction and depravity is rooted in everyday mundane cycle of violence and misery. The worst monsters in the series are not those killed with a silver sword, but with steel. it's hard to explain but it's the same sort of motiveless, mundane evil that still persist in our poorer regions, born out of generations-long poverty and misery. The behaviour of peasants in Witcher, and the distrust towards authority including kings and monarchs didn't come from nowhere.

On the other hand, among those same, desperately poor people, there is always someone who will share their meal with a traveller, who will risk their safety pulling a wounded stranger off the road into safety. Inconditional kindness among inconditional hate. Most of Geralt's friends try to be decent people in the horrible world. This sort of contrasting mentalities in the recently war-ridden world is intimately familiar to Eastern and Cetral Europe.

But it doesn't end here. Nilfgaard is also a uniquely Central/Eastern European threat. It's a combination of the Third Reich in its aestetics and its sense of superiority and the Stalinist USSR with its personality cult, vast territory and huge army, and as such it's instantly recognisable by anybody whose country was unlucky enough to be caught in-between those two forces. Nilfgaard implements total war and looks upon the northerners with contempt, conscripts the conquered people forcibly, denying them the right of their own identity. It may seem familiar and relevant to many opressed people, but it's in its essence the processing of the trauma of the WW2 and subsequent occupation.

My favourite case are the nonhumans, because their treatment is in a sense a reminder of our worst traits and the worst sins in our history - the regional antisemitism and/or xenophobia, violence, local pogroms. But at the very same time, the dilemma of Scoia'Tael, their impossible choice between maintaining their identity, a small semblance of freedom and their survival, them hiding in the forests, even the fact that they are generally deemed bandits, it all touches the very traumatic parts of specifically Polish history, such as January Uprising, Warsaw Uprising, Ghetto Uprising, the underground resistance in WW2 and the subsequent complicated problem of the Cursed Soldiers all at once. They are the 'other' to the general population, but their underlying struggle is also intimately known to us.

The slavic monsters are an aestetic choice, yes, but I think they are also a reflection of our local, private sins. These are our own, insular boogeymen, fears made flesh. They reproduce due to horrors of the war or they are an unprovoked misfortune that descends from nowhere and whose appearance amplifies the local injustices.

I'm not talking about many, many tiny references that exist in the books, these are just the most blatant examples that come to mind. Anyway, the thing is, whether Sapkowski has intended it or not, Witcher is slavic and it's Polish because it contains social commentary. Many aspects of its worldbuilding reflect our traumas and our national sins. It's not exclusively Polish in its influences and philosophical motifs of course, but it's obvious it doesn't exist in a vacuum.

And it seems to me that the inherently Eastern European aspects of Witcher are what was immediately rewritten in the series. It seems to me that the subtler underlying conflicts were reshaped to be centered around servitude, class and gender disparity, and Nilfgaard is more of a fanatic terrorist state than an imposing, totalitarian empire. A lot of complexity seems to be abandoned in lieu of usual high-fantasy wordbuilding. It's especially weird to me because it was completely unnecessary. The Witcher books didn't need to be adjusted to speak about relevant problems - they already did it! The problem of acceptance and discrimination is a very prevalent theme throughout the story! They are many strong female characters too, and they are well written. Honestly I don't know if I should find it insulting towards their viewers that they thought it won't be understood as it was and has to be somehow reshaped to fit the american perpective, because the current problems are very much discussed in there and Sapkowski is not subtle in showing that genocide and discrimination is evil. Heck, anyone who has read the ending knows how tragic it makes the whole story.

It also seems quite disrespectful, because they've basically taken a well-established piece of our domestic literature and popular culture and decided that the social commentary in it is not relevant. It is as if all it referenced was just not important enough and they decided to use it as an opportunity to talk about the problems they consider important. And don't get me wrong, I'm not forcing anyone to write about Central European problems and traumas, I'm just confused that they've taken the piece of art already containing such a perspective on the popular and relevant problem and they just... disregarded it, because it wasn't their exact perspective on said problem.

And I think this homogenisation, maybe even from a certain point of view you could say it's worldview sanitisation is a problem, because it's really ironic, isn't it? To talk about inclusivity in a story which among other problems is about being different, and in the same time to get rid of motifs, themes and references because they are foreign? Because if something presents a different perspective it suddenly is less desirable?

There was a lot of talking about the showrunners travelling to Poland to understand the Witcher's slavic spirit and how to convey it. I don't think they really meant it beyond the most superficial, paper-thin facade.

#The witcher #Sorry if its convoluted I just got reminded of something and it made me a little angry #and as I had this conversation a lot of times I've decided to put it into written text #sorry about being bitter #but these are some of my favourite books and I'm still upset when I get reminded how badly they were treated in the recent adaptation #I'm not saying you should never change anything #But it's good to have enough background to understand why some things are the way they are in the original #and to understand what the source material is about #we don't talk about particular character's looks or something (altough I feel they could care more about it too) #but central themes tropes and motifs #long post #it may seem like I'm talking from a high horse here #people are welcome to interpret literature however they want #Nobody has a monopol on themes #I just think that in this particular case the cultural context influences the worldbuilding #and if changed it doesn't have the same impact anymore #meta

[proxentauri]

yea ahti really just went "ight ima head out" in the middle of the hiss invasion huh

thanks @radlovedetective for the control art request!! :) i haven't drawn ahti before but he is one of my favourite characters...if i knew finnish i would put something funny here

#art tag #control #control remedy #ahti #ahti the janitor #yes i really did draw jesse as the anime girl crying meme #sure you can use it if you want #jesse faden #control spoilers #just in case? #i purposefully didnt give more context on the jesse scene to avoid too many spoilers #control 2019 #control asks #request

[semi-sketchy]

I know this is beating a dead horse at this point, but I just started thinking about this the other day and...

How many people that were previously enemies has Sonic ACTUALLY befriended?

Like my knowledge of some old games and the handhelds ain't great, but...

There was Knuckles, who I think is the only one in the classic era.

He never really befriended Gamma in SA1, just left him to Amy.

Also he didn't befriend Chaos, just beat the anger out of him.

The next one was Shadow in SA2, although they're still kinda rivals?

I don't think Rouge counts in SA2 since she wasn't really an enemy of Sonic specifically, even in Heroes it's really Sonic and Shadow that start the fight.

Gemerl is a robot who was reprogrammed to be friendly, I wouldn't count that as "befriending someone".

Him and Jet are rivals in every Riders game, this never changes.

Blaze in Rush is someone that fought him and they became friends, so it's clear cut, she counts.

Silver in '06 does as well.

Do we count Shade from Chronicles? I think she had a boss fight. I know very little about that game but it's not canon, right?

Merlina is kinda a grey area? Like they were friends, he stopped her evil plans and was still nice to her. I don't know if in context that meets the criteria.

On top of that I don't think the Knights of the Round Table count. Sonic is there to take the swords and they work together at the end. I don't think there's any hard feelings, but don't know if this counts as "friends".

Sage could be the next example, but she's still loyal to Eggman. I don't think what they briefly shared was friendship as much as Sage wanting to save Eggman.

I haven't played Superstars but Trip doesn't even have a bossfight, does she? I don't think she counts.

Not looking at the method, just purely if they became friends down the line. Out of all of those, there's 4 total (if you count Shadow, which I do) with 1 it's complicated and 1 non-canon. That's very few when you consider how large the game cast is.

An overwhelming majority of his friends weren't ever hostile with him to begin with, like the Chaotix, Amy, Tails, Cream, Emerl, Big, ect. There's plenty of other cast members that are still have him on their shit list, like Eggman, Infinite (if he's alive), Fang, Metal, Eggman Nega, the Deadly Six...

Now I'm starting to wonder where this idea of it being a frequent even came from.

#i still don't read the comic anymore but it's kinda hard to not see anything about it in the sonic fandom #anyways yeah that's my ramblings on the subject #a weird aspect to latch onto when it's only happened a few times #and the last definitive one was 18 years ago #and again not looking too hard at the context of those situations in this post i already know the comic misrepresents them #because aside from blaze sonic never instigated those friendships #he's a go with the flow kinda guy so he'll match your energy #you come at him aggressive and he'll be aggressive back #but also if you're friendly he'll be friendly kinda thing #anti idw sonic #idw sonic #fans don't look #hopefully that covers the tag blocking list #and people properly filter because i don't want to leave the idw tag out #in case anyone is just trying to steer clear of anything idw

[dennisboobs]

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

↳ Chardee MacDennis: The Game of Games // The Gang Goes Bowling

#iasip #it's always sunny in philadelphia #dennis reynolds #sunny sweet 16 #LISTEN TO ME. LISTEN TO ME. IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE SAME DENNIS. HE WAS NEVER EMOTIONLESS. #YOU JUST HAVE TO WATCH HIM. #the ONLY reason he didnt react during chardee macdennis is because their win was riding on it #the sunny wiki for so long saying this was proof of him being emotionless or somehow Immune To Pain #when he is LITERALLY WINCING AND SAYING OW AFTER THE FACT #it's the exact same thing as what mac and charlie were talking about with dee during emotional battery #she can get through that and then cry once theyve won. dennis can take a dart to the hand and be visibly in pain afterwards #and also i imagine breaking every bone in his hand is probably more painful than a dart jdsfkjsv #ada speaks #ada's gifs #I DIDNT WANT TO REBLOG SUNNYKEYSMASH'S POST IN CASE IT CAME OFF AS INFLAMMATORY BUT IM HAVING FEELINGS ABOUT THIS COMPARISON SO UH SHOUTOUT #EDIT: CONTEXT WAS NOT THAT SUNNYKEYSMASH CLAIMED HE WAS EMOTIONLESS I JUST WAS INSPIRED AFTER SEEING A POST #i was mad at dudebros using the dart scene as evidence for him being a sociopath and it just reminded me jshvfkjsd

[acewizardinspace]

I think the 'the jedi use child soldiers' thing is stupid for a lot of reasons, but among those is that this is a complete misunderstanding of how children's media works. Kids want to see themselves doing amazing things and giving that an in depth analysis that boils down to 'all these adults are evil' is poor, bad faith, media criticism.

That being said, if you compare Star Wars to just about any other YA work, the jedi are miles better as far as child care goes. Canonly every single one of these 'kids in danger' has a dedicated adult who is ideally supposed to be with them to teach and protect them. Very uncommon for the genre.

So if people are mad at the jedi for this, I can't fathom what their reaction to other YA literature is. And if they hate YA literature, idk, maybe they shouldn't be reading YA. Just a thought.

#in defense of the jedi #pro jedi #the other reasons the child solider thing is dumb is that most padawans are not children #like ahsoka was considered young. Dooku was what 16 when he became one? Obi-Wan was 25 and knighted earlier than planned #even if they were knighted early because of the war (which i think is stupid and there is no evidence for that) #that doesn't make them all kids... #and the character we see as child padawans are clearly there for children to watch and enjoy #I mean unpredictable things happen but child padawans are not supposed to be facing danger alone #but eased into it by a trusted adult which is not what happens in ever other YA book #Honestly if you hate the jedi for this but don't equally hate every other adult in every other YA book #maybe you are just LOOKING for reasons to hate the jedi. In which case idk maybe examine why that is #and if you do hate all adults in YA maybe it is time to move onto adult literature because you grew up #which is awesome! I love adult books but judging kids media by these standards and hating people for wanting simple stuff #in their book created to be simple is kind of rude you know? #i realize this post is probably hitting a wasp's nest but I mean if you want to take what I say out of context #(because in context I didn't do or say anything wrong) #well that says more about you than me doesn't it #my thoughts

[bluevaractyl]

Help, inspiration does not care that I have more important things to be doing

@hotcheetohatredwastaken's Febuwhump "Wild's Wolf" would not let me go until I had drawn this

#how does one draw feral twelve-year-olds #what is anatomy #this was really good expression practice #if you don't want this associated with you Cheeto just lemme know #I dithered over posting this for over an hour #linked universe #my art #other people's writing #aaaaa #what Time sees when he looks under the bed #oof that needs context haha #oh right I should probably tag #child abuse tw #just in case

[butchladymaria]

#bloodborne #not exaggerating when i say that even wearing PANTS was seen as an exclusively masc thing btw #there are Multiple cases of women literally PASSING AS DUDES by wearing pants. IN THE ARMY NO LESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #this one lady who wore pants to farm was seen so outlandish it warranted public backlash #women were arrested for wearing pants and button-down shirts as recently as THE SIXTIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #i could go more into maria's outfit as a whole but the pants ALONE make her canonically masc By Definition in the historical context :) #if ur abt to be fucking stupid on this post im Just going to block u btw #having said that if anyone DOES have normal responses or questions i really love history and i have a lot of resources #comment/reblog/inbox/dm are all fair game <333 #in case anyone was curious what my inbox looked like after making that post #most of these are direct quotes :) its just silly to me #like holy [citation needed] #if u want to know more!!!! #i love her so much and im really tired of (overwhelmingly cis) people literally being so insecure in their own gender #that they just start reinventing gender roles in my inbox!!!!! #and everywhere else they can get their hands on #i think some of yall need to realize that uhhhhhhh #butch lesbians seeing maria as a butch lesbian is not fucking '''''''tokenism'''''''''''' or whatever #that is Literally Not What That Word Means #but it may be worth examining why you are so upset by it? #or barring that........have some genuine curiosity about the history of gender.......because its really cool to research imo

[bottombillyapologist]

My opinion on billy hargrove as a character is so complicated but I think I can boil is down as: he is one of the few realistic interpretations of an imperfect abuse victim where his actions make you uncomfortable and it can be generally agreed he doesn’t take Good actions, but even just the slightest bit of thinking can make you understand why he does what he does. Why it makes sense to him.

You can look at him and go “I empathize with you, I understand you, I could’ve been you if I didn’t have a support system” or even “I WAS you” or “I AM you” and I think the reason he is so controversially liked/disliked is there is some inherent belief that somehow despite the way you were raised, you’re supposed to just inherently know what’s right and wrong. And yeah, once you’re in recovery you tend to learn what’s right and wrong, but nowhere in Billy’s story does anyone ever tell him the way he’s being treated is wrong. No one tells him the actions he’s taking because of it are wrong. Or on the other hand, he is punished so universally for his behavior it is hard to discern when his actions are actually wrong, or if he’s being treated unfairly. He is never shown empathy or understanding until quite literally, the moment he dies.

The message of his story is that when you are isolated, abused, and angry, no one tries to help you until it’s already too late. So yeah, I think anyone can dislike a character for any reason they want, but writing him off as an abusive racist when the quite literally Point Of His Character is “this is what can happen to a person when they are never given kindness/empathy/support and it warps their morals and actions to be violent and/or prejudiced” is just. Wrong. Especially when that includes attacking people who empathize with his character.

Regardless of if you like it or not, there are real people who were like that, are like that, and they deserve love, support, and empathy as much as any “‘perfect’” abuse victim that never perpetuated the cycle. Anger is simply a product of the fear that comes with abuse. Redirecting that anger at others is a learned behavior that comes with coping with that abuse, it’s not right, but you can’t unlearn it unless you’re given a chance to heal. Every abuse victim deserves support and a chance to heal and learn from their past actions and mindsets. Understanding a mindset is not the same thing as condoning it.

So please for the love of god, leave people alone when they write a happy ending for someone they see themselves in.

#billy hargrove #stranger things #stranger things 4 #writing #discourse #like. yes watching the show is actions are upsetting and they’re Supposed To Be #you don’t have to like him!! just don’t attack people who like him and act like he’s some horrible completely unforgivable person #real people see that actually #real people can see you saying he deserved to die for Things That Happened To Them On Real Life #and you can be uncomfortable with racism in any context!! #but just like. keep in mind real people can see your shit online #no he’s not a real person but there are plenty of people like him that want to see him have a happy ending #i think people generally write this type of abuse victim badly #where their anger doesn’t Really Relate to the abuse and it comes off as like #oh you’re being bullied? well that person might have something happening at home!! #that’s not really the case with billy #yeah he’s just a dick sometimes but when he’s Really Violent it is out of a belief he is somehow protecting himself or someone else #anyway. long post

[picturemecountingcards]

i'm about to start colouring, so gonna post the sketch in case i fuck it up :) do any of you remember i post art sometimes? me neither

edit: coloured version

#tma #the magnus archives #gerry keay #michael distortion #gerrymichael #doorkeay #picture me making art #so much of my sketchbook is just drawings of hands rn idk why i'm so into that #made new year's cards for my family and they're all just various drawings of hands in vaguely festive contexts. colour coded too #in case you wanted to know something stupid about me

[just-another-obsessed-fangirl]

the idea that max never actually had sex before he was with grace is (at least to me) a somewhat plausible headcanon considering the sounds he was making in that scene + his warped perception about sex ("watch some porn! you'll see!"), but im also choosing to believe it because theres something disproportionately hilarious to me specifically about the idea of dying a virgin but somehow still losing your virginity after death when youre a ghost

#nerdy prudes must die #max jagerman #npmd #my posts #an idea i just thought of as i was writing this that is less plausible but made me laugh really hard #do you think max was Saving Himself for The One? #and he had decided that The One for him was grace #that is almost definitely definitely not the case but the idea of it is literally making me laugh out loud rn #itd add another layer of subversion to their dynamic i guess #i mean i guess technically grace wouldve ideally wanted to save herself for The One #but i think grace put more importance on having sex within the context of marriage more than she did on it being with the Love of her Life #like she'd expect who she's marrying to be The One but marriage was a higher priority than an emotional connection. am i making sense.

[skyburger]

whos your favorite of the crusaders from part 3... i think i love baofu the most tbh

#persona 2 #baofu #jjba #jotaro kujo #noriaki kakyoin #joseph joestar #muhammad avdol #jean pierre polnareff #persona 2 eternal punishment #kaoru saga #p2ep #p2 #this is making me laugh stupid hard ITS NOT EVEN A GOOD BIT. THIS IS A STUPID BIT. but its really funny to me right now #im too lazy to type out context for this just search like the words ''baofu'' and ''joestar'' and youll probably find it #i mean. if tumblr search decides to work. but thats not up to me #(all jokes aside if u like cant actually find it just send me an ask and ill find it for u) #...should i tag this. i might tag this. i think im gonna tag this i want to really confuse and/or annoy someone #maybe even both if im lucky #and in case you were wondering (which im sure you were not): #i did actually google heights for this and try to make it roughly accurate. like i put a stupid amount of effort into this #not that much. but like for what this is? wayyyy too much time went into it #its okay though i had fun. peace and love on planet earth #muffin mumbles #edit: just remembered i think tumblr only shows the first few of ur tags im going to move the character tags to the front #so if these tags seem like theyre in a weird order. Thats probs why

[coquelicoq]

In talking about Chaucer (p. 74), I said that, in general, puns and verbal connections of sound were unimportant and not to be sought out; and now, you will say, I have been using them to explain cruces in Shakespeare. Alas, you have touched on a sore point; this is one of the less reputable aspects of our national poet. A quibble is to Shakespeare [Johnson could not but confess] what luminous vapours are to the traveller; he follows it at all adventures; it is sure to lead him out of his way and sure to engulf him in the mire. It has some malignant power over his mind.... A quibble was for him the fatal Cleopatra for whom he lost the world, and was content to lose it. Nor can I hold out against the Doctor, beyond saying that life ran very high in those days, and that he does not seem to have lost the world so completely after all. It shows lack of decision and will-power, a feminine pleasure in yielding to the mesmerism of language, in getting one's way, if at all, by deceit and flattery, for a poet to be so fearfully susceptible to puns. Many of us could wish the Bard had been more manly in his literary habits, and I am afraid the Sitwells are just as bad.

William Empson, 7 Types of Ambiguity, ch 2 pp 100-101

i'm sorry this is so fucking funny. that pathetic loser shakespeare who loved puns so much it cost him everything, except of course his status as the most famous, most read, most immortal english-language author of all time. but everything else, he lost and it's all because of how weak he was to resist a pun :/ pouring one out for my sad little girly man who could have had it all if only he was better at writing, the thing he is the most famous guy in the world for.

even empson, who disagrees with johnson that shakespeare "lost the world", is like, too bad our favorite poet is susceptible to the thing that made him famous :/ really tragic that the guy whose wordplay we've been talking about for 300 years likes wordplay :///

also i can't get over writing a book about the types of ambiguity and NOT INCLUDING PUNS?? sorry but puns are ambiguous! that's where their juice comes from! imagine liking ambiguity so much you write a book about it but never mention puns except to dunk on them. imagine being a POET and POETRY CRITIC who looks down on sound-based ambiguity! could not be me!!

#puns are a device just as much as any other kind of ambiguity! this value judgment is hilariously nonsensical to me #why are puns bad but other ambiguities aren't? you can't just call them feminine and expect me to be like oh okay in that case #next time my dad makes a pun i'm just going to sigh sadly about his lack of decision and willpower #what a feminine pleasure in yielding to the mesmerism of language i will say. not very manly of you dad :/ #i'm annoyed too because one of the types of ambiguity he respects is when one word has multiple meanings possible #in the context of the text. but that is in a sense a kind of pun. he says puns are homophonic but guess what #when one word has multiple meanings another way of saying that is that those are different words that happen to be spelled the same #that is then homophonic ambiguity! aka a fucking pun!!!! #i'm not just quibbling over the exact definition of a pun. i'm saying the boundaries are THAT porous i don't see how you could possibly #like semantic ambiguity as long as the spelling is identical but suddenly think it's facile when the spelling/etymology is different #that's not at all based in rational thinking but he's over here like 'the mesmerism of language is for girls' #pot meet kettle much??? #poetry #ambiguity #puns #shakespeare #my posts #there was one other thing i was gonna say what was it. OH YEAH. he also was saying a few pages back that spelling was completely #unstandardized in shakespeare's time...so then why does it matter??? #okay and one more thing. he keeps trying to convince me that various verses are syntactically ambiguous if you ignore the punctuation #okay. if we're ignoring punctuation we must be hearing it orally. which means we also don't know what spelling was used!!!! #i think probably he would say he cares more about etymology than spelling. words with different meanings that are etymologically #related are allowed and manly but words with different meanings that came from different roots are a weakness to be avoided #like i'm sorry dude but that is so arbitrary. and you are just cutting yourself off from an immensely rich body of possible ambiguities #by disallowing that kind of wordplay. why would you want to do that????

[commsroom]

Hello !! Do you have thoughts on Rhea :]

yes, i do!! with the caveat that we have such limited information on lovelace's crew, what we do have is almost entirely filtered through her perspective, and we kinda... know rhea the least. as much as i find eris a fascinating character too, i wish we'd heard more of rhea.

which is kind of the first thing: rhea is the only AI character in wolf 359 who doesn't have a voice. (we don't hear hyperion's voice, which is supposedly not integrated yet, but he's not even really treated like a character in the scene he's in. and that's a whole other thing.) for hera in particular, she feels a physical disconnect from the others, but the fact that wolf 359 is audio only makes her an equal presence from the perspective of the audience. (which carries over to the live show, where the other characters may not be able to see her, but the audience can, etc.) rhea's situation is kind of the opposite, where her words can be seen by the others, but the audience can only hear or infer her words via what the others read out loud or respond to.

rhea clearly cares about her fellow crewmates, and seems to get along with lambert in particular. lovelace's log: "and communications officer lambert is... communications officer lambert. so an enormous stick in the mud. [...] i heard that, rhea. you are expressly forbidden from telling him i said that." - a sentiment it's easy to imagine early minkowski expressing about eiffel and hera, for the opposite reason. in a more direct parallel, rhea reassures lambert that he "does a great job"; in bach to the future, hera tells eiffel he's "actually very good at his job." the difference in context highlights their priorities; eiffel and hera are having a heart to heart about worthiness, while rhea really is talking about lambert's job - work is important to him, and most people around him don't respect or appreciate his work. what we can infer about rhea is that she's... well, the kind of person who would be lambert's friend. straightforward, rule-following, and professional.

(even something like "see, rhea? i told you someone read [my reports to command]" indicates that they talk to each other a fair amount, but also serves as a mirror to eiffel's belief no one listens to his logs.)

maybe the most interesting thing to me about rhea is her defense of eris: "it's just the way they programmed her, back off." ... again, the complete opposite of how hera might respond. eiffel tries to "defend" her in a similar way in ep 7 - "you can't really hold that against her; it's just her programming" - and she finds it incredibly insulting. with all of that taken together, with how lovelace, lambert, and rhea are in many ways intentional opposites to minkowski, eiffel, and hera, it really makes me wonder how rhea identifies or perceives herself.

i think hera is functionally human, both in her singular, consistent image of herself, and in her role in the narrative. eris appears human to lovelace, but is clear that it's how she sees "a version of herself." whether that refers to that iteration of eris having multiple versions of herself, or if it refers to all of the iterations of her who exist: either way it's a reflection of the way eris exists, and her acceptance of that. by extension, the fact that we don't encounter rhea in any way other than beeping sounds and implied words on station monitors... kind of says something narratively, i think. going back to her lack of voice, even that level of distance and abstraction takes her further away from 'human' perceptions by the audience, while she's obviously still a full person with her own priorities, perspectives, and opinions. i think it's very interesting to consider she might prefer her state of (lack of physical) existence in a way hera clearly does not.

#wolf 359 #w359 #asks #sorry this took a bit to reply to!! i know it's not just about rhea but it's hard to discuss her without talking about. other things #and i've been trying not to tag most of my asks #but i like talking about AI characters and don't know when i'll get a chance to talk about rhea again so. i wanna file it #i think it's worth considering the difference between personhood and humanity even if they commonly overlap #and i feel very strongly that it's wrong to call hera 'non-human' with the context of her character within the story #but that's very much not the case for most other AI characters and i think it's interesting she might even be an outlier within wolf 359 #i have more to say about that later but. for another post. #also to be clear. rhea's lack of voice is because she's an earlier model in universe. but it didn't have to be written that way. #the fact she was written that way says something interesting. #if you wanted to extend it to the same disability metaphors that apply to hera you could probably talk about non-verbal communication #but again. there's not much to go off of. it's mostly possibilities.

[aerial-jace]

Prayer to Djehuty for Artistic Inspiration

Hail and praise onto you, Djehuty, True Scribe of Ma'at!

Oh, Thrice Great of Heka Power, Wise One in Iunu, the Mousa has fled, she prowls a distant land in the form of a lioness!

Bring her back to me, place her on my brow, for I am her father, Ra Horakhety, and I am in need of her.

Render this service to me and I shall make offerings to you on the festivals of the month, the sixth day, the half-month, and all the other festivals appropriate to you, Oh Reckoner of Months, of Days, of Hours.

Bring her to me and you shall receive a thousand loaves of bread, a thousand jugs of beer, a thousand cuts of beef and fowl, and all other things good and pure on which a god lives.

#sharing an originally written prayer in case anyone finds it useful #this is a first experiment in Graeco-Egyptian syncretism #equating the solar eye to The Muses and referencing the distant goddess myth #I specifically call upon Djehuty because I'm a writer #but I think it works well for just general purpose artistic inspiration due to the mythic context #I guess if you're a musician Hathor may work just as well #so that's an option if you want this prayer to be purely Kemetic #kemeticism #djehuty #hellenism #mousai