#like the way each distinct difference tells u so much about them

[starlooove]

No bc fuck tim but it really really bothers me how people ignore his growth like he used to be an asshole and I’ll give tim Stans one thing: now he’s so so so stale but what I disagree with is that this staleness is bc nobody likes him like it’s in fact the exact opposite where everyone likes him so much they dont want to do anything. Even when it’s him surface level challenging Bruce it’s when everyone else is doing it too; but he’s still the backbone of the fam! Etc. and it’s so irritating bc him gaining more compassion and empathy even for people he doesn’t fw is so fun to watch and that’s why the captain boomerang thing was so out of character! (Not in a from the author way but in a tim wouldn’t do that and he and Bruce both knew it which is why it went down like it did. Same way dick killing joker was ooc; not in fanon sense but in a he would hate himself forever for this sense) and speaking of that it’s such an interesting mirror to Bruce who genuinely believes that everyone can grow vs Tim’s it doesn’t matter if they grow it’s not my decision to make like it’s the same but it’s not AND WITH CASS’ IT DOESNT MATTER IF THEY CHOOSE NOT TO GROW I WONT DO IT! like ugh. And anyways even when people acknowledge it they boil it down to “Janet and Jack taught him that the capitalist pigs that they are” like no. This is who tim was. Tim was the kind of guy who’d blame a dead kid for dying. That’s ok. Also Janet and Jack? Please reread anything involving them that’s not a fic like Jack had anger issues and they were both aloof at worst like relax.

#the Jack and Janet thing is both an understatement and an exaggeration but I don’t think anyone reads enough to care #some tim stan might get all pissy and be like ‘no look this is everytime jack yelled at him and boarding schools are abusive’ to which #and its like narratively that means nothing bc the tim you made up to justify the Drake parents you made up by blowing shit out of #proportion is also made up and if all of that was abusive there’d be smth to show for it besides ur homophobic Jack #too girlboss to care but still terrible Janet bc god forbid a woman have a personality from ur fics #anyways that’s also the reason I’m ignoring the council of spiders #well two reasons #first is that was just a moment to make tim look cool and did absolutely nothing for him or his character moving on #like at all #I’d say it fucked with his previous established dislike of killing for his own reasons #and while that COULD be interesting it’s not bc they didn’t do shit with it #and fanon doesn’t do fun shit with it either #nothing about how tim in his most manic state did shit he doesn’t want to remember shit he’d HATE other ppl for #just “’remember what I did to ur base Ra’s? mess with me again and see what I do next 😼’ #like ok can you be real and genuine? #anyways I think #AND NOT IN A HATER WAY #Tim would benefit from being humbled #like genuinely I detest the world can’t move without tim running it but the idea that tim thinks that way is so good to me #and #I think next step being him realizing that’s not true would be a BIG push for his character #bc like I said tim Stans are right in the fact that he’s stale as hell rn #but that’s bc there’s nothing to say bc there’s nowhere to go! y’all want a tim action story where he shows off how badass he is reread #the Bruce quest and maybe it’ll remind you he’s not ceo lmao but anyways there’s nothing internal to say about him atp bc nobody wants to #say anything that’s not propping him up. same with Bruce! Gotham war was such a copout but it’s like ppl are saying he’s stale and it’s bc #god forbid he makes a lasting fumble. and I’m not under the illusion this is new I’m just saying it’s weird that fandoms not clocking it #anywayyys I really do like thinking about the No killing rule and how different it manifests for each perosn #like the way each distinct difference tells u so much about them #UGH ONLY SLIGHTLY RELATED BUT DUUUUUKE BEING LIKE IDGAF ABOUT GUNS LIKE UR SO REAAAL #anyways enough tim positivity for today FUCK THAT NIGGA!

[serenequeenofeverything]

What your teams of lights wants you to know? A self tarot reading.

Group i, ii, iiii, iv

But before we move on onto the reading, i want you to understand what teams of light is.

Now I won't go into details, but if you want a separate post on this, let me know in the replies. I would be more than happy to teach you more.

This is a direct quote from Laura lynne Jackson, the author of "signs: the secret language of the universe" :

" We all have a Team of Light on the Other Side. These teams send us signs.

These signs come from three distinct forces:

1. We receive signs from God energy, which is what I mean when I say signs from the universe. This is the highest and most powerful source of love, and we are each directly connected to it, and also to one another through it.

2. We receive signs from our spirit guides / the angelic realm.

3. We receive signs from our loved ones who have crossed."

Now here is the thing, you don't need me to deliver these messages to you. You receive them yourself everyday, but you might simply dismiss it. Im here to tell you what you already probably know but also probably choose to ignore or not pay much attention to.

Now shall we begin?

Just breath in and out. Let's begin.

Group i

You are not stuck as u like to think. You know your way out of this thing (a good majority of you already made it out of this situation) tbh i mostly see a relationship but it could also totally be something related to finances and just money in general.

Here is what you need to hear tho, whoever and whatever this situation was, you will do so much better without them. You are more than capable of handling this alone. And ur teams of light are more than willing to help you, to make this easier for you. So ask for help, but within not from the outside. U have so much within urself that the world outside is nothing but a failed attempt to reflect what you already have.

This song came in so strong, listen to it.

Group ii

Very similar message to group i, kinda the same theme but while theirs revolved around trusting the self, and working through their situation alone, yours is more about collaborating with others to solve this. Now i know this may have failed for you before, but this time try differently, maybe with a different person (s).

Ur luck is about to be better but here's what i (and you teams of light) need you to do, 1. Have stronger boundaries 2. Dont get emotionally attached to these people (person) this is business, not friendship. 3. Just this time try, i promise it will go better.

Group iii

Honestly this is the group that i feel most horrible for. This group seems to be going through a lot financially speaking, some of you might even be on the verge of going homeless. Listen up my babe, you know your situation better than i do, u actually know way too well that bad your situation is or can potentially become, and it's stressing you out beyond measures.

Your teams of light is clearly saying "go there" "go back", it's something about relying on another person or maybe even the government, maybe a shelter or a father figure (I definitely see a dad) to help you in this. This is the best thing to do. Trust me, this time reach out for your own sake and safety.

Group iv

Wow and here I thought only group iii situation was bad. um.. so do u struggle with some sort of addiction? Or do you feel like you are in a home or a situation that's crumbling to the group but u r stuck and you cannot get out? If that's not you then this is not your group(altho i still suggest u read the advice section in case it might somehow be exactly what u need to hear).

Okay, if you know this is your group, then let me tell you that there's a way out. Something will come up, idk what it is but it will be big. Most probably a guy will come in, they will offer you something, an idea maybe? (Altho be fucking careful, this whole situation is very effy). I genuinely dont know what's happening... like legit this group confuses the fuck out of me, so idk if u should take this offer... dont get desperate and i know u r desperate but it's almost like the cards are telling me to tell you to not trust this person but to use their idea. Almost like listen to their advice and take their advice but not with them in the plan..

Im gonna give u an example so u understand; you live in an abusive household, and u wanna escape it. But u cannot find the way out, then boom this guy comes in and is like I'll help you but long term if u go with them u will end up in a very bad situation. But here's another way to do it, this person tells u how they will help you, like their plan to get u out, what i need u to do is do as their plan minus them( the guy).

Hopefully this makes sense, english is my third language so i find it hard to tell u exactly how it is.

-----------------------------------------------

Anyways, this is it. I hope this helps you.

Also follow me bc... im too good.

And also u can totally suggest what my next reading should be on by simply replying to this post (altho i dont take personal readings right now)

#pac reading #pick a card #pick a pile #free tarot reading #tarot cards #daily tarot #love reading

[blamemma]

what you said about maxiel fanfics with endgame lest4ppen, yes, I agree. someone mentioned this before, but maxiel is slowly dying on ao3 while it seems to be thriving more and more on tumblr.

for me it's 50/50 because I don't mind where I'm reading, but here we have more one-shots and pieces of WIPs (which is good because it means authors don't feel the pressure to turn everything into a 50k story, so they can just post their ideas even if it's incomplete), but I personally LOVE longer stories, so I would love to read more and more about every single one of them.

and personally I just don't like lest4ppen at all. I understand the need to tag maxiel because daniel is the bad guy and the "shitty boyfriend" or whatever, but I just don't like seeing those stories 😬

will always preface asks like this by saying people can like what they like and find joy in whatever, i ain't gunna turn my nose up at anyone or anything, lestappen just doesn't make sense to meeee personally, but honestly whatever butters ur bread!!!

as someone who has dabbled here and there in this writing lark, for me there is a distinct difference in ao3 posting and tumblr posting....ao3 to me is formal, ur presenting something perfect, a fully-fledged story, a beginning a middle and an end (not in all cases but i just mean in general). most stuff i read on ao3 is fully-fledged nuanced ideas that the author has obviously spent hours of time crafting and experimenting with.

tumblr fic is inherently fun and blase and easier to throw out there into the ether and forget about really. tumblr fic doesn't need to follow grammatical rules or structure etc etc....it can just be a fun prompt game response or a quick lil fic that you had fun writing and wanna share with ur people?? both have purposes and both are enjoyable to write imo, just depends on what ur feeling and how much u want to expand on said idea??

when it comes to the maxiel of it all....idk how rude or pointed i can get here without getting into shit....so i'll try and word this gently....you have to keep the eco-system alive....i think comments and kudos are GREAT but honestly, if someone reblogs my fic with a fun few tags, i love that more, because in a selfish way, i might get 1 or 2 more readers from that because its going out to an even wider audience?? but its more than that!! engage with ur writers, message them on here and shout at them about their ideas, send them prompts, recommend their fic to ur friends...but i will stand by i think one of the best things you can do, if they make a fun lil post or graphic for their fic...reblog it...ur not only spreading the maxiel gospel, but ur also supporting that writer?? too many times on here i see people's fic graphics flop yet big blogs are leaving them comments on ao3 and look, EACH TO THEIR OWN and also i can sometimes be a bad reblogger dont get me wrong, but LIKE, there are some wildly talented authors on here who just need to be pushed into the limelight a little bit more??? idk if im wording this correctly, but sometimes there are fics that fall through the cracks because no one engages with them, and if ur an author who has put blood sweat and tears into that fic, ur not exactly going to be motivated to post another maxiel fic if u dont think ur going to get engagement from it (again, fic writing isn't necessarily about engagement or response, but let me tell u when i get a fun little comment or someone messages me about a fic i published, it inspires me to write more????)

maxiel is definitely alive and kicking, i follow some stunningly good maxiel authors, but at the same time, its about pushing forward those smaller writers as well and not thinking ur too cool for them???????????????

and so with that, this flufftober, kinktober, spooktober or whatever tober u are a part of, reblog the fic, talk about the fic and enjoy the fic

#if u can understand what i am trying to say here then well done cause i dont think i even do #mean thats a lie i do know what im trying to say but i know a lot of people would hate me if i said what i actually wanted to say :)) #anon #asks

[homochadensistm]

Saw the bodypic on your sideblog and hot DAMN! Any workout+nutrition tips for us peasants to get like that?? I'm a hardgainer myself so I would appreciate the advice!

lmao shouldve sent the ask there then :(

important disclaimer: I look Like That largely thanks to good lighting and the fact that I had a mad pump. I dont look like that 24/7, nobody does. If you remove me from that specific spot under the gym lights and wait 10mins for my pump to disappear Id look entirely Normal.

As for hardgaining, youre not gonna like the answer but - just eat more. We like to think we eat a lot already (because it feels like that, because most of us have tiny stomachs) but if u actually took 1 week to record everything u eat, including its nutritional values (mainly macros - carbs, protein, fats, etc), youd see youre probably lacking and/or eating exactly at maintenance (i.e., maintaining your current weight, nothing less and nothing more). The best way I found for myself to eat more is to split my meals, so instead of eating 3 big meals a day, I eat 5-6 smaller ones, and I make sure each meal contains a decent amount of protein (at least 10g). And yeah I wasnt kidding - record what u eat for just 1 week, itll help u see where/what ur lacking.

As for protein - I dont use powders. I find their texture disgusting and most of them give me stomach issues. Personally I view health and fitness as something I should enjoy so Im not gonna do things that actively make me feel like Im suffering or forcing myself, hence, no powders. You dont even need powder to eat a lot of protein, too. Lots of idiots will tell you you need to eat 1gr of protein per 1lb of bodyweight to get larger, but thats protein powder marketing bs (unless ur like, an olympic athlete). Normal people need around 1.2-1.5g of protein per kg of bodyweight to grow muscle mass, according to almost all studies on the subject (again, unless ur an olympic athlete), so for me, weighing around 55kg, thatd be between 66-85g of protein per day. As I mentioned before, I structure my meals so that each contains at least 10g of protein, so right off the bat I start at 50-60g on avg. My lunch (meal 3 usually) is around 40g on its own (blessed Pork steak & greenbeans), so I easily get to 85g of protein a day, and maybe a lil more. Meat shouldnt be your only source of protein, theres a variety of foods to choose from and if u enjoy cooking then ur gonna have a great time! The price of not using any icky powders is learning how to cook lol. If you still want to use powders thats fine, theres nothing wrong with them, but just so u know that eating more protein wont necessarily help u grow, cause ur body has a natural cap on how much it needs/wants to use of the general amount u give it, the rest itll shit out. So, if eating more is difficult to u, I suggest avoiding the powders and just restructuring ur meals to fit you.

As for working out - if youre a woman focus more on volume (higher reps, lower weight), if youre a dude then the opposite. If youre doing more reps at a lower weight make sure that the weight is still somewhat challenging to you though. The distinction between male and female here is important because our bodies respond differently to training so if ur purpose is building the big mooskles and ur a girl - lighter weights will get u there faster. If you want to maximize strength gain as well - dedicate 1 day a week to heavy weights (so less reps but increasingly challenging weight). Im not gonna delve into the types of exercises or workouts u should do cause idk u or what ur experience is but theres enough content online abt that.

The most important thing about the eating and working out is the consistency. ur muscles grow because they respond to stimuli, they adapt to the pressure ur putting on them. theyre not gonna adapt if this stimulation is momentary. Try to work out 3-4 times a week, even just for 30mins each. Get in those reps per muscle group, train each group about twice a week and ur good. Youll see longterm results once eating+working out becomes a habit.

Last thing I wanna touch on is cardio. Theres this weird belief that, if u wanna gain muscle mass, you shouldnt work on cardio. Idk which lazy cunt invented that but its not true! Cardio is important for ur heart, health and ur ability to lift heavier loads! You dont have to run for cardio, theres many activities you can pick from: swimming, boxing, jump rope, dancing etc. Hell, even walking is really good cardio (and is actually better for you than running, longterm) and you can easily do that if you got 1hr to spare twice a week. Developing your cardio will not only make you feel better and healthier, its also detrimental to your strength gaining journey, to avoiding plateaus.

goodluck!

#health #fitness

[bartonbones]

headcanons and musing on ms mama bear herself and carmy's various traumas below the cut. trying not to make my blog look as unwell as it has the past few weeks, however, very much still ill in the head over the shrimp man

me every time carmy mentions his mommy issues:

let me in!!! let me in u son of a bitch!! tell me about ur mom!!!

anyway. i digress. so the main clues we have in canon about the berzatto's siblings mom are, in vague order of appearance (aka my memory):

sugar telling carm in ep 1 that mom would love to see him after he mentions that no, he hasn't talked to her. it feels like sugar is on good enough terms with their mom while carmy is def not.

richie mentioning that he took care of their mom for months before carmy came after mikey died--carmy's mom is unstable for (gestures vaguely) any number of reasons

"she full psycho?" "she wasn't calm, but the food was great" --their mom had always been some level of unstable, but there's clearly a point at which she becomes unstable to the point that carmy considers it a distinct difference

"i mean, you blame the restaurant. you don't blame mom. you don't blame mikey." why is their mom before mikey?? carmy has such strong negative feelings about her that he puts her before mikey--someone whose fucking pills he just found in a drawer!

"it's bullshit" "sounds like mom" "i'm serious" "i'm serious" ?????? !!!!!! ???????? if nothing else "sounding like mom" is an insult but also ?????

"mom always added raisins!" interesting to me--mikey is the one who is presented as always cooking for the family, even when carm's talking about tina spending christmas at his mom's, it's mikey who was making the food. but sugar has clear and nostalgic memories that involve their mom's cooking--although, notably, it's decidedly in the past tense, even though their mom is still very much alive and present to sugar in canon, and this takes place years before canon

"this is a very special dish in my dysfunctional, nightmare of a household" --carmy doesn't seem to have any bad feelings or memories of mikey until after he starts freezing him out, and considering their dad was out of the picture around the time carmy was born/was very young, one presumes this nightmare and dysfunction has to be related to their mother

the other points that i think are interesting that just sort of relate to carmy's Issues (tm) are

a) the parentification of mikey and sugar berzatto--carmy so clearly leans on them and like went to them for support and guidance, and as always, TheAngelTattoosAreForMikeyAndSugarBreakdown.exe

b) carmy's disassociation when people are fighting/yelling at him if he's not feeling defensive or particularly fighty enough to yell back. the way Chef says such cutting and horrible things to carmy--you're not tough, it's all a show, you're a fraud, you should be dead--and carmy just has to blink and continue working. the way he stares in to the middle distance for like two entire fucking minutes while richie and cicero scream at each other. i mean, if there's one thing this boy can do it's disassociate. the kid can leave the country. he sends himself to the cornfield. goodbye carmen berzatto hello shoving trauma down into ur shoes and hoping there's No Future Consequences for This Action

anyway i've been thinking for weeks about what i think the deal could be between carmy and his mom and while this is truly just a headcanon i'm forming and i also have a habit of never being a correct when i make headcanons, but the idea i'm sort of rolling around with is like clearly their mom was unstable for enough of their childhood for their house to be a "dysfunctional nightmare" but is stable enough now for sugar to have a relationship with her and want carmy to have a relationship with her, too, so my thinking is maybe there is some severe mental illness that wasn't getting treated or cared for while they were kids, but maybe is now that they're adults, chiefly, while carmy isn't there to see it.

i think some kind of variation of bipolar works well here, maybe? it would help explain some of carmy's disassociation skills, if their mom could be verbally abusive when she was manic, and the parentification of sugar and mikey if during depressive episodes there was little functioning. if that's carmy's childhood and that's his impression of his mom, then of course he's not going to want to go home to see her. but if she gets treatment/medication/guidance later in their adulthood while carmy is globetrotting and getting verbally abused by other significant figures in his life, then sugar might have a relationship with her at that point and want carmy to "talk" to her and maybe reach some closure too, if that's what she was able to do. and carmy obviously doesn't believe in that becuase he's carmy in s1 of the bear and his relationship with his mom is probably approx #87 or #89 on Pressing Mental Health Issues to Address.

anyway this is very long and if any one reads it and has thoughts let me know. i just want to get into the head of this shrimp man and excavate his trauma for shrimp dumplings. i want to KNOW. let me IN. CARMEN!!!! let me IN!!!!

#the bear #carmy berzatto #anyway. still going insane thanks for asking :)

[alphabetboyluvr]

Hey Holly!

How’ve you been? How was the trip? Saw some beautiful pictures on your ig story and got super excited for u!! <3

This is gonna be a long one but here goes!

I’m here because I wanted to tell u how much I love each and every one of the characters you’ve written. I’ve read most of your works and each one has its own beauty and aura(?) that is so uniquely its own. Bd!jk and B and so different from CV!jk and Annie who are so different to YU?!jk and Neva that it messes with my head sometimes. How you’ve managed to give jk such a distinct yet familiar personality is truly astounding.

I’m so happy seeing all the love you receive for BD (which is so soooo very well deserved btw) but i think we don’t talk enough about CV. I mean the plot. The characters. The attention to detail. The insane storytelling. Heck, even the chapter names leave me in such awe. I’m truly truly grateful to have found your work when I did and I know it’s silly to say that I’m a changed person for it. The kindness u show us and the love u have for the tannies is so heartwarming. Holly, I hope the people around u know how lucky they are to be in your presence. Your work is not just some silly little stories, it’s a piece of you that you’ve chosen to share with the world and it is such a privlidge. I don’t think I’ll ever stop talking about it.

The amount of times I’ve cried tears (good and bad ones) from all the emotions surprises me too. I constantly think about your writing and even though this past year I’ve given a piece of my heart to bd I think a bigger chunk will always go to color Vision. This is in no way a comparison of your work, it’s just something I’ve come to realize recently that cv just has a very special place in my heart. However, in my mind I’m practically married to bd jk and he’s MINE (sorry B :3)

Sorry for the rambling but I hope u know that u have a forever fan <3

-BG

helloooooo!!

my trip was really lovely thank you - it was a bucket list location for me, and I got to experience it with one of my best friends in the whole entire world so yeah, super special <33

before i get into it, i just wanna say thank u for sharing your thoughts with me - I know it takes a fair amount of time to send an ask like this and so I really appreciate it!!

i always like to think of my jk characters as multiverse versions of each other. there are similarities that run through (after all, they're all based on the same muse!!), but they all have different lives that shape them into the character they are.

ahhh cv <3 im currently in the process of doing some edits to it and honestly I wish I had more time to devote crafting it into an even better story. i love the world the world of cv - I'm constantly thinking about the spin off stories I could write (like hobis, gawwd I wanna explore his experience of colour!!)

I know it’s silly to say that I’m a changed person for it.

i'm always in such a state of disbelief whenever I read things like this. to know I've had an impact - and a positive one at that - is just wild to me, and you'll never know how appreciative I am.

writing these stories has really been helpful for me, and sometimes can be a way that I process my own issues. I'm a changed person for them, too.

thank you thank you thank you for this overwhelmingly gorgeous display of kindness.

im so lucky <3

#ask #one of these days you guys are gonna make my heart short circuit #i am SO lucky and SO appreciative of you <33

[mqfx]

i think i would need to see mqfx in an entirely different light before i would believe they would enjoy being humiliated. possibly because its also just not my thing although i have thought about what must be appealing about it (the joy, the release of understanding that someone sees you as imperfect but is still interested in a relationship with you? the realization that even if someone does believe these things they're saying they still want to at the very least have sex? feel free to correct me if this isnt actually the appeal ive just come to this conclusion on my own)

ANYWAY. i think i'd have to view their squabbling in an entirely different light, like one or both of them doesn't have their heart really in it and are keeping up their side of the argument for pride's sake or! maybe everyday life behaviors have absolutely no connection whatsoever to what one enjoys sexually (<- totally possible, what do i know)

tldr im on your side the fighting might be homoerotic but perhaps not in that flavor exactly

good morning anon <3 i'm awake now (kinda) and my lawyer can't do shit to meeeeeee so let's talk about it

ok for everyone who didn't see the post i deleted, the tldr of what i said was: "i don't think any of the xianle 4 would be into degradation. hc bc he'd kill himself before being mean to xl, xl bc he wouldn't keep a straight face, and mq/fx would literally just argue. on the other hand i think if either mq or fx were somehow sincere enough to tell the other person "you are good" they'd finish too fast (crass! my lawyer disapproved!!) so. can't praise each other bc they'd both like it too much, can't insult each other bc then they'd have to pause sex for a fistfight break. sad!" <- paraphrasing but it was funnier last night

i'm not qualified to address the first thing bc i didn't take kink studies in college (we DID have one, hashtag liberal arts!! but i was busy doing REAL work pestering my old man and drinking in stats class) but that's probably true at least for some people bc everyone always has a different reason for these things. it's subversive, it's pain under control in a safe environment, it's reaffirming, it's addressing trauma, sometimes even self harm so watch out! (sex, like any action, can be detrimental if you're not careful, but that is not the action's fault)

the second thing i CAN address (points to my nametag) SO: i don't think either mq or fx are the type to do anything by halves they're both passionate (fx obviously, mq within the many layers of his artichoke* heart) so i do think every argument they have is real and not just for pride's sake. if either of them didn't wanna argue they just wouldn't and the other guy would be like "um......what's wrong w u 🤨 (concern disguised as suspicion)"

i Wouldn't say that daily life has no connection at all to kinks but that's a discussion i'm not having on my sideblog (tldr: these european fuckos have been arguing about sublimation** and libido longer than i've been alive. Scholar Charlie assumes that whatever doesn't get sublimated finds its way into one's sex life and vice versa but don't quote me on thiiiiiisss i should've taken that damn class fr)

as a sidenote: what we might find hot is not necessarily what the characters might find hot. not to lend personhood to the narrative devices (especially when fanfiction is literally the "play with them like paper dolls" genre of writing) but it's an important distinction to make as readers and writers. like do i think for example that mq's emotional repression and torment is hot? very. do you think He's enjoying it??? jury's out (though with melancholic types one Must assume they derive some relief, even if harmful, from flagellation)

back to the important matter of mqfx's hypothetical sex life: in canon they insult each other in equal measure and there's no one in that situation who is actively/consistently made to feel lower than the other (whether they actually do is incidental). it's not that their squabbles Wouldn't make it to the bed but it simply doesn't count as degradation. argument (equal) ≠ degradation (power dynamic). am i saying it's impossible for them to have ANY S/M thing going on?? also no bc as mentioned before i think mq views Everything as a power struggle, but fx also strikes me as the type of guy who would really really like getting called good boy but he doesn't know this about himself. for that matter mq would probably like some praise too he's just way more roundabout with it

this is aaaaaaallllll a very convoluted way of saying "yes the fighting is still homoerotic, not on the basis of unequal standing but because they're equals. i don't think they specifically find the insult aspect of fighting hot, and in fact some mutual kindess would be nice. would they do it that way though? idk"

ok gotta get ready for smth this took me 2 hours to think. byeeeee

*here i got distracted looking for artichoke facts bc i saw on my gramma's cooking show that it's basically a thistle and it's got a spiny center you gotta scoop out before eating. anyway it's from the mediterranean! so don't use it in canon-compliant fic lol

**death in venice is in that wiki article :( why did my ex-mutual leave meeeeeeeee (<- divorced)

#hewwo #asks #anonymous #LONG POST #new rule is i shouldn't talk while either sleepy or caffeinated. aaaaaand post

[dragmiire]

time for my current totk thoughts bcuz im like, halfway i think thru main story and got all the geogylph memories! BIG SPOILERS AHEAD.

i think there is SO MUCH missing and it is depressing! like. the memories aren't enough. what do you mean we're going from zelda being like 'im so saaad i don't know how to time magic :(' and then suddenly time magics a flying knife?? and then sonia DIES? it feels like there is an entirely different game going on with zelda's wacky time-travel hijinks that we're missing due to only seeing glimpses and it feels very empty. idk if they'll fill the gaps with dlc or if this was just an issue of them rushing a game that needed a few more years to cook or what.

i hate the imperialism. all i hear is 'hyrule is ok and good bcuz it is run by pure good-natured imperialists vs those EVIL brown imperialists from the desert who are trying to do the same thing but EVILER.' i went from trying to vibe with rauru to rapidly disliking him.

ganondorf has the personality of an evil piece of cardboard but he's also hot so i give him a pass.

zelda has the personality of a good piece of cardboard and i'll give her a pass only for depressing me by being a soulless dragon flying around.

i think there is something to say about how the gerudo are not actually part of the hylian kingdom. even though they're all like 'we stand with u imperialist hyrule we wuv u!!' there is a very strong distinction that they are not ruled by the hylian monarchy. like. ganondorf was evil and vile for pressing back against rauru and waging war and not allowing the gerudo to merge with hyrule, and yet the gerudo still chose not to become one with hyrule. they just seemed to foster positive relations while maintaining their own as a separate entity. but who knows! maybe the game will prove me wrong and i'll eat my hat in rage!

the sage cutscenes are bland and bad. once again, cannot tell if the choice of copying and pasting each cutscene was a result of bad writing or the game not being allowed to cook long enough.

the depths keep making me pee my pants and i hate them but like just in a personal i rly hate the dark kinda way.

honestly back to the sages but they're bland in general as well. they tried to recreate the champions of old without any of the personality and feeling of connection to them. i do not give a single heck or darn about these sages, they just sure do exist as a means of passing on a power to the current champs. i feel this just makes their existence soulless and that they were just designed to be tools of rauru/means of furthering the plot. very boring.

i've been kinda irritated that a lot of npcs don't remember you. key ones do, like story-quest npcs, but like characters i've saved countless times in botw are like 'who r u'. and then characters are still SO surprised link is the heroic swordsman when it seems like this news otherwise traveled very quickly. i swing rapidly from delighted that npcs remember me and irritated when they don't, making it feel like botw didn't exist.

speaking of botw not existing. i get its because they wanna focus on zonai/avoid bogging the game down with more assets, but the lack of sheikah/guardian tech is really irritating. it's like everybody forgot about it. you cannot tell me they magically purged ALL of hyrule of any remnants of the guardian tech. also i know it is deranged to say it but i lowkey miss the panic of being chased down by guardians. it added a spice to the overworld.

overall... i just think botw is the better game?? which is not surprising, its hard for a sequel to surpass its predecessor, but i think they focused too much on new gimmicks and once again neglected the story, which is what i RLY care about. so once again i'm more invested in completing my funny lil side missions and leaving dragon zelda to rot in the skies.

#totk spoilers #zelda spoilers

[astriiformes]

Ooh, how bout 3 and 29 for the ao3 wrapped questions?

Answered 3!

29 - Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

Cheating a little here and posting two just because they have hilariously different vibes that I think, collectively, really showcase some of my strengths as a writer -- I'm realizing with a lot of what I've posted this year and last year that one of the things that makes me stories distinct is a real blend of dark, heavy elements (often whumpy, always very hearfelt) and comedy

For the former category -- I still really love all the speeches from the resurrection scene at the end of Aurum Horizontale, but Keyleth's turned out especially poignant, I think, because it walked a very fine line calling attention to the irony of the whole AU concept without feeling too heavy-handed about it:

“Maybe I was just dumb,” she said. “Maybe I was… I was imagining things, when we talked. But I’ve never been very good with people, and ever since our first conversation it was so exciting, feeling like you and I just… clicked. Like we understood each other, even though we’re such totally different people. And I always thought… I always…” Giving a particularly loud, choked sob, Keyleth picked up one of Percy’s hands and held it for a moment, like a lifeline. It took a while for her to gather herself to continue. “I was probably just being stupid,” she said. “Like, how could I know? But sometimes, I found myself thinking that hey, in another universe or something, where I got to see you more than like, one night a week, and we could go get stupid levels of drunk together and I could hug you and where you weren’t stuck in a living nightmare, we could’ve been each other’s best friends. I think… I think I thought about that a little too much, honestly. About coming here, and freeing you, and getting to take you to my favorite shitty bars, or maybe even Zephrah someday. And maybe you don’t want that. Maybe that part was all in my head. But I guess… I guess I’m just not okay with living in a universe where I never get to find out, you know? It was always an “if,” and it’s still an “if,” but if I never find out for real… I’m going to live a long time, probably, and I don’t want to spend all that time wondering. I don’t want you to be gone.”

And as for the latter, comedic category all the chat sections of Several Witches Are Typing were a lot of fun to write -- I would never write a full chatfic, I think, but as an important element of a larger story where it thematically "fit" it was a very fun exercise in character voices to try to figure out how all the kids would text (Tragically, I failed to predict the wildly out-of left field nonsense that is Hunter's actual, canonical texting style, but I'm not even mad because it's funny and perfect)

Anyways, this was a favorite of those:

9:53PM 9/21/20 - lyregirl💖: hey caleb 9:53PM 9/21/20 - lyregirl💖: u know all the coven heads 9:53PM 9/21/20 - lyregirl💖: im dying to know if you have dirt 9:56PM 9/21/20 - Guard102311304: What does dirt have to do with my rank? 9:57PM 9/21/20 - griffin_mama: She means like do you know anything embarrassing about any of them 10:03PM 9/21/20 - Guard102311304: Terra talks to her plants all the time. 10:03PM 9/21/20 - hello_willow: hey, i talk to my plants😕 10:03PM 9/21/20 - Guard102311304: Captain, I can guarantee that you are infinitely more normal about it. 10:03PM 9/21/20 - hello_willow: oh well thank you  10:03PM 9/21/20 - hello_willow: 💚🌱 10:05PM 9/21/20 - Guard102311304: Kikimora’s ringtone is “Material Ghoul.” 10:05PM 9/21/20 - lyregirl💖: 🤣🤣🤣 10:05PM 9/21/20 - griffin_mama: No WAY 10:06PM 9/21/20 - griffin_mama: What about Belos 10:06PM 9/21/20 - lyregirl💖: omt yes tell us about the emperor 10:09PM 9/21/20 - Guard102311304: That would be a betrayal of his trust in me. 10:09PM 9/21/20 - griffin_mama: Wow you must know something REALLY embarrassing 10:09PM 9/21/20 - Guard102311304: No. I just respect him. 10:10PM 9/21/20 - griffin_mama: sounds like something somebody who knows something super embarrassing about the Emperor would say 10:11PM 9/21/20 - Guard102311304: It does not.

#'it does not' still makes me laugh every time #slowly learning that my niche as a writer is 'earnest dark comedy' and honestly i can live with that #ask meme #my writing

[arbustorum]

What helps you break from sameface syndrome in art?

i know ive heard the phrase but i honestly dont think ive ever actually took at that seriously or cared about it all. The only time i remember thinking about it was getting the compliment that was like "its like you have the opposite of same face syndrome" and i still didnt really get it. So sorry if this is a long response that doesnt help at all but ur getting my essay because this stuff bothers me.

first time i saw it used in a way i think makes sense was back when i saw the frozen critique thing going around tumblr. They literally have the same face as each other, the main characters, and as their mother, but male characters NEVER have this issue, in the SAME media(show, movie, w/e). My solution to that is just simply...stop designing your women the same. If you need to, design a male char and then sex bend it trying to change as little as possible and see if that helps you notice how ur accidentally limiting yourself for your women. Most of the time the problem isnt "same face", its that we dont give women the same depth of expression and variety of design. whole other essay but yeah...

In that similar vein. Same face feels like a...way to avoid calling it sexism to me in the art. It then is used by all artists to just find a way to shit on art styles without actually providing useful critique. "Same face" is actually quite beloved and marketable.

Simplistic designs could be called "same face" which belittles the fact that designing minimalistic and aesthetically pleasing designs is quite difficult. These designs are distinct, recognizable, and very beloved. They are cute and nice to look at! These are actually so well designed i hesitate to call them same face but i wanna try and show the "two dot eyes and a mouth and dot nose" could be called same face. But with limited elements, each face is actually clearly distinct. Even the twin guys lala and kiki, (altho if u make them both smile and they wouldnt be but u get it)

Another minimalistic design that relies heavily on minute differences in the face(as well as other elements of the design) to distinguish them.

i like these examples because perhaps the average tumblrina might agree that everyone thinks sanrio looks good, and might say they dislike homestucks style, but they use similar design rules.

here is another example of a style some might just consider ugly or lacking skill(im a personal fan and dont agree but hopefully u get what i mean). A distinct part of his style is making every character have distinct eyes. probably for the same reason i find mobpsycho 100 and homestuck styles charming and pleasing, they cannot be accused of sameface(atleast not to me ill come for you LOL). This may be a kind of fundamental reason i dont struggle with it, im a particular fan of this method of design. It just is a part i focus on. it was never a concious choice i made as an artist.

Some artists find different elements pleasing or enjoyable to draw, and same face is actually quite beloved(and marketable) its not the end all be all design rule is my point... examples of beloved styles where its quite easy to switch the faces around and it may become difficult to tell it has occurred.

heres another style people consider ugly but doesn't have same face(again, im a fan, so it really might just be a thing i like in art, also yes the women are more similar but this rule does still apply to his women...just with much less variation :\ see again my original "same face obscures sexist design choices" point)

so yeah TL;DR i dont believe in same face as a fundamental design flaw, you should draw whatever you like and improve things you are personally dissatisfied with.

TL;DR 2 (ACTUALLY ANSWERING THE QUESTION) "i want more variation in faces when i design" treat eyes, noses, lips, forehead height, face shape, chin, eyebrows, eyes, hair coverage, moles, freckles, dimples, cheek bones...(and whatever else you can think of) as all different elements and include more variation of them. experiment.

im not a professional i am self taught and just some lady these are just my observations and opinions.

#maretext #same face syndrome #long post #mares art advice

[piercedpressure]

how has deja evolved over the years? i swear she gets redesigned like every few months /pos lol

LMAOOO ud be right cause shes changed stories each year (im painfully indecisive), this year is the only story ive genuinely been interested in exploring since i finally landed on a genre i think would fit her best? and i consider her redesigns to be a sort of progression into how ive grown as a writer and maybe as a person since shes been with me for so long lmao

ill place this under read more cause ill go into condensed detail about her evolution for her characterization, her design, and a small timeline for her story contexts but tl;dr shes grown so much and has gotten way more complex. i love her so much

2017-early 2018: she actually started out as a sona concept! design wise, nothing really special tbh, i was throwing stuff i really liked. for 2017, she was just a throwaway concept, but i was rapidly improving towards the end of that year...

mid-2018: ... that i ended up reusing her concept as a character concept, and during that year, i made an au with a friend that spiraled into something that lasted about the next 2 years, that then included her as one of the main characters LMAO. i wanted to draw crazy hair and also a cute mask, so i did. i ended up making it so that the masks were to both hide her identity (shes a fugitive in the au) and to be some sort of metaphor. her personality was very outwardly sweet, but she could also kill you so it best to not get on her bad side, but she was also in a constant learned helplessnes. big deja year

2019: design wise, i removed the mask, made her fatter (despite me not knowing how to draw fat people yet), and made her sorta baby-faced, since her character is a lot more childish during this bit? story wise, her story was included in an anthology about different kinds of love in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world. during this time, i was going through a Lot mentally, and it sorta marked the beginning of a really horrible period in my life thats still kind of ongoing, so i used her story in a more experimental sense so i can figure out different workarounds in an escapist way? this is also when i started pairing her with her now-partner-in-stories, lualhati, and from this point, lulu and deja are inseparable

2020: for this year, i was sorta putting her story off? i was really struggling to figure out what to do with it other than the deja/lulu love story, but at the same time, that marked me going through a journey of adding fat people to my work. dejas always been small fat, but her body hasnt actually been drawn well enough. we all start from somewhere though. she was a lot more calm in this version, and is sort of a leader figure for a village in a fantasy world. but i wasnt really feeling it.........

2021: last year was when i really started digging deep into what i wanted to do. i wanted weird gay trans cathartic art. so dejas story was that. still wasnt really feeling it, but u can tell i was really experimenting trying to land on something i was passionate about. while i did like her design since its a turning point in my art, and its visually loud (the color palette, holy shit), IT WAS SO HARD TO DRAW? i understand that 2021 me was really going at it with very loud and distinct designs, but the reason why i didnt even draw her for months after was because she was so fucking hard to draw. and i didnt put enough effort to portraying her fatness (which will soon become a very important aspect of her character). but were about to pull a gamer move

2022: up until now, since 2018-2019, i wasnt really satisfied with her story. it didnt really fit what i wanted, bc i was mostly concerned with how other people would react if i talked about them, especially since deja/lulu have always been very personal to me. but i had a vision. where deja and lulu are in a revenge drama thriller in a city in the middle of nowhere. and i havent stopped thinking about it day and night ever fucking since. i brought back a lot of elements from past designs (mostly cause i thought theyd look great, i was right), and im finally getting to a point where im figuring out how i draw fat people. now, dejas characterization came really easy to me (hypervigilent, short-tempered, mysterious, a second away from realizing shes trans). her story explores themes surrounding violence, secrets, and suffocating marriages, and while its a far heavier story than the past ones, its the first time ive been genuinely excited to see how its grown. i could ramble about this all day lol

deja is a growing character and she keeps getting better and better every time im exploring her, and she genuinely means the world to me. thank u for reading this if u have decided to read this

#i started answering this at 9 pm and now its midnight hi. im possessed by ocs #if u actually do read this i encourage questions about deja and lulu cause their storys been sitting in my brain for a week now oops #deja (deja/lulu) #also hi icarus my friend seven :o) hope ur doing alright #hyperfixings

[nottoxicfr]

can u..... talk about ur favorite fire emblem..... pls.... thx......

I’d love to! I’m sorry this took so long, wasn't entirely sure what to tell you?

My fav fire emblem game Fire Emblem: Scriptures of Aranethea?? Yeah sure, what do you want to know?

It was critically undersold, so they never really talk about it anymore. It was the…I think the second game put onto the Wii? In a lot of ways, it was the basis for what Awakening and Three Houses would end up doing. I spared Fates from the association, because Fates was (in a lot of ways) a heavily exaggerated version of both Three Houses and Awakening.

It went between sprites and 3D stuff a lot! Kind of like those 2.5D strategy games like Octopath Traveler and such, only it was much more rudimentary! The camera couldn't really move or anything, but it was so distinct to me!

Anyway, the main plot of the game takes place on the continent of Avalith (later implied to be in an alternative version of the world Radiant Dawn took place in). The main motif here is very Nordic, all things considered.

The main plot of the game has to do with securing the Scriptures of Aranethea which were stolen from the ruins of the nation of Aranethea, as you might imagine. What exactly they do is unclear for most of the game. They might summon a great beast to trigger the end of the world, they might be books of infallible prophecy, or they could have all the secrets of the great Aranathea hidden within.

The main Blue Lord (He has like green hair) of the story is named Alphons (different spelling from the one of FEH fame). He’s not technically a lord yet, because he starts off the story as a young cadet in a military academy.  He actually starts off as an ‘all arounder’ in that he can use a sword or magic. The issue is that he can only use a the base fire spell without heavy class manipulation! He’s annoying at first, but his story arc is about figuring out what it means to be a Lord or a leader of a nation in the shadow of what came before. 

That’s the main theme of the game, mostly. For Alphons, he has to learn what it means to lead a nation that had the whole of the Etran (Etra is his nation) nobility wiped out. Avalith is still reeling from the fall of Aranethea two hundred years after the country fell to a cataclysm.

I'll try not to spoil anything major, but the main plot device is the Scriptures of Aranethea and the nation of Aranethea itself (along with the survivors). The Manakete of this game used to be very prominent in the nobility of that Kingdom, because they had the ability to read the Scripture unassisted. After all, it was written by the original Aranethea who originated the Manakete on her continent.

Nowadays, Aranethea is a crater on the Eastern Coast of Avalith. Half of the level is rocky terrain and the other half is flooded, and when the true final battle happens (as they try to restore Old Aranthea from the crater) the level gets more and more flooded per turn.

The main 'antagonist' is a descendant of Aranethea named Amt Roubald (sometimes written as A'mt on old message boards). She was part of a traveling group of Manakete before she was adopted into the Orlumian (they're the Evil Empire for most of the story) nobility.

Her original goal is to find the Scriptures (there are like six of them) but as her storyline moves forward she gets more and more fixated on what she reads of her ancestral homeland. Eventually she is possessed by the actual Big Bad and she gets wacky. She always felt incredibly out of place in the Roubald family, as if they had only adopted her for the exoticism. For the most part that's accurate, but she does have a little sister named Luce (Pegasus Knight) that you can recruit who adores Amt.

The reason she's an optional love interest is because you encounter her like five (??) times and if you talk to her in each one you can sway her over to your side. She's not the Big Bad antagonist, that's the Dragon God Av'lon, so in the end it's less like two routes and more like Av'lon possesses someone else.

Anyways, I love Amt Roubald. She's a shitty unit because you have to buy her a Dragon Stone (the other Manakete unit comes with one because it's a rite of passage on Avalith) and before that she's like a Dark Mage? The equivalent, if not. I'm really bad with classes.

She's got a raven motif, because Av'lon is strongly inspired by Odin and she's one of his hosts. I love her big red pony tail and her feather earring and her stupid mint eyes.

The attempted genocide is route-optional btw, for all the haters out there. She drops Aranethea on Etra (and misses mostly) because she's possessed (mostly, it's implied Av'lon and her are becoming one and the same at that point). You can't hold crimes that only happen sometimes against a character. It only happens because you, as Alphons, are a bad friend and I'm okay with that.

That's FE: Scriptures of Aranthea off the top of my head? If there's anything else you want to hear about, just ask! I love talking about it! There's Seth and Ro'alk and Luce just off the top of my head! That's not even getting into the different kingdoms!

Ugh, and the discourse. If you think Amt sucks then just unfollow y'know?

I think its an overlooked classic. Plus, Alphons is the spiritual successor to Eliwood the Dragon Fucker so it’s like…what’s not to like.

#anon ask #ask #fire emblem

[meili-sheep]

I dunno if this is just me being insane but like-- so i was scrolling thru twitter and then i saw this post about how someone conceptualized how pantalones outfit would look like and then in the tweet they had two pictures, one for the concept art and another for the stuff they pulled from which is obvi the harbinger trailer

And then as i was looking thru their kind of inspiration board, i noticed something-- if you think about it and look at each of the harbingers, their long ass cloaks makes them look like chess pieces

Which like-- the entire harbinger trailer had this whole chess piece theme with the gnosis and dead signora and all that and im not sure if im looking into this WAY too much but OH MY GOD I JUST NEEDED TO TELL YOU--

Pls..... i need thoughts..... u are the only tumblr person i know that has lore knowledge-- lol no pressure AHAHA

So I'll be honest I tend to be quite cynical. And am more prone to believe something has come through mistake rather than intention. Or if there is the intention, I question the motive. That's on me, though.

And the Chess motif is obviously important, considering it's the design for the noise but for the harbingers.

I don't think they hold that theme as strongly.

First off, the numbers are off. There are 16 pieces on one side, with 6 different types and 8 per row.

The second chess pieces have very distinctive silhouettes. You know to form a glance that's a chess piece even if you don't know the piece's place. The Harbingers here don't really have those shapes in mind. And I've mentioned before that I believe the Harbingers each value their own uniqueness and motives. And I feel there is more of a contrast here with the chess motif. Yes, each Harbringer here is in a similar uniform, but each has there own twist to it. Look, Childe's is open, and he has a scarf. Il Dottore's is closed, and he has an ascot and mask. Sandrone has her whole robot. And each harbringer has a different color jewel on the right side.

Outside the basic white heavy coat, there is very little unification in the designs. Just enough that you know they are together.

And in the basic chess set is very unified, and each piece has its particular place. You can very much argue that no one piece (save the king) is more valuable than another if you know how to use them well. And while in the trailer, it was implied La Signora was a pawn. Don't really think the Harbingers keep that throughout them.

I think their personal experience and uniqueness are what motivate them to pursue their goal of breaking free from Celestia.

#the fatui harbingers #the fatui #genshin headcanons

[iichaeyj]

Hi CH ( ^ω^ ) had some questions about the profiles for you ^_^

is dae knowing heeseung but him not knowing her alluding to the popularity of the group? that they don’t really pay attention to their surroundings or others?

i did see tho that sai and rai met some of the boys and yn too at parties so theyre more of the upbeat party type while yn and fae are introverted/serious or keep to themselves?

are sai and rai closer to each other then to yn bc they already knew each other and same with yn and fae?

the best friends seem very cool personalities 🥰 sweet best friend affectionate best friend and protective best friend <3

is sai and rai close to dae too or no? i only remember you say that yn met them at party

who is the oldest / youngest of their friend group? i assumed yn was but i’m not sure if you want to specify

i would enjoy to know about the dynamics if you wouldnt mind telling ^_^

omg tysm for these questions !! i love talking about my smaus :D

for the first question, i'd say pretty much! after all, heeseung is literally called the heartthrob of the university, so i did include that as a way of showing how well-known he is! however, it isn't that he and his friends don't pay attention to their surroundings, but more that they're very popular and everyone knows of them! i think heeseung hasn't noticed fae because he just hasn't talked to her or seen her up close!

and for the second one, yes and no. i did make fae and y/n the more studious type, while sai and rai like to go out more. however, i'd say that y/n is just very serious when it comes to her studies and fae likes to keep up her grades, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're shy. i think it speaks more on what kind of things interest them rather than their personalities, if that makes sense.

to a certain extent, yes. sai and rai definitely knew each other before they met y/n and fae and vice versa. so i do think that y/n might lean more towards fae when it comes to matters of the heart (also bc fae is the more sensible one when it comes to emotions), but they are still one friend group and there is no big difference in how they treat each other!!

and im glad u noticed!! i really wanted all of y/n's friends to have distinct personality traits that serve a purpose in the plot!

i forgot to write it in the profiles, but sai and rai are close to fae, too! i imagine that fae and y/n went to their first party together in freshman year and caught the attention of sai and rai! and they've been close friends since!

tbh, i hadn't thought of this too much so i'm glad you brought it up! they're all in their 3rd year of university and the same age, but i'd say the order of oldest to youngest goes: rai, fae, y/n, and sai! i feel like it's surprising to think that sai is the youngest and rai is the oldest, but it just makes sense to me tbh. (also plz note that this isn't reflective of my actual moots and their ages!)

and i have a lot to say about their dynamics omg!! for starters, i think that the others try very hard to get y/n away from studying. they want her to go out once in a while and do something fun! but at the end of the day, they're just very protective over her. y/n tends to get stressed out from her studies, and her friends want her to take it easy. and speaking of y/n's friends, i think that sai and rai have a tom and jerry type of friendship, yk? rai likes to tease sai a lot and sai gets "annoyed" and is often sarcastic with rai. and fae is a sweetheart (who tries to control the group most of the time). there's a lot more tbh but this post is already so long omg </3 maybe i'll talk about it more in a different post! tysm for asking for this, though!!

#iichaeyj #iichaeyj has replied . . . ☆ #BLINDED BY LOVE. - asks

[elcctra]

What is your personal top ten/ranking of Ancient Roman movies/TV shows? So, the major Ancient Roman audiovisual products seem to be Gladiator, I Claudius, HBO Rome, the Taylor Cleopatra movie, Spartacus and perhaps the (Wonderful!) Domina? There is also the Matheson Nero movie, the O'Toole Augustus, The Caesars series that were relessed not long before Claudius and some Shakespeare Caesar adaptations (I also like the Chaning Tatum Eagle movie, wonderful gay cinema if u ask me, though Jamie beats Chaning in hotness).

I have never watched the Eagle movie, can you believe? Horrible oversight from my part and one I should fix. But I did watch the other ones you mentioned, so I guess I can try a top 10, or rather, just 10 of my favorites, because hell how could I even rank works so different in terms of personal enjoyment, historical accuracy, overall quality etc? And how can I in good faith put Caligula (1979) along with oscar winner Gladiator? When Caligula is so much better than it...

Rome HBO was a turning point and it's very important to me, personally. I watched it for the first time in one of the worst years of my life and it just clicked, so it will always be special. And it's just great! Very well made, very distinctive in tone and look, with one of the best casts in anything ever. The writing sometimes stumbles, but when it's good it's one of the best.

Liz Taylor Cleopatra for reasons very similar to above. Just very important to me on a personal level. I also love big historical epics that are a thousand hours long and you can just lose yourself in them. The big settings, the gorgeous outfits, the drama. And the behind the scenes gossip from this one makes it better. Type of movie you watch and go "you can tell the leads were fucking" (best type).

Gladiator. Again, in terms of ridiculous, over the top, big historical epics that are a thousand hours long. It's gorgeous! And Commodus and Lucilla are two characters that are very dear to me, so I have to sneak it in here.

National Theatre 2018 production of Antony and Cleopatra with Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo. Because it's Sophie Okonedo as Shakespeare's Cleopatra.

Starz Spartacus. Maybe this one is begging for a rewatch? Because it's been some time. But I remember finding it entertaining and often poignant. Shows the horrors of slavery without being "gratuitous" (I do have a problem with the term but let's use it here). And the characters are just so good! Crixus and Naevia! Lucretia and Illithyia! I think it's the precursor to Black Sails in a lot of ways, if you have watched that.

I am going to mention Caligula 1979. It's good TO ME. If they don't release the new cut soon I'll kms.

Domina, of course. I have very fond memories of waiting for it and being super excited (never thought we would get a tv show about Livia!!) and it mostly lived up to the expectations. It's not perfect but it's funny and dramatic and it's just so nice to see all the Julio-Claudian kids... One thing I love about it is that while other tv shows very reasonably cut some historical figures to make things neater, Domina just has EVERYONE in it. And they all marry each other multiple times. So it's a lot of fun to point and go "look! it's livilla!".

I, Claudius... I have a love/hate relationship with it, I think the BBC 70s production value is cursed and the sexism is so wild it makes me laugh (and my tolerance is usually very high!) but the cast is just surreal (Derek Jacobi gives one of the best tv performances EVER in it) and like in Domina it's just nice to see everyone...

Julius Caesar 1953 because Jason Mason as Brutus and Deborah Kerr as Portia.

Will round this up with Imperium: Augustus and Imperium: Nero as a joint bullet point because I'm cheating :) if I'm honest the Nero one has the edge because I just love love love love their Agrippina and Nero, one of my favorite mother/son relationships in anything... But Peter O'Toole and Charlotte Rampling as Augustus and Livia? No I can't leave it out. And the Augustus/Julia relationship is almost as delicious as the Agrippina/Nero one. Also it's very gay! Augustus was very much in love with Agrippa in that one!

Honorable mentions to Cleopatra 1934, delicious pre-code stuff; the Timothy Dalton Antony and Cleopatra because Timothy Dalton is hot as Antony; IL PRIMO RE!!!!! If you haven't watched that, DO; Hannibal with Alexander Siddig which I didn't include because technically is a documentary; Royal Diaries - Cleopatra??? Because baby Cleopatra.....

[rnf-central]

Super Mario Wonder Direct Thoughts

I woke up a little late and missed the live stream, lol. But I finally saw it, and oh my god I am so excited for this game. Honestly I was from the moment I first saw it. The art style is so cute and expressive, and the levels looked amazing. A very distinct new step for the 2D Mario games without straying too hard from what makes them so good to begin with. I didn't even need this Direct honestly, but it was a nice surprise. Though, to be honest, I kinda wish I didn't watch it. Not because it killed my hype. If anything it made me more excited, but I think is showed off a little too much. Stuff I'd like to of been surprised about. Like there's a whole section about the world themes that I think would've been better to just leave as something the players should find them self. Though I still do believe there's lots we haven't seen yet in that regard. But yeah this game looks so good. I found it gorgeous looking before, but I swear it gets more beautiful every time I see it. The levels too look varied and unique. It really seems they took the criticisms of the recent New Super Mario games to heart. This game is just exploding with personality, colors, and liveliness. But not to the point it's too much. It's all very nice. We saw some new characters as well, though who cares I'm just happy Daisy is here. I'm still in disbelief she's finally in a main series game. On top of Mario, Peach, Luigi, and Daisy we saw Toadette, Nabbit, Blue and Yellow Toad, and 4 different colors of Yoshi. Toadette is no longer the easy mode like she was in U Deluxe. That honor now goes to Yoshi and Nabbit. It's also been confirmed Yoshi will play just like how you'd expect. With him being able to flutter and eat everything in his path. And you can ride on him in multiplayer. Now when you jump off Yoshi for an extra boost, thus killing him, it'll be even more personal. You can even ride him as an elephant. My god...poor Yoshi. Speaking of Elephant it's been confirmed it's a power up for all characters. I saw a lot of speculation that each character would have a different animal power up for them, which I was hoping was true, but sadly no. And let me tell you, Elephant Peach and Daisy are just as horrifying as you'd imagine. But we got some new ones too. Drill and Bubble. Wow. Listen Mario, I know Kirby Squeak Squad is one of the more forgotten games in that series, but that doesn't mean you can go and steal it's Bubble power. I'm kidding of course. I mean it is similar in that you can tap and kill enemies with it. But they add the twist of being able to use the bubble as platforms. Which is neat. I bet there's a lot of creative usages for it. Drill seems...whatever. Pretty much the drill item from Galaxy 2, but as a costume. Speaking of creative ways to platform we also see Badges. Badges are like little extra powers that you can equip during a level. One badge per level. These badges seem fun from what we've seen. There's some that make pits less deadly, some that let you do super jumps or improve your wall jump ability, and some seem to give you powers that you can use for some fun platforming. Like the Vine Grapple one that allows you to create a Vine that can grab onto walls and other platforms and get brought to them near instantly. Think Spider-Man sorta. It really seems like this is the 2D game's version of Odyssey. I said that from the start, but now I'm just more convinced. They seem dead set on giving you so many ways to explore and playthrough the levels despite the game being linear and it's a nice touch. It'll definitely add some replay value. Even if I got all of the collectibles on a level I may go back to them just to experiment with different badges or powers. Anyway, shit it seems there's a text limit here. So uh...I'll have to make another post cause damn there is just too much to say.

#gaming #video games #Mario #Super Mario #Super Mario Wonder #Nintendo #Nintendo Switch