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rydiathesummoner · 3 months

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Ranking the FFXVI dominants according to how good they would be at singing

#8: Jill.

Sorry Jill, but singing is not in the cards. Her early life in the north was wartime, and her side losing. Probably not a lot of singing lessons. Given how Anabella called her savage and viewed her as marriage stock it's unlikely she ever learned how to sing. No biggie though, she would rather shovel chocobo shit than perform in front of people anyway. Sometimes when it's just her and Clive, she will hum off-key. Clive thinks her humming is the most beautiful sound in Valisthea and doesn't even notice she's off-key because if Jill is happy enough to hum, then that's the best thing ever and beautiful and perfect.

#7: Hugo

Singing is for sissies. Pansies. Only weak men participate in the arts. Why learn to sing when you can have the glory of combat, gold and women?? That said, he was able to hold that "FUUUUUUUUUUCK" pretty well so he might be able to hold notes just as well.

#6: Joshua

He probably had music lessons as a kid so he knows the theory and can carry a tune. However, he spent his voice-changing puberty years in a coma. It probably took him ages just to get used to his body doing all kinds of wild new shit for him to re-learn how to sing. He might sing along in a crowd for holidays and ceremonies, but he's mostly lip-synching. It also doesn't help he has an alien in his chest and a tendency to cough up blood. Good luck projecting your voice with that.

#5: Cid

Yeah he's a bit off-key, and?? He's a former military commander, not a theater star. He doesn't give a shit if he's singing well or not, he's going to get drunk, sing his heart out with his buddies and if you don't like it, well the door's over there. He gets the lyrics right, mostly! What he lacks in skill he makes up for in style and getting the (bar) crowd involved. Not to mention his speaking voice is great, right? Just... kind of add a tune and it's still gonna be better than average.

#4: Benedikta

Despite her impoverished background, her singing is pretty nice. She really excels in sultry and jazzy/blues types of songs. Obviously she uses this surprising skill to entice men and not because she enjoys it or anything. To her it's just another tool in her kit, and like any tool she keeps it sharpened with plenty of practice while slinging her weapons around. Everyone in the weapons range loves to listen to her singing but they don't dare say anything.

#3: Barnabas

He has a rich and beautiful baritone. He could have been a star if he hadn't elected to be a murderous slave king to a deceitful god. He doesn't sing anyway though. Singing is useless. Unless it would summon Mythos. Wait, will it attract Mythos for the Lord and Master? Could singing potentially buff Mythos to prepare him to be even stronger for his Master? He's heard tales of such people from other stories. Better sing while battling Mythos. Just in case.

#2: Dion

His singing voice is stellar. His singing is like a clear night's sky. But you'll never hear it. He doesn't sing in front of others. That's... awkward. He's a weapon, not an entertainer. What would his troops think if he started belting out the show tunes he secretly loves? That's not how a Proper Bahamut™ acts! They would either never take him seriously again or make inappropriate song requests constantly and he's not sure which one is worse. He'll sing for Terence though. He gets flustered when Terence encourages it but does it anyway and secretly enjoys singing for him. Terence knows he secretly enjoys it. That's why he asks. Well, that and his voice really is amazing.

#1: Clive

Of course the theater kid is number 1. He was the star of all his Rosarian school musicals. He's been singing his whole life! As a kid some of his favorite memories are belting out old songs with Uncle Byron and his dad. They used to fantasize about becoming a singing quartet once Joshua was older if they didn't have the whole royalty and eikon thing going on. When he was enslaved by the Imperial army he didn't sing much, except on rare occasions with his fellow Bastards after a long mission and some smuggled alcohol. The bastards are confused why Wyvern has such a beautiful singing voice but whatever he kills good too. Once he's freed and has accepted himself he feel the urge to get back into singing again, but by now he's feeling a bit awkward about it. Like how does one approach the topic? "Hey guys, I'm a great singer check it out!" No, that's too weird for Outlaw Cid, he can't force it. He wishes to himself that there would be a singing contest or at least a drunken sing-along at the Fat Chocobo so he can finally show off his talent, or that Jill would somehow spread the idea around so somebody could ask, but so far he's been disappointed. Someday the Hideaway will hear it. Someday.

#shitpost #ffxvi #ff16 #final fantasy #clive rosfield #joshua rosfield #dion lesage #hugo kupka #jill warrick #benedikta harman #barnabas tharmr #cidolfus telamon

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kimkhimhant · 5 months

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WE NEED TO TALK. (Please. I just finished Season 6 again.) They didn't even show El's reaction to you know what. Not even Jones' not even Diana's not even June's. To them, it must have been devastating news. To lose Neal so shortly before his supposed release. They weren't giving him true freedom but they believed they would. They wished it for him. He must have a memorial somewhere and how often does Peter visit it??? To us and to Neal, it was closure, but to everyone else it was a shocking end to a high-profile, but otherwise normal case. To unexpectedly lose a colleague like that, and not just that... NEAL of all people... someone they'd worked with for more than two years... do you think Peter has his picture hanging on the wall next to Siegel's. Do you.

ohmygod ohmygod okay yes please. Its been years and i've rewatched it countless times and i'm still devastated over his loss and how it must have affected everyone. part of me thinks that the show-runners didn't include all of the mourning so that the show wouldn't end on that heavy of a note but !!!! closure !!! PLEASE !

like, he had become family to Peter and El and June, and we see nothing of how the news affects El and June. Neal was someone El loved, dearly, someone who ate meals at their house and who became a constant, welcome presence. He was El's "partner in crime" and the person she'd go to whenever Peter wasn't the suitable option (whether because the issue was concern for Peter, or because she didn't want Peter to worry). She lost a friend, family member (almost lover, depending on if you're into that ship), and on top of that, she lost him while pregnant (with the son they name after neal).

and June? she's left again with a big, quiet empty house afterward, except now she's lost both Byron and Neal. And we don't get to see how she copes with that!! Obviously she has other family, and she still has Mozzie, but it's not the same.

Diana and Jones too of course, almost more so, because they go from spending every week day with Neal, to...an empty desk and Peter's probably all-consuming grief, if the little epilogue is anything to go by (him still faltering, still seeing Neal where he isn't, after so much time has passed). Like, yes he was a colleague, and a pain in the ass colleague at that, but he was also.. the person they'd have drinks with, when their personal lives were falling apart. Neal is the one who helped Diana through the end of her long-term relationship! He's more than just a coworker to these people!

And don't get me started on Sara. "To another time, another life. To another us" Sara, who loved Neal so much she could barely bear Neal's (fake but really real) proposal, and who clearly dreamed of another version of the world where they could be together. Who gives her the news? Does she book the next flight to New York for his funeral? Assuming Neal doesn't immediately seek her out once he's in Europe, she has to cope with losing who she probably considered the love of her life.

And we don't get to see any their grieving process at all. Again, i know a big drawn out funeral doesn't really fit the tone of the show, but it still feels like such a robbery (haha) of an opportunity to see the positive impact Neal had on so many people. In a way, I think it was almost a failing on the show-runners' parts, because it would have continued to humanize Neal in the way that the show had spent all six seasons doing. Like, this is a pathological thief and liar with a mile-long list of crimes, but he is also human and loved and loving!! He has no biological family, but he has become family to almost every person in his life. And then suddenly he's gone and life goes on and we don't know how any of them (aside from Peter and Moz) handle the news of his death. It makes me so sad.

This is getting so long oops. Anyway. He definitely has a memorial, and Peter probably visits so often that El worries (she visits often too, of course, but Peter goes every weekend, at first, and maybe more often on bad days, or when there are cases that make him think of Neal, either because they'd be easier to solve with Neal's help, or because they look like something he'd have done).

Honestly, I'm not sure if Peter would keep Neal's photo next to Siegel's. I think, for the first few months at least, he wouldn't. I think it would hurt too much. Maybe there's one out in the main room by Neal's desk, and once Peter can walk past that one without choking up, he puts one up in his office.

#benji talks #asks #white collar #neal caffrey #peter burke #elizabeth burke #diana berrigan #clinton jones #mozzie

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charlottedabookworm · 10 months

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fic idea where eos, storm and ash are continents on the same world but obviously theres still a decent amount of ocean between eos and storm & ash and anyway joshua's illness is getting worse (cos he keeps using his powers to help people) and elwin is v worried and the physickers can't help except

except they say that one of the oracles of the flueret may be able to do something, to give joshua more time

and elwin, cos he is a good dad as well as the archduke, ships himself and both of his sons off to eos with the smallest guard they can manage - leaving poor byron in charge while he's gone lol - and rocks up to tenebrae

niflheim notices of course but they aren't actually in a position to start conquering across the ocean yet and it's not uncommon for people to cross the sea in search of the oracles powers and so they do nothing

anyway fast forward a week or two and regis shows up with baby noctis in his wheelchair and sylvia pulls him aside to mention the rosarians are here and frankly noct and joshua are the same age and getting on great, luna is loving spending time with both of them, and clive despite being only like a year older than luna is big brothering all of them while also challenging ravus to spars and just generally being clive

#then either the empire attacks cos oooh lucian magic #and they get thrown off cos of course the rosarians are gonna fight #and maybe they don't save sylvia but they defo save luna and ravus (who maybe decide to go with the rosarians for a period to lay low)#or maybe the empire decides not to attack cos the rosarians are still there #so elwin - hearing this from sylvia and regis - just decides to stay until after the lucians leave #and hey that means that the fluerets get to be family for a little longer #still under the auspice of the empire but not complete control #(just an au that lets luna and ravus be siblings happily no matter the outcome)#fic idea #ffxv #ffxvi #ffxvi spoilers #<- only cos i mentioned byron honestly

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kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 4 months

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Long post and hyperfixation/infodump session incoming:

It's reminiscence time again... A) Life hasn't been great as of now, and B) I saw something pretty cool the other day...

So, there's a free book online called DRAWING FOR NOTHING, which was compiled by an individual named Ziggy Cashmere. It is a book chronicling unmade animated movies, or animated movies that got - more or less - cooked into something else...

The book, so far, has a treasure trove of concept art and stories for ME AND MY SHADOW, FOODFIGHT!, B.O.O.: BUREAU OF OTHERWORLDLY OPERATIONS, THE INCREDIBLE MR. LIMPET, JOE JUMP, DREAMING MACHINE, DRAGON'S LAIR: THE LEGEND, JACK AND BEN, CAPTAIN FANTASTIC AND THE BROWN DIRT COWBOY, and HUCK'S LANDING...

All kinds of animated films from different eras, some that weren't made, some that were re-imagined as something else entirely...

And their work isn't over yet!

The Drawing For Nothing's twitter account is posting all kinds of cool, unearthed stuff...

And the other day, they found some conceptual work for an unmade Disney animated movie called AMERICAN DOG...

Actually, AMERICAN DOG kind of... Was... Made?

This film was to be directed by Chris Sanders for Walt Disney Feature Animation, his sophomore directorial outing following the success of LILO & STITCH. If all had gone according to the plan, this movie would've likely debuted around fall/Thanksgiving 2007-ish, maybe a little earlier. Things were a little more fluid back then, when it seemed like The Walt Disney Company were to lose Pixar after their contract was up. Either way, it was aiming for 2007.

Of course, a lot had changed at Disney Animation after Michael Eisner was essentially ousted as CEO of the wider company. After Bob Iger succeeded Eisner, one of his first big moves was acquiring Pixar for over $7b, in early 2006... And then that move lead to the studio's veterans and founding fathers John Lasseter and Ed Catmull becoming the heads of that studio, on the heels of critically lambasted films like HOME ON THE RANGE and CHICKEN LITTLE.

And they took their way of doing things at Pixar with them, infamously. Chris Sanders was given lots of notes on AMERICAN DOG throughout 2006, until Lasseter took him off the movie at the end of the year. Lasseter had "reasoned" that the movie was "too quirky for its own good", and that Sanders wasn't getting it to where it needed to be. This was a shocking blow to animation fans everywhere, that not only was Sanders removed from his next movie, but that he was also leaving Disney Animation for DreamWorks. (Where he currently is at the moment, in twenty-twenty three!) Yet some suggested, "They're from Pixar, maybe we should trust them?"

Lasseter then had AMERICAN DOG completely re-imagined, working only off of the core concept of a dog TV star going on a cross-country trip with some animal friends, into an entirely new movie called BOLT.

Directors Byron Howard and Chris Williams, both first-timers at the helm of something, brought the film to the finish line for Thanksgiving of 2008 to critical acclaim and even an Oscar nod, but a low final gross at the box office... While it was generally liked, there was a sort-of lingering feeling of what kind of movie AMERICAN DOG would've been. BOLT has often been compared to it, negatively, because visually it's just sort of... There? It looks nice, it's cute, the animal character design is pretty appealing, while WDAS was still working out CG human designs pre-TANGLED. Some of the extras in BOLT are little strange-looking to these eyes, to go off on a tangent.

Anyways, the short version: BOLT's fine, but what could've been... AMERICAN DOG...

There have been other pieces of concept art for AMERICAN DOG that have available to view for years, especially pieces from when the movie was still in development...

So, now... I want to talk about the days when I first came across this project... Around November/December 2004...

At the time, 12-year-old Kyle was beginning to look up upcoming movie slates and such on various movie news websites. Stuff like ComingSoon-dot-net and stuff like that. Box office was reported in many places, not just the usual suspects...

I had already seen THE INCREDIBLES maybe three times in theaters by this point (I saw it *five* times on a big screen total, during its one and only theatrical release), and that movie really rocked my world. It still does. I'm a huge fan of THE INCREDIBLES, and its sequel too. I was endlessly influenced by the movie, and it actually legit excited me at the possibilities of what CG animation could... Even though this was an era of hand-drawn animation being ushered out...

Still, I saw a lot of potential CGI before we got glomped with a ton of kiddie talking animal movies and such within a few years, that kinda cast CG in a more negative light online. It already got so much blame for ending 2D, for merely existing, so the kinds of movies that came out - like a dam burst - around late 2005-2007 certainly didn't help...

Anyways, I wanted to know... What was next???

For Pixar, since it seemed like they were splitting with the Disney Co. at the time, the future was a little less definite. A teaser for CARS was running before THE INCREDIBLES, and after that the plan was for RATATOUILLE to be next... Which it ultimately was. This was back when Jan Pinkava was still directing the movie, before he got taken off of it in early 2005 and replaced by INCREDIBLES director Brad Bird... And a lot of it was changed after that. Back in late 2004, it was simply a movie about a rat "living with" an eccentric famous chef.

Of course, per the original contract that Pixar signed with DizCo (to borrow from Steve Hulett, to save syllables), Pixar couldn't make any sequels to their hit movies. DizCo had those under lock and key if Pixar were to split with them, and they planned on taking advantage of that... DizCo opened up a CG animation studio called Circle 7 Animation, and tasked them to make TOY STORY 3, MONSTERS INC. 2, and FINDING NEMO 2... Quite different ones from the movies we ended up getting. At this stage, TOY STORY 3 might've still been about the whodunit story set at Andy's grandmother's house... Or, it had become the infamous "Buzz Lightyear recalled" story that got the green light.

Other studios had slates of sorts. DreamWorks, in addition to having MADAGASCAR and Aardman's WALLACE & GROMIT movie lined up for 2005, had OVER THE HEDGE and RATROPOLIS (changed to FLUSHED AWAY) on the horizon. They also had multiple SHREK movies lined up, up to five and a direct-to-video origin movie about Puss In Boots. KUNG FU PANDA was entering development at this time, but it wouldn't be announced officially until about a year later, ditto a few other pictures. Donkey made an appearance on the studio's CG animated primetime NBC sitcom FATHER OF THE PRIDE (a real trip of a show), in an episode that aired 9/21/2004, and remarked "But let your kid know that SHREK 3 is coming out in 2006!"

Other stuff was coming, too. Sony was getting OPEN SEASON fired up, I think Imagi was getting started on CAT TALE, there were a bunch of other random movies here and there... Most of them not made, I reckon...

Then there was Disney Animation's future stuff...

CHICKEN LITTLE already had a teaser that I first saw on the spring 2004 BROTHER BEAR DVD, and there was a much faster-paced trailer playing before THE INCREDIBLES (set to R.E.M.'s 'It's The End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)'). Next up were likes of A DAY WITH WILBUR ROBINSON, AMERICAN DOG, RAPUNZEL UNBRAIDED, and FRAIDY CAT I believe was announced as well.

I caught glimpses of AMERICAN DOG, and saw this particular action-packed image:

And I was draaaawn in. I was already hyped about how THE INCREDIBLES did such dynamic action, and this piece was reminding me of the scene where the Parr family use a news trailer to weave through Municiberg traffic to find the Omnidroid. I like a good car chase, so this was exciting.

At the time, I was already writing lots of stories about dogs, cats, stuff like that, dogs running away from dogcatchers and such. I was literally writing and picturing all these action sequences because THE INCREDIBLES really lit up my imagination on how action scenes could be done, especially in animation. All the wild angles and camera pans and swoops, it's like I was Incrediblizing everything I was writing at the time, my 12-year-old brain was just sooooo influenced by it. It was a formative film for me, m'kay?

Moving on... I was kind of in-and-out on what was happening with AMERICAN DOG once Chris Sanders was fired from the movie. I had found out that it become BOLT a little before the first trailer debuted, and I remember being down on it. Not to mention, I was going through a lot of other things at the time and I was kind of out of the loop on what was going on. There were some bad vibes going around in the circles too, that BOLT was sure to be bad because it wasn't AMERICAN DOG. It created a sense of "this is what we got instead", like we see a lot nowadays... And I saw the trailer before WALL-E in theaters, and just was not impressed.

The marketing for this movie was so weird. The posters, which pushed a lot of heavy reds, seemed to pass this picture off as "Dog INCREDIBLES". Anyone who has seen BOLT knows that the superhero stuff is literally a TV show he stars in, but the posters and covers really make it seem like it's a super-pets movie or something. And Disney had already done that live-action UNDERDOG movie a year prior. We were kind of at the tail-end of that weird period of Disney's movie output, the remains of the Eisner years and some very strange greenlights... I was starting to see movies in theaters again, following a depressive period where I didn't really go out in public much. And I was kinda softening on BOLT, but I missed it in theaters. I would later get the Blu-ray, as a blind present, around the end of 2009 I wanna say? And I finally gave it a watch, and I really dug it! I still do, actually, even if it is rather standard and workmanlike. Part of me assumes that Disney Animation, after years of critical and/or commercial bombs, were intentionally making something very familiar. Something cute and Disney-like and digestible, a fun little dog movie, as a way to ease back into the swing of things and get audiences to see their movies again.

After all, their last string of movies were... MEET THE ROBINSONS (lost money), CHICKEN LITTLE (made over $100m domestically but barely doubled its budget worldwide, got terrible reception), HOME ON THE RANGE (critical/commercial dud), BROTHER BEAR (critical flop but made its small budget back), and TREASURE PLANET (infamous massive bomb)... Maybe the rationale was, "Let's just make a classically Disney dog movie, but with some stuff that people like about the movies we make at Pixar!" It does feel a little assembled, it does feel like Lasseter using stuff from the movies he directed/oversaw at Pixar, mixing them with some "Disney" elements. The light satire of Hollywood and network television was an extra touch that gives it a little bit more flavor. In a way, I get it... Disney Animation hadn't had a genuine big hit in *years*, and maybe the thought process was "let's just make a straight-up family movie about a dog". Not something a little weirder or wilder, certainly not the utterly gonzo stuff Sanders was coming up with... But maybe, if they had taken a chance on it and kept the budget reasonable, they could've had a bigger hit on their hands? Who the heck knows...

BOLT ended up making around $309m worldwide against its $150m budget (I wonder how much of that came from the thrown-out AMERICAN DOG, since that got *very* far in pre-production), and managed to have spectacular legs in North America after such a blah opening weekend. I guess it's kind of a flop? Underperformer? The Hollywood math changes for each and every movie, it seems. But I think the positive critical reception and Oscar nod were taken into consideration, and so the movie was probably viewed as a stepping stone to the likes of THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, TANGLED, WINNIE THE POOH, and WRECK-IT RALPH. The so-called "Revival"...

But I would loooooove to visit an alternate universe where AMERICAN DOG *did* happen. And that it was the unhinged Chris Sanders movie it was looking to be. Maybe not an alternate universe where David Stainton is running Disney Animation, by all means he really had to go. Lasseter was not exactly an exemplary replacement, as we'd learn in later years, but someone should've let the movie happen. I think a second Sanders WDAS movie could've not only been a major hit, but it could've down as one of Disney Animation's most interesting and experimental films... Much like his own LILO & STITCH was! And to think John Lasseter despised that movie... It's no wonder Sanders left the dog movie and left the studio, though he did negotiate with Lasseter to keep at least one of the characters from his concept and use it elsewhere... Namely the one-eyed cat who became the main character of his comic, KISKALOO.

Sanders made some really cool movies at DreamWorks. HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON is good stuff, and THE CROODS is a lot of fun. I even enjoyed that live-action CALL OF THE WILD movie he did for 20th Century Studios, with the CG'ed dog... And I'm excited as heck for THE WILD ROBOT, his third DreamWorks movie... But, part of me feels like AMERICAN DOG would've been Chris Sanders at his most Chris Sanders. Something totally uncorked and wild and unlike anything else... Whereas, two of his DreamWorks movies are based on books, and the other was someone else's movie first. He had expressed interest in turning KISKALOO into a feature, and if he gets to do that after WILD ROBOT... At DreamWorks... That would be pretty amazing, honestly. It'd probably be the closest thing we get to what AMERICAN DOG was shaping up to be...

Anyways, I wanted to talk about where I was at with upcoming animation in 2004 as a young, weirdo enthusiast... And just talk about an unmade movie and the director's stuff in general and such. Hope you're having a great holiday!

(And go read DRAWING FOR NOTHING!)

#american dog #bolt #disney #disney animation #random thoughts #rambling #long post #long post is long

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too-true-to-believe · 5 months

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Transcripts of Silas Anderson’s investigations regarding a group called Siblinghood of Skull and Flower. Events take place over a 3 week span from late October to mid November.

[CLICK] SILAS

Audio recording regarding the research of a potential cult. Call themselves Siblinghood of Skull and Flower, indirectly linked to several investigators disappearances. Gonna try and avoid the group's focus while looking into how they make money and get new members. I suspect they are the kind of group to not worry about getting money in less than legal ways, but I could always be surprised.

The Siblinghood’s goals are unknown, however due to the name it is likely the group is interested in scavenging carcasses for bones. No problems with that, till they start nabbing people of course. Can’t ever condone murder even if human bones look cool as shit.

[CLICK]

Turns out, Mariana Fletcher, owner and proprietor of Fletcher's General Store has a dirty little secret. Apparently, she has a tendency to cook the books to get better interest rates from the bank. Course, this is all coming from Pierre Byron who's the current proprietor of Daily Select Grocery and Pharmacy. Claims he knows she's doing cause "the amount of stock she carries don't match the amount of clients she gets." Gonna have a looksy at Fletcher’s to see if I can get to the bottom of this. Might just be a competitor trying to bad mouth someone.

[CLICK]

Watching Fletcher’s for 'bout a week and a half now and only ever saw one customer. Some dirty guy in his late 30s, didn't seem to like lil' old Mariana’s food. Shame, seems like she is in dire need of some loyal customers. Mariana herself ventures out into the Jackdaw Fields on an almost nightly basis, the only days she didn't go were days where it was below freezing. Unknown if this is general activities for the Siblinghood or simply due to the fact Mariana is a little old lady whose bones disagree with the cold. I could look farther into that of course but you know … can't investigate anymore if I get disappeared. Ha ha …

[CLICK]

So I managed to talk to Mariana’s grandson, no idea who or where Mariana’s child is, with the help of buying him some candy and a promise to teach him how to widdle. Kids about 9 so take anything he says with a grain of salt, or like a whole salt shaker. Says his grandma likes to go out into the woods to collect bones but on nights when she goes out he's not allowed to get out of bed once the sun sets. Apparently she's got some kind of box that ‘smells like the apples left after we harvest’ that the bones go in once she finds them.

[CLICK]

Turns out Mr Byron was wrong about how much she ought to pay for products. Kiddo showed me their apple orchard, pointed out the hunting trails Mariana takes to collect meat, and introduced me to their pet chickens. Mean little bastards. Stole a whole button off my jacket.

Anyways, the kid also showed me “Grandma’s biggest secret”. Get this, she's got an honest to god bone stash buried out in the woods, under an old hickory tree. Couldn’t move them “or else Grandma’ll get really mad,” but contains a mix of human bones and animal bones. All degreased and defleshed. No clear organizational system, but the kid said Grandma put them right where she wants them. Kid says Grandma has a whole bunch of stashes like this, but he wouldn't show me any other ones. 'Parrently showing me this one scared him, coz he mad me pinky promise not to tell anyone or move the bones.

I … I’m gonna be honest I don’t know what to do? Like, clearly there's someone's bones under that tree, but what am I supposed to do? If Granny Mariana is willing to kill and stash whoever they are, then she’d have no problem doing the same to me. But I can’t just do nothing … right?

[CLICK]

The Fletcher kid likes me apparently. At least enough to give me a bracelet with about 25 teeth on it. Mix of human and animal, carnivore and herbivore. No ID yet.

I'm keeping the bracelet of course, don't want to upset my new friend, but ... fuck. What do I do?

[END TRANSCRIPT]

#Foghorn Heights #Transcripts

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thethirdromana · 4 months

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Given how relevant it is to the current epoch, I did a bit of reading into treatment of typhus in the 1840s. TL;DR: oh god, poor Marian.

Content warning: discussion of grim historical medical practices.

The Woman in White was written in 1860 and set in 1849-1850, which is right at the beginning of germ theory. It was only widely accepted by the 1880s. All the doctors in the Woman in White most likely believe in miasma theory; they aren't aware that typhus is a bacterial infection.

Mr Dawson prescribes a "saline" treatment. A Short Treatise on Typhus Fever, by George Leith Roupell in 1840, recommends "saline substances" and refers to "their agency in rendering the blood florid, and duly stimulating the heart and other organs." In practice:

Salts are the combination of acids with salifiable bases; those recommended by Huxham, are carbonate of potassa or sesquicarbonate of ammonia with lemon juice and nitrate of potassa

I don't really have enough medical knowledge to judge but this doesn't seem obviously harmful? Or even if it is... not compared with some of the alternatives below.

The History, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Typhoid and of Typhus Fever by Elisha Bartlett in 1842 runs through the treatments available.

Dr Jackson of Boston suggests complete bedrest, an emetic and enema, and if "vomiting and purging" aren't followed by great relief, bloodletting. Tartarised antimony (a strong emetic) should be given every two hours in increasing doses and the bowels kept open. If the patient has diarrhoea, they should be given opium. However, if the patient has advanced to the second week of the disease, none of this will be effective. Food should be very limited and bland.

Dr Nathan Smith thinks no treatment should be given if the disease seems to be running its course naturally. (Phew). There should be bloodletting of up to half a litre of blood only in severe cases of uncommon pain in the head. He would also recommend emetics only in cases of nausea and only the use of gentle laxatives. Mercury shouldn't be used. However, the most effective thing is to uncover the patient's body and sprinkle it with pure, cold water.

Chomel in Paris mostly favours refreshing drinks, emollients, sponging the body with vinegar or water, "mucilaginous injections" several times per day, and moderate bleeding at the onset of fever. In cases of severe pain, he suggests leeches. But if the disease is severe or inflammatory, the patient should not be allowed any food (even in liquid form) and there should be more bleeding and more leeches. He also suggests "cinchona, wine, camphor and ether", thinking that cinchona is better than quinine.

(I think this suggests that Fosco is right about experts recommending "brandy, wine, ammonia and quinine".)

Louis says much the same as some of the others. He doesn't think bloodletting is particularly effective but recommends up to half a litre "once or twice" anyway. He is in favour of quinine.

Bouillard is also in favour of bloodletting:

The number of his bleedings varies from one to five or six, of from twelve to sixteen ounces each; and nearly or quite an equal quantity of blood is taken from the patient by means of leeches or cups.

Unless "ounces" means something wildly different here (and the British fluid ounce, US fluid ounce, and ounce of blood by weight aren't that different), this means a maximum blood loss of 96 ounces or... 2.8 litres?? That's about what was taken from Byron when he died, and in all likelihood it contributed to killing him.

All this leaves me with no idea what message we're supposed to take from this chapter. Mr Dawson's approach does seem to be old-fashioned compared with what Fosco proposes. Some contemporary doctors would agree with the new physician, but others would think him dangerously hands-off. Maybe we're just not supposed to know what the correct approach is.

But from the perspective of medical knowledge that there's no way Wilkie Collins could have had, Marian is lucky to be alive.

#woman in white weekly #historical context

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friendly-rat-king · 4 months

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2023 Books

In October I decided to start writing short tumblr posts in response to each book I read. Did I follow through with this decision? Absolutely not! Here's a half-assed list of books I read in 2023, assembled way after the fact:

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (4/5)

I enjoyed comparing/contrasting it with The Handmaiden (aka Park Chan-wook's 2016 film adaptation, which shifts the setting from Dickensian England to Japanese-ruled Korea and dramatically changes the ending). As with The Handmaiden, which I watched first, I feel like if I cut the story into pieces and Frankenstein-ed it together into two separate stories, I would end up with one of my favorite books and one of my least favorite books.

Why I read it: in the process of reading Sarah Waters' entire bibliography.

2. Bunny by Mona Awad (2/5)

This book sucked, BUT there was a really funny scene about 1/3 of the way in where the narrator's high school crush inexplicably shows up and dances with her. It might be worth reading just for that scene (you can stop reading immediately afterwards).

If a book is supposed to be a satire about wealthy women attending graduate school, its not a great sign when it seems like the author has never met a rich person, a woman, or a graduate student. This is even stranger because the author, a woman, attended an Ivy and got a graduate degree in creative writing. I'd love to read the book this is trying to be, but this isn't it.

Why I read it: my sister-in-law recommended it to me specifically (yikes) and I felt obligated to finish it.

3. Infamous by Lex Croucher (5/5)

In the summer of 1816, 18-year-old Mary Shelley famously stayed at the Lake Geneva villa of noted jackass Lord Byron. Trapped inside by shitty weather, Byron's guests competed to see who could write the best ghost story (the winning entry was, of course, "Frankenstein"). Lex Croucher obviously thought this setting in itself was a great book premise, and was absolutely correct.

I was expecting the basic shape of this novel after reading the back cover, and my assumptions about the plot were basically correct. I was NOT expecting even the most minor characters to feel three-dimensional and complicated or to be hit so hard by - well, I can't tell you without spoiling it, but three different conflictto s that are simultaneously of their time and cut very, very close to home. I also wasn't expecting to laugh as hard as I did.

Why I read it: people on my dash kept recommending Gwen & Art Are Not In Love but I didn't want to read YA.

4. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (4/5)

It took me forever to finish this one because I kept finding myself pausing to design a digital glossary to accompany the book. What if, as you read through the description of the garden, the glossary's map of the monastery was suddenly filled in with all of the herbs mentioned, and as you hovered over each illustration (drawn in a pseudo-medieval style, of course) you could learn about the purported and actual properties of each herb? What if I illustrated the intricately carved portal and thoroughly researched the symbolism and history behind each of its components?

Anyway, I was lukewarm enough about the actual ending that I gave up on the project. It would probably be impossible for any ending to live up to a beginning this ambitious, to be fair.

Why I read it: I read that it was an inspiration for Pentiment (a game I still haven't finished, oops).

5. The Bell by Iris Murdoch (4/5)

I might try reading this one again -- there was obviously a ton of cool symbolic symmetry going on that I never quite got the significance of. What I did enjoy was Dora's POV. There's this really wonderful scene near the beginning where Dora spends several paragraphs internally justifying why she shouldn't give up her seat on the train for an old woman. Then, the moment the old woman asks, she impulsively gives up the seat without even thinking of it. Dora spends the rest of the story stumbling haphazardly between moments of grace, never quite aware of why she does any of the things she does, in a way that's simultaneously alien and yet completely plausible.

Why I read it: @conven1encestorewoman mentioned it was one of her favorite books.

6. Either/Or by Elif Batuman (5/5)

I would read anything she wrote. Fingers crossed she makes this into a four-part series.

Why I read it: I loved The Idiot. (Shout-out to @a-rhombus to loaning me her copy.)

7 + 8. A Free Man of Color & Fever Season by Barbara Hambly (5/5)

The book that made me love murder mysteries. The author obviously did a ton of research on 1830's New Orleans and I do love great historical fiction, but what really made it shine was that the "red herrings" weren't dead ends -- each one was essential to the themes of the novel. Highly recommend.

Why I read it: I think @sea-changed mentioned that it was good, I added it to my library queue, and then didn't think about it again until I was notified it was ready to checkout.

9. Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica (2/5)

Mehhhhh. All (attempts at) shock, very little substance.

Why I read it: my baby sister recommended it.

10. Geek Love by Katherin Dunn (5/5)

"Geek" as in "circus geek," a performed who bites the heads off of live chickens. Tender is the Flesh fuckin wishes it had what Geek Love has. (I have reached the point in this post where I realize I'm not even at the halfway mark and decide to hurry up -- sorry Geek Love, you deserved better.)

Why I read it: @mylestoyne mentioned there were some cool parallels to The Tempest and I decided to check it out.

11. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (5/5)

Absolutely lived up to the hype.

Why I read it: the hype.

12. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (4/5)

The rare book I consumed in audiobook format -- reading James' prose was very difficult for me, and filtering it through an actor helped. I don't know that I enjoyed the process of listening to it, but I really enjoyed thinking about it afterwards.

Why I read it: the prologue of The Haunting of Hill House name-dropped it.

13. The Tempest by William Shakespeare (3/5)

Look, I bumped it up to 3 stars because I felt like I couldn't give Shakespeare anything lower than a 3-star rating, but I really disliked this. Part of is is that I was already familiar with the highlights, and putting them in context diminished them. Ariel's song is way less interesting when you know for a fact that the man supposedly undergoing a sea-change is completely fine; Prospero's final monologue feels less like it's tying together broader themes and more like Shakespeare thought it would be cool to break the fourth wall at the last minute.

Idk, maybe I'm just an idiot. I immediately sought out a series of lectures on youtube about the play + texted people I know who love this play to elaborate on their opinions so they could correct my incorrect opinion, but so far, no dice.

Why I read it: because of the Geek Love parallels.

14. What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell (2/5)

Bad, as previously discussed.

Why I read it: someone at by brother's wedding said the essay on ketchup was worth reading (it wasn't).

15. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin (4.5/5)

Why I read it: because I wanted to read the sequel.

16. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl (4/5)

Discussed previously.

17. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (4/5)

(Already reviewed this on Goodreads so I can just copy-paste, hurray!) An enjoyable read. The pacing was great, the scene composition reminded me of a Wes Anderson film, and the footnotes were a very effective way of shifting the POV from third person limited to omniscient and back again. I checked the author's Wikipedia page midway through and was unsurprised to learn that he is an investment banker from New York; after all, the villain is the only character who refers to Rostov as "Comrade" (everyone else continues to deferentially call him "the Count") and he doesn't even know his wine pairings! The idyllic representation of pre-revolutionary Russia partially undermines the author's ability to convey the horrors of Soviet Russia. That being said, the tone of the novel is mostly light, and I was able to have fun in spite of this.

Why I read it: my older sister mentioned it was the last book she tried to read before she had kids and they took over her life. So I guess I tried to... symbolically finish it on her behalf? Who knows.

18. Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin (5/5)

No idea how to describe this one, so I'm just screenshot-ing the first page:

Why I read it: an @a-rhombus recommendation.

19. The Merry Spinster by Daniel Lavery [reread] (5/5)

Extremely effective horror retellings of fairy tales. Impossible to pick a favorite.

Why I (re)read it: because I read a bunch of other good horror fiction this year (not my usual genre) and it reminded me how much I love this collection.

20. The Mask of Apollo by Mary Renault (5/5)

Set during a failed attempt to make Plato's Republic a reality (a historical event I somehow didn't know about but that is Highly Relevant to my interests), told from the perspective of an artist (the most interesting viewpoint Renault could have chosen). The descriptions of places made me desperately want to hike across Greece when I get the chance.

Why I read it: @catilinas posted an excerpt that compelled me.

21. The Once and Future Sex by Eleanor Janega (3/5)

Spends a lot of time proving a thesis about modern women I basically already agree with when what I really wanted was more historical details. My fault for not taking the blurb at its word.

Why I read it: a friend I play D&D with recommended it.

22. The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K Le Guin (6/5)

Ok it's almost midnight and I don't want to fuck up one of my New Year's resolutions (10 minutes of yoga/day) when I'm only three days into the year. Real summary coming soon (hopefully. maybe).

Why I read it: one of my favorite worldbuilding youtube channels mentioned it was in her top 5 books.

23. Borne by Jeff VanderMeer (3/5)

The thing about giant flying bears is that they're just kinda silly.

Why I read it: the Southern Reach Trilogy was so good.

24. Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (4/5)

Very strong start -- strong enough for the four-star rating -- but the final act pulls way too many punches.

Why I read it: I heard emilyenrose was publishing original fiction.

#xor reads

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iliketrainmen · 1 year

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can I hear about your roark headcanons/facts/whatever you feel like sharing? I don’t know that much about him other than he is a Rock Guy

Oh boy. Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy. This I can guarantee will be a long post. Click read more if you dare. However, I do genuinely warn that there is a few sensitive topics discussed here such as mental health and the like, so proceed with caution!

Okay, so, there's a lot of stuff about Roark that I either know about, headcannon, or just like about him. So much that I have no where to start about it. I suppose, however, I'll start with homelife stuff!

Homelife headcannons

Starting off from before the very beginning of his life, I believe it's obvious that one of my favorite (and most used headcannons) is that Byron is not his biological father. This whole headcannon sort of stemmed from the fact that I couldn't pinpoint many similarities between the two of them and Roark's mother isn't present in either the games or the anime (as far as I'm aware of). So, my first instinct? Make Maxie his actual biological father. Fun internal drama shenanigans, especially if Maxie ever decides to break out of prison and cause more tomfoolery with Groudon.

This sort of leads into my other headcanon for Roark; his homelife wasn't... the happiest. Byron and his mother's marriage wasn't the happiest would be more of an accurate statement, but I would be lying if I said their divorce didn't affect him just a little bit. Of course, Byron tried his hardest to raise Roark the best he could, despite being a bit harsh and demanding of his boy. However, gonna be honest, leaving his son in Oreburgh to go live in Canalave/iron islands wasn't the best call of his, even if he got more money from it. This headcannon kind of stemmed from, well, the above headcannons reason and also how Roark yelled at his dad in one of the episodes for leaving him and his mom while he was a kid. I truly do feel like that concept could've been explored more if pokemon wasn't a kids show and Ash wasn't the protag.

Also, speaking of homelife relationships, Roark didn't have many friends growing up and his relationship with his father isn't the best. Byron is more of a "throw them into a pool and only save them if they stop moving underneath the water" kind of father. Meanwhile, his mother cut off all contact with them after the divorce. This cultivates into what I like to call "parental issues", where, overall, Roark struggles to form proper friendships with people his age or older than him because he's petrified of getting abandoned again. Of course, later on in his life, the persistent nature of Gardenia and Volkner somehow squeezing into his life would bypass this complex, but sometimes he can't help but be scared of the what if.

Schoolhouse trouble

Please tell me you found the name for this just the teeniest bit amusing if you've played baldi's basics remastered.

Anyways, Roark was sort of the mild-mannered kid at school. Always on task— well, on task most of the time— and too shy to cause any trouble in class. He excelled in all aspects of science and, of course, history. Unfortunately, math often enjoyed roundhouse kicking him in the balls, so he struggled to understand most of the material. Other than that, he had mildly decent grades throughout highschool, even if he didn't have the best highschool experience. No one ever asked him out to prom; he was the quieter kid in the back of the class most of the time.

College was more or less the same; he went into it straight out of highschool to get a headstart on his degree. Took him around 6 years to finally get a doctorate after taking ACE courses to earn his bachelor's degree. Honestly? In his opinion? The worst time of his life, even if he loved learning about fossils and paleontology. He was both working in the mines for money, running the oreburgh gym per Riley's suggestion, and taking night classes. So, I think it would be fair to say he didn't have a lot of time to himself. The freshman 15 proved itself to be real, except it came in the form of newly acquired muscle from the mines. He never interacted with people much on campus, mainly because 90% of the time he wasn't on campus. So, like highschool, he didn't have many school friends.

Worklife

His worklife balance is tilted completely in work's favor. He works at the mines all morning as the foreman starting from 8:00, then runs the oreburgh gym for the majority of the afternoon, leaning into the evening at 19:00. As the foreman of the mines, he deals with a majority of the paperwork; however, he still is involved with a lot of the heavy lifting and machinery.

As gym leader, he is ranked 8th on the circuit, meaning that— unfortunately— out of every gym leader he is the one with the highest lose ratio when it comes to challengers. He doesn't mind too much, however; he considers himself as more of a learning gym than a "we are going to fight to the bitter end and if you aren't on your a-game you are going to be meeting Arceus himself once I'm done with you" gym. He's never been the competitive type who worries about his WL ratio after all.

Anatomy of one (1) Roark

These sub-titles (sub-headings would be more accurate) are only going to get more and more "creative" as we go on.

My take on his character is going to be listed in bullet point because 1) easy and concise and 2) I would use too many metaphors, similes, and hyperboles so it would get lost in translation

He's about 5'3—5'4; for those who are sane that would be about 160 cm. (Projection)

His hair is red enough to make people question whether or not he dyes it. Or maybe they question it because it's nothing like Byron's. Who knows.

Crimson eyes, although they lean more towards mahogany.

The definition of a twunk. The hidden strongman of the group. Despite the muscle, however, he's still fairly soft, mainly because he eats terrible food whenever the chance is provided to him.

More of a pale-ish bronze skin tone. Mainly because I headcannon Hoenn to more or less be south-east Asian esc and Roark's bio dad is hoennese.

Terrible fashion sense. Absolutely dreadful. He has 10 of the same shirt in his closest and only one pair of going out jeans that are sun bleached to the distortion world and back.

Typically, he has a relaxed posture. Unfortunately, everyday is a new layer of stress for him so he often comes off as someone in a constant hurry.

Internal Anatomy of one (1) Roark

This is the fun part where we get to look into all of his issues, which— thanks to endless projection from me— there are many.

Case and point: Roark has a relatively bad case of tinnitus. Due to having never valued ear protection in the mines and drowning out his parents' arguments with loud music, he's got some pretty bad ringing in his ears. It doesn't bother him too much throughout the day unless it's night time, in which he will be sleeping with a floor fan on in the middle of winter, thank you very much. He honestly hates it when he remembers the ringing because it aggravates him so much that he can't get rid of it. He would 100% punch his former self for not valuing hearing protection. Thankfully, however, Volkner has always been a huge source of comfort whenever the ambient noise isn't able to save him from his own ears in the middle of the night.

Crippling mommy and daddy issues— or as I like to call them— "home is fuck" issues. His mother wasn't around when he was younger and his dad fully moved into canalave a couple of years after the divorce, effectively leaving Roark alone in Oreburgh at the age of 14ish (saw this particular headcanon in a fic s while back and ive yoinked it since). Of course his dad sent him money to live off of and visited on the weekends to keep Roark company, but it was enough to hurt him quite a bit upstairs. He struggles to trust people, often keeping them at an arms distance in terms of closeness. There's a reason Gardenia and Volkner are his only two genuine friends (outside of the fact that he just... does not go out enough to meet people that aren't his coworkers.).

Truly, the most unexpected one of this bunch, one of my favorite headcanons is that Roark suffers from shitty self-esteem and a mild case of depression spawned from low life satisfaction. Roark hasn't really done what he's wanted to do in life due to the gym and the mines being thrown onto him by his father and Riley. For a man with 100k in student debt from a paleontology degree with little to no hope of ever paying it off, these two careers don't seem like the types he'd go for on his own. So, he spends his life doing not what he wants to do, but what others want and expect him to do. Feels like it would be a little hard to live like that for 4 years and not develop a sense of self hatred.

Skipping ahead to another topic, for some reason I cannot help but feel like Roark has a few sensory issues when it comes to touch. He absolutely hates wearing anything that rubs his skin the wrong way, making it difficult for him to buy clothes that aren't what he's used to. You can tell if he's wearing something that's setting off the alarms in his brain because he'll look like someone just told him that archeology and paleontology are the same thing. Roark can't help but feel a little ashamed of being so sensitive to certain fabrics and feelings, despite Gardenia (who is the only other one to know about this) saying it's perfectly okay.

Due to working in the mines, he also has poor lung capacity I'd reckon. And just poor lungs in general. He runs out of breath constantly and has coughing fits occasionally. This is the main reason why Gardenia can't help but fret over his health; he's already in pretty poor condition due to working in the mines. He assures her he'll be fine, but I'm fairly certain the both of them know it's only going to get worse the longer he works there.

Social Life

I cannot stress enough how little this man interacts with people who are not either his employers, employees, or coworkers. If he's not in the mines or the gym, he's further underground falling into a cave or something. Probably onto a stalagmite.

He only has 5 contacts in his phone: Gardenia, Volkner, his dad, his boss, and his other boss. This man knows nobody, literally.

In regards to the above, it should be noted that he only has two friends. Thankfully, they turned out to be close friends, so he's not too upset about not having more. Two is enough for him; why would he want anything other than what's just right for him? One of these friends is Gardenia, who he met when he was 20 and a newbie to the pokemon league. He only properly met Volkner a few months later when Gardenia invited the both of them on an outing, to which they got along surprisingly well. So, all in all, he's known them for around 4 years now.

While he's cheery and likes to hold a friendly, outgoing persona, he would be lying if he said he weren't a little bit shy. Roark has a bit of a hard time opening up and interacting with people outside of his basic gym leader 'hoo ha" front, something that's carried over from school. If you catch him while he's off work, he looks a lot more timid and introverted than anything else.

Dating Life

(Warning, themes regarding intercourse below. I'll add a ----- border from beginning for people who want to skip it. There's nothing explicit, but I'm aware there's some people in my audience who are not a fan of that sort of stuff.)

This flows so well with the social life that I'm almost proud of it. Unfortunately it's probably going to be short because, well, Roark does not have a dating life.

The most single, inexperienced, lover you will ever meet in your life. He's far too busy to hold and serious relationships; he'd feel too bad for not being there most of the time. Even as a teenager, he was too timid to end up with a significant other, much less close friends. So, absolutely no relationship experience here.

---------

I also mean inexperienced in the other way too. If there existed the human counterpart to extra extra virgin olive oil, he would be the one. On his list of priorities, getting down and dirty with someone is ranked absolutely last. He rarely even thinks about it without it being brought up by someone else in conversation. His drive is the closest to zero one can possibly get.

I also headcanon him (outside of the obvious PWP) to have somewhat severe intercourse anxiety, mainly due to prior self-esteem issues and... well... he just can't do one night stands. Or 2nd date lays. Not that he's ever been offered either before. He's too nervous that he'll do something wrong and the whole idea of doing it with a stranger or near stranger feels so wrong to him. (I'll just slip this in here. Along with being gay, I can't help but headcanon him to be demisexual too. He tends to view intercourse as a way to be close with someone, rather than just to feel good. Projection moment.)

-------

Feel like this is a good section to bring up the headcanon that he's gay. Essentially the male equivalent to lesbian sheep, on terms of behavior. The panicked gay, as some like to call it. Although I think the panicked part came from him genuinely believing he was straight his entire life and just needed to find the right woman. Then he met Steven at his second ever global gym leader banquet, which ended being held at Hoenn. He was having a rather nice chat with Gardenia when he spotted Steven from across the room, wearing a stunning suit adorned with gems of various types along the cuffs of his sleeves. It was a suit fitting of a champion, for sure; it was also a suit that made Roark blank out on his conversation for several minutes and drop his drink without noticing. Both him and Gardenia realized he was gay that day.

As a theoretical lover, one would need to be... just a little bit patient with him. Not only because of the point above, but also he's hesitant with touch. Touch starvation throughout your childhood does kind of do that to a person. He's also pretty busy, and often doesn't have a lot of time to spare for personal matters. However, whenever he is near someone he's head over heels in love with, he can't help but act just the slightest bit shy. I'm talking finger curling around the bangs while averting his eyes from your gaze kind of shy; the full face flush the second your fingers brush across the top of his hand, even for but a moment. It's ridiculously easy to get him flustered if you're his lover. Do be gentle with him about it though, he's not used to these sort of things. I'd reckon he likes taking things slowly, mainly because he's so unused to this kind of stuff.

Also. Arceus help you if you call him a pet name. He'll stop functioning for a couple minutes and look as if a tamato berry splattered across his face.

Hobbies

There's not a lot of hobbies Roark has asides from creeping about in the Underground seeking spheres and what not. What can he say? He's perfectly satiated by roaming the dark, dank depths of unexplored caverns searching for some sort of treasure.

Don't tell him I told you this, but he's also taken up baking and cooking as a hobby. He's horrible at it, but gradually getting better and making more complicated stuff. Don't expect a Shepards pie or anything of the like from him though, he can barely put together a basic casserole without overcooking something.

Potential Motivations?

This is more of a one-stop shop for reasons why Roark might start a character arc, villain or not. Feel free to use these in your own stories if you wish, along with any of the headcanons above, no credit needed!

Coinciding with the dad headcanon (see Maxie), something that could lead him astray is finding out about his birth parents. Or, rather, finding out who exactly his father is, which is information he could only get from his mother who has practically disappeared off the face of the planet. It's kind of like a Goldilocks and the Three Bears in that new Puss in Boots movie motivation, where she's doing the whole journey just to get a 'proper family'? Kind of like that, but he'd do it just to know who he missed out on when growing up. Or, in his eyes, ruined his childhood. He still has a pretty difficult time accepting that his mom cheated on his dad in this scenario.

Keeping the Grand Underground/Oreburgh safe is a massive priority to him. Ultra Beasts? He'll punch a couple if need be. Rotting away shells of the regi trio? Nothing a little bit of pickaxe action cant handle. Over all, if there's anything he's extremely loyal to, it's the place he grew up the most in. This could potentially lead to some stupid ideas and stupid alliances (looking at you, Colress, and the other fic I've been occasionally working on in the background). There's not a whole lot he wouldn't do to keep the Grand Underground and his city safe. There's also very little keeping him from ripping apart the streets if there's ever something endangering his friends and/or family.

His identity is a pretty big motivation for himself. He's essentially done what everyone else has told him to do for the entirety of his life and has little sense of a self due to a disrupted childhood. Roark never really had time to process all of the trauma he experienced as a kid and had a ton of responsibility dropped onto him before he even hit his 20s. Just thinking about what he wanted to be as a kid fucks him up; if anyone were to bring that up to him when he was alone, it could make for a great persuasion tactic. He, quite frankly, hates himself and hates his life; I think he would do almost anything for a chance to start a new life without disappointing or worrying anyone. Also, big bonus points when combined with the bio dad headcanon.

Extra Tid Bits I Can't Categorize

He can probably wolf down an entire little ceasers deep dish pizza in 30 minutes if given the opportunity

He will regret the above because of his lactose intolerance

He absolutely despises horror films. He sees enough horror in the safety practices of his employees when they think he isn't watching. He's more of a sappy movie kind of guy; the fellow to go see a Pixar movie in theaters. Also a sucker for rom coms, mainly because it allows him to fantasize about something he'll never have.

Digimon fan in and out; don't ask him about his opinions on frontiers, though. He has very strong opinions that will last about 2 hours of conversation time.

He has a bit of a lazy eye + astigmatism going on, which is the main reason for his glasses. He's not as blind as a bat, but Volkner will need to be the navigator if he doesn't have his Eyewear for some reason.

Accidentally ate a brownie from the wrong bag when staying at Volkner's for a night. Woke up with a massive headache and a hand-written schematic for a foldable pickaxe.

Terrible fear of heights. It's always fun whenever his aerodactyl gets too excited while out on a short glide and shoots up into the air with Roark still on her back.

He is incredibly camera shy; every public event is his own personal hell because of paparazzi and reporters.

He struggles a lot with newer technology and trends. I hold the headcanon that from D/P/Pt he went into the Grand Underground one day and surfaced into Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (which is about a 13 year shift).

^"What do you mean MLG montages are no longer popular?!" "Slowed + Reverb? We came up with a name for that 10 years ago. It's called daycore." "WHAT DO YOU MEAN CLUB PENGUIN SHUT DOWN." "Why can't I find flappy bird on the playstore?"

He does his own taxes and Byron, who is well aware of this face, "hires" Roark to do his taxes for the incredible wage of free.

These don't account for all of my headcanons; just the ones that have come into my head so far. There's likely more I haven't mentioned that will probably come up later down the line. This response got way longer than expected which is why it took a while to post, but I hope this answers some of your questions!

#pokemon #gym leader roark #roark #gardenia #volkner #headcanon #long post #extremely long post #this is just me gushing about Roark

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atopearth · 6 months

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Final Fantasy XVI Part 3 - To Live is to Hope

I'm glad they addressed the anklet on Torgal's leg, I've been curious about it. Nice to know it was from Cid. I'm glad the kids helped stand up for L'ubor because I was just about ready to leave this town to die. But of course it's better for everyone to be alive because then that can truly change the situation of the people and the Bearers. I liked the quest following in the will of Archduke Elwin. I'm sure he must be really proud to see both his sons living as he would have wanted them to, unwavering in their beliefs for a world where Bearers and everyone can live as they will. I like Isabelle, she's very strong, mature and cool. Her story was very bittersweet too, it's a common story but you could really feel how grateful she was towards Northreach and the Veil for taking her and her lover who was a Bearer in when no one else would, and how much they treated her like family and kin that she's willing to give everything to protect this town and it's people. Her strength and resolve throughout the game in caring for this town goes to show how beautiful Northreach is and also why I have a soft spot for this town too.

It was really sweet to know that Clive tried to take Jill to see snow daisies when they were young because she was sad. He didn't get to show it to her back then but at least now he's been able to fulfil that promise. It's not as romantic as the flower scene in FFVIII before the end but not many things can top the feelings I had back in the day. Anyway, I'm really glad we got this scene because I was like, what about Jill the whole time I was doing all these side quests haha. Glad she got a bit more screentime and it really warmed my heart seeing them hug each other so comfortably and happily. I'm happy that we got the Dion side quest, I think he and I really needed it. Harpocrates also needed it I guess since he never got to watch over Dion any more than the brief time he did when Dion was young, but the fact that Dion remembers and respects him goes to show his importance in his heart. It was cute how Mid also hugged Dion before they left for Origin and he was so surprised haha. But what about Terence? Did he die? I really wanted Dion to get a proper farewell too. I really like Gav's relationship with Clive, so when he started crying, I wanted to tear up too😭 What?! No Torgal for the final battle? That's ridiculous, we've never separated from him, how could we go without him? What is life without Torgal? I mean I should say the same for Jill but I have to admit that I feel more incomplete without Torgal than Jill lmao.0

I knew it was basically impossible for Joshua to live until the end but having to watch him die and Clive absorbing the Phoenix just makes me sad. Little Joshua knighting Clive was the cutest thing ever. As for Ultima, honestly have no feelings for him because he's a pretty typical JRPG villain lol. What, I couldn't believe that was the ending because it was so anticlimactic, I wasn't sure what to feel even when I got back to the title screen. And honestly, what I hate most aren't endings I dislike but inconclusive endings and this is one. It reminds me of Gantz and I'm still salty to this day. I honestly don't care if our main characters really died or not, I don't care if the ending is sad or happy, but I hate that they showed nothing that was an "ending". Everything was just the aftermath of the final battle and then the end. Even that book is just a cop out to make you feel better or something, is it written by the real Joshua resurrected? Clive in his name? Jote in his memory? It could be anything but because they refuse to show it, I don't think I really care either. Just seeing Jill and Gav cry as they welcome in a new life is very unsatisfying. I felt bad for Torgal. How many people he cared about died before him? Anyway yeah, I have no doubt that a world with L'ubor, Martha, Byron and Isabelle and them will be perfectly fine but that doesn't mean I spent 60-70 hours on a journey with Clive just to not see a proper ending for him and I'm just disappointed in this decision. Maybe they're trying for DLCs again or a sequel (EDIT: DLCs coming as expected I guess) but seriously, it leaves a bad aftertaste considering everything that's happened. Dion's implied death was the worst. And the battle where we couldn't play with Bahamut or Phoenix was lacklustre considering how great the battles with Titan and Bahamut were. Anyway, it's crazy how the Bahamut fight was so long, but the ending to an entire game was so short and meaningless.

Overall, I still enjoyed FFXVI. The highlights of the game are definitely the Eikon fights and the side characters. I'm not one to fall for the sway of graphics considering I grew up with the blocks in FFVII but I can very assuredly tell you that the fight against Titan was great, and the fight against Bahamut was pretty freaking cool despite how terrible of a situation it was. In terms of Eikon fights though, I was quite disappointed that Shiva never really got to shine considering how beautiful she was and how cool Shiva always is. Even Garuda had better screentime. Odin had his splitting the sea moment too. As for the side characters, honestly the side quests were tedious at times because running around was annoying and there's only so many times we can kill bandits and fetch materials that are super far away.

I'd say the side quests were worth doing because they really helped towards world building and giving me a better view of how towns and people were. I won't say I liked all of them but Martha and Wade, Isabelle, Eloise and Theodore were great. In terms of main story characters though, my favourites were definitely Joshua, Dion, Gav and Cid. It's funny but this is one of the rare times where I actually loved the younger brother more than the older brother hahaha, I guess I just loved how even though Clive was Joshua's shield, Joshua turned out to be the one to protect him more than he did once they got older. I loved the sibling love and care for each other. I loved Dion's story the most because it was very straightforward and understandable. He was a good guy who cared about his people and his father but wasn't able to stop the destruction caused by Ultima because of these feelings he had for them. Gav and Clive is my favourite relationship because their trust and heart to heart to each other just makes me happy to watch all the time. Cid was cool and a great role model, charismatic and strong in his beliefs, a good way to show what Clive was to become as he continued his journey.

However, I do have to say I probably have more negatives than positives for this game. Personal preference but I wasn't a fan of the combat system. I can understand why there's no "magic system" but the utter lack of debuffs and status changes etc really makes battles quite one dimensional in that your focus is really to combo and dodge/block. Attacks from enemies are basically meaningless because the only difference is how much damage they do and not what they do. Weapons and accessories aren't any better because weapons can only have better damage and stagger but nothing else, and accessories don't really add much change to make me really care what I was using. I mean as I've said, I was using the accessory that does attacks for me so you can take my words with a grain of salt lol but I was just so disinterested in the combat, I couldn't bring myself to bother. Oh and the non-existent party system was disappointing because it never really mattered if you had a party or not, it was just more characters on screen but really, I always felt alone in battle and completely forgot their existence. Anyway, as I was disappointed with Shiva's lack of screentime, I was also disappointed with Jill's presence in the story because her character fell flat for me. She and Clive were cute at times but I kinda wish she had more of a character if that makes sense. Barnabas was also disappointing considering he was closest to Ultima and that he was Odin, so he could have brought more insight and development to those things but nope. I have to say though, the story was very average. I thought the story was going to be more "mature" and go for the exploration of politics, Clive's revenge and fight for forgiveness etc but instead it went down the JRPG killing god route which was very disappointing to me especially considering how boring Ultima was. Oh well I guess. Despite my grievances, I'd still give it a 7.5, it was a nice ride but nothing really hit me, it basically met my expectations which was that even if I don't like the game, the Eikon fights should be cool, and I'd say the game definitely delivered in that aspect with Bahamut, which is kinda ironic because when I first saw Bahamut, I thought he was the ugliest out of all the Eikons hahaha! Who would have thought I'd like his Dominant Dion, and the Eikon fight the most in the end? Odin was the most beautiful but also the most disappointing. Anyway, I'd say the game is worth playing just to see the Eikon fights haha, they are just that visually stunning!

#final fantasy xvi #final fantasy 16 #ffxvi

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almost-born-in-1893 · 9 months

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So... Have you heard about this hottie?

This is Lady Caroline lamb, who is best known for making this goofball

sound actually attractive and not just like a dumb frat bro when she described him as "mad, bad and dangerous to know".

Oh, this is Lord Byron btw. An idiot playboy who was constantly broke because of his excessive lifestyle as a gambling, drinking and home-wrecking whore. Of course nowadays he's just known as a "poet", because God forbid aristocratic white men ever face any degradation in their status for their own actions.

Anyway, "Caro" as Byron called her, was also his mistress while being married herself and did some crazy shit to get his attention after he moved on to his next conquest, like sending him some of her pubes, threatening to kill herself with a broken whine glass at a party and also breaking into his home and writing "remember me" in one of his books.

To which he responded with a poem of course (why be an adult about it if you can do angsty shit like make rhymes).

"Remember thee! Remember thee!; Till Lethe quench life's burning stream; Remorse and shame shall cling to thee, And haunt thee like a feverish dream! Remember thee! Ay, doubt it not. Thy husband too shall think of thee! By neither shalt thou be forgot, Thou false to him, thou fiend to me!"

Sure, dude, it's not like you knew she was married. As if you had a problem with that, but go off I guess...

So, what's the point of this story? I don't really have one. Both of them seem like dumb-asses, but we just love gawking at the affairs and scandals of rich, hot people, don't we, folks?

I'm just enamoured with the more human side of history and this certainly is some shit we'd see from celebs today. It brings earlier times a little closer and even though I don't really care for celebrity drama today for some reason I eat up stories like this when it's aristoracy in Regency England. Must be my Jane Austen mind virus.

#regency gossip #lady caroline lamb #lord byron #historic people were just like us for real #except these ones were genrty so they were nowhere near us

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dykesynthezoid · 1 year

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ooo 3, 13, and 14 👀

let’s gooooo

I tried to edit this down but it’s still extremely long. I’m not sorry

3. Screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

Oh but there’s so many. So, so many. Truly an unending amount.

A somewhat funny but overwhelmingly bizarre take I’ve seen is that when fandom has a female character they don’t like, they just decide to claim she’s homophobic??? Lmao?? Like they’re both so invested in all their gay ships and also hate her so much for not being 100% accommodating to everyone else at all times that their solution is to claim that. She must be the token straight who’s also a homophobe.

It’s always the same type of female character too btw. “Katara is homophobic” “Nancy Wheeler is homophobic” “Sam is homophobic” literally people hate women SO MUCH and the shit they have to come up with to justify it can be honestly fascinating. People will see a girl who has been even slightly bossy or headstrong or complicated once in their fucking lives and decide she’s the most evil bitch to ever exist. Like get over yoursellllffff!!! It’s SO embarassing for them

13. Worst blorbofication

Any blorbofication that 1. completely sandpapers any interesting flaws or nuance, 2. entirely invents positive or sympathetic traits that the character does not actually possess; these treats are frequently stolen from other characters within the same media, but who are in some way marginalized and therefore fans ~just can’t put their finger on it, but they don’t like them as much as their blorbo for some reason… But here’s all the character traits they stole from them and gave to their blorbo to make the blorbo seem cooler, of course

(Bro people will literally see a female character or a character of color with an interesting trait and go “YOINK!” and just slap it onto their boring white guy blorbo)

I would say an example of the first type, though, is Terry Silver. I don’t think it’s strange at all to feel affection for his character or be fascinated by him. I mean, look at him. There’s some wacky shit going on there, how can you not be fascinated? I do think it’s strange to build up a thing in your head where he’s always the victim, nothing is really his fault, he can’t be blamed, poor poor Terry he’s so sad and lonely, etc. Like idk maybe he wouldn’t be so lonely if he weren’t Terrible To Be Around because he actively enjoys hurting people. And I like that about him! I like that he’s so campily evil!!!

Anyway just let him be a fucked up little weirdo!! It’s what makes him interesting!! He’s literally a psycho biddy mixed with a byronic hero in the shape of the campiest gay villains imaginable, love and cherish him as he is.

19. That one thing you see in fics all the time

Hmm. Okay. So. I have a couple of these; one I truly dislike and another I just tend to note and go “hmm, interesting.” Let’s start with the more controversial one.

So. There’s such a thing in TKK and CK as canon-typical racism, right? It’s a reality that exists in both. And I think it would be wrong to expect any author, regardless of race, to just wholly ignore that, because again, it’s a reality of the story (and of the real world).

However. Would it be nice if people could let you know when the story is going to be full of slurs? Yeah, I think it would.

I understand why and how those are things that end up needing to be touched on. I don’t think authors should have to censor themselves in that aspect. But also; there’s such a flippancy, in how sooo many ck and tkk authors approach using those things in their stories. And I think it’s really fucking easy to be flippant, right, if it doesn’t affect you, if you’re not a part of the race that’s being targeted, and especially if you’re white. Of course it doesn’t seem like a big deal.

I also think people seem to genuinely somehow forget that someone could read what they’ve written and be triggered by it. Like. As if; in particular; Asian people don’t exist or wouldn’t be reading their stories??? It’s very strange. And it’s so easy to put in a little warning! It’s so easy! And why wouldn’t people be sensitive about something like that, when fandom racism can be so rampant on a broader scale?

And you could say oh, well people should expect that content because it’s in the source material. But like… we all regularly tag and warn for things as milquetoast as say, underage drinking. Which is also in the source material. So I’m really not getting how popping a quick content warning for canon-typical racism is so difficult.

(I also think some people genuinely seem to forget; or don’t care; about the history and trauma that comes attached to certain derogatory terms and slurs. “J*p” should not be something you are just throwing into your fic for fun. You need to have really thought about why you’re putting it there, the purpose it’s serving, what you’re saying about the character who says it).

On a slightly lighter note! Something I see all the time in Lawrusso fics (and sometimes other M/M fics with Daniel as well) is people just sort of struggling to figure out what to do with Amanda. And I’m not trying to condemn that, at least not altogether.

And I certainly prefer the current trend of her being supportive and finding any developments hilarious to the earlier portrayals of her just being the villain for no reason. But also, just leaving her in the wingwoman position and not bothering to add any dimension there can leave her very flat, and it’s a position female characters get put in often in regards to M/M ships.

One solution is of course in going the poly route, because it usually necessitates at least a little bit of rumination on Amanda’s perspective. But even then there’s no guarantee people add any dimension to her.

And of course; we’re speaking in trends here. This isn’t an issue of individual preference, or a pursuit in lambasting anyone on their personal work; it’s a discussion of something much larger.

I don’t think Amanda should somehow have to be an extremely nuanced focal point in every M/M Daniel fic (that’s just not possible, for one, lmao). But when people do choose to include her in a major way, I think it’s good to stop and consider how you can add a little depth or nuance. I mean, I’ve had to struggle with that myself, and I’m never really sure if I’ve succeeded or not. But I thought about it, and I kept it in mind, and I think even that can make a difference.

I myself often go the divorce route in writing her; although it. Usually doesn’t even have anything to do with what Daniel and Johnny are doing? It’s just that I think Amanda deserves to be with someone who’s not obsessed with karate. And I like Damanda, and I love Daniel, but like. Idk man! It’s a whole lot! And I think anyone could get tired of it. She quite literally did not sign up for that. And if you think her being Daniel’s wife puts her under some kind of obligation to always be understanding and always take his side and never question him; well. Ew, frankly. Just because Daniel also deserves support doesn’t mean she has to be on the same page as him or she’s a bad wife.

She’s literally her own person!! Let her be her own person!!!

(Literally I wish I could pay for her and Carmen to just go on a long fucking vacation. Let them have a fucking break and have mind-blowing gay sex away from all the karate nonsense and their identities as partners and mothers. What if they were just two hot perimenopausal women with complex inner lives and complicated pasts experiencing life together on a beach in Cabo. Y’know. And they could have a time together that’s about them, they’re the point, they haven’t somehow been relegated to a background pairing. And also there’s the gay sex).

(I think I got off track. What was I talking about? Oh, right.)

I think how quickly my mind will shove Daniel and Johnny out of way the moment Amanda and Carmen appear IS #feminism tbh. Like they might as well not exist to me when Amanda and Carmen are onscreen together, or when a story’s supposed to be about them. Daniel who? I’ve never heard of him. Also I think people should write long, beautiful Carmanda fics and then tag Lawrusso just bc they appear in the background for five seconds. I think it would be hilarious.

#some of these Should Not be controversial opinions but they do seem to be!#basically just me complaining about fandom misogyny and racism for a while #cobra kai #asks

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tatticstudio55 · 2 years

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With all the recent talk about the Dance of Dragons and unreliable narrators, I’ve been rethinking about the incident with ser Byron Swann, Serwyn of the Mirror Shield wannabe, and the dragon he unsuccessfully tried to kill. Why did Martin include this anecdote in Fire and Blood?

The point of curiosity of the incident is that we don’t know – per Fire and Blood strictly – which dragon it was that ser Byron tried to slay. Gyldayn lists three potential ones: Vhagar, Syrax and Sunfyre. Here, Vhagar comes off as the most likely candidate. Gyldayn himself considers Sunfyre to be the least likely of the three “since Sunfyre’s whereabouts were unknown at this time” (FB: 476), and the suggestion that it might have been Sunfyre only came “years later” anyway. As for Syrax, the book – that is, Gyldayn – heavily suggest that Rhaenyra never took her to battle (and of course, there are zero mention of Rhaenyra fighting on Syrax during the Dance in FB):

“It should have been you” the Sea Snake shouted at Her Grace. “Staunton sent for you, yet you left it to my wife to answer and forbade your sons to join her.” (FB: 438)

“Prince Daemon circled the towers of the Red Keep before bringing Caraxes down in the outer ward. Only when he was certain that the defenders would offer him no harm did he signal for his wife the queen to descend upon Syrax.” (FB: 455)

“[Rhaenyra] dare not send all her dragons,” Aemond insisted. […] Nor will she risk Syrax, or that last sweet son of hers.” (FB: 464)

However, in Tyrion III, ADWD, we learn that it was Syrax after all:

Grand Maester Munkun errs. Ser Byron's squire saw his master die, and wrote his daughter of the manner of it. His account says it was Syrax, Rhaenyra's she-dragon, which makes more sense than Munkun's version. Swann was the son of a marcher lord, and Storm's End was for Aegon. Vhagar was ridden by Prince Aemond, Aegon's brother. Why should Swann want to slay her?"

This could at least explain the mix-up with Sunfyre, since he and Syrax were of similar colors (gold and yellow, respectively) and probably of similar sizes as well. However, everything doesn’t add up. If Rhaenyra never took Syrax to battle, when and where did the incident with ser Byron happen? Had Syrax just wandered off on her own for some fresh air? This is unlikely, since “[h]eavy chains bound her to the ground”, “[keeping] her from flying off riderless” (FB: 490). Gyldayn add that Syrax was “exceedingly well fed” and “had not hunted for years”.

Did ser Byron try to sneak inside the Dragonpit to kill her, then? Also unlikely, since she was not kept in the Dragonpit but “within the walls of the Red Keep” (FB: 490).

Was someone else riding Syrax when ser Byron tried his thing? Highly unlikely (RIP Joffrey Velaryon).

Or perhaps Rhaenyra, thinking that Syrax needed exercise, took her out for a flying session. They landed somewhere quiet – ah, peace, at last. Rhaenyra spotted some blueberries bushes and left Syrax alone for a minute or two to go get some. Meanwhile, ser Byron and his squire were picnicking in a river boat nearby. When ser Byron saw Syrax, he decided to give it a go. He couldn’t make it back to the river on time.

Technically possible, but unlikely.

What is likely is that, despite FB’ insinuations that Rhaenyra herself never fought in the Dance, she actually… did? At least once.

It’s interesting that Gyldayn would “curate” this specific detail from his book.

#valyrianscrolls #house of the dragon #fire and blood #rhaenyra targaryen #ASoIaF #the dance of the dragons

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rondo-of-blog · 1 year

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Change Alone is Neutral

Today I watched Street Fighter: The Movie. The live-action one, where Ming-Na Wen is Chun-Li and Guile is French.

For the uninitiated, Street Fighter: The Movie bears a surface-level resemblance to its namesake (or, the sequel to its namesake, rather) but diverges dramatically in various ways. Balrog's a good guy, Chun-Li's a journalist, and Zangief's... still a good guy, but he's VERY confused & susceptible to propaganda - relatable, amirite?

Now, when movies based on video games get talked about, the prevailing narrative is that they would be just peachy were it not for how many pesky CHANGES get made in the process of adapting the source material.

The primary audience for a video game adaptation ought to be the fans of the source material, after all, right? No Street Fighter fans went to theaters to see Street Fighter: The Movie in hopes of seeing, I dunno, Ryu entering into a found-family with his small-town cop bestie.

That all makes some amount of sense, but the truth isn't as simple as "is change good or bad?" That's yet another binary contrived to make sense of a chaotic world that defies description at its most beautiful.

No - to get to the heart of this, we're gonna have to take what I think I'll call a "step into the grey." Leave black-and-white behind and focus on what's in between it all.

So Street Fighter: The Movie is different. So what?

For one, it means we have an hour and 42 minutes of Balrog getting the heroic turn he's not gotten in the games in his 30+ years of character history. What they did to poor Grand L. Bush's hair in the film aside, I'd call everything in his depiction in the film a step up.

Gone are the constantly bugged-out eyes, gone is the characterization that (in the words of the Street Fighter fan wiki) paints him as a "greedy American boxer who loves booze, gambling and women." In the film he's a consistently-sympathetic figure who the audience is meant to root for, along with Chun-Li and E. Honda.

Now, is there anything wrong with Balrog being a villain in the actual Street Fighter games?... Not on its own but, in lieu of opening that can of beans, I'll just say it was refreshing to see him portrayed so positively.

The film setting itself apart from the games also means that the face of the damn series, Ryu, gets sidelined in favor of Jean-Claude Van Damme's Guile.

Now, am I gonna sit here and say I didn't enjoy Guile in the film? Of course not - he gets some of the best lines in the film and has an absolutely-magnetic presence on-camera, and Van Damme does an excellent job with the material.

... However.

Guile has never mattered like Ryu has mattered in Street Fighter. Ryu is the one on the covers, front-and-center, and would it have killed the film to let the big Hollywood name actor take the role of a memorable side-character (à la Ben Kenobi) while a fresher face - in this case, Byron Mann - takes the lead? I don't think so!

Just look at the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie! I hear it did pretty good doing pretty much that!

Does every movie need to be the same, then? Obviously not, and Street Fighter: The Movie would inevitably have been very different if Ryu took on a more central role. Could it have been closer to the games? Perhaps. Would that have made it better? Were the writers on the film even equipped to write a good movie centered around Ryu?

All questions I will happily shrug in response to, because I wasn't there and I can't know about things that never happened.

That's just two examples of where the film made changes to the source material as it adapted it into a movie, anyway. One positive and one negative, at least as I've presented them so far. But, getting back to the grey, let's take another look at both.

Balrog's heroic turn is nice and all, but it's not automatically good on its own. Its execution is what truly makes it great. Conversely, while I dislike the principle of him being sidelined, Ryu is still a lovable character in the film - even as he and Ken are randomly con men.

This is all very basic stuff, I realize. "Thing isn't bad on its own, it can be good if it's good" isn't exactly setting the world on fire for philosophizing. It's good to talk about this stuff anyway, I think, since it can be so easy to forget the simple things sometimes.

As far as change goes, has something I like ever changed to be something I didn't like? Of course! Several times!

When people get bogged down in rigid binaries though, which I see happening often, it can be a pretty awful scene. Conservatism is founded on a resistance to change, flatly painting any change taking place as straying from a grand old path - or 'GOP,' if you dig acronyms... and enemies of basically everything good in the world.

When something changes, that can be an opportunity to take a look at what you liked about it before so you can figure out why you don't like it now. Did it change, or did you change? If it changed into something you don't like, does that make it worse or just different? All questions that can lead to a better understanding of what you love.

I don't ask that you love every change that comes your way, all I ask is that we not flatten the conversation. Real-life exists on more than two dimensions and, while 2D can be fun for video games, I like it better this way. :)

#step into the grey #street fighter the movie

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acaixadonada · 1 month

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Day 18: Your short and long term goals

Dang... I have spoken about long term goals already, if I remember correctly. When I wrote for my future self, or something.

Ok, let's go: Short term goals include investing money, moving out, graduate, start my business, get my drivers license.. well, I've been dreaming a lot about decorating my home, so... I'm excited. This year I AM GOING TO MAKE ITTTTT! My short term goals include keep on investing in myself by learning new languages, go back to the gym (exercizing at home's becoming boring to me), start a new graduating course when I finish the business one that I'm currently taking (design, or... music first, maybe? I don't know... i'm going to do all that y'all!), start studying art's history (I've been taking a course, but I want to get deep into that), I want to learn more about philosophy and literature. I want to start traveling around my state.. there are plenty of things to do here, I just need to plan and the money $$. Of course, I intend to keep on reading as much as I can, and an formal ettiquete course's on my plans too.

Long term goals: MAAAAAANNNN, I don't want to write about this in here no more! I mean... ugh. Ok, I'll resume as best as I can but still I'm going to keep some things to myself:

My home. MYYY home. Not my mom's. Not some guy's that I must pay rent and report to. MY home. I've been dreaming about my own freacking house since I was a little girl. (Perhaps for the same reason that I always wanted a family: I wanted stability. Which is something I HAVE NEVER HAD up until now. Thanks heaven I finally got it! But... I don't know.. Security also? Maybe!? Or was I too afraid of being alone?! Or was my liking of children behind it!?)

Anyway. 10 years: My own freacking house, with a private library filled with classics from Milton to Byron, until Dom Quixote. Classics, from everywhere you can imagine ♥ Oh, gotta love this world of ours huh! And of course, a parlor just for me and my girls to have tea!

My financial independence! Yes! A piano! I have always dreamed of one! you know what: I'll include material stuff in here only. I don't want to think about the things I (I'm not even being able to finish this sentence.. really) the things I want but... for some reason I'm not only putting it off now, but... I just feel like "I don't want any of that anymore". This is SO confusing!

I'll buy my mom a house. I don't know how but I will do it. I'll keep on writing and maybe live abroad. I'll travel, meet good people, have new experiences. I won't include a family in the picture for now. I don't feel like it. Maybe because I understood that this is something that I would like to do after a long time refusing to acknowledge it, and now I perhaps have reached this place of "rest" in my heart. Maybe I'm resting! Yes. Maybe I didn't give up, I just decided not to think about it and rest. Who knows!? It's a lot better to rest from a specific topic instead of obsessing about it. It doesn't really help. Besides, I don't have to wait for the things I want in order to be happy.

I don't want to think about "non material" things for now. I'm taking men off of my picture for a few years to come, speacially after that... fertility issue article. I just don't care about men, at least for now, or any of the stuff mentioned before. I'm allright. This 3 day seminar on the church, which is ending today brought me a diferent perspective of life. Maybe I'm finally resting as I should.

I told many many times that I don't mind winding up alone with God, because I'm getting to fall in love with his presence, and that's true. But... this week, I don't know what came to me, but something shifted again and I don't know what is it. For the first time in my life I don't care about men. If they come, if they go, if he's back, if he's gone... whatever dude. Don't know, don't care!

Everything I have heard today at the seminar that kept bringing my past to mind just.. made me realize that all I need right now is to be exactly where I am at, with God only. Only God can provide me what I need, he gave me everything! No men can compete with that! Besides.. I'd rather be alone than settling for ANY guy just... to have a guy, you know!? And guess what? I have finally had the "go!" from God I was praying for to come back to facebook, after a month. And I just DON'T FUCKING CARE. I know! This is crazy! A couple of days ago I was wining about specific things that "went wrong" and I finally understood this is not the end of the world, and actually I realized things went right. Maybe that's why God allowed me to go back on the social media: because there is no pressure anymore, I don't care. i'm... in me now. Well, i'm open to meeting new people but.. don't care. No pressure. I guess that's why things are going so well! I don't obsess, I just manifest!

I realized I'm healed, for good! Yesterday and today I had proof that I am trully healed! The pastor were lecturing about how our love life gets blocked because of our lack of forgiveness to our parents (which is something I have already brought up in here), and how their mistakes (and the ones who came before them) influences our decisions today. I agree to a certain extent... because I also believe in being responsible for our own actions, so it wouldn't make sense believe this a 100%. But I know my grandmother's rotten roots where making a big impact on my decisions today (and I'm not blamming her, but I do believe certain things where there... influencing my decisions). I could feel it! And I have decided long ago that I would do diferently, that I wouldn't repeat my parents, and grandparent's mistakes. We had an exercize on forgivenes: forgiving our parents. Today was about (Jesus, this is hard to type) sexual abuse and withcraft (YES, OMG!). Anyway.. IT WAS TOO MUCH for me! Really! Too much information!

These two days have been intense for me. I have no ideia how was I managing to come from work (YES, I STARTED IT AND i'M LOVING IT!) and go straight to church. I was SO tired but I did it!

When they started those psychological exercizes of "going back to the day your parent did this or that, and the day your abuser did this or asked you to do that" I thought my inner child was going to come out, as she always did whenever I was dating a guy and would throw a fit! Seriously! I was afraid I was going to "get into character" all over again after months of 'her release' and have another one of my childish tantrumns! I didn't want to go back to that place, even though I knew the exercize was necessary to release forgiveness to... that man.

But in this two days I reacted better than I would expect, actually! No crying, no tantrumns, no pain... which is unusual when we talk about... that kind of subject. Even when I was supposed to "relive" my mother's abusive tantrumns in order to forgive her I reacted calmly. I just saw the scene in my mind and... it didn't hurt this time! I could "see it" from a safe distance without attaching myself emotionally to the scene. And that's when I realized I am finally healed, and that no longer afects me FINALLY. Today, I had to "go back to that house", to that bedroom and listen to what I had to listen, to see what I had to see and... I just turned my back to him because I stopped caring about what he did to me. I finally understood that I'm worth the best and... that doesn't define me.

I never thought that after writing about it a couple of days ago and having a good cry would have such a positive impact on me, to the point of "revisiting that day, that house, and see it with my own eyess" without feeling hurt. When you talk about your trauma you take the weight off of it, and it holds no power over you anymore. Getting that abuse off of my chest after a while was powerful. I released it, I released forgiveness, and that's how going through this exercize today at the church didn't hurt me as I expected to.

It was wonderful to walk away from that bedroom feeling like "nah, you don't have power over me anymore!", "You didn't make me unworthy after all", I'm here! I'm over it! "I deserve the best and YOU haven't changed that, you won't take my time from me because I'm not allowing you to rob me of my life anymore"

GOD, I loved walking away from that bedroom, holding hands with my "little me" (I can't remember my age correctly, I guess I was 6 at the time) feeling like a godess who just knocked the abuser down! I can't believe I actually did it!

Today God gave me the gift of realizing that I'm finally over and done with my past, and the abuse and abusive people I have handled. That I'm healed, and God "gave me" back to me! Today I'm ME, for real! For the first time in my life I am me! People are getting to know me, not the character that were built from what happened, or were built after what her mother told her what she should be. No masks, just me!

Today I look into the future with optimism. I know God has given me the grace of starting over, starting anew being me. I'm resting: I have already asked what I wanted so there is no need of insisting. I know it will come. What matters the most to me is that... God healed me, gave me back to me, gave me back my dreams, and he's restoring my life in a way I could never possibly imagine, and only in a couple of months! Really! I never expected my life to turn out as good as it is!

I'm me (today) finally! And I write that with relieve! I'm so glad with the fundamental changes that occured in the past 7 months! And it's just the beggining! I know! There is a lot more to come this year and I'm eager for that! He helped me to change my foundations and is shaping and molding me to be not only me, but also a better version of the real me. All of the other things I have prayed for will follow in the right time.

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