#other people probably have more thorough opinions but I think it looks good

[clockworkouroboros]

i don’t even go here but the hbomberguy/todd in the shadows videos on James Somerton are both enlightening and, for me, not wholly unexpected. I didn’t watch many videos by Somerton, although I know people who did! And I can’t say I wouldn’t be taken in by a different video essayist in the future. but there were a number of things in Somerton’s videos that turned me off of watching more—and for the one or two I saw, I don’t know if I even finished the whole video.

First, Somerton’s work seemed inconsistent. some of what he said was eloquent and persuasive, and sometimes he was jumping to conclusions and expecting you to follow without outlining his reasoning or how he reached that conclusion. A lot of that makes sense in retrospect—he was plagiarizing better writers and thinkers than himself, and his own contributions were all over the place.

Second, a lot of Somerton’s opinions appeared to be very cynical/angry/dismissive. He seemed to have a cherry-picked view of the world that demonized people who weren’t like him or didn’t agree with him. To claim to be representative of an othered group and then use that position to alienate and other groups not like you left a really bad taste in my mouth that I couldn’t get past. Likewise, he had a very clear superiority complex over “the bad guys”—conservatives, homophobes, queer people he didn’t like. It’s really easy for a lot of us to deny the humanity of groups that hate us, which is why his constant putting down of conservatives and homophobes was easy to support. For me, though, I didn’t like how flippant he was in what was supposed to be an informative essay—it reeks of arguing in bad faith.

Thirdly, I know Somerton’s “intellectual” style really appealed to a lot of people who wanted a smart, academic authority figure to help educate them on queer history and queer media. Again, for me personally, Somerton’s persona as an intellectual struck me as false. Man was trying way too hard and it came across as pretentious and untrue to himself. I know a guy like that in real life—he’s my classmate in university—and I know for a fact the guy I know is one of the worst students in our class, to the extent that he’s failed multiple classes. I don’t think everyone has to be an academic or an intellectual, but that if that’s not an area in which you should excel, you should find an area in which you do excel and feel fulfilled. Somerton’s intellectual persona was phony, and I recognized it as such because I have seen other people do the same thing in real life. Likewise, the smartest people you know don’t always look or act like their the smartest people you know. Think about hbomberguy’s video: he meticulously and thoughtfully exposed all of this plagiarism and had really important thoughts about plagiarism on the internet and youtube, all while being a little ridiculous and also wearing a lab coat that was burned all over and falling apart. Genius is not James Somerton’s carefully paced reading and his black turtlenecks. Genius is much more similar to the passionate and thorough work hbomberguy did.

These are things that personally turned me off his videos, but I wasn’t about to tell other people they couldn’t watch. Some of what he said was really good—now, knowing what we know, the good stuff was probably all plagiarized, but it was good material! I do think now, in retrospect, I do think some of this might be helpful in evaluating other video essayists. Usually, if they’re as egregiously unethical as Somerton was, there are other warning signs. I do think the most insidious was the villainization of the other, because it is so easy for our confirmation bias to get in the way, or our tendency towards generalization. Somerton’s videos really took advantage of that—a trustworthy essayist is going to steer clear of generalizations and villainizing an entire group of people, unless it’s about like, the nazi. which apparently Somerton went into a lot of detail about how gay they were (false information), which is horrific. so.

#hbomberguy #todd in the shadows #youtube #internet culture #james somerton

[kingwuko]

Finding Balance: Mako and Wu’s Myers-Briggs Personality Types

The Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator is a personality typology framework that classifies personalities into 16 different types. The framework is not perfect, and there’s certainly a lot of room for interpretation. But it’s a fun and interesting way of looking at and understanding a person’s personality!

If you aren’t familiar, it essentially breaks down the core parts of personalities into 4 categories, each with 2 opposite traits. Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I), Sensing (S) or Intuition (N), Thinking (T) or Feeling (F), Judging (J) or Perceiving (P).

I believe Mako and Wu are the “Logistician” and the “Campaigner”. These two personality types are complete opposites in every way. Two people with opposite personalities can have an extremely fulfilling relationship, but they can face challenges if they don’t learn how to communicate and understand each other.

(Please keep in mind these are just my interpretations of their characters and thus it’s just opinions. If you think they have different personality types than this, you’re probably right too! I use https://www.16personalities.com/ and https://www.myersbriggs.org/ as my main source of information on personality types and I’ve linked Mako and Wu’s personality types below.)

Mako: The Logistician (ISTJ)

“ISTJ (Logistician) is a personality type with the Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, and Judging traits. These people tend to be reserved yet willful, with a rational outlook on life. They compose their actions carefully and carry them out with methodical purpose.” (from 16 Personalities)

“Quiet, serious, earn success by being thorough and dependable. Practical, matter-of-fact, realistic, and responsible. Decide logically what should be done and work toward it steadily, regardless of distractions. Take pleasure in making everything orderly and organized—their work, their home, their life. Value traditions and loyalty.” (from myersbriggs.org)

Introversion: Introverts prefer to recharge their energy by being on their own and reflecting. Mako seems to retreat into himself when he is overwhelmed and needs to process. Him sleeping under his desk rather than staying at Air Temple Island is a good example of this.

Sensing: Sensing types see the world through tangible experiences. Mako prefers to take in information that is concrete and real. His work as a detective shows this all over, and his frustration with Korra using her Avatar feelings to find Wu is an excellent example of this.

Thinking: Thinking types decide how to act in situations based on logic and objectivity. They are more ‘tough minded’ and use impersonal facts when making choices. Mako choosing to reveal Korra’s plans to Raiko comes to mind as an example of this.

Judging: Judging types relate to the outside world through structure and organization, preferring to have some control by making or being aware of plans-and sticking to them. Mako clearly craves that control and is quick to jump into planning mode, such as when he was trying to help Asami after her company was robbed.

Overall, Mako is  responsible, disciplined, organized, practical, realistic, and direct. He can also be stubborn, by-the-book, judgmental and insensitive. He’s a dependable person with deep loyalty to those he cares for.

Wu: The Campaigner (ENFP) 

“ENFP (Campaigner) is a personality type with the Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving traits. These people tend to embrace big ideas and actions that reflect their sense of hope and goodwill toward others. Their vibrant energy can flow in many directions.” (from 16 Personalities)

“Warmly enthusiastic and imaginative. See life as full of possibilities. Make connections between events and information very quickly, and confidently proceed based on the patterns they see. Want a lot of affirmation from others, and readily give appreciation and support. Spontaneous and flexible, often rely on their ability to improvise and their verbal fluency.” (from myersbriggs.org)

Extraversion: Extraverts prefer to receive their energy from outward sources. They recharge their energy through social interactions and process things outwardly by talking them out and tend to act before thinking. Wu certainly craves social interaction and is quick to speak without thinking. His eagerness to socialize (and badly flirt) along with his blurting out absurd ideas are great examples of this.

Intuition: Intuition types tend to see the world in less tangible ways, through hunches and insight. They can see the bigger picture and do a good job of envisioning what could be, rather than what is. Wu’s out-of-the-box thinking to have the badgermoles carve a path to evacuation, in spite of having no real evidence it would work, seems to be a good example of this.

Feeling: Feeling types make choices based on values and empathy. They tend to take relationships and people’s feelings and circumstances into account when deciding things. I think his overall choice to abolish the monarchy is a great example of this, as he seems to genuinely believe that this would be a better choice for the people by giving them freedom.

Perceiving: Perceiving types prefer to experience and explore the world, rather than control it. Wu is more spontaneous and seems comfortable to ‘go with the flow’ rather than strictly adhere to a plan. He was quick to adapt in a number of situations, and seems to come up with his best plans on-the-spot (again. Evacuation. Badgermoles.)

Overall, Wu is enthusiastic, a positive thinker, spontaneous, can improvise, and is surprisingly good at communicating. He’s also disorganized, unfocused, a needs a lot of external validation and affirmation. Wu is warm and outgoing, and has an intense desire to form meaningful connections.

Assertive Vs Turbulent

Another facet of the personality type is A or T, which essentially labels how confident or anxious one is in their personality. I think that Wu may be more turbulent, meaning he feels less confident in himself and overcompensates to try and counterbalance his self doubts. I think Mako is more assertive, meaning he is more confident in his actions and is more even tempered in his actions because he is self-assured. I think over time, Mako’s influence pushes Wu closer to being more assertive.

Opposites Attract

Relationships with completely opposite traits in every way can be both fulfilling and challenging. They recharge their energy differently, they see things differently, they make choices differently and they interact with the world differently. With so many differences, there is the possibility for frustrations and misunderstandings, but there is also the possibility for the two people to complement each other and play to their strengths. 

What makes or breaks an opposite personality relationship is communication, and what has always struck me about Mako and Wu’s progression of their relationship in the show and comic, is their increased ability to talk to one another and understand each other. 

Mako knows exactly how to talk to Wu; during his meltdown in The Coronation, Mako directly appealed to the people-pleaser in Wu when prompting him to reflect on what he’d done for his people to deserve being King. Wu really eats up anything Mako tells him, and even literally says “You always know the right thing to say, Mako”. 

Wu also seems to know how to appeal to Mako’s rational thought processes. I know we were absolutely floored by Wu casually saying “Mako, you know I love you”, but that interaction was actually a disagreement between them-Mako thought they should just shut down the election, while Wu felt they needed to let it play out. Wu patiently explained his thought process to Mako (even though he wrapped it up in affection… Classic people-pleaser) and Mako didn’t argue further; he seemed to accept Wu’s explanation for his choices. 

Essentially what I’m saying is that Mako and Wu really do communicate well, and because of that, I think their opposing personality traits will serve to bring balance to their relationship, rather than conflict. Wu needs social interaction while Mako needs some time in? No problem, Wu is friends with Korra and potentially the rest of the Krew; he can go hang out with them if Mako needs to recharge with a night in reading one of Jinora's books. Mako can bring Wu back to reality when his imagination gets out of hand, while Wu can prompt Mako to see beyond what’s just in front of him. Wu can prompt Mako to take a more subjective approach in his decision making while Mako can pull Wu back from his people-pleasing to help him make more rational choices. Mako can keep Wu on a more organized and structured path, and Wu can get Mako to loosen up with a little fun and spontaneity. 

Balance

In a season titled ‘Balance’, it’s really fascinating that they paired Mako with someone who is his opposite in every way, not just in personality. Wu is affluent, materialistic, somewhat naive, and wears his emotions on his sleeve. Mako is jaded, responsible, grew up in poverty, and struggles to express himself. But when they are together, there is amazing potential for them to bring out the best in each other and achieve a better balance in each of their lives.

#wukoweek2024 #wuko #mako #prince wu #meta #lol I meant to schedule this but posted it accidentally #oh well enjoy anyway I guess #If you have different opinions I'd love to hear them

[geraldmariaivo]

that’s one fucked up butterfly

So i have no clue whether or not this counts as a vague one-shot or an overly-detailed story idea. Either way, here’s the spaghetti my brain fed me today.  ————

Jason has been hungry. Like, really hungry. Granted that’s not weird because this lifestyle does that to a person, but it’s more than usual. It’s also kinda weird because he’s been picking up food more often…as Red Hood. Outside of Crime Alley. Something about the confusion and fear of the cashier as a known crime lord who usually stays inside his turf casually plops down and pays for a brick or five of guava paste, containers of butter, and various other sweets, fruits, and other normal foods is just so satisfying in a way he can’t put his finger on.

But he doesn’t really think about that, because by the time it’s a notable trend, there’s something more pressing to think about. Namely, the fact that it’s been getting harder to move in a my-muscles-and-joints-are-stiff-and-achey-because-I’m-not-letting-myself-heal kind of way. This also isn’t super surprising considering the, well, everything about his lifestyle. It was bound to catch up with him sooner or later. It got more pressing when the ganglion cysts started popping up. He got as many important things out of the way as he could, and took a break. It only took the immediate repercussions of pushing himself so much finally rearing their ugly head, but he did it.

Except two weeks in, and it’s gotten worse. He does stretches, drinks plenty of water, makes sure he eats enough fiber and nutrients, but nothing works. He just keeps getting increasingly stiff. And it doesn’t help that the cysts keep popping up (yes, he checked them out with Dr. Thompson, and they don’t seem to be anything other than his body pitching a fit about being beat up on). It isn’t until Steph and Cass visit the safehouse during lunch and tell him point-blank that he’s eating like a speedster that he takes a good hard look at the kitchen and his trashcan that he realizes he did, in fact, just pack away a whole pizza, a very large fruit&veggie smoothie, and was on his way to scarf down a bowl (pot) of pasta that would feed half the bats, plus the cheese, sauce, and meatballs he was in the process of cooking.

It takes too much arguing, and bribing him with Alfred’s cookies, to get him to come to the cave for more thorough examinations.

This, unfortunately, does fuck-all. His blood pressure indicates that he’s stressed but fine, his nerves and reflexes are working fine, and when they did finally get him to get actual scans and take samples, they all turned up negative except for slightly elevated brain activity and a higher body temperature than usual, not even enough to be a serious fever. The cookies were the only good part of going, in Jason’s opinion, because nothing changed from how it was going before. In fact, the period where he didn’t eat anything so he could go in for scans seemed to only make the aches, pains, stiffness, and cysts worse.

The fatigue was to be expected, considering how hard it was for him to move around, and the fact that whatever was going on was clearly taking a lot of energy. It also aligned pretty well with the expected fatigue from people with similar ailments….right up until Jason was suddenly conking out for hours at a time. This was, understandably, very alarming for everyone, especially Jason.

One night when [insert reason for everyone to be out of the cave here, probably the aftermath of a breakout from Arkham or something], things went from bad to “what the FUCK is going on?!?” Namely, because between the time they left to when they got back, Jason was effectively entombed in a weird cocoon of stone-like green shit, and whatever it is, it’s interfering with any and all of the equipment they were using to monitor his vitals.

Of course this sends everyone into a panic, and Bruce is extra freaking the fuck out. He tries to get this off of Jason any way he can short of dropping the cocooned Jason from a skyscraper. Chipping away at it? Didn’t work. Laser cutter? No. Acid? Nope. Sealing some of it in a container with water to see if it would even begin to dissolve? Nothing. Clark is off-world with J’onn, none of the lanterns are available, and as much as Bruce hates turning to magic for anything, none of the JLD will be able to stop by in less than a week.

So the bats wait. They can’t do anything else other than try to find out what’s happening and how to fix it.

And then, one day, there’s a crack. And another. And another. Given that Jason’s under 24/7 surveillance at this point and they’re actively looking for any signs of activity, it’s not long until everyone who can drop whatever they’re doing arrives at the cave. It takes a while for any of the cracks to be big enough for them to get a grip or pry this stuff off of him, but they manage. They manage, piece by piece, and what spills out -anyone who’s been near a Lazarus pit could tell you- is Lazarus water. Lazarus water, and Jason.

Jason, probably coughing and spitting up glowing green goop, does eventually crawl out. After the initial fretting and checking for damage, he gets cleaned up, and he seems fine. Further observation indicates that other than some minor stiffness from being in the same position for days, he’s healthy.

For a bit, everything seems fine. Everyone is still on edge from whatever the hell all that was, but there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with him, other than having a somewhat more even temper, and being more likely play nice on the comms during patrols.

Of course, this is until he falls through a couch while reading, and is found struggling to get up as his arms phase in and out of the floor.

————

For anyone who’s confused, this is a Halfa!Jason story(?) plot(?), and the basic premise is that Jason’s core had been forming for a long while now, but hadn’t been fully formed yet due to a lack of lots of good ectoplasm. The emotions he’s been absorbing from living in a city, and especially the fear he’s been getting as Red Hood and during rogue attacks, has been really helping out though, and has allowed his forming core enough strength to mostly filter out a bunch of the nastiest gunk left over.

Unfortunately Jason was constantly in danger, and his core wanted time to focus on finishing itself, as lots of newly formed cores do. So it geared up to spend a lot of energy on this (hence eating so much -sustaining the squishy human body while his core is using so much energy is important), but quickly “realized” that Jason wouldn’t stop going out and getting injured on his patrols for anything short of a medical situation of “this is going to affect my immediate future if I don’t treat this now” scale. So it did, and then when it was ready to actually buckle down and go for it, it gathered up the nastiest ecto it could find, and used it to make a protective barrier around him so that A) he couldn’t go anywhere and get himself injured, and B) anything that might want to snack on or harm a vulnerable core with a currently very vulnerable body would be repelled by the sheer nastiness of it.

And when it was over, out came a fully-formed halfa!Jason!

Good luck with those new powers, buddy.

#halfa!Jason #DPxDC #i wanna know what you guys think when you see this stuff #for the love of god I wanna see what thoughts are wiggling around in y’all’s brains #is it good? is it bad? #do you have questions or other ideas? #let me know!

[hazbinfallinginaspiral]

Question for you, would you consider Retro ever becoming an Overlord?

The Overlords look the other way on their murder sprees and like them.

Retro kills possible future Overlords who cross Vox or the other Vees so.... what if they mistakenly earn the title of Overlord themselves?

Would anyone tell Retro or would they just leave the 'mysterious powerful killer' as an Unknown Overlord, even to the point Retro doesn't know.

I think it is very likely

Vox would not pass up the chance to boast about his wife. If Retro was an Overlord, they’d likely be very low key about it. Vox would gush endlessly, though.

At some point or another someone’s gonna have to tell Retro that all the Overlords know that they’re the ‘mysterious’ new killer.

Keep in mind they’re like, a mass murder at this point. Yeah, they compiled a list of everyone who made Vox uncomfortable or who hit on him after being told he was uninterested in a relationship and Retro killed them all. This includes people who did these things before Retro even met Vox. They were very thorough.

So anyway, when it’s inevitably revealed, Retro will be a little disappointed. They’ll probably pout for a bit.

“I thought I was doing a good job!”

“You were, sweetie.”

“But you still found out.”

“I have cameras everywhere, darling. I’m a powerful Overlord for a reason. I care about you far too much, it would’ve been impossible to miss. You’re not the only one with eyes everywhere, you know.”

“Wait, you keep track of what I do?”

“Of course! I need to make sure my wife is happy and safe.”

“Aw, that’s so sweet!”

Anyway. After all of that, Retro would probably continue everything the same way as before. Public wise, the media would only know they had murdered a bunch of people, not why. So all the Sinners know that Vox and the new Overlord Retro are dating, but it won’t serve as a deterrent to people flirting with either of them. Which means more murder for Retro!

And the general population still has no idea how they choose their targets. They think they’re just ruthless and random, a wild card. Especially with how well they get along with all the Overlords and how nice Retro is. Combine that with the housewife act and they’re leaving everyone super confused and baffled but with a healthy amount of fear and respect.

Oh but if Retro never knew they were officially appointed Overlord, it’d be hilarious. Everyone would start asking their opinion on things in the meetings and Retro would be a bit surprised but think they’re just being polite. They’d be clueless and it’d be hilariously amazing.

Also also, I headcanon that demons get more powerful with every sin they commit. So even though Retro wasn’t originally strong enough to take on an Overlord when they first arrived in Hell, they’ve killed a lot of people since then, so they definitely are now.

#hazbin hotel #vox #hazbin hotel vox #hazbin vox #vox x reader #writing #my writing #x reader #thanks for the ask! #thanks anon!

[princesscatherinemiddleton]

1.) we will not be getting a Mother’s Day card until Louis’ graduation probably😭😭

2.) love will and kate but i think we can also be critical of them and the response. AP and AFP and the others (Getty and Reuters?) don’t pull photos for editing issues and their kill notice of the stories with the photo notes that. They were taken down for manipulation, and for agencies such as those they don’t use those words lightly or put those notices out whenever someone edits. It was a bad look and having the woman whose Mother’s Day (and recovery people have been speculating on horribly) be the one to respond also was a terrible response. It should have been at best a joint statement with their comms coming through with also a thorough apology and explanation for why they know they messed up while also reiterating why they won’t release the original. All we can do is hope it’s a lesson learned while also hoping they do better in the future with seeming less put off about having to respond to actual journalistic practices and questions.

My final word (until I think of more to say) on this topic is it is not up to William and Catherine to convince random strangers on the internet that Catherine is still alive when we have:

Seen her twice since January in pap photos

Seen her family enjoying themselves on holiday

Seen her husband and mother-in-law regularly go to work

Been explicitly told she will not be out and about until after Easter

William is bad at taking photos and Kate is bad at editing photos. No one is good at everything. Plus, I actually think having the "apology" come from "Catherine", not KP was genius, because that's actually softened opinion towards her.

#anon #answered

[elysiansparadise]

Haaaayyy, Elysian!! (can I call you that, by the way? I'mma just stick with that for now, but if u have something you prefer to go by, just let me know)

I stumbled across your page quite some time ago, and never got around to actually sending you an ask until now!! Let me just say something. Your posts--FAB!! Your astrology blog is one of the most spectacular things i've ever come across, and I'm not even lyingg

As for my ask, though: I know your posts take dedication and time, but if you've ever got a spare minute, would you mind doing a quick explanation of Mars in the 3H?? I've never seen it explained in a thorough way besides the "aggressive communicator" stereotype, and you're just amazing at explaining things. I'd be forever grateful!!

Hello love, yes, you can call me like that. Thank you so much for your words, I genuinely appreciate them. And of course I can do it.

Mars in the 3rd house

Here we find natives with a quick intellect and mind, someone who understands things easily and who tends to prefer to learn independently. These natives are people who get bored easily and find it difficult to concentrate on only one thing at the same time, their mind seems to be simultaneously exploring many different topics. They love and are passionate about learning new things, it is not surprising that they take you off guard with new random data that you were unaware of. They are very frank and direct people in their way of speaking, they like to be clear with what they want to say. They can speak very fast and it can be normal for them to naturally have a strong tone of voice [this can vary depending on the sign the 3rd house/Mars is in or if Mars is retrograde]. They may be people who dislike sitting still, seem to have a lot of energy, and look for ways to spend it [either physically or mentally]. We have the passionate communicator, the one who transmits fire when talking about what he likes, a person extremely passionate about his hobbies and interests, someone who when he likes a topic it shows in his face, a person with transparent opinions, who gives his point of view clearly, without pretending, simply being authentic.

This Mars placement tells us about a person who could have had many arguments with a brother or even in their school environment. In fact, the relationship with some or all of their siblings could have been somewhat conflictive, they could have had very marked differences or temperaments that collided with each other. Very probably they could have problems with their siblings or at school due to their temperament or the aggressive or hurtful attitudes of peers. Despite the fact that this placement from Mars has a reputation for being very angry or aggressive in their speech, they are people who rationalize a lot before acting, they are not as impulsive as others would describe them and rather they are a little more reflective when they feel that they are they are getting angry with quick reflexes, these natives are hardly taken unnoticed. These people can think a lot about the future, they think about many possibilities in the short and long term. Something that in my opinion is very faithful to what is said about them is how good they can be for debates, because they are not afraid to defend their point of view and support it with everything they have. It is not aggressiveness, it is confidence, when they speak they appear to be very confident in what they are saying.

They could have a very active early life or just be very active when they were young. They may have many short trips throughout their lives, they may feel a natural desire for the idea of ​​knowing places that call their attention. They like to leave home and be in contact with the outside world. They never stay with the knowledge they have, they seek to know more and more. They know how to quickly adapt to their environment, no matter who they are with or where they are, they adapt. This also applies in a certain way in sex, being people who do not have a fixed preference for any role, neither dominant nor submissive, rather switcher. They love when a person is a mental challenge or at least when a person is intelligent and original and authentic enough to have their own opinions. They could feel sexually attracted to someone's voice, sense of humor and some could be attracted to pretty hands. Sex with them is something funny, experimental and very interesting, it's never the same, they like to surprise their partners and like to be surprised too. May be verbal in sex too.

-> Go back to the masterlist

#mars #astrology #3rd house #natal chart #astro note #astro observation #birth chart #mars in the 3rd house #mars in the 3h #mars in the 3rd #astro notes #astro observations #astrology notes

[utilitycaster]

My head has been spinning recently just thinking about the sort of backlash that Laura and Marisha would get from fans if Imogen and Laudna didn't end up together.

For example, I can imagine them roleplaying a conversation in which one of pair reveals they have a crush on someone else in the party, and the other supports them fully in that endeavour. I can only imagine the people who would say "she looked away when she said that line so she's lying!!!" or "they're just denying their feelings for each other"

C3 is the first campaign I've managed to catch live, so I'm not sure if this sort of shipping happened in C2 or C1. I feel like Beau/Yasha would be most likely to have caused similar reactions, but even then, I don't think I've seen this amount of protectiveness over a ship that is this vague. Marisha and Ashley at least made it clear from e1 that their characters had (at the very least, one-sided) romantic interest.

Hi anon,

I've gotten a few questions to this effect and have declined to answer some because it does feel a bit like borrowing trouble, even though I will fully admit some of my private DMs look not unlike this. So I'm going to try to answer this with as much sensitivity and thoroughness as I can despite a number of frustrations (not with you, to be clear) and let this serve as my answer going forward unless anything drastically changes. I am making it non-rebloggable, under a cut, and will be blocking any clownery.

Let's rip off the bandaid right away: for some reason, and I have my theories but they are unconfirmed at in some cases, rather ungenerous, Marisha and Laura's characters have been heavily shipped in all three campaigns despite a chemistry I would call middling at best. I think the most generous way to put it is that while Ashley was working on Blindspot, they were often the only two women at the table (though one must look a bit askance at how Veth is often ignored as a female character, despite unambiguously being one). So I suspect that a lot of it comes from simply wanting an F/F romance between main cast PCs during Campaign 1 and having no good options, and then...remaining fixated on that particular cast dynamic, despite, as stated before, chemistry that has never particularly impressed me.

I did not watch Campaign 1 live, so I don't know what the discourse was at the time. I did watch Campaign 2 live and your prediction is accurate. The ship that caused similar reactions was actually Beau and Jester; you can still find people who claim it was a "mistake" to pursue Beauyasha instead and that Beauyasha "came out of nowhere" and was "for the straights." You are also entirely correct that people will grasp at the weakest of straws to support a ship, though, in all fairness, this is not remotely limited to femslash shippers but is a general shipping problem. (The worst offender during Campaign 2 for that, in my opinion, were people who shipped Caleb and Jester and who became creepily obsessed with Laura's expressions late in the game; that is also incidentally still the ship that I think has the most parallels to Imogen and Laudna in terms of canon character relationship vs. fanon perceptions.)

I do expect that if Imogen and Laudna do not get together, for whatever reason, there will be considerable denial. We've already seen some misplaced vitriol towards Ashton, and the response among shippers towards Imogen has, as I've pointed out over the past two weeks, been wildly inconsistent and deeply ungenerous in a desperate attempt to twist her actions in favor not just of the ship, but towards a highly specific idea of the ship as soft girlfriends against the cruel world, instead of a complicated codependence with the potential for becoming something more. I and others have also pointed out that the ship has gone from "they are already in love" to "a QPR would also be totally cool" which is rather unkind to QPRs.

I should also acknowledge the elephant in the room. I am well aware that I am probably public enemy number one on the Imogen/Laudna server where they come up with such bon mots as "bone-dry takes". I suspect this is because I genuinely enjoy both Imogen and Laudna as individual characters and write about them a lot, but in doing so, acknowledge the cracks and tension within their relationship. So on some level, even though the ship could absolutely still happen, they've already kind of started with some of the behaviors you mention, which is rather disappointing.

Anyway, I think this is all to say that this is a general problem in shipping across the board that is not confined to Imogen and Laudna nor F/F ships, but because that specific ship is both, as you say, vague, and yet has an extremely popular and extremely narrow fanon interpretation, it's in particular focus this campaign. I think you're correct that there will be backlash should it not happen, though I would be pleasantly surprised and deeply humbled if there is not. Fortunately I have found that Critical Role is fairly impervious to fandom backlash in terms of the decisions they make in-game, because let's face it, people will push back on anything, including such necessary parts of story as "dramatic tension" and "conflict." If you listened to them you would make the world's shittiest story, and because there are frequently multiple conflicting ships, you can't please everyone. I'm here to watch a story, and I do think ships are intrinsically part of character arcs, so if the ships serve the characters, whatever they are, I think it will be a worthwhile endeavor.

#answered #Anonymous #cr tag

[nalyra-dreaming]

I completely agree with what you said about the podcast. Naomi wasn't terrible, but it didn't sit well with me how she was with Sam during his episode when he attempted to explain where Lestat was coming from. She was kind of shaming him and even became a little aggressive toward him for being sympathetic and trying to explain Lestat's motivations. That annoyed me because she also doesn't seem to understand the background and nuances to TVC. You can tell Sam kind of just swallowed his thoughts and backed off which he shouldn't have had to considering he has one of the most thorough understandings of the stories and his character. We are also there to hear his perspective (along with Eric, Bailey, Assad's, and Jacob's) and she wouldn't give Sam that opportunity with some topics. She did not approach Jacob or any of the others like that. I also did not like the "professional" guest they had that said Armand was healthier for Louis because that guest was also speaking without giving reasons that were validating or justified on why she came to that conclusion. I liked Naomi in terms of asking some good questions, good chemistry with the guests, and her wittiness, but I think she and future guests should be a bit more cautious with the comments that are feeding the unhealthy dissension in the fandom stemming from the topics surrounding race. I fear some people are already going to be outraged when it is revealed Louis is definitely unreliable and the podcast may unintentionally be contributing to that if they aren't a bit more careful or do not have a better understanding of the source material.

...

OK, so, I didn't find her aggressive.

What I do agree on is that it was a bit unfortunate that she kind of glossed over Lestat's backstory there, and that is one of my main worry points with the whole thing, too, as said previously. However, in retrospect, that was probably/maybe? deliberate.

*sighs*

Probably unpopular opinion incoming.

So I... think that AMC actually likes the uproar, any uproar, because it is free advertising. In retrospect the podcast was very deliberate in the catering to show-only viewers, as said before. And in directing the expectations.

And... we... kinda jumped where they wanted us to jump, didn't we. :)))

The uproar was immense.

Trends on Twitter, trends on Tumblr.

And yes... exactly that will happen again when Armand will be... Armand. And we will get the truth of it all at some point (no, I don't think all of it has been a lie, been over that). Of that I'm quite sure.

And... what better thing than to know what will happen can a studio have? What better thing for an upcoming season than knowing people will haunt their site, refresh the bloody browser to watch as soon as it drops?^^

Just look at the writer's Twitter... the posts of them.

They so know.

They're playing us, like a fiddle :)))

And I love them for it, to be honest.

I get what you mean, I do, and it has been a wild ride. I've been blocked for opinions, had to block for actual hate.

Because... people are engaged. Emotionally connected. Passionate about those characters. I've theorized we're watching the show of the decade unfold, and I stand by that. Color-conscious, with awareness and more layers than a tree cake :) And yes, they touch on very difficult subjects. But as difficult as it all may be, fandom-wise, discussion-wise.... isn't that engagement of it a good thing?^^

#Anonymous #asks #amc iwtv #iwtv #amc interview with the vampire #interview with the vampire amc #iwtv amc #iwtv 2022 #iwtv podcast #ask nalyra

[ideahat-universe]

The lore keeper.

What? Sweet Baby Inc? Gamergate 2? It's been ten years. Everything changed in 2014. Wasn't it around 2014 when I created this account? After so many years of shooting into the dark and seeing what sticks I figured out what gets me the most engagement based on what I like making and what people like reading and raw politics isn't it but uh.

Gamergate is probably the most misremembered but frequently referenced event in internet pop culture and gaming pop culture that it would probably be a good idea to do you just this one favor, in terms of fighting through the fog of war.

One side will say that Gamergate was a consumer revolt and the other says that it was about harassing women (specifically Zoe Quinn and Anita because the Fine Young Capitalists were not harassed by Gamergate supporters despite being women) but that's the cross talk you usually get when scrolling through twitter X or listening to random comments in YouTube videos that brush the subject for whatever reason.

If you look it up on Wikipedia you'll get Harassment angle, but that was sourced from the direct opposition of Gamergate so it's kind of like asking what a solider in the trenches thinks of its enemy. It's certainly their opinion, but is it the most educated and comprehensive opinion on the subject matter you can hope to muster?

Where is the most comprehensive source you can find regarding Gamergate?

Yes. Ramiel. Beyond the Wikipedia articles, the YouTube videos, and even google search results I have Deepfreeze which credit to its name, has been mostly frozen and hasn't changed much since 2017 which is when Gamergate died down.

That's right, every reference to Gamergate after 2017 was just drudging up a dead topic. So much so that when Sargon (a staunch Gamergate supporter) and Mister Metokur (one of the ex-faces of Gamergate) talked about presenting Gamergate to Trump, Mister Metokur laughed at Sargon, uproariously. Now Sargon won't even show up in a video about Gamergate 2 when it's uploaded to his company's channel.

But that's all beside the point. If you were ever interested in getting a thorough breakdown of what happened and you're tired of the single paragraphs and various glib answers.

You can visit that site and read what happened and why for yourself.

I show this to you because I was a lore keeper. I have archived many moments from that era for historic posterity, which includes saving that link which I only acquired from a now non-existent video.

By sharing this with you I have fulfilled my duty. Now, we will speak no more of it.

#video games #controversy #sweet baby inc #gamergate #fandom #Youtube

[aelinfireheartgalathynius]

I think it's awesome that you're such a big fan of fantasy novels, me too! I wanted to your opinion about something. I came across a post where you say SJM's books are masterclasses, and I found them to be solid books, but not uniquely great. Can you explain what in your view makes them great at narrative pacing and worldbuilding, and how that compares to other great books in the genre like those by Ursula K. Le Guin or Jacqueline Carey? I'm curious about your pov, since you've been reading fantasy for so long. Please keep up the great blog!

Happy to meet another fantasy lover! And thanks!

Honestly, I don't think comparing authors to each other (unless it's in a "you'd probably love X" way) is useful — fantasy has grown to encompass such a wide array of writing styles. Sarah's style isn't 100% certified unique, because no art is 100% unique. But her style does stand apart from most fantasy writers, especially ones who stuck to a more rigidly traditional style. I think plot pacing, tropes, writing style etc are all personal preferences. I personally prefer the styles of VE Schwab, Sarah J Maas, Naomi Novik, Kristin Cashore... To name a few. Others might hate all of those authors' styles and prefer something completely different. And that's totally fine. Great, even. (As long as those people don't judge me or call me a child for not enjoying the type of writing they find "good," but I know that's not what you're doing here!)

I stand by what I said in that post about Sarah's writing, but that doesn't mean it was objective truth. My mother, for example, has different reading preferences than I do and would probably dislike SJM. And that's fine.

In my opinion, Sarah's style stands out. I came into this not really wanting to get into the reasons but I'll touch on them since you asked:

Her worldbuilding is phenomenal, but I don't feel the need to write a dissertation about it. I feel like the huge level of acclaim she's received for what I call the "Marvel Cinematic Universe of fantasy books" speaks for itself. She has done something remarkable and, in my experience, very unique. If you don't know what I'm referring to, I'd recommend looking up the ending of House of Sky and Breath (I don't like to post about it explicitly because it's such a world changing plot twist).

Her plot pacing is, again, phenomenal in my opinion. All of her books have that 'unputdownable' quality that comes from an author knowing exactly how to pace chapters to keep readers engaged. It's doubly impressive knowing that the majority of her books are multi-POV, too, so she kept multiple stories well-paced and engaging at the same time in each book. It's most obvious when you look at Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn: the reason the tandem read works so well is that she was extremely thorough in making sure the plot pacing and timelines lined up perfectly in two books that came out a year apart.

Her characters are wonderfully written — again, in my opinion. Their thoughts, feelings and motivations all feel real and make sense to me. Her characters experience things like periods (including actual mentions of bleeding and cramps), realistic depictions of trauma and PTSD (I have PTSD, so that's not hypothetical), characters that grow and learn, characters that fuck up, characters that are multifaceted, characters that fall in love more than once, and more.

The emotional rawness of many of her characters and plotlines is also something that sets her apart from many authors. Yes, a lot of books can make readers feel things, but there is something so deeply raw and heart-wrenching about Nesta's self-hatred, Feyre's PTSD, Aelin's struggle with her title and power (and her torture), Manon's questioning about whether monsters are born or made (and whether she is one), Hunt's deep guilt, Bryce's inconsolable grief, literally everything about Lidia Cervos, and more.

I believe that people should read whatever makes them happy, and everyone reacts differently to art — there are books that touched my soul in ways I can barely describe, that I see as beautiful and astonishing... And they still have some one star reviews. That's the beauty of art.

I don't like a lot of "classic" fantasy, but I don't feel the need to convince anyone that those books or writers aren't good or don't deserve their acclaim. Just like I don't really think I need to convince anyone that SJM's books deserve respect — her work speaks for itself, and if you personally don't see why so many people love it, then it wasn't meant for you. And that's totally fine. No need to force yourself to read it!

I don't need or want to convince you that SJM's writing is a masterclass. If that doesn't ring true to you, that's fine. It's true for me, and for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of other readers (over 38 million copies of her books have been sold worldwide, so I don't think millions is a stretch).

I hope that last bit didn't come across as aggressive or rude, it's just my thoughts on your question! Thanks for dropping by, anon, and thank you for asking in such a nice way. A lot of people don't do that. ♥️

#sarah j maas #sjm #tog #throne of glass #acotar #acomaf #crescent city #hoeab #fantasy #anon #asks #mine #yay asks

[engagemachine]

How do you feel about the Joker in your story? Do you hate this character?

@ferrsryserstonin

Hello! Thank you for your ask. I'm sorry this one took so long to answer. I just wanted to make sure I had set aside an appropriate amount of time to give you a thorough answer.

How do I feel about the Joker in Burn?

Well, I hate him.

But I love to hate him.

I've spoken a lot in the past about my fascination with the character of Joker -- my obsession has been ongoing for almost fifteen years now, since TDK first came out back in 2008 -- but I've been fascinated with the character ever since I was a little kid and saw him in comic books and in the media as I was growing up. I think the Joker was my first exposure to a character who was so openly evil and who loved being evil, and that always intrigued me.

Good and evil was so black and white to me when I was little, strictly in the sense that I was taught that being evil was bad and wrong it made you into a miserable person... so to be faced with this character who swung so assuredly in one direction -- and who had so much fun doing it -- was just so crazy to me. While growing up, I'd been exposed to a lot of villains who could be categorized as being more "tortured souls", or who openly struggled with good and evil (Darth Vader, for instance, is a great example of that) or even villains who were burdened by some other "greater" purpose, whether it was greed (a desire for power/money) or this sense of misplaced justice, or perhaps revenge. But the Joker isn't motivated by these things. And his total lack of a conscience means he doesn't struggle with being evil. He loves it. He is constantly looking for ways to be even more evil, to push the boundaries of what he is capable of. He fully embraces what he is. He loves the reign of terror and chaos he's brought down onto Gotham.

As I've gotten older, what constitutes as "good" and what constitutes as "evil" has obviously become less black and white, and there are far more gray areas to take into consideration, but that's kind of where the fun in writing him comes into play. I do think the Joker is evil to his core, but I have also enjoyed sprinkling in little bits of humanity here and there. It's never not thrilling to see the man behind the mask. I also like that, throughout the story, there are moments peppered throughout that really make you question whether he's just done something for his own pleasure and enjoyment, or if it's because he actually cares for Taylor. I think for the most part, the answer is usually fairly obvious, but there are instances that kind of make you wonder.

So do I hate his character? In a word, yes. I think he's evil, conniving, selfish, beyond redemption (this is important) and, if I believed in the death penalty, that he should probably/definitely be put to the electric chair. I base these opinions off my beliefs that a) the Joker is not mentally ill (like some interpretations would like to claim) and b) the Joker does not want to be redeemed. He is perfectly content with being the evil little shit that he is.

I'm going to link you to this post that I hope will shed some more light. I feel like people tend to ask if I "like" the Joker because they want to suss out whether there could possibly be any redeeming qualities to his character, and whether it's OK to want to see Taylor and him end up together (and correct me if I my assumption is wrong, but I'm also basing my reply around the questions you posed to me in the private message you sent).

The short answer is: of course it's okay to want to see them be together, and it's important for you, the reader (and for any other readers out there) to know that it doesn't make me upset if that is how you feel. I mean, that's the whole driving fascination with the story, right? This crazy, obsessive, and toxic dynamic they share... we can't get enough. They're polarized magnets, always inextricably drawn to each other no matter the distance.

But this is also a work of fiction, and therefore is a safe space in which to desire wanting to see these sorts of evil things play out. It goes without saying that I do not condone any of these behaviors in real life, and I am sure none of my readers do, either. If Taylor were a real person, I would scoop her up into my arms and hide her away from the Joker forever. She's been so deeply manipulated, groomed, and traumatized by him that she can barely differentiate up from down. He is her whole world but only by his design. Has has quashed -- at every single turn -- any hopes of Taylor ever having a normal life, because he's a selfish, manipulative bastard who only wants her for himself.

I think a lot of the fascination I have with this particular dynamic is that I love to see evil men be brought to their knees (or, at least, a close approximation to it) by the most unsuspecting person -- who in this case happens to be a seventeen year-old girl. There is no denying that their energy is borderline explosive when they're together. And I am here to tell you that that is okay to want to see that play out, to want to see their co-dependent relationship turn even more obsessive and dark than it already is. I don't think any of us would be here, reading this story, if we didn't enjoy -- at least a little bit -- the toxic dynamic that has slowly been unfolding for the past twelve chapters of Burn.

Anyway, I hope this adequately answers your questions. I love talking about the Joker and I'm happy to do so any time! Thank you for reading.

#ferrsryserstonin #asks #Mr. J

[queen-beefcake-sqx]

Also @aidoneushatesmilk asked me to do #8 for Disco Elysium SO -- 8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about For the sake of thoroughness I'm saving my original answer below this one because I WENT OFF lmao but as a second probably more accurate answer -- I feel like people exaggerate Jean's anger issues. Again, I haven't finished playing, but I'm struck by how... I dunno, normal his conversation with Harry seems to be while undercover? Like yeah he's annoyed and sarcastic and grumpy but jesus the way some of the fandom likes to knock him around you'd think all he's good for is being depressed and angry over Harry. I'm applying the He Xuan treatment to him. He's my favorite side character now and I understand him in a way no one else does, or I will once I finish the game anyway. I am going to make it my personal mission to understand Jean Vicquemare in a way no one should ever want to. He's my babygirl now.

Secondary answer below the cut:

[kicks in the door, skids to a stop and faceplants] okay listen to me. I am holding everyone's cheeks so gently when I say this.

Kim would not be into watching Harry cry and much less making him cry. This legit should have been my "you can't understand why so many people like this thing" answer except I get WHY. I know why we want it, like. Trust me I do. I've read the set ups.

But a post I saw yesterday put into good words why I feel that way and it comes back to "When Harry's soft, Kim is softer. When Harry has more bite, Kim bites back." There's no evidence to me, at all, that Kim enjoys kicking Harry when he's down. When he reacts less-than-favorably to Harry shaving his face, he also tries to backtrack it to be nicer about it. The times he snaps is when Harry's actively been an asshole about something, i.e. not being a "sad cop" about it. But ultimately Kim is all about remaining in control of himself, his actions, the way others perceive him and his professionalism (the constant reminders about not making the RCM look bad...). And while I think Kim is trained to deal with extreme emotions, it doesn't come naturally to him. I think confronted with a crying Harry Du Bois, for whatever reason, Kim's first instinct would be, "This has to stop before anything productive can get done." So I just like... I cannot imagine a world where Kim Kitsuragi, as he is presented in canon, would enjoy watching or making Harry cry. There we go. There's my hot take from reading so. much. fanfiction.

#say more sadie #I mean I'm not sure how common this is but I've seen it in enough fanfic for it to be a trend

[liskantope]

[Content note: not going to be very charitable or thorough about my views on the general issue of recent developments on Roe vs. Wade, or bother cluttering this up with qualifications.]

Caught in the midst of another wave of work, I've been a little late in picking up the details of the leak of Alito's document and the fact that it represents the soon-forthcoming opinion of the Supreme Court as a whole in favor of overturning Roe vs. Wade.

I distinctly remember 4-5 years ago stating confidently to people that I just couldn't imagine it ever being overturned, not because the public tide would ever shift overwhelmingly in favor of pro-choice (as has been the case with same-sex marriage for instance), but because enough of the country favored the legality of abortion (a clear majority), and enough of that subset felt strongly enough about it, that there would be massive protests and rioting such as those of us who are reasonably young would have never seen in our lifetimes. The Supreme Court was clearly to a great extent a representation of political winds (much as this was against its premise of course), and the politicians-that-be on both sides of the aisle would surely be far too afraid of the violent public backlash to dare allow RvW to be overturned. Chipped away at through incremental legislation in dozens of states perhaps, but not straight-up reversed on the level of SCOTUS.

Then in summer 2020 I got a taste of what severe social unrest and widespread angry protesting/rioting look like. And still I remember saying (probably to myself, because I wasn't talking to many people at the time), "If RvW gets overturned, there will be protesting and rioting on a level that makes all this George Floyd stuff look like a joke in comparison."

But now that it's actually happening, I'm not sure that there will be anywhere near that much of a reaction. And I have complex feelings about that.

On the one hand, it's very easily possible to exaggerate how disastrous the effects of the overturning will be (I expect a good percentage of Americans sloppily confuse it with a ruling banning abortion everywhere for instance, alternate routes to abortion are more feasible than they were 50 years ago, etc.). And I consider protesting to have some positive but limited utility (while rioting has negative utility). On the other hand, I still consider it disastrous enough that I feel a desire to become much more activist about this than about most other things.

But on the third hand, I want to see a reaction that reassures me at least a tiny bit, when compared with the unrest two summers ago, that liberal social activism has some rational understanding of practical effects of laws and priorities and abstract narratives versus concrete facts and so on. In a way, I want to see far more protesting, far more domination of the national discourse, far more emotion, far more passion, far more raw force as a social movement attached to this than was ever attached to George Floyd's murder and the vaguely-understood cloud of oppressive attitudes it represented. There are concrete laws at stake here which affect vast numbers of people in a highly tractable way that doesn't depend on vague principles or desires for revolution or nebulous "understood truths". There are highly measurable ways that large demographics in our society will suffer, a more firmly-founded fuel for our emotions than anger over several individual outrageously tragic incidents.

In that vein, I want to see a moral panic over female reproductive rights. I want to see awareness and tension over these issues seep into almost every facet of our society. I want to see every major company speak up on it. I want to see widespread treatment of the perpetuation of poverty as a result of lack of control over reproduction, and those who think it's worth it because of their convictions about the sanctity of souls or possibly more unsavory beliefs, as a scourge on our culture. I want to see dating profiles, in the midst of the usual dog and sarcasm enthusiasm, explode with exhortations of "if you don't like women having choices, swipe left".

#roe vs. wade #abortion #george floyd #BLM #online dating #not every expressed wish in this post should be taken literally #nor does it anywhere near represent the whole of my concern

[bookwyrminspiration]

For clarification: Wasn't meaning the 5 + 1 to be from Fitz's pov, I was thinking from all the other characters pov. Thinking about that line of Keefe's "All my friends are turning into birds" like how do you know that Mr. ??? Boy. I am of the opinion that Fitz is a character that's better to focus on from other character's povs instead of from his own, mostly because his own would amount to being perfect all the time and being terrified of not being perfect and generally just being scared without being able to let people know that he's scared and bottling it all up until it explodes, and that's always seen better from other characters instead of the source of the explosion

But oh those all sound lovely, idk much about Jensi but having something form Stina's pov sounds fun.

Good luck with the rest of the au!!! Wow that is so many words asksjsksk

You should take a writer's break after finishing the au, how have you kept a consistant schedule for so long??? Give me your secrets

-Heathen

Oooh yeah that would also be an interesting exploration of his character within the au! Everyone watching him just being like He's Not Normal Anymore, meanwhile Fitz seems mostly oblivious to that whole situation. He's proceeding as normal. (rest under cut for space)

Would definitely love to see the wings au both during and after through the eyes of multiple characters though, it's always such a fun exercise. Like that chapter that had a big chunk of Maruca's memories! Or the flashes of memories from Keefe we get periodically! Lot of memories because Sophie is a telepath and that's how she gets other's pov. But it would be so cool to do fics of not only Fitz, but various occurrences throughout the au from other's perspective. I'm actually kinda doing something like that rn with what I'm writing for chapter 35, but I won't say more so I don't spoil anything :)

But yeah looking at Fitz from other povs could be interesting...though I will say I am a big fan of writing mental spirals and explosions, so I'm also tempted towards doing that. It's just!! it's such a perfect opportunity to break grammar rules and really explore what you can do with language in a different way. huge fondness for those kinds of scenes where characters break down and you get to watch their thoughts as they do

And yeah I also don't know much about Jensi, the main reason I have him as a possibility is because I think he'd fit hummingbird wings perfectly. Nothing else I just think they'd fit him so well I want to figure something out for him. Also a Stina pov would give me a chance to address things and questions her involvement brings up (how is she spying on the council? like legitimately how is she doing that? what exactly is she learning? what's it like where she is?) without taking the time to figure out how to answer it in a smooth way in the main story

thank you for the well wishes, the au is now about 274k words and I am. somehow still going! how did I get here! i need to be more thorough with my planning in the future so I don't end up with unbelievably long fics. not that I expect to ever write a fic this long again but knowing me it could happen. I can confidently say that we are much closer to the end than to the beginning though. We're not there yet but we're getting a lot closer. Things are falling into place. I'm answering more questions than I'm introducing.

Actually like a pretty big question/backstory thing gets answered and talked about in the next two chapters so!! and on top of that I have like. mostly figured out this one other thing that's pretty big and important to the ending and such. there's one other thing I need to kinda figure out but like. I've got this. probably.

Would absolutely love a nice writers break after over a year straight of writing and editing and posting wings au things!! However if I go to the very last day before Stellarlune releases then that will be smack in the middle of November, which is NaNoWriMo month and I have a streak going that I would be loath to loose so! very possible I will jump immediately into more writing. But definitely not as big of a project--I think I'll do a collection of shorter stories instead of a whole novel during NaNoWriMo. Maybe reblog a prompt list and do some of those :)

but after november 100% a writing break is in order so I can get my bearings and figure out where to go from there!! I've been writing the au for so long it's unbelievable to think that one day it'll be done.

as for how I've kept a consistent schedule for so long, I don't know if you were looking for an actual answer but my secret is having wiggle room :). I appear to be doing a much better job than I actually am because I post a chapter every two weeks, but I also write those chapters in advance. The two weeks before an update I'm writing the update that'll come after the next, the chapter is (supposed to be) finished two weeks before it's posted. Which means that if I get off track, I've got two entire weeks of wiggle room to work with to get back on track. And if I don't get 100% back on track, unless I fall over two weeks behind the chapter is still going to get done on time that everything appears fine

take right now for example! A chapter is going to be posted this Sunday like always, so unless I told you that I really fell off track recently and didn't start writing the chapter until after I was supposed to be done with it, then wrote it in a week (half the usual time), then you'd never know! Because nothing was delayed! Because I have wiggle room! I didn't write anything at all in the month of December last year because I got super ahead in November and just wrote nothing after that until I realized I miscalculated when I needed to start writing again and was actually suddenly two weeks behind. No one ever knew because I had wiggle room!

I've also in the past written out a post explaining how I came to the two weeks schedule and daily word count chapter length estimate, so if you wanted those details I could probably find that post to link as well! But those are my secrets, so perhaps that will help! Consistency and wiggle room are really what it comes down to

#kotlc wings au #shattered upside down #quil's queries #heathen nonsie #some might say that it's an unwise idea to have such a large project be one of your first #but on the contrary I think I prefer it this way. for me at least #because having such an accomplishment under my belt makes everything afterward seem so much easier #I've written hundreds of thousands of words consistently over the past year and a few months without fail #a one shot? I've got that #a more normal approach of building yourself up to long fics is also good! #i'm simply going the opposite direction #very very excited to write things after this #because like. I know I can do it #any self doubt I would've had is gone now #i'm posting a 8k word chapter every two weeks #of course I can write a nice one shot #the danger will not be that I can't write it but that I'll make it too long #i'm rambling now but like. super glad I have undertaken the wings au it has legit transformed everything about my writing #and my approach and attitude towards writing #and taught me a lot about how I write and what I should work on or at least pay attention to #which I won't ramble about more but like. I have thoughts

[ectomoog]

The Ecto Moog Vanilla Experience

Updated for 1.20.4

I’m the unwilling user of a MacBook Air, and I’m also someone with strong (picky) preferences for ✨vibes✨, and so to play Minecraft casually on my laptop, I’ve had to jump through several hoops to achieve what I would consider a good vanilla experience.

At this point though, I’ve put probably too much time and effort into it, and so I thought to justify that I’d make a beginner's guide to all the mods, resource packs and game options I use, as of February 2024 (1.20.4). 👇

I will attach a hyperlink to any resources I mention :)

Mods

Ok so to start off, yes, I technically I don't actually play true vanilla Minecraft, but the mods I have installed are all client-side, and for the purpose of improving or optimising the vanilla experience. You can find me and a list of (almost) all these mods on Modrinth.

Fabric & Modrinth (Intro)

To mod the game, I use Fabric. I know that Forge has had some… drama? recently, and I’m gonna be honest I’ve never tried Quilt (I will at some point), but Fabric is super widespread, tons of mods use it so it works just fine for me 😁. When I’m looking for mods, I really prefer to use Modrinth, just because I can follow everything and it’s a really well designed website. (I also tried their launcher but I think it needs a little work?)

As part of Fabric, I do have the Fabric API in my mods folder.

Performance & Optimisation

I use these mods are to make the game run better. Minecraft is notorious for being very poorly optimised, and these mods have been made by a ton of very talented people to fix that.

Sodium

JellySquid’s Sodium is the hot optimisation mod right now for rendering and graphical fixes. It doesn’t have the cosmetic features of Optifine, like dynamic lighting or zoom, but it’s super compatible and gives me great performance. Combined with my other mods, at a 15 chunk render distance in the overworld, I averaged around 50 fps. For a MacBook, that's not bad at all.

To accompany Sodium I've also got Indium, an add-on that provides support for the Fabric Rendering API, which is required for mods that use advanced rendering effects, and Reese's Sodium Options, which adds a better options screen for Sodium’s video settings- it looks better basically.

Lithium

Lithium is a general purpose optimisation mod that improves systems like game physics, mob AI, block ticking, etc without changing vanilla mechanics.

Starlight

Starlight rewrites the entire lighting engine to fix performance and errors. Made for bigger servers, but helpful for client users. I think this is in place of Phosphor.

Dynamic FPS

Dynamic FPS can reduce the game’s FPS when it’s just running in the background- useful for a laptop.

Some more specific optimisation mods:

Entity Culling avoids rendering entities that aren’t directly in your field of view, which is much more thorough than the vanilla approach.

Ferrite Core reduces the memory usage of Minecraft in a ton of different ways.

Immediately Fast optimises how things like entities, particles, text, GUI are rendered, by using “a custom buffer implementation which batches draw calls and uploads data to the GPU in a more efficient way.”

I'm not a programmer so I can’t really explain what Krypton does, something to do with networking stacks, but I know it optimises.. things, lowers server CPU usage and reduces memory usage. I’m barely following along with a lot of these mods.

Fabric Language Kotlin is a dependancy that enables the use of the Kotlin programming language for other Fabric mods. To be honest, I’ve forgotten what mod needs this but I don’t want to delete it, just in case.

Experience

These mods aren’t necessarily about performance, but they do enhance the game in a vanilla kind of way, in my opinion. Some of these could be up for debate but I do think they compliment the base game.

Lamb Dynamic Lights

Lamb Dynamic Lights is a simple but thorough dynamic lighting mod that adds light-emitting handheld items, dropped items and entities.

Zoomify

Zoomify is a super configurable zoom mod. Maybe this is just because of Optifine’s influence, but i think they should add zoom to the base game. At least I feel cool using it 😎

To make Zoomify work, you’ll need, YetAnotherConfigLib, a config library that fills in a couple of holes.

Better F3

Better F3… makes the F3 menu better. There’s the option to customise literally everything, you can colour code, shift and delete parts of the menu depending on your use case, it’s less insane and looks a whole lot better.

MiniHUD

MiniHUD allows you to display customisable F3 lines on the main screen, along with several client-side overlay renderers. I just use it for the mini-F3, and I have my FPS, coords and cardinal direction in the top left corner. It’s honestly more helpful than you’d assume.

MiniHUD requires MaLiLib (masa’s Litemod Library) which is a library mod for mods made by masa and others.

ModMenu

ModMenu adds an in-game menu where you can view the mods you’re running and access their details and setting menus.

Shulker Box Tool Tip

Shulker Box Tool Tip adds a preview of the inside of a Shulker box when it’s in your inventory.

Some more specific experience mods:

Bobby is a rendering mod that allows the player to render more chunks than a server’s fixed distance, by loading in previously generated chunks saved client-side. You can also render them straight from a singleplayer world file. To be honest, I don’t often run into this issue but it’s helpful to have lol.

Cloth Config API adds a config screen for mods in-game.

Iris is a mod that makes shaders super easy, and compatible with Sodium. It's down here because I don’t use shaders often, but it’s essential if you do.

A lot of these mods are subject to change as I find better or updated alternatives, and I'm always on the lookout for more 😁

Resource Packs

For vanilla Minecraft, I actually only use one resource pack, but if you’re familiar with Vanilla Tweaks, you’ll understand why this deserves its own category.

This resource pack allows you to pick which small changes you want to add, and a lot of them are really cool. Some of my favourite tweaks are:

Dark UI

Quieter Nether Portals

Circular Sun and Moon

Numbered Hotbar

Golden Crown

The other tweaks I have are: Classic Minecraft Logo, Lower Warped Nylium, Lower Snow, Lower Crimson Nylium, Lower Podzol, Lower Paths, Lower Grass, Wither Hearts, Ping Color Indicator, Borderless Glass, Lower Fire, Lower Shield, Transparent Pumpkin, Noteblock Banners, Quieter Minecarts, Variated Unpolished Stones, Variated, Terracotta, Variated Stone, Variated Logs, Variated Mushroom Blocks, Variated End Stone, Variated Gravel, Variated Mycelium, Variated Planks, Variated Bricks, Random Moss Rotation, Variated Cobblestone, Variated Grass, Random Coarse Dirt Rotation, Variated Dirt, Darker Dark Oak Leaves, Shorter Tall Grass, Circle Log Tops, Twinkling Stars, Accurate Spyglass, Unique Dyes, Animated Campfire Item, Red Iron Golem Flowers, Brown Leather, Warm Glow, Horizontal Nuggets, Different Stems, Variated Bookshelves, Connected Bookshelves.

Game Options

For the sake of the full experience, here's the important game options:

The End 😇

And that's the whole thing! A lot of this could change at any moment based on my play style, but I think this is a really well rounded experience for vanilla Minecraft. Let me know if there's anything else I should try 😁

#minecraft #minecraft mods #minecraft vanilla #minecraft customization #mcyt #sodium #mods #JellySquid #ectomoog #moogposting #mineblr #minecraft survival #minecraft server #smp #minecraft smp #optifine #minecraft modding #modded minecraft

[wytfut]

Deities...

Well...   it obvious, I dwell on topics. Probably too much. But an earworm will get into my itty bitty head.... and will not stop, on and off all day. Sometimes when I come here to write, I come too early. But my head just doesn’t have the patience to wait. Then I end up editing. This very well maybe one of those times.

My topic here, may insult some folks. Not my purpose. And it may look small and petty. Also not my purpose. 

Nothing on this blog site I write is to change minds/insult anyone. Nor is it to make me look better or pity. Its my opinion well thought out or not. Hopefully its somewhat entertaining, and maybe you’ll go “hmmm”....  No, I’m not better than your or anyone else. Please just let me be me.

I grew up in a “hard core” Methodist family. It comes from the mostly German community out N. W. of Grand Island called Boelus, where my blood line comes from. 

Both sets of my farming Grandparents were involved in a big way with the local Methodist church. 

On one side of the family it wasn’t unusual to break into a bible study, or prayer at family get togethers. 

One of my favorite Uncles, was a Methodist Minister. I still admire his history/humor/understanding.... just general presense. This guy.... wow.

As I grew up, attending church was mandatory, until I reached 16, and was working at the local Cooper Lincoln movie theatre. Hours would have me coming home late, and hard to get up early. Yeah, I’ll admit it.. I liked that. 

Previously in time, I was in choir, boy scouts, God and Country, Sunday school, and more at times. Don’t forget communion. 

Once in hi school an interesting Teacher, brought to my attention that maybe Christianity may not be the cure all. Something I had never considered. Being Methodist was very boring to me, and was just something I just had to do, like it or not. Other churches I had attended thru funerals/weddings, I found no better. 

Then in college, one of my classes had a lecture from a civil disobedient Native American. His lecture set me off away from the church far and beyond. Honestly, he didn’t talk much about religion, but he brought forth a lot of questions that I could apply to many things I wondered/questioned in my exposure of life.

Things I ponder. Christianity is a smaller portion, of the world religions than what the churches tend to teach. Islam and Muslims are a much larger portion.

Many religions parallel.... not exactly, but similar. And boy howdy the denominations really do.

Many religions have extreme branches of definition. From peace and pleasure, to blood and destroy. 

I think of these things, and witnessed 2 faced folks attending church regularly...  

In the late 60′s I witnessed the “hippy” generation, and huge numbers of the Church’s youth leaving.

Why do churches have to have sooooooooo  much money?  

With a bit of history diving, churches were very influential in politics, many times thorough out history. The bible has been rewritten, and edited many times. Seemingly to make the rules fit to someone's advantage, other than the gospel/church community? I’m not the best person do define bible verses, but some of the context over the years has changed dramatically. 

As we advance technically, another thought comes about. Church not that long ago, was a source of entertainment/community/linking/socializing with others. Especially before radio and/or TV.  I know of several folks of the older generation, missing church was mentally hard, as they’d miss their friends.  Very similar to today and social media via www. 

How do I roll?  I don’t consider myself a Christian, or affiliated with any other religion. Thats too involved for me...  even stressful now. 

If a person tries thru out their life, to be a good person. I think this is all there is to it. As humans we fall down all the time. but as long as we get back up, and keep trying to do the right thing....   that’s it. Yes, the definition of “doing the right thing” can be all over the place. I didn’t say I was good at this.... 

The people that are very good at this (luck, fate, skill) will be remembered. This remembrance is my heaven. I hope when it all ends, I’m remembered as a good person and there are a few good stories about me.

I refuse to bad mouth religions (I have in humor... sorry), and respect them all. I don’t “pray”, but have been known to talk to myself, or my favorite “past” people. Its obvious, religion works for lots of people, very well. Guess I question to many things.

It gets me by daily. I don’t know of any high anxiety that perplexes me. I feel I have a large community around me. I’ve witnessed this community supporting my family several times.  

And best of all...   I’m a pretty happy kind of guy. 

My luck, I maybe completely wrong... that’s the way it usually works for me. But as a past Methodist,.....   God is all forgiving. So as I stand at the pearly gates, there will be a sign hanging on the podium “walk on in”, there will be no judgement ....   I’ll just be Bruce and walk in... 

Watch your step!