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agios-rio · 11 months

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Here's the guide on AO3 (it comes with a complementary K/S fic ☆).

text version under the cut ⤵

Gods & Goddesses

Fai-tukh (Knowledge)

Tel-alep – “The Watcher”

The first wise god to ever walk on Vulcan’s sands was Tel-alep. He collected all available Vulcan knowledge & filled his library with carved stone tablets, vellum papers, incised bones & shells, colourful knotted cords. He gave as he took, & shared his collection with whoever wanted to learn. In times of conflict, Vulcans turned away from him, caring more for their immediate safety than abstract knowledge – & Tel-alep seemingly vanished. It is said he still watches all of Vulcan from the shadows & meticulously chronicles its history, as well as notes every advancement in the sciences.

Alep-tel – “The Bitter”

The second wise god of Vulcan was Alep-tel, who came to restore what was left of Tel-alep’s collection after the war that had led to it being abandoned by Tel-alep & the mortals. Piecing together what he could & collecting old knowledge to fill the gaps left by time, he spent a hundred seasons alone, caring for what he had inherited. When he was finished, the library opened its doors again to whomever wanted to learn, but the passing of time had placed it into obscurity – as the legends go, Alep-tel still spends most of his days in solitude, waiting for willing students, growing old & bitter.

Sochya (Peace)

Kir-alep – “The Placid”

Kir-alep ruled from his seat on Mount Seleya, overlooking all of Vulcan. He had the responsibility of ensuring peace throughout the sands & the oases alike, & he did so as well as possible. However, peace seldom comes & stays without sacrifice, & so with every change of the season, he chose & sacrificed some of the few who lived at the foot of the mountain for the peace of the many. Without taking joy in it, he upheld this practice to keep his people from destroying one another completely.

Alep-kir – “The Sullen”

Alep-kir was a mortal who climbed the stairs to Mount Seleya to demand answers for the deaths of his brothers & sisters who died in the sacrifices. Answer he did not receive, but instead he was offered godhood as a means to pacify him. In the hopes he might change the fate of the next few, he accepted. He stayed on the mountain to witness the deaths of the people below, but his mind was still ablaze with grief & anger over his long-gone siblings that he remained where & who he was, trembling but unmoved by the suffering beneath.

Ashaya (Love)

Valdena – “The Giver”

Love, joy, & beauty are what the goddess Valdena represents. She is usually portrayed as a Vulcan woman & is said to be the most caring of the gods – appearing as a mother, a sister, a wife, a daughter, depending on what role she fulfils for whoever encounters her. Even though she is associated with all kinds of love, not just the romantic one, many legends about her have the (re-)union of star-crossed lovers as a central theme.

Dena-vel – “The Guard”

Dena-vel is the goddess of love & possessiveness. She seeks to hide the beauty of the world she loved to keep it from strange eyes & hands. She is said to have helped build the walls that once encompassed the city of Gol, where the best artists, sculptures, poets, & musicians used to live. As a fierce protector who knows little boundaries when it comes to fulfilling her duty, many legends about her are written in blood.

Tadek-adir’es (Absence)

Kal-ap-ton – “The Mourner”

The Mourner represents grief & is said to be the most dangerous of the gods. Bound to his belt, he carries a pouch full of tears. He who meets him risks his life: The Mourner can take the weight off the Vulcan’s shoulders & allow him to weep to alleviate his grief, but not all of those touched by him are able to free themselves again of their emotions. Many of them succumbed to their misery & wandered out into the desert never to be seen again.

Tyr-al-tep – “The Unforgiver”

Tyr-al-tep is the god of guilt & regret over the death of loved ones. He is the one whispering in the ears of grieving Vulcans, telling stories of what could have been had the tragedy of death not occurred – stories of love & joy, of futures rendered impossible by the present. He leaves nothing in his wake that lessens the pain, only a gruelling feeling of emptiness & absence, cursing those who encounter him to live out the rest of their lives with feelings of shame & sorrow.

Vaikaya (Devotion) or Sa-kai-lar (Brothers)

Ket-cheleb – “The Destroyer”

Anger & rage are what moved Ket-cheleb to kill his brother, & those emotions are what he brings to all those who cross his path. His broad & rough hands carry weapons of all kinds, & he is said to often appear where he is welcomed the least – whenever there is no predetermined course of action to a conflict, no specific decision yet towards peace or violence, he will appear & tip the scales towards the latter. Many tales about wars from ancient times describe Ket-cheleb arriving at the first light in the morning & the last light at night falling over battlefields full of dead.

Cheleb-vel – “The Embracer”

If Vulcans had saints, Cheleb-vel would be the one of the black sheeps. He stands for acceptance & blindness & indifference out of love, even in regards to the things in life that are the hardest to accept. Without judgement, Cheleb-vel stands by the sides of even outcast & hated Vulcans, often being the only one to acknowledge their existence. It is said that Cheleb-vel handed his brother the stone with which he struck him dead in the vast red desert, & never harboured resentment for him in his last moments.

About The Practice

One way is to read the lines themselves, which stand for the qualities associated with the gods, though there is no absolute consensus as to which ones those are. As the result, the task of interpreting is left to the palmist herself*, leading to various different schools of thoughts within the trade (the entirety of which too numerous to list in this short guide).

Additionally to that, intuition plays a much bigger role in Vulcan Palmistry than it does in equivalent Terran practices. Since Vulcans are touch-telepaths, they can gain much more information from the skin contact itself as opposed to the mere placement of the lines. It is unknown what exact kind of information is transferred between the one who is being read & the one who reads, but the leading theory is that it comes from the subconscious of the one being read.

*According to Vulcan tradition, it is custom only for women to learn the practice of palmistry. This text uses the appropriate pronouns to reflect that.

#this cost me way too many nerves to still look that wonky. christ.#*bones voice* dammit jim i'm a librarian not a graphic designer #vulcan culture #star trek #vulcans #on vulcans #i kept the actual p4lm1stry stuff so vague lol. that's bc i don't know the first thing about it #vulcan religion #spirk #k/s #rio.write #rio.png #worldbuilding #vulcan #ancient vulcan #pre-reform vulcan #pre-surak vulcan

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ultimatehopes · 7 days

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kinda curious about your ocs not gonna lie. bestow me with information, dear mootie

Ok Ok Ok SO

My story is called the redwood chronicles or just redwood hollow, I mostly call it redwood chronicles to separate the story from the location but still.

Here's my like intro speech cause I'm going through and writing out as much as I can for this anyway:

(TWO stories under the cut maybe read if u like original fiction or you're bored or whatever pleaseeeeeeee)

When Mother Nature created the earth she tried to populate it, but after countless days and nights of work she realised she could not do it on her own, and so she built The Creators. The Creators were beings of pure existence, imbued with the ability to build creatures that followed the simple rules Mother Nature laid out.

Together The Creators and Mother Nature populated the earth, watching as their beings grew and changed, and they loved their creations deeply.

One Creator spent it's time creating animals to fill the world, the second created flora to decorate the earth, and the third found a passion project of it's own.

The third Creator slowly molded apes until they stood upright, changing their brains, building their bodies, making these beautiful creatures it loved so much. These were called humans.

The three creators stayed with Mother Nature, working with her, until one day she decided their work was done. But to thank them for their kindness, Mother Nature decided to break her own rules.

She gave each of The Creators the ability to do one thing outside of physic's laws, and after great debate the three chose to modify the third Creators pride and joy, the humans.

The first Creator built the Therianthropes, giving them animal traits, she made people with wings and people who could breathe underwater, people who could see in the dark and people who could run at speeds rivaling the fastest land animals.

The second Creator made the Sylvans, giving them the ability to communicate with plants, Sylvans could move vines and grow flowers at will, they could diagnose diseases in crops and understand the stories of the trees.

The third Creator looked at it's siblings, and their love for their fauna and flora, and how they bestowed that love onto these precious creations it loved so much, and felt unqualified. The third Creator loved it's humans more than anything, but had nothing to show for it.

And so, the third creator made the Soulbounds. Blessing it's humans with the love it felt for them by giving them people who they were eternally bound to, people who would fulfill their lives, put the world into colour, make them whole. Soulmates.

Mother nature returned The Creators to herself, and used their spirit to continue to populate the world, using their power how they would have wanted, to care for the earth they made. Ok yeah so that's the main background for the story BUT THEN

Victoria never remembered a time before she knew the woman in green, she was told she was once part of a village, who threw her out with no rhyme or reason. Victoria couldn't care less for those people.

The lady in green cared for Victoria, teaching her biology, history, sciences, raising her to be a person to be proud of. Victoria loved her life in the tall forests, the lady in green called the trees redwoods, said they were the tallest in the world, but Victoria just knew them as her home.

Victoria celebrated her birthday on the day of the most sun, she danced with the flowers, she befriended the plants, she lived in peaceful isolation with the lady in green, until her 14th birthday.

On the earliest morning of the year, when the summer sun penetrated the all encompassing trees, Victoria met with the lady in green.

"It's time, Victoria," the lady spoke. "You're old enough I'd say."

Victoria followed the lady in green, her raven-black wings working twice as hard to carry her to match the lady's unnaturally long steps.

"Where are you taking me?" Victoria asked.

The lady in green did not respond, she just continued.

The forest slowly eased, and somehow the trees taller than comprehension, faded like there was nothing there, until Victoria found herself in a village.

"Wait, we can't be here-" Victoria gasped, flying onto a thatched roof to avoid the eyes of the people below. The lady in green landed softly on the roof next to the girl and stroked her wild black hair.

"I have never told you, Victoria, but I have a different name." The lady stared down at the people, and despite her shadow blocking the sun from the street below, no one seemed to notice her.

"What?"

"I am the creator, the heart of the planet, the life soul, my name dear, is Mother Nature."

Victoria bit her lip and stared at the lady in green. "You're joking..."

"I am not."

"Why did you decide to play mother to me then? There must be thousands of children without parents, why me?"

Mother Nature turned to look, and stroked Victoria's hair again.

"Because I want you to be my spirit guide."

Victoria didn't get any time to wonder what on earth she was talking about, before Mother Nature stood and jumped off the roof, her sudden drop not being noticed by a single person.

"Come! I need to show you your job."

In spite of her fear, Victoria followed, flying down and following behind the Mother like a lost dog.

The Mother led Victoria down a narrow street, where the stench of death filled her nose, Victoria tried not to gag as her eyes began to water with the putrid stench. People were moving past at great speed, none looking Victoria in the eye.

"Finally! Oh lord Ma'am finally someone who can see me!" A man cried out, reaching for Mother Nature, then missing and going for Victoria instead. "Oh lord you have to help me this isn't right nothing is right!" The man screamed, Victoria could see boils covering his chest and limbs where the tunic he wore hung low off his sallow flesh. But what made Victoria run backward with a shriek was the black rotting flesh on the ends of his arms where he reached towards her.

"Silence!" Mother Nature commanded, "Step away from my daughter sir she is still young."

"Why can you see me?" The man demanded, "Why can't my wife or the doctors or the priest see me but you can?"

"Because you are dead," the Mother explained calmly, "And my daughter is going to guide you to your place of rest."

"I am?" He said in shock as Victoria echoed him in indignation.

"Where the hell is his place of rest?!" Victoria demanded, "you haven't explained anything!"

"Just take him home, Victoria; back the way we came."

Victoria sighed and turned on her heel, she looked again at the man, noting his brightly coloured eyes indicative of a Soulbound, which meant he wouldn't be able to fly. So with annoyance she led the way out of the town, to the edge where she and Mother Nature had emerged.

"So now what? The Redwoods aren't here?" Victoria asked.

"Just keep walking, you'll find your way home," Mother Nature said softly. The motherly tone reminding Victoria of the genuine love she felt for her carer. So Victoria picked a direction and kept walking.

Suddenly it felt like the world shifted like waves around her, the sky turned dark and the ground moved unnaturally, trees began to appear where she could have sworn no trees were before. Without looking back Victoria powered on, walking through the trees until the roots began to swallow them. And once Victoria felt she had finally been lost, she saw the clearing with her small home in it, and sighed in relief.

"What is this?" The man asked, considering everything he seemed like a good sport.

"Do you feel it?" Mother Nature asked. "The sun?"

"Yes," he said, without thinking.

"Do you smell it?"

"My wife's cooking?"

"Yes! Walk to it, your home is there."

The man seemed stupefied, walking into the centre of the clearing, Victoria tried to follow him with her eyes, but felt the sun brighten like it was welcoming him, peering out the glare became to strong and Victoria blinked away the sun. But once her eyes adjusted, he was gone.

"You will be a guide now," Mother Nature explained. "Your job is to lead the souls of the departed to me, so I may have their spirits."

"Is he happy?" Victoria asked, brows furrowed.

"He is no longer, but it is not a sad fate, like the cycle of water or the circle of the food chain, all that dies creates life. He is gone, but from him more life will appear. It is not a sad fate."

"It sounds sad to me," Victoria frowned.

"It would be awfully sad if a child as young as you were to die, yes, but he was ready."

Victoria sat down in the middle of the clearing, staring up at the infinitely tall trees, and Mother Nature sat next to her.

"A bird was just hatched," Mother Nature said quietly. "I think he helped."

"Is this my fate?" Victoria pondered. "To be the destruction of life?"

"No my dear," Mother Nature hushed. "You are the birth of it."

Oh my goodness and that's not even the actual story yet omg- Ok gimme a bit to go find my thing about Victoria and rewrite it to make it not terrible, and I'll tell you how the actual Plot begins.

#enders asks #enders friends #enders ocs #redwood chronicles #enders writing

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ffloorageorge · 6 months

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One quill served as a reservoir for ink inside the other quill. Poverty is concentrated in rural Honduras, a pattern that is reflected throughout Latin America. Lending has likewise been encouraged by the creation of a guarantee fund, which allows banks to issue loans to eligible small- and medium-sized businesses without first requiring a large deposit or other collateral. One of the survivors of the resulting massacre is Henry, the son of a blacksmith. Ancient genomes show social and reproductive behavior of early Upper Paleolithic foragers. These appear to have been either converted Soviet or early production models, or simply cloned from these rifles. Edo first appears in the Azuma Kagami chronicles, that name for the area being probably used since the second half of the Heian period. Sri Lanka once held the highest team score in all three formats of cricket. They will not eat grain, which could be carried on the journey. When they catch up to Desther, he surrenders after a short battle. Despite making enormous progress in reducing the countrywide poverty incidence from 56 percent of the population in 1992 to 24. Street vendors in wheeled carts frequent residential areas or station on busy sidewalks near marketplaces or schools. A debt restructuring plan and the creation of a new currency in 1924 ushered in the Golden Twenties, an era of artistic innovation and liberal cultural life. After 2001, economic, political and geopolitical conditions improved greatly, and Bulgaria achieved high Human Development status in 2003. Romania was forced to cede Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union on 26 June 1940, Northern Transylvania to Hungary on 30 August, and Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria in September. Prior to the coming of Oba Ewuare in the mid 15th century, the Ewu community was organized and governed by an ancient gerontocracy where a council of the oldest people called Edion administered the various communities that constituted Ewu, independently. According to figures communicated by the company in July 2018, the bikes are rented up to four times a day, representing 5,000 to 10,000 daily trips. However, the recovery from the plague led to a resurgence of cities, trade, and economy, which allowed the blossoming of Humanism and Renaissance that later spread to Europe. These enhancer regions can activate transcription of Ubx if the right combination of factors is present. In a brothel raid a year later there, a number of girls rescued from the 2003 raid were found to be involved again in sex work. The process, known as Pontypool japan, was first developed in the west by Thomas Allgood of nearby Pontypool and was taken on in Usk in 1763 by his grandsons Thomas and Edward Allgood. In 1974, the Haiti national football team were only the second Caribbean team to make the World Cup. As the existence of superheavy elements is very strongly dependent on stabilizing effects from closed shells, nuclear instability and fission will likely determine the end of the periodic table beyond these islands of stability. The main responsibility of the County Administrative Board is to co-ordinate the development of the county in line with goals set by the Riksdag and Government. Dafydd ap Gwilym is widely regarded as one of the greatest Welsh poets of all time, and amongst the leading European poets of the Middle Ages. The planned Long Thanh International Airport will have an annual service capacity of 100 million passengers once it becomes fully operational in 2025. The latest country Bhutan has established diplomatic relations with is Israel, on 12 December 2020. The latest forced disappearance involves three sisters from Abu Dhabi. These have led to widely applied advances in computer science, especially string searching algorithms, machine learning, and database theory.

#hot lady #stunning women #tall ladies #sweet girls #nice looking actress #alluring female artist #engaging woman #winsome girl #glamorous ladies #beguiling girls #elegant actress #divine female artist #fit woman #foxy girl #fair women #good looking females entertainment #dance music

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sfsolstice · 1 month

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Do you have a favorite author?

What/who inspires your poetry and writing style?

I always gets such magical, dreamy, fantasy vibes from your work.

anon :""(( <33 those are like the best vibes i could ever hope for for my work thank you !! means the absolute world to me 🫶

and oh boy ! do i have the lore dump for you ! :D

( under the cut, just so i don't just ramble all over y'all's dashboards )

so i don't have a favorite author / poet or anything at least not right now (could def change in the future lol) ! but when it comes to literature / poetry that really moved me as a kiddo starting out writing, i think a lot about the poetry and novels and short stories my hs ap lit teacher assigned us (who is a man deserving of his own story another time i think ahsjdk)

he gave us a lot of (mainly south american) magical realism and romantic literature; off the top of my head, he assigned us: the house of spirits by isabel allende; one hundred years of solitude and chronicle of a death foretold by gabriel garcia marquez; and i think i read shalimar the clown by salman rushdie for his class ?

( in other words, he made us read the alchemist by paolo coelho and i liked it so much that it's in my dna now agakdlf )

other than that, i've been curious about esoteric things like palm and card divination since i was a kid (that superstition that says that your biting your lip accidentally, means someone's talking about you kinda stuck with me hard..........) ! and the concepts of spirituality (like soulmates, past lives, etc etc) just really speak to the hopeful romantic in me ;^;

oh and !! fun fact, i started out as a physics major in college because i 1) liked math and 2) liked stars ahskfl so even though i ended up dropping the major and going full psychology, i still like math and i still like stars, so ! just, the universe itself, made up of its tiny bits and pieces, really is a thing to be admired :') (i.e., the universe will always be one of my favorite muses)

anyways ! enough from me lol thank you so much for asking !! it means the world, truly :") <3

i hope you have a rad rest of your day hehe

#qna #thank you again for the ask !! ❤️#god i am a yapper.............#im sorry to everyone with adhd and hates huge blocks of texts #i am so sorry 😭#also kinda #solstice shares

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theburgessobserver · 1 month

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ROTG NEWSPAPER!!1ST ISSUE!!!!JAN 16 1954!

Local news

MYSTERY FROM THE SKIES!!!

Last night January 16th hail fell upon our town,However this was no ordinary hailstorm as the hail was perfectly round with a dot in the middle.The experts are confused and so is the town.Some believe that this was caused by a freak of nature there are even beliefs that it may have been caused by a supernatural phenomenon namely aliens.Though research is inconclusive, some say it might have been a publicity stunt by the Cheerio Company but no one has come forth it is also important to note that such a stunt would be very difficult to conduct.

More on page 7

OPERATION CASTLE SUCCESS!!!

Yes the newest nuclear bomb Castle Bravo is recorded as the most powerful explosion ever conducted. It was so bright that the fireball turned the night into day.With a power of yield 15 megatons of TnT. It unbelievable power was created here last night.One that was far more powerful than anything ever created!

Pages 6-7

Lucky Dragon 5 incident!

+Scientists conduct research on the effect of fallout on a grub.

Page 8

Last night a radar picked up an unidentified flying object in the sky not far from Burgess!Could it be responsible for the Cheerio hail?

Page 9

Sports results

-NHL playoffs

Page 10

Ads

Page 11

Comics

Page 12

Playing toninght in our local Movie Theater:

War of the Worlds starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson Sci-Fi

Our rating 10/10

Riot in Cell Block 11 Neville Brand Emilie Mayer Drama/Noir

Our rating 8/10

Peter Pan starring Bobby Driscoll Bill Thompson Margaret Kerry Animated family.

Our rating 10/10

Also:Compilation shorts:

Pluto's Heart Throb,Lion Around,Cold War,Casey Bats Again,Susie the Blue Coupe and Cold Storage

Theater Plays:

Waiting for Godot

at 7.PM

TV:

Howdy Doody 6-8 PM

I Love Lucy 8-9 PM

Our miss Brooks 9-10 PM

Weather:

Better take your umbrellas out ,it will be cloudy with a chance of cereal shaped hail coming from the skies above.

Also seeing as there are tons of cereal hale covering the roads it is a snow day today.

Editors Note:According to Peter Ramsey, on January 16, 1954, Jack Frost caused Cheerio-shaped hail to rain down on Burgess.

Based on a true story and events.

And around the same time back then Castle Bravo went off.

I am proud to present the first issue of the Burgess Observer newspaper.

Enjoy!

I have done it to chronicle the town(and to a degree the world) and have it on a semi-real life backdrop(ei some real life events) to detail more about it(an expansion if you may).To make it feel more real and lived in(after all it feels like a place you could just go to with working theaters/cinemas/communities).And also integrate some things into this wonderful world.

And also see how they would explain such supernatural occurrences/beings….

Please tell me your honest opinion and the pros and cons(what should i change or improve upon and how)

Also remeber that a comment will make the author much happier,and make the world a slightly better place. And Commenting,Following and favoriting me and my works will inspire me to do more!And i will always listen to your questions and suggestion

MARCH 27TH!!!ALERT!!!THE GUARDIANS COME TOGETHER TO FIGHT THERE BIGGEST THREAT!!!(MORE DANGEROUS AND POWERFULL THAN PITCH!!!!)

AND THEY WONT BE ALONE!!!!

ON MARCH 27TH!!!!(PROLOGUE 26TH)

EARTHS GREATEST SECRETS WILL BE REVEALED!

#rotg #dreamworks #jack frost #Burgess Observer #pat boone #missing link #castle bravo #monsters vs aliens

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mikeo56 · 9 months

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Witness - by Mr. Fish

Films about war, shorn of the bone crushing fear, the putrid stench of the corpses, the deafening noise of explosions, the constant exhaustion and the nervous anxiety that comes with trying to understand what is happening in the terrifying chaos, are pale and inadequate reflections of the vast enterprise of industrial slaughter. And these are the good films, of which there are only a few.

Most feature war films and documentaries, from The Sands of Iwo Jima to Saving Private Ryan, are war pornography. They romanticize those wielding the terrible instruments of death. They justify the unjustifiable. They pay homage to the war machine. They entice naïve young men and women into becoming cannon fodder. They distort the public’s perception of war, leaving those who return from war and attempt to speak the awful truth alienated and ignored.

Those in war who do the fighting, endowed with a god-like power to kill, are a minority. The real face of war is the hardship and grief suffered by civilians caught up in the maw of destruction. Their stories are hard to hear. Their fate is hard to see, which is why images from war are always sanitized. If we truly saw war, it would be so shocking, so disturbing, so disgusting, war would be hard to wage. The best accounts of war, for these reasons, eschew scenes of combat.

The documentary “20 Days in Mariupol,” a chronicle of the first 20 days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, captures what I witnessed as a war correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. It fails, as all films about war must fail, but it succeeds where few films about war succeed. It relentlessly rips back the veil on war - fatally wounded children and pregnant women torn apart by shell fragments; the frantic and doomed efforts of doctors to save them; the shrieks and lamentations of those cradling the bloodied bodies of the dead; the collapse of the social order once the fragile structures of a civil society cease to exist and looting and pillage become a way to survive. In war there are only predators and prey.

War is ugly and tawdry. Violence creates nothing. It only destroys — human beings, animals, schools, homes and apartment blocks, hospitals, bridges. It is the purest expression of death. All the forces that nurture and sustain life — familial, civil, social, cultural, ecological — are slated for obliteration.

Associated Press video journalist Mstyslav Chernov and his colleagues, photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and producer Vasilisa Stepanenko, documented the first three weeks of the Russian assault on the port city of Mariupol. The three Ukrainian reporters were the only ones from a foreign news agency to remain in the city. The movie draws from 25 hours of film, only 40 minutes of which were transmitted to the AP editors. Much of the footage, even if it could all have been transmitted, would never have been disseminated. It is too graphic.

The film focuses exclusively on Russian atrocities. It ignores those committed by Ukrainians. I covered enough wars to know there were some. The neo-Nazi Azov Regiment, and other fascist-inspired militias, played a major role in the fighting in Mariupol. These militias have been accused of terrorizing and executing ethnic Russians and those suspected of sympathizing or working with separatists. The Azov Regiment’s symbol is a black “Wolfsangel,” an emblem used by Nazi units in World War II. The regiment embraces the fascist ideology of blood and soil. The fascist militias are absent in the film. This is by design. The journalists do not address the plight of ethnic Russians, although Mariupol is a largely Russian-speaking city. While most in the city consider themselves to be Ukrainian, almost half also identify as Russian. These ethnic Russians usually blame the war in the Donbas, which has been raging since 2014 and where the city is located, on the government in Kyiv.

What happened to the ethnic Russians and separatists the Ukrainians considered collaborators? Were Ukrainian military units using hospitals as bases of operations in violation of the Geneva Conventions? There were scenes of armed Ukrainian soldiers in hospital corridors. The documentary leaves these questions unanswered.

It is not that what we see in the film is not true. Rather, it is that the film omitted what would not reflect well on Ukraine. When you depend on military units for protection and logistics you censor your reporting. If the reporters had reported on the abuses and atrocities carried out by Ukrainian units the protection they received would have been withdrawn. As much as I admire the documentary, the lie of omission is still a lie. It is the most common lie told in war. Only reporters who dare to report without embedding in military units are free to report the truth. But this is very dangerous and lonely work. This willful self-censorship is a serious flaw in the film, but it does not distract from the power of the visceral footage or the courage of the reporters.

There are almost no scenes of combat other than the burning remains of an anti-aircraft battery, the thud and explosion of Russian shells, the billows of black smoke, the roar of Russian jets, the distant rattle of machine guns and the occasional Ukrainian soldier firing down a deserted street.

The film, as all films about war should, focuses on the human detritus. We see elderly men and women, who have lost their homes and possessions, boiling snow to get water. We see bewildered civilians huddled in basements. We see the shelling of a maternity hospital and graphic pictures of wounded and dead pregnant women. We see the frantic efforts, which fail, to save gravely wounded children, including a 4-year-old girl named Evangelina. We see the wailing mothers and fathers who clutch the bodies of their dead children, kissing them one last time before wrapping up their small, pale corpses. We see the rows of corpses in the hospital basement. We see the tears of medics and doctors as they struggle fruitlessly to save lives. We see the heroic work of firefighters and then we see some of their dust covered lifeless bodies in the bombed out remains of their firehouse. We see the freshly dug trenches where the dead, including those of children, are piled one on top of the other, at first wrapped in green garbage bags and later dumped unceremoniously into the pit as exposed corpses.

“War is like an X-ray: all human innards are visible,” a doctor says in the film. “Good people become better. Bad people become worse.”

We also see the daily life of war reporters. Reporters intrude into the lives of those who have undergone unspeakable tragedies and trauma. Many of those filmed feel as if they are being treated by the press like exotic zoo animals, on display for cameras and foreign audiences. They spit venom at the reporters. “Prostitutes,” one enraged father snaps at the journalists. There is a mercenary quality to our work, however important it is to tell the story. While we chronicle the horror we are usually numb, although what we see and hear comes back to haunt us, especially at night, for the rest of our lives.

By the 11th day of the assault, with the Russians blockading the city from all three sides, the AP journalists must, at great risk, defy the curfew to hunt for a wireless connection. The life of a war reporter is consumed by these kinds of logistics, trying to get from one location to the next, trying to find out what is happening, trying to get a satellite or cell phone connection so pictures and reports can be sent.

War reporters have a privileged status. We have powerful institutions that support us. We do not go hungry. We have body armor and armored cars. Those with far less protection and resources ensure we are protected and evacuated so the story can be told. Reporters and photographers, of course, can be wounded and killed. But our chances of survival are enhanced by our status. Volodymyr, a police officer, takes tremendous risks to help extract the AP journalists from a hospital surrounded by the Russian forces. He assists the journalists in escaping the city with their footage. We accept this status. We rationalize to ourselves that we deserve it. But we also are acutely aware that those whose stories we tell are often abandoned and that no matter the risks, no matter how many atrocities we document the world is largely indifferent. By the time the Russians took Mariupol an estimated 25,000 people were dead.

“Thousands have died,” says Chernov, who narrates the film. “We keep filming, but everything stays the same.” He refers to the forlorn hope of Volodymyr, who said that “the image of a dead child will change the war, but we have seen so many deaths, how can we change anything?”

War reporters live with profound shame and guilt, as Chernov admits in the film. Few war reporters are neutral observers. We take the risks we take because we want justice. We want those who ordered and committed these crimes to be held accountable. Stories I wrote for The New York Times documenting Bosnian Serb atrocities were used as evidence in the International Court in the Hague to prosecute war criminals. This is why I wrote them. Chernov says in the film that he hopes one day his images will also bring some of the perpetrators to justice.

There is a brief clip of the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, claiming that the images transmitted by the AP reporters from the bombed maternity hospital in Mariupol were staged, carried out by actors.

Brazen lies are always the official answer to the crimes we expose. The Israeli government has turned lying into an art form. Israeli soldiers indiscriminately murder Palestinian civilians, including children, and blame the Palestinians for their own deaths or Hamas for using them as human shields or insist the civilians were combatants. During the war in Sarajevo the besieging Bosnian Serbs tried to float the lie that Bosnian army snipers in Sarajevo were killing their own civilians to garner international support, as if a city being peppered with constant sniper fire and hundreds of shells a day lacked adequate numbers of wounded and dead.

The film is mostly chronological. Each day is documented as the Russian forces tighten the noose. Those interviewed in earlier parts of the film appear later, sometimes as corpses. Death is a constant companion. You look for someone, even a friend, and find out they no longer exist. The film does a masterful job of communicating the randomness of death, the indiscriminate fury of modern weapons and the helplessness of those caught in war’s blood-soaked embrace. It isn’t war. But it comes as close as you can get.

#war #ukraine #russia #chris hedges #war ponography #fish

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e-louise-bates · 2 years

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I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this delightful interview (which really felt more like a conversation) with Ben Barnes and Samuel West, and I found their thoughts on kingship and Caspian's journey into his kingship especially profound. As my husband and I talked about it further, we realized that every time Aslan calls the children from this world into Narnia, it has to do with establishing a right kingship (and even The Horse and His Boy carries the same theme).

(I will be taking these in chronological order here, rather than publication, just because of some of the connections between The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe that make a bit more sense when one looks at it chronologically, even though my reading preference is always the published order.)

The Magician's Nephew: Not only do Digory and Polly literally, physically bring Narnia her first king, they also are the ones to fetch the apple which protects and nurtures the line of Frank and Helen.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: Here we see that Digory's sacrifice (obeying Aslan, not stealing the apple for himself) was sufficient to guard against the evil he had brought to Narnia for a time, but ultimately failed, needing Aslan to make the ultimate sacrifice to establish not the first king, but the High King, the King (under Aslan) who is above all the other kings and queens of Narnia, those who came before and after, and yet it was through the apple that the four children were able to come through to Narnia at all (the wood from the English descendant of the Narnian tree was what made up the wardrobe).

The Horse and His Boy: A more straightforward establishment of kingship, this time in Archenland rather than Narnia. Though Corin is a perfectly good prince and would have made a legitimate king had Cor been killed, as Cor still lived, so the kingship was meant to be his, and so Aslan (and the Pevensies!) brought about the restoration of the proper line (which also freed Corin to be the prince he was always meant to be!).

Prince Caspian: Again, fairly straightforward: A false king has arisen in Narnia, and the four children are brought back to establish the true line--one which remains unbroken after this until the end of Narnia itself. Here we clearly see Peter handing over his kingship to Caspian ("We haven't come to take your place, but rather to put you in it"), which would be another reason besides the age issue why he does not return to Narnia until the end--his role is complete.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: This one is not so obvious, and this is the one that was really mostly inspired by the above interview. Caspian's kingship has been established, yes, but he still doesn't know much about being a king, he hasn't really come into his own yet. It seems that Edmund and Lucy are sent to act as guides in a way, displaying for him the proper traits of kings and queens (Lucy's restoration of the Dufflepuds and her mostly-successful attempt at reconciling them with their status, Edmund being the receiver of Eustace's confession after Aslan un-dragons him, Edmund and Lucy, by virtue of not being Caspian's subjects, being able to correct him when he wishes to behave as a knight rather than a king at the world's end, etc), while still giving him room to grow into his own kingship rather than it being a pale imitation of Peter's.

The Silver Chair: As Caspian is on the verge of dying without a viable heir, Eustace and Jill are sent to find the heir and restore him to himself so that he may step into his role as rightful king, rather than the enslaved puppet-king the Green Witch would have him be.

The Last Battle: This one is not so much the establishment of the right king as it is assisting him to stand firm until the end--Tirian does not abrogate his kingship or give way to the lies and threats of the Ape and the invaders, and his true kingship is what allows many of the other Narnians to throw off the lies as well. Narnia still ends, but Tirian's kingship means that for the true Narnians, they ended well. And then, of course, they are all remade into kings and queens and all come under Aslan's direct kingship in the new garden, new Narnia, new world.

#cs lewis #the chronicles of narnia #ben barnes #samuel west #prince caspian #the voyage of the dawn treader #kingship #I highly recommend listening to the entire interview #it is a delight

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maistomedia-blog · 11 months

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WASTELAND | Ultimate MultiFandom (297 FANDOMS)

Fandoms Used:

007: NO TIME TO DIE

1917 (movie)

2012 (movie)

24 (show)

300 (movie)

47 Meters Down

47 Meters Down: Uncaged

65 (movie)

6ix9ine: Gine

6 Underground

Against The Current: ‘’good guy.’’

Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D

All American

All of Us Are Dead

A Long Way Down

Ambulance

American Horror Story

Andor

Ant-Man & The Wasp

Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania

Arrow

ARMY OF THE DEAD

Ash Vs Evil Dead

Aquaman

A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place Part 2

Avatar: The Last Airbender Movie

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Avengers: Endgame

Bad Omens: Artificial Suicide

Batman: The Dark Knight

Batman: The Dark Knight Rises

Batman Vs Superman

Battleship

Battle: Los Angeles

Barry

Better Call Saul

Black Adam

Black Knight

Black Mirror

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Black Summer

Black Widow

Blue Beetle

Birdbox

Break Even

Breaking Bad

Bullet Train

Bumblebee

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Live Action)

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

Call of Duty: Ghosts (Live Action)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II

Call of Duty: Warzone (Live Action)

Captain America: Civil War

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Captain Marvel

Captain Phillips

Cars

Cars 2

Cars 3

Cobra Kai

Colony

Creed

Creed II

Creed III

Crown The Empire: Blurry

Crown The Empire: Red Pills

DaBaby: Rockstar

Dahmer

Daredevil

Dark

Dawn of The Planet of The Apes

Dead by April: Wasteland

Deadpool

Dead Rising: Endgame

Death Stranding

Deepwater Horizon

Demon House

Destiny 2 (Live Action)

Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness

Devil in Ohio

El Camino

Escape Plan

Escape Plan: The Extractors

Escape The Fate: Ungrateful

Euphoria

Evil Dead Rise

Extraction 2

Fast & Furious 7

Fast & Furious 8

Fast & Furious 9

Fast & Furious 10

Falling in Reverse: Losing My Life

Falling in Reverse: The Drug In Me Is You (Reimagined)

Falling in Reverse: Voices In My Head

Falling in Reverse: Watch The World Burn

Falling in Reverse: Zombified

Fear The Walking Dead

From

FUBAR

Fury

Game of Thrones

Gemini Man

Ghosted

Ghost Rider

G.I. Joe: Retaliation

Godzilla: King of The Monsters

GRAN TURISMO

Guardians of The Galaxy 2

Guardians of The Galaxy 3

Halo 5

Halo Infinite

Halo Series

Hellbound

Hawaii Five-0

Halloween Kills

Halloween Ends

Hannibal

Happy Feet 2

Harry Potter & The Order of The Phoenix

Heroes

Heroes: Reborn

HIDDEN STRIKE

House of Cards

Hypnotic

Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull

Indiana Jones & The Dial of Destiny

Iron Man 3

Jennifer’s Body

Jessica Jones

John Wick 3

John Wick 4

Joker

Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez

Kong VS Godzilla

Last Light

Light As A Feather

Logan

LOST

Lucifer

Man of Steel

Manifest

Matty Mullins: Glory

Mayans

Mechanic: Resurrection

Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater

Miami Dolphins

Mission Impossible: Fallout

Mission Impossible: Dead Wreckoning Pt 1

Mob City

Moonfall

Morbius

Mortal Kombat 12

My Virtual Escape

Need For Speed

Nobody

Northern Rescue

No Way Out

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Orphan Black

Outer Banks

Outloved: Never Enough

Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim: Uprising

Paul Blart: Mall Cop

Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2

Peaky Blinders

Person of Interest

Pirates of The Caribbean: At World’s End

Power Rangers

Pretty Little Liars

Prison Break

Prey

San Andreas

Sons of Anarchy

Star Wars 3

Star Wars 5

Star Wars 8

Star Wars 9

Star Wars: Rogue One

Stranger Things

Rampage

Ready Player One

Reacher

Resident Evil: Afterlife

Resident Evil: Retribution

Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City

REVENGE

Revolution

Rise of The Planet of The Apes

Rocky

Rocky VI

Rogue

Saint X

Scream V

Scream VI

Sense8

Shang-Chi & The Legend of The 10 Rings

Sherlock

Silent Hill: Revelation

Skylines

Slender Man

Spider Man 3

Spider Man: Far From Home

Spider Man: No Way Home

Spiritbox: Circle With Me

Sonic the Movie

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Squid Game

Sucker Punch

Sully

Superman & Lois

Supernatural

T@GGED

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Out of The Shadows

Teen Wolf: The Movie

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The 100

The Amity Affliction: Like Love

The Batman

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, Watch & The Wardrobe

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of The Dawn Treader

The Equalizer 3

The Expendables

The Expendables 2

The Expendables 3

The Expendables 4

The First Purge

The Flash

The Forever Purge

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

The Hunger Games: The Mockingjay Pt 1

The Hunger Games: The Mockingjay Pt 2

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

The Incredible Hulk

The Last of Us

The Mandalorian

The Martian

The Marvels

The Matrix

The Meg

The Night Agent

The Preacher

The Punisher

The Purge: Anarchy

The Purge: Election Year

The Purge: TV Show

The Rain

The Revenant

The Society

The Suicide Squad

The Super Mario Bros

The Tomorrow People

The Vampire Diaries

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: World Beyond

The Walking Dead: Dead City

The Walking Dead: Summit

The Witcher

The Used: Over & Over Again

Til Death

Thor: Love & Thunder

Thor: Ragnarok

Thor: The Dark World

Tiger King

Tomb Raider

Transformers

Transformers: Age of Extinction

Transformers: Dark of The Moon

Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen

Transformers: Rise of The Beasts

Transformers: The Last Knight

Triple 9

Tron: Legacy

True Detective

Tua

Unbelievable

Under The Dome

UNHUMAN

Venom

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Wanda Vision

Wednesday

Westworld

Whiskey Cavalier

Wolves at The Gate: Peace That Starts The War

World War Z

Yellowjackets

X-Men: Apocalypse

Z-Nation

Zombieland

Zombieland 2

297 ^^

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kimberly40 · 1 year

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An Appalachian Legend- BigFoot: Imagine you’re deep in the woods when you spot a sudden movement through the trees. The animal—or whatever it is—is large and covered in dark fur. Is it a bear? You stand frozen in place waiting for the animal to move. Your heart pounds in your chest and you realize, jarringly, that the sounds of the forest have died. On the ground, there’s an imprint—like a human foot but much larger. Suddenly, you’re certain of what you saw, and it definitely wasn’t a black bear.

Known around the world as Sasquatch or Yeti, Bigfoot is an ape-like creature that conceals itself in the deep, dark forest, leaving behind footprints so large they could not belong to any man.

The tale of Bigfoot has been traced back to the European Wild Man, a mythical figure that had hair all over his body and lived like a beast. The Wild Man can be found in literature as early as the second century BC. Stories of Bigfoot also abound in Native American oral tradition, and the unexplained ape has been studied by scientists and scrutinized on the Internet.

Sightings of Bigfoot have been reported in the Northwest US dating back to the mid-1800s. The hairy ape-like creature has been described as being 6-9 feet tall with a strong unpleasant smell. Its enormous footprints are claimed to be as large as 24 inches long. The organizer of the Bigfoot Festival in Marion, NC, John Bruner, is a local expert on Bigfoot and chronicles sightings from across the country. In fact, there was a sighting by Lake James in 2017. He operates the North Carolina Bigfoot 911 Facebook group.

Learn about the Bigfoot Festival at https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/north-carolina/2021-bigfoot-festival/amp/

#appalachian #appalachian culture #appalachian mountains #north carolina #bigfoot #appalachian folklore

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kyndaris · 1 year

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To Keep Smiling

When the Nintendo Switch first released all those years ago, the game that saw me trade in my Wii U and upgrade was Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (though the first game I played on it was Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle). So, when Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was announced this year with a release date in September, I was eager to get my hands on the final installation to the trilogy that started with a blond boy and his red word and the distinct Britishisms that were rampant in the game.

The fact that it was ready earlier than expected was simply icing on the cake.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a continuation of the first two games, which, in the timeline of the games happened approximately at the same time but in two different worlds. Aionios, therefore, is the perfect blend of the two and this is represented in the opposing forces: Keves and Agnus.

What, somewhat, three me initially was that the game started with Noah, Eunie, Lanz and Joran all racing to the Queen’s anniversary. They push through a crowd of people before Noah stops, caught off guard by a strange phenomenon in the sky above the city they’re in.

From there, the game dovetails into a world where war has been ever-present. Initially, I explained that opening as part of the backstory for the characters. Perhaps that phenomenon witnessed by Noah was an attack by Agnus that was part of the cycle of hatred their people were embroiled in. And yet the more I played, the less my cobbled together explanation made sense.

Of course, after playing through so many hours, I’d basically forgotten those early moments - too enraptured in the current conflict Noah and his friends found themselves in as they fought to free themselves from a terrible system focused on the endless now. I mean, how messed up is it that Keves and Agnus force child soldiers into a war none of them quite understand - and where their lives are a mere ten years after birth? Sure, their bodies are in t heir mid-teens but no-one has any true understanding of modesty or romance or culture or art. Rather, the only thing they’ve ever known since coming out of the proverbial womb is fighting.

Nobody knows how the conflict ever started. But as every cycle sees friends die, trauma becomes an endless cycle of no end. The people of Keves and Agnus fight to survive and survive to fight another day.

But what struck me about Noah’s character from the first was how he viewed the opposing force - choosing to send them off if the Agnus offseer had been killed. Offseeing itself is very similar to the Sending from Final Fantasy X. Instead of a dance, however, offseers play music on a flute wherein motes of light representing the dead’s last wishes are able to move on. They are beautiful moments, filled with wonder but tinged with melancholy. It is a process that apes the grieving process and helps the people of the world move on. Something that those who have lost someone dear to them can understand and appreciate.

After the first few hours, I was soon introduced to Mio, Sena and Taion.

And just like that, I too had fallen for the Welsh catgirl (which might have been a thing in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 had I not played it on Japanese dub).

Sent on a mission to investigate a strange energy reading, our Keves heroes encounter their Agnian counterparts and immediately begin to fight. They are only interrupted by Guernica Vandham, the introduction of Moebius and the power of Ouroboros.

Thus begins the quest to save their world from needless suffering and to bring about a future that is not trapped in the endless now.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has an excellent premise. The base narrative was immersive and had me completely invested. Better yet, it was bolstered by the side stories and hero quests. And while many of the side quests were simple ‘Fetch x item’ or ‘Kill x number of y creatures,’ the framing for these jobs neatly tied into the grander narrative of living in a world when war is no longer on everyone’s mind.

And of course, I wrote about these themes in an earlier post because of how well they encapsulated the human condition and what it means to be ‘alive.’ Xenoblade Chronicles 3 more than any other game I’ve played in recent years was very much focused on asking those hard-hitting questions and making people face the reality of what it takes to continue in an unfair world. There were so many stories that I connected with and it was also so easy to sympathise with the motivations for many of the antagonists (even if I, at first, felt that they were comical jesters with the spotlights popping on at random intervals and their focus on spouting exposition when any true villain would have just killed our protagonists initially).

Joran and Shania and Crys and Irma...

Even though I know that many players hated Shania, as someone who has also experienced what it means to ‘never be good enough’ I can acknowledge that pain. With such high expectations, I can also see the appeal of wanting to restart my own life as if it were all a game - though I doubt I’d ever go to such extremes.

On a side note, there should have been more sapphic content. Alas, a missed opportunity...

But while the narrative shone bright, the combat was a little lacklustre in my opinion. There aren’t many changes from the last two titles and most battles, I could walk in blind-folded when playing on ‘normal.’ I’m sure that on higher difficulties, there would have been more of a need to rapidly switch between characters with better compositions, but well...I’m not one of those gamers.

Graphics-wise, the game is serviceable although I detected a significant downgrade when in handheld mode as opposed to keeping it docked. As for the music, they were most definitely some of the best pieces I’ve heard in a good long while - even if the Moebius theme was played for every single Moebius bar a couple. Given how big the game is, however, the game developers are forgiven for this transgression.

My one gripe, however, is that game developers need to stop creating such game worlds and keep it slightly smaller (and more manageable). As an ‘adult’ with a job, long commute times and other commitments, these games are such huge time sinks and their lengths can be more detrimental than helpful.

Overall, however, I have to say that I loved Xenoblade Chronicles with all my heart. And were I to perish tomorrow and look over my life, I’d know that this game, along with a few others, are ones that’ll bring a smile to my lips for a life well lived - my mark made on the world because of all the things I’ve done.

After all, it isn’t just important to live well - taking breaks along the way - it’s also important to die well as well (at least in the words of Ashera).

Happiness might be an impossible goal but contentment over our choices, even if there are a few regrets, and fighting for a better future are what we have been placed on this Earth to do. Let’s just hope Noah manages to reunite with his cute Welsh catgirl so that Eunie can be satisfied that they’re having babies.

#video games #xenoblade chronicles 3 #noah #sena is the girl with the gall #lanz wants something meatier #mio

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copper-dragon-in-disguise · 1 year

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Get to know me tag!

Tagged by @talesofsorrowandofruin! Thank you!

Three ships: Solangelo (percy jackson & the olympians); wesper (six of crows); & Ineffable Husbands (good omens)

Last Song I Listened To: "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid on Broadway soundtrack & "Zombie" by The Cranberries

Last Movie I Watched: hell if I know, I've just come off a tech week + three shows and have an ap test in a little less than four days

Currently Watching: the Crash Courseq World History (with John Green!) playlist on YouTube

Currently Consuming: air, I suppose

Currently Craving: *groans like a zombie looking for brains* sleeeeeepppppp (and free time. I'd love some free time)

Currently Working On: Enna's backstory/prequel to Frost & fire, in which I try to make 2 years of a DND campaign fit into a book in a format that makes sense and has consistency in narrative & plot.

Currently Reading: well, if you ask my best friend (hi, mar!) I'm meant to eh reading Ruin & Rising. If you ask my English teacher, then Fahrenheit 451. Last week I was rereading the Kane Chronicles and was on book 2. Other than that, I read some really good fanfic lately. There were explosions! And flower symbolism! (These were two different fics, tho they aren't all that mutually exclusive)

I have forgotten every single username I've ever known, except for @rains-inky-mind, so I'm just gonna tag you (with no pressure!!!) and leave an open tag so I can go to sleep

#get to know me tag #tag games

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dweemeister · 1 year

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The complete list of films featured on this blog’s 2023 “31 Days of Oscar” marathon

Hello everyone,

Thank you once more for allowing me to present the annual marathon of Oscar-nominated films to your dashboards. This year, the films were grouped by genre or subgenre in primetime (5 PM Pacific into the night). This is the most exclusive period on this blog, as the selection of films that I can post and queue about is at its most limited. But at the same time, the blog is at its most accessible as this yearly marathon’s selection skew to more popular fare. I hope you enjoyed this year’s presentation of 31 Days of Oscar.

What follows is the exhaustive list of all 380 short- and feature-length films featured on this blog over the last thirty-one days for the 31 Days of Oscar marathon. This is down from last year’s record of 420. But that count remains only a fraction of the 5,019 films that have been nominated for Academy Awards since 1927.

Of those 380, 37 were short films (53 short films is the record, which was set last year). 343 were feature films.

BREAKDOWN BY DECADE 1927-1929: 6 1930s: 52 1940s: 53 1950s: 50 1960s: 37 1970s: 31 1980s: 25 1990s: 25 2000s: 27 2010s: 31 2020s: 50

TOTAL: 380

Year with most representation (2022 excluded): 1940 (11 films) Median year: 1967

Time for the list. 62 Best Picture winners and the one (and only) winner for Unique and Artistic Production that I featured this year are in bold. Asterisked (*) films are films I haven’t seen in their entirety as of the publishing of this post. Films primarily not in the English language are accompanied with their nation(s) of origin.

The ten Best Picture nominees for the 95th Academy Awards, including the winner, Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

The fifteen nominees in the short film categories for the 95th Academy Awards

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

The African Queen (1951)

Aftersun (2022)*

Against All Odds (1984)*

Air Force One (1997)

Aladdin (1992)

All About My Mother (1999, Spain)*

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

All the President’s Men (1976)

American Graffiti (1973)

An American in Paris (1951)

The Americanization of Emily (1964)*

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Anna Christie (1930)*

Apollo 13 (1995)

Argentina, 1985 (2022, Argentina)

Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

The Artist (2011, France)

The Asphalt Jungle (1950)*

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)*

Auntie Mame (1958)

Avatar (2009)

Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life (1997)*

Balance (1989 short, West Germany)*

Bao (2018 short)

Barry Lyndon (1975)

Barton Fink (1991)*

The Battle of Midway (1942)

A Beautiful Mind (2001)

Becky Sharp (1935)*

Ben-Hur (1959)

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Bicycle Thieves (1948, Italy)

The Big Sick (2017)*

Black Narcissus (1947)

Blackboard Jungle (1955)

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Blazing Saddles (1974)

Block-Heads (1938)*

Blue Valentine (2010)*

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

Boyz n the Hood (1991)*

Breaker Morant (1980)*

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Brief Encounter (1945)

Brigadoon (1954)

The Broadway Melody (1929)

Buena Vista Social Club (1999, Germany/Cuba)*

Caged (1950)

Carol (2015)*

Casablanca (1942)

The Cat Concerto (1946 short)

Catch Me If You Can (2002)*

Chicago (2002)

Chico and Rita (2010, Spain)

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)

Cimarron (1931)

Cinema Paradiso (1988, Italy)

Cleopatra (1934)*

Close (2022, Belgium)*

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Coco (2017)

CODA (2021)

Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989)*

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Creed (2015)

Crimson Tide (1995)

Crip Camp (2020)*

Crossfire (1947)

The Crowd (1928)

The Dam Keeper (2014 short)

The Danish Poet (2006 short, Norway/Canada)*

Dark Victory (1939)

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

Days of Heaven (1978)*

Days of Wine and Roses (1962)

Dead Poets Society (1989)

The Deer Hunter (1978)

Dersu Uzala (1975, Soviet Union)

Designing Woman (1957)*

Dillinger (1945)*

Dirty Dancing (1987)*

The Divorcee (1930)*

Doctor Zhivago (1965)

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

The Doorway to Hell (1930)*

Double Indemnity (1944)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse (1947 short)

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Dumbo (1941)

The Earrings of Madame de... (1953, France)*

Easter Parade (1948)

Eat Drink Man Woman (1994, Taiwan)*

Educating Rita (1983)*

Elizabeth (1998)*

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)*

Encanto (2021)

EO (2022, Poland)*

Erin Brockovich (2000)*

The Fallen Sparrow (1943)*

A Few Good Men (1991)*

Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

Fire of Love (2022)

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953)

The Flame and the Arrow (1950)*

Flashdance (1983)*

Flowers and Trees (1932 short)

The Fog of War (2003)*

For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Foreign Correspondent (1940)

42nd Street (1933)

The 400 Blows (1959, France)

A Free Soul (1931)*

The French Connection (1971)

From Here to Eternity (1953)

Frozen (2013)

Fury (1936)

Gangs of New York (2002)*

Gaslight (1944)

The Gay Divorcee (1934)

Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950 short)*

Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)*

Get Out (2017)

Gigi (1958)

Glass Onion (2022)

The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather Part II (1974)

Going My Way (1944)

Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

Gold Diggers of 1937 (1937)*

Gone with the Wind (1939)

The Goodbye Girl (1977)*

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)

A Grand Day Out (1989 short)*

Grand Hotel (1932)

Grand Illusion (1937, France)

The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

The Great Dictator (1940)

Great Expectations (1946)*

The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)

Gulliver’s Travels (1939)

Hamlet (1996)

Heaven Can Wait (1943)

Heaven’s Gate (1980)*

Here Comes the Navy (1934)*

High Noon (1952)

Hoop Dreams (1994)

Howl’s Moving Castle (2004, Japan)

Hud (1963)*

The Hurt Locker (2008)

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)

Imitation of Life (1959)

In Cold Blood (1967)

In the Heat of the Night (1967)

Incendies (2010, Canada)*

Independence Day (1996)

Inside Out (2015)

Into the Woods (2014)

The Irishman (2019)

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)*

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

Juno (2007)

The Killers (1946)

The King’s Speech (2010)

Kiss Me Kate (1953)*

Knives Out (2019)

Kung Fu Panda (2008)

La La Land (2016)

Lady Bird (2017)

The Lady Eve (1941)

Lady for a Day (1933)*

Lagaan (2001, India)*

The Last Command (1928)*

The Last Emperor (1987)

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)*

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)*

The Leopard (1963, Italy)

The Letter (1940)

Libeled Lady (1936)*

Licorice Pizza (2021)

Life with Father (1947)

Lincoln (2012)

Little Caesar (1931)

Little Johnny Jet (1953 short)*

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

A Little Romance (1979)

Little Women (1933)*

Living (2022)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

Lost in Translation (2003)*

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

Magnificent Obsession (1954)

Malcolm X (1992)

A Man for All Seasons (1966)

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

The Man with the Golden Arm (1956)

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2022)

Marty (1955)

Mary Poppins (1964)

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)*

The Matrix (1999)

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)*

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Mighty Joe Young (1949)

A Mighty Wind (2003)

Mildred Pierce (1945)

Minari (2020)

The Mission (1986)*

Mon Oncle (1958, France)

Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953, France)

A Morning Stroll (2011 short)

Moonraker (1979)

Moonstruck (1987)*

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

Mrs. Miniver (1942)

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)*

The Music Man (1962)

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

My Favorite Wife (1940)

My Life as a Dog (1985, Sweden)

Network (1976)

Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)*

The Night Before Christmas (1941 short)

Night Must Fall (1937)*

Nightmare Alley (1947)

Ninotchka (1939)

Now Hear This (1962 short)*

Now, Voyager (1942)

The Nun’s Story (1959)

Oliver! (1968)

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

One Night in Miami... (2020)*

One Way Passage (1932)*

Our Town (1940)

The Ox-Bow Incident (1941)

The Paper Chase (1973)

Patton (1970)

Peace on Earth (1939 short)

Peyton Place (1957)*

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

Pillow Talk (1959)

Pretty Woman (1990)*

The Pride of the Yankees (1942)

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)

Prisoners (2013)*

The Producers (1967)

Psycho (1960)

The Public Enemy (1931)

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

The Queen of Basketball (2021 short)

The Quiet Girl (2022, Ireland)

Quo Vadis (1951)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Raintree County (1955)*

Ran (1985, Japan)

Random Harvest (1942)

Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

Rebecca (1940)

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Robin Hood (1973)

Robinson Crusoe (1952)*

Rocky (1976)

Royal Wedding (1951)

RRR (2022, India)*

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Schindler’s List (1993)

The Sea Beast (2022)

The Sea Hawk (1940)

The Sea Wolf (1941)*

The Secret of Kells (2009)

The Shape of Water (2017)

Shaft (1971)

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

She Done Him Wrong (1933)*

Ship of Fools (1965)*

The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)

Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

The Sky’s the Limit (1943)*

Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

The Snowman (1982 short)*

Some Like It Hot (1959)

The Sound of Music (1965)

Spartacus (1960)

Spotlight (2015)

Stagecoach (1939)

Stand by Me (1986)

A Star is Born (1937)

Stella Dallas (1937)

The Sting (1973)

The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)*

The Story of Three Loves (1953)*

La Strada (1954, Italy)

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

Strike Up the Band (1940)

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

Swing Time (1936)

The Sword in the Stone (1963)

Superman (1941 short)

The Tale of Cinderella Penguin (1981 short)*

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013, Japan)

Tango, no me dejes nunca (1998, Argentina)*

Teacher’s Pet (1958)*

Tess (1979)*

That Obscure Object of Desire (1977, Spain)*

That Uncertain Feeling (1941)*

The Thin Man (1934)

The Third Man (1949)

Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)*

Three Colors: Red (1994, Poland)

Three Little Pigs (1933 short)

The Time Machine (1960)

The Tin Drum (1979, West Germany)*

Titanic (1997)

To Catch a Thief (1955)

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Tom Jones (1963)

Top Gun (1986)

The Tortoise and the Hare (1934 short)

Travels with My Aunt (1972)*

The Triplets of Belleville (2003, France)*

True Grit (1969)

True Grit (2010)

Tsotsi (2005, South Africa)*

Twelve Angry Men (1957)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Turning Red (2022)

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964, France)

Vertigo (1958)

Victory Through Air Power (1943)*

Wait Until Dark (1967)*

War and Peace (1966, Soviet Union)*

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

The Way We Were (1973)*

West Side Story (2021)

The Westerner (1940)

The Whale (2022)

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

What Price Hollywood? (1932)

When Worlds Collide (1951)

White Heat (1949)

White Shadows in the South Seas (1928)*

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

The Windshield Wiper (2021 short)

Wings (1927)

Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968 short)

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Woman in the Dunes (1964, Japan)*

Wuthering Heights (1939)*

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)*

You Can’t Take It with You (1938)

Young Bess (1953)*

#31 Days of Oscar

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houseforwhores · 2 years

Text

.•°*”˜ 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 ˜”*°•.

shows i’m currently watching

1. house (s6)

my favorite shows

1. supernatural

2. house

3. stranger things

4. 911

5. moon knight

6. the boys

7. z nation

8. the walking dead

9. degrassi

10. bones

childhood go-to’s

1. gravity falls

2. best fiends

3. my babysitter’s a vampire

4. wolf blood

5. the amazing world of gumball

6. adventure time

7. regular show

8. chowder

9. the adventures of flap-jack

10. hey arnold

my favorite movies (i know they’re corny, but that’s what i love ❣️)

horror

1. scream (1996)

2. nightmare on elm

3. halloween

4. the ring (2002)

5. fear street

heist

1. triple frontier (current fixation! , benny & will 😩🤭)

2. the vault

3. tower heist

4. set it off

5. national treasure

action/thriller

1. the maze runner

2. the grey man

3. chronicle

4. legion

5. nerve

romance

1. lol

2. warm bodies

3. barefoot

4. everything everything

5. twilight

natural disaster

1. don’t look up

2. san andreas

3. the hurricane heist

4. hours

5. poseidon

dystopian

1. planet of the apes

2. what happened to monday

3. after earth

4. the 5th wave

5. red dawn

my favorite animes

1. angels of death

2. maid sama

3. death note

4. erased

5. tokyo ghoul

this list may get a lot longer!🫶🏾

#tv shows #tv recommendations #show recommendations #movie recommendation #anime recommendation

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balanceoflightanddark · 1 year

Text

The Lost World's Heart of Darkness

In 1899, Joseph Conrad would write the short story Heart of Darkness, a tale about a steamer traveling up the Congo River picking up shipments of ivory all along the way. Needless to say, it's a pretty grim story, a charged anti-colonial message about the depravities of the Congo Free State, which only gets worse the further you go up the river. That as you get further from civilization, you realize just how bad humanity can truly be.

In many ways, you could consider it to be Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 classic The Lost World to be a different take on that. Instead of man's cruelty though, it's more about their place in nature. Both novels could certainly fall in the pro-colonialist adventure novels that were popular during the time. European explorers venturing into an untamed wilderness, discovering lost riches and conquering various hazards along the way. And indeed, The Lost World does fall into that category a bit. It's about a British explorer named Professor Challenger braving the Amazon to find a plateau where dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts still exist. Their adventures are chronicled by Edward Malone who along with describing the various beasts they encounter, also reports of a war between two tribes of people (one more human and one more ape).

Naturally being from 1912, it has a lot of...uncomfortable implications about colonialism. In particular having unflattering portrayals of the natives and characterizing the dinosaurs as being brutish monsters. But at the time the novel was a smash hit that eventually got turned into a feature length film with the same plot in 1925.

While the film does still have a few problematic elements to it though (there is a case of blackface), it also features a much...different take on the story. Here, the focus is solely on the dinosaurs (animated beautifully via stop-motion by Willis O'Brian), with the only native being a single ape-man. The critical plot point of Challenger bringing back a young pterosaur to civilization was changed to him capturing a Brontosaurus for a more thrilling climax when the sauropod inevitably escapes.

It's also here where we get that shift in attitude I was talking about. In the novel, the explorers were able to mostly gun their way through the jungle, including dealing with the dinosaurs by pumping them full of lead, and being able to put down the ape tribe by allying themselves with the natives. Effectively, the conquering hero triumphant against nature.

Here though, it's a bit different. The power dynamic is shifted. Gunning down the dinosaurs isn't an option when you're separated from civilization and need to ration ammo carefully. Man is treated less as conquering, but more surviving, hiding out in caves instead of being the ruler. The only dinosaur they're able to fend off is an Allosaurus, but even only barely. And while they do make preparations for another dinosaur attack, there's no guarantee that it's going to work, and it's powerless in the face of a volcanic eruption that nearly kills them all.

Here in the most primeval part of South America, man isn't ruler. He's prey. Heart of Darkness was all about exploring just how cruel man was. The 1925 Lost World was about exploring just how small man was. A reminder of a time when man wasn't the dominate species.

And ultimately, that's a lesson Challenger (Wallace Beery) learns the hard way in the climax, where the Brontosaurus tears through London while the would-be heroes can only look on hopelessly. They brought it to civilization to prove their theory and return as brave conquerors. Only to bring something they can't control and now have to pay the price for it. The colonials meeting their match essentially.

This is something that is a running subplot with Edward Malone (Lloyd Hughes). The only reason he went on the trip was because his would be fiancé wanted a hero for a husband. Only when he returns, he finds out she just found another man since she thought he wouldn't come back. He does marry another girl he fell in love with on the journey, but his zeal for glory was for nothing in the end.

On another interesting note, the dinosaurs (while not being the brightest) are portrayed with some sympathy. There's a scene of a Triceratops protecting and caring for her young way before the idea of parental care in dinosaurs became mainstream. And the Brontosaurus isn't actually killed like it normally would in these sorts of movies. It just falls through the London Bridge...and is able to swim to safety. The last shot of the film is the Bronto swimming away (presumably back home) peacefully while Challenger looks on. While they can be certainly violent, the fact is that they're still portrayed as animals and ultimately it was humans that brought the Bronto to civilization and put everyone in danger.

While it may have been unintentional, The Lost World (at least the 1925 version) did tap into that sort of anti-colonialism sentiment that was beginning to crop up at the time in a similar vein to Heart of Darkness (though not to the same extent). That ultimately it was the arrogance of Europeans that brought death and destruction in their attempts to conquer the "uncivilized" world. Something that would later be repeated and explored even further in the 1933 classic King Kong (another film where Willis O'Brian did the special effects), which follows a similar premise.

#the lost world #the lost world 1925 #dinosaur #dinosaurs #paleomedia #dinosaur movies #colonialism #the lost world 1912 #willis o'brien

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