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#also i don't want to be nitpicky or anything
antiqua-lugar · 5 months
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I think that what is bothering me the most about Gale's Waterdeep VS Baldur's Gate romance epilogue is that I am an immigrant born of immigrants, most of my friends are immigrants, I just turned thirty, the idea that two grown ass men can't have an actual conversation about where to live is insane to me.
Like yeah, it's a game mechanic, that's what headcanons and fanfictions are for, blah blah blah but like. Besties. The whole game establishes that Waterdeep deeply matters to Gale and Baldur's Gate can deeply matter to your PC as a Baldurian.
So why are we half assing this very important life decision based on what I said five minutes after fighting a netherbrain as one of my best friends run away in the shadow, the other flew away on a dragon to save her people, two other just went to Hell and I barely recovered emotionally from my boyfriend insisting he should blow himself up. Also did I mention we just fought a netherbrain and then we fell from the fucking sky.
#antiqua plays bg3#like I know some of it is gale being gale where he is like truly you love me like no other but deep down I still believe I don't deserve yo#so I don't wanna risk it#but like he did previous to patch 5#like i know there are things the game can't account for issues like the fact that apparently waterdeep has like zero tieflings#and if there is anything this game has thaught me is that community is important especially because tieflings' lives suck even in bg#but they tie his baldur's gate ending specifically to you saying that you wanna rebuild baldur's gate and then six months#then six months later gale has single handledy fixed all the upper city and he even made it better#so like just throw a line in about how once recostruction is mostly done they can just move to waterdeep#like if you want to make where to live such a big deal to a character then keep it consistent#idk#ugh#i think this is just nitpicky because this line of thinking is insane to me#like I googled it it's 800km between waterdeep and baldur's gate#that's. that's doable.#like#this annoys me so much and it's very nitpicky but it is very annoying#like his baldurian ending is still sweet and connects to some other aspects of gale as a charcter#but I am still like.#also apparently that ending counts as an adventurer ending...? girl what adventures#it's all refugee work and reconstruction#yeah I had this great adventure of getting corpses out of rubbles and round up some brand new orphans#oh boy was that fun
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bunn-iiii · 5 months
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"You can have sensory issues and still dress however you want!" yes true, some people with sensory issues may not have difficulties with certain fabrics as much as other sensory input which leads to being able to wear most anything they want. but not all people with sensory issue can just wear anything, I have a specific kind of fabric for pants and it has to also be a certain percent since most of the time it comes in mixes and if it isn'tthat or sweat pants i want to cry. I can't wear leggings, I can't wear jeans or just denim in general, I can't wear things that are too stiff or I'll feel like I'm trapped, I can't wear shirts that are too tight cause I'll feel trapped, I can't wear long sleeve shirts because they're often too tight, I can't wear low socks they have to be mid calf or higher, silk feel slimy, and most fabrics are too itchy. but yes uh huh i can still wear anything and this totally does not heavily restrict what I can wear (or at least what I can wear for very long). I can definitely dress in the emo style for a long time and be wear tight skinny jeans and tight shirts and too many belts.
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delicatebluebirdruins · 5 months
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https://www.tumblr.com/delicatebluebirdruins/735327686108561408/whistling
Your comments were disabled for this post, but I just couldn’t let this go. I’m fascinated by this. RE3R was made by an out-of-house team, while RE2R was in-house. The two teams were largely disconnected from each other, only coming together to ask questions about the game engine. Where did your information come from? Was it actually listed in the credits? And if so, I wonder how the two games could be so widely different from each other then. I know RE2R cut some content, but it wasn’t nearly on the same level as RE3R.
1 i rarely remember how to disable post things so i have no idea what happened there sorry
2 RE2R and RE3R were developed by different teams at the same time as you said chatting to keep their timelines as straight as possible (with the RE2R's team decision to leave it up in the air with who got to RPD first and how similar the campaigns ran like Birkin and Annette dying twice further confusing things with Marvins knife in re4r)
3 with the cut content the makers of the game themselves (quite a few working on the orginal Nemesis including the main director Kiyohiko Sakata making his debut for RE3R) wanted to make it streamlined to make it a straight run through bascially keeping the ongoing main story points and being cut throat with other things (those things were probably going to end up as DLC because Carlos did pick up a extra pouch during the siege, Tyrell did get into trouble by someting other than zombies considering how he looked when he got to the hospital and something broke that wall in the RPD, and you cannot tell me were not going to get a Marvin DLC somewhere in there and I almost forgot Nicholai how did he get off the train? how did he get to the courtyard in time to see Jills battle with Nemesis where was he in proximity to see that fight and Nemesis infecting her.)
(yeah RE3R is slightly more action orientated then 2 its almost as if she's a trained veteran part of an elite team or anything)
my only thought when reading that silly comment was oh yeah like this guy who actually fucking worked on RE3R and then went on to RE4R
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there is not a lot of information about M Two studios but here is one thing https://www.gamesindustry.biz/tatsuya-minami-reportedly-starts-new-capcom-backed-studio-m-two-inc
"So RE2 started [development] first," said Fabiano in a recent GameSpot interview. "But one thing to clarify is that when we decided it was the right time to work on that game, we knew that we wanted to remake RE3 as well because it would essentially tie up the trilogy. We had already brought back the RE1 Remake with the remaster, and we were working on RE2, so we knew we wanted to have RE3, too. So it's not like it just came out after one year RE2 was done, and then suddenly you had RE3. It was planned."
he commented further: "But just to be clear, they didn't start development at the same time."
Simultaneous development should come as no surprise to those familiar with the industry's creative pipeline process. Fabiano explained that RE3 was in active development for three years, and had some overlap with RE2's development. In fact, what the RE2 team was doing with Mr. X helped inform the RE3 team's work on Nemesis, the towering tyrant-like pursuer pursuing Jill in that game.
"We saw what [the RE2 team] were doing with Mr. X, and he kind of upped the ante in their reimagined version of that game," said Fabiano. "And so when the RE3 director saw that, he was like, 'Okay, well I need to take Nemesis to the next level.' And I think that comes out in what players will see."
[if Nemesis was exactly like the Tyrant in RE2R people would be bitching because Nemesis in the remake is a cat he is toying with us he can come into small rooms like the safe room where you get the bolt cutters]
I think i shared this article before but here it is again for this quote
Fabiano: We had members of the original team working on the game so they were extremely excited to completely rebuild their vision for what Raccoon City should look like, as well as being able to tell a fully fleshed out narrative with today’s technology. We were also pleased to be able to tie the stories of Resident Evil 2 and 3 together more than in the originals. It’s always a challenge to figure out what to include and what to change or adapt but we’re happy that we were able to stay on target and realize our vision. (this particular interview was June 1st 2020 and its Peter Fabiano announcing RE3R and I suppose by default RE2R are finished projects)
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sidsinning · 1 year
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UNNECESSARY AND UNHINGED RANT ABOUT CINDERELLA'S CHARACTER FROM CINDERELLA (2015) INCOMING
Lemme talk about Cinderella from Cinderella (2015) for a bit actually yeah because these changes to my girl completely baffle me
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She has friends now
Goes outside on her own
Says the only reason why she's staying is because it's her parent's house- bruh.
All of this takes away (+ more reasons down the cut) from the true cruelty of OG!Cinderella's backstory and how it all connects so well to inform you of her character and the actions she takes
OG!Cinderella has been indoctrinated into accepting her life as a maid to her step family since she was a small child. She is never seen going outside of the house besides the night at the ball. The only friends she had were random animals around her she couldn't even fully converse with. She had no other human perspective on her situation or how to get out of it. It makes sense why she's just taking her stepmother's tyranny while holding everything in because this isolation and neglect is all she knows. This is the entire limited scope of her world. A sad reality to many cases of abuse in real life.
And they just. Erased all of this for some. Reason???
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The night at the ball was a big deal because she literally NEVER gets to go out. This is the only time she interacts with the outside world aside from the ending. The impact of that was HUGE in the original movie. The new one just cheapened that imo by implying she goes out in town and talks to others regularly. This event was an impossible, fantastical dream come true to someone who is never treated as anything but a servant to everyone she knows.
Basically OG!Cinderella has it way worse which is what makes the ball such a huge deal in the first place.
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Third point I don't think I need to explain how Cinderella staying in her abusive home bc the house is "hers to love now that her parents are dead" is not a good character change and doesn't make sense. I would understand if her dad was alive and insisting on staying, but he is GONE. It is a building you grew up in sure, but that's all it is. Not something you sacrifice your wellbeing for. So that's a shit reason they didn't need to make up to say why this character is stuck in her abusive household. The isolation and years of gaslighting were enough. (Also showing how much of a frightening presence and manipulative villain Lady Tremaine is.)
And she sure left it quick after getting hitched lol
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The Fairy Godmother having the audacity to test Cinderella with that "oh I'm a poor old woman and I want some milk please" nonsense
Not very godmotherly of her in this version. 🥴 The Fairy Godmother appeared in the original to offer pure comfort to Cinderella in a time of desperate need, when this resilient and kind spirit finally reached her breaking point. The dress, slippers, pumpkin carriage, and magic were all given freely as a present to make her feel better at least for one night.
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Meanwhile this goofy ass Godmother has the audacity to be like "hey is she gonna be nice or not even though she's crying in tattered, recently destroyed clothing- I need to see that or else she doesn't get the magic juice". Like why did this become a way to test her morality all of a sudden? Why did you need something from her to give up the magic goods?? It's not even a good test she just walked a couple steps and poured some milk in a bowl,,,
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Idk man they made their relationship transactional for no reason which taints the original purpose of this scene imo. The original Fairy Godmother already KNEW Cinderella was kind without having to make sure by disguising herself as a rancid old lady. 😭 Weird and unnecessary addition.
Kinda nitpicky here but this film did not at all match the terror of the torn dress scene which really shows you how horrifying and humiliating it was to Cinderella
Comparison
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AND THE BIGGEST OFFENDER: THE WAY SHE "ESCAPED".
I NEED TO TAKE A BREATH
BECAUSE LIKE. WHAT WAS THAT.
Original Cinderella, seeing a real chance of escape from her abuse, uses everything in her possession to do so. She's yelling for the mice to get the key, to get Bruno to chase away the cat, running down to meet the prince's attendants to make sure they get the proof of her identity from her- and that moment she oh-so-casually pulled out the second slipper??? SEEING HER STEPMOTHER'S SLACKED JAW??? GAGGED US ALL.
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ICONIC
But 2015. Bitch. What is going on. She gets locked up and easily accepts her doom. She just twirls and sings in her prison like a dunce because cINDerELLa wAs aLReADy cONTenT wIth her sMaLL mOMEnts oF hAPPIneSs anD dREamS wItH thE pRinCE.
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Just. Gives up.
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Not the mice begging her to get up and save herself come on now
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The mice have to do their best on their own to push open her window so the prince and his crew hear her on time.
And yeah, all she had to do was open a window.
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WHAT. WHY. HOW. WAS THIS??? MORE EMPOWERING???
1950: use your brain to fight to the very end
2015: quit while you're still ahead, or don't try you just gotta dance and sing all pretty then someone will come along and save you
I'm sorry, but for a production that was so critical of the notion of "Cinderella just waited around for a prince to save her"...is that not literally what they changed the ending to?
You wanna talk about lack of agency in princess stories well here you go 😭
You know what's sad about all this in the end is this is still the best recent live action Disney remake imo LOL
Anyways hello if you've made it all the way down here I rest my case
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Big Train managers earn bonuses for greenlighting unsafe cars
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Tomorrow (November 16) I'll be in Stratford, Ontario, appearing onstage with Vass Bednar as part of the CBC IDEAS Festival. I'm also doing an afternoon session for middle-schoolers at the Stratford Public Library.
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Almost no one knows this, but last June, a 90-car train got away from its crew in Hernando, MS, rolling three miles through two public crossings, a ghost train that included 47 potentially explosive propane cars. The "bomb train" neither crashed nor derailed, which meant that Grenada Railroad/Gulf & Atantic didn't have to report it.
This is just one of many terrifying near-misses that are increasingly common in America's hyper-concentrated, private equity-dominated rail sector, where unsafe practices dominate and whistleblowers face brutal retaliation for coming forward to regulators.
These unsafe practices – and the corporate policies that deliberately gave rise to them – are documented in terrifying, eye-watering detail in a deeply reported Propublica story by Topher Sanders, Jessica Lussenhop,Dan Schwartz, Danelle Morton and Gabriel L Sandoval:
https://www.propublica.org/article/railroad-safety-union-pacific-csx-bnsf-trains-freight
It's a tale of depraved indifference to public safety, backstopped by worker intimidation. The reporting is centered on railyard maintenance inspectors, who are charged with writing up "bad orders" to prevent unsafe railcars from shipping out. As private equity firms consolidated rail into an ever-dwindling number of companies, these workers face supervisors who are increasingly hostile to these bad orders.
It got so alarming that some staffers started carrying hidden digital recorders, so they could capture audio of their bosses illegally ordering them to greenlight railcars that were too unsafe for use. The article features direct – and alarming – quotes, like supervisor Andrew Letcher, boss of the maintenance crews at Union Pacific's Kansas City yard saying, "If I was an inspector on a train I would probably let some of that nitpicky shit go."
Letcher – and fellow managers for other Tier 1 railroads quoted in the piece – aren't innately hostile to public safety. They are quite frank about why they want inspectors to "let that nitpicky shit go." As Letcher explains, "The first thing that I’m getting questioned about right now, every day, is why we’re over 200 bad orders and what we’re doing to get them down."
In other words, corporate rail owners have ordered their supervisors to reduce the amount of maintenance outages on the rail lines, but have not given them additional preventative maintenance budgets or crew. These supervisors warn their employees that high numbers of bad orders could cost them their jobs, even lead to the shutdown of the car shops where inspectors are prone to pulling dangerous cars out of service.
It's a ruthless form of winnowing. Gresham's Law holds that "bad money drives out good" – in an economy where counterfeit money circulates, people preferentially spend their fake money to get it out of their hands, until all the money in circulation is funny money. This is the rail safety equivalent: simply fire everyone who reports unsafe conditions and all your railcars will be deemed safe, with the worst railcars shipped out first. A market for lemons – except these aren't balky used sedans, they're unsafe railcars full of toxic chemicals or explosive propane.
When cataclysmic rail disasters occur – like this year's East Palestine derailment – the rail industry reassures us that this is an isolated incident, pointing to the system's excellent overall safety record. But that record is a mirage, because the near-misses don't have to be reported. Those near-misses are coming more frequently, as the culture of profit over safety incurs a mounting maintenance debt, filling America's rails with potential "bomb cars."
Rail mergers and other forms of deregulated, anything-goes capitalism are justified by conservative economists who insist that "incentives matter," and that the profit motive provides the incentive to improve efficiency, leading to lower costs and better service. But the incentive to externalize risk, kick the can down the road, and capture regulators rarely concerns the "incentives matter" crowd.
Here's an incentive that matters. Rail managers' bonuses – as much as a fifth of their take home pay – are only paid if the trains they oversee run on time. Inspectors have recorded their managers admitting that they have quotas – a maximum number of bad orders their facility may produce, irrespective of how much unsafe rolling stock passes through the facility.
Inspectors have caught their managers removing repair order tags from cars they've flagged as unsafe. Inspectors will log orders in a database, only to have the record mysteriously deleted, or marked as serviced when no service has occurred. Some inspectors have seen the same cars in their yard with the same problems, and repeatedly flagged them without any maintenance being performed before they're shipped out again.
Former managers from Union Pacific, CSX and Norfolk Southern told Propublica that they operated in an environment where safety reports were discouraged, and that workers who filed these reports were viewed as "complainers." Workers furnished Propublica with recordings of rail managers berating them for reporting persistent unsafe conditions the Federal Railroad Administration. Other workers from BNSF said that they believed that their bosses were told when they called the company's "confidential" work-safety tipline, setting them up for retaliation by bosses who'd falsified safety reports.
Whistleblowers who seek justice at OSHA are stymied by long delays, and while switching their cases to court can win them cash settlements, these do not get recorded on the company's safety record, which allows the company to go on claiming to be a paragon of safety and prudence.
The culture of retaliation is pervasive, which explains how the 47-cars worth of propane on the "bomb train" that rolled unattended over three miles of track never made the news. There is a voluntary Close Call Reporting System (operated by NASA!) where rail companies can report these disasters. Not one of America's Class 1 rail companies participate in it.
After the East Palestine disaster, Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg pushed the rail companies to join, but a year later, none have. It's part of an overall pattern with Secretary Buttigieg, who has prodigious, far-reaching powers under USC40 Section 41712(a), which allow him to punish companies for "unfair and deceptive" practices or "unfair methods of competition":
https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge
Buttigieg can't simply hand down orders under 41712(a) – to wield this power, he must follow administrative procedures, conducting market studies, seeking comment, and proposing a rule. Other members of the Biden administration with similar powers, like FTC chair Lina Khan, arrived in office with a ranked-priority list of bad corporate conduct and immediately set about teeing up rules to give relief to the American public.
By contrast, Buttigieg's agency has done precious little to establish the evidentiary record to punish the worst American companies under its remit. His most-touted achievement was to fine five airlines for saving money by cancelling their flights and stranding their passengers. But of the five airlines affected by Buttigieg's order, four were not US companies. The sole affected US carrier was Spirit airlines, with 2% of the market. The Big Four US airlines – who have a much worse record than the ones that were fined – were not affected at all:
https://prospect.org/infrastructure/transportation/ftc-noncompete-airline-flight-cancellation-buttigieg/
Rather than directly regulating the US transportation sector, Buttigieg prefers exacting nonbinding promises from them (like the Tier 1 rail companies' broken promise to sign up to the Close Call Reporting System). Under his leadership, the Federal Railroad Agency has proposed weakening rail safety standards, rescinding an order to improve the braking systems on undermaintained, mile-long trains carrying potentially deadly freight:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/11/dinah-wont-you-blow/#ecp
The US transportation system is accumulating a terrifying safety debt, behind a veil of corporate secrecy. It badly demands direct regulation and close oversight.
If you are interested in rail safety, I strongly recommend this episode of Well There's Your Problem, "a podcast about engineering disasters, with slides" – you will laugh your head off and then never sleep again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BMQTdYXaH8
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/15/safety-third/#all-the-livelong-day
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black-lake · 2 months
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2nd house profection year
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it’s my 2nd house profection year and I’m noticing some changes in my life. < my 2nd house is in cancer for ref.
~༯ I’m eating more this year than ever tbh. like I started having comfort food!!! eating whatever I want whenever and not holding myself back as much, which is very unlike me btw. I have a virgo moon and I’m not just nitpicky but also strict with my diet, even tho I have a fast metabolism (aries stellium).
~༯ usually when I’m stressed I tend to starve myself or get over caffeinated but this year I’m leaning more towards eating for comfort < yes taurus core.
~༯ I started going to the gym again but I’d slack off and become uninterested and bored, then find it interesting again, but that could just be my gem rising.
~༯ It seems like life is more abundant. things come easier! there's less resistance. I’m able to slow down and smell the roses.. 𓇢𓆸  I even feel a bit too comfortable or stuck in my comfort zone. everything seems like it’s too much and I just want to enjoy life. ˖ ݁𖥔 ݁˖
~༯ I started buying flowers, planting flowers, decorating my house a lot more, got more perfumes, more beautiful things. currently as we speaking I have like 10 different types of flowers in my house. I started cooking more, I even made up recipes that my family liked and started making them regularly.
~༯ I’m taking care of my skin, my body, and overall health. I'm investing more in skincare and health supplements. though sometimes I overdue it, like get fixated on one thing or another.
~༯ I'm someone that used to have high energy, I'd pull an all nighter or just wake up at 3am scroll non stop or put music on, it wasn’t energy it was ⋆˙⟡ anxiety ⟡⋆˙ , but I'm having more quality sleep this year! I'm in bed by 10 and maybe I just got older, but there's that.
~༯ giving my hair a well deserved break!! I used do dye my hair very often, this year I got a short haircut and I’m growing my natural hair back, I’ve only added a few subtle highlights and I don’t style it as often. I'm embracing more simplicity with my style, though could be that my ass got lazy 𐙚(ᵕ̤ᴗᵕ̤)
~༯ I'm planing more, working on my skills and hobbies, but not rushing or forcing things and not setting high expectations either. I don't feel like there's a rush like before. my values are changing significantly, I know what I like and don’t like and what I can put up with.
~༯ don't get too comfortable and not do anything about moving forward bcz you will be tempted to. remember to still challenge yourself!
~༯ I’m having a relatively comfortable year it got me having flashbacks of my 12th house profection year which was a fckin nightmare. It was all about the subconscious, mental health struggles, depression and overcoming these things. It really was about coming up with personified methods that help me deal with these internal conflict so I can move forward. It also was the year I became more spiritual.
~༯ my 1st house profection year wasn’t good either for me personally, it was super challenging and chaotic. it had me doing things outside my comfort zone. e.g. throwing myself in the ocean (i'm afraid of drowning). my individuality was constantly tested, my determination, my willingness to put myself first and not compromise my own needs and values.
~༯ there were instances where I felt like I'm compromising for the sake of keeping a friendship, which wasn’t reciprocated. I learned to not be afraid to walk away from ppl and places that don’t respect or value me. my cut off game wasn't particularly bad before, but I felt blinded, manipulated and pressured that year, I had to fully trust myself and only rely on myself. very much aries themes. 
~༯ If you're going thRU it with your 12th or 1st house profection, know that it will teach you valuable lessons that lead you to know yourself and love yourself more. you will understand your triggers, your strengths, know who your enemies and true friends are. it gets better! this feels like the perfect year to take a break from all the past challenges that I went through, I'm able to slow down, enjoy life and reflect until I see where the next tides takes me. 
stay blessed, much luv <333
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familyagrestefanblog · 8 months
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Hot take: Toxinelle's design for the most part isnt as great as everyone makes it out to be, much less it being groundbreaking or the best emo design, since it's barely anything new at all:
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it's just her head that's amazingly designed and the fact that Ladybug's regular suit honestly couldn't set the bar any lower.
Griffe Noire on the other hand is actually punk through and through. Not giving a single shit what you think of his look and being the punkest bitch by even going with a feminine-coded name in the french original bc he doesn't care about your single-minded bs when you for some reason automatically think he MUST be female just because he has two "e"s in his name:
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One of these two got one hell of a save design where barely a single risk was taken so she remains universally pretty for every viewer
And the other one actually was allowed to embody a whole new fashion style and life style, that fits perfectly as an extension of his OG character, merely things went south.
In my opinion there is no competition who got the better character design.
It's the one that actually does something for the character besides looking pretty, cool and being inoffensively save.
I'll give you a hint: it ain't Toxinelle.
edit:
Just to clarify this, I'm not saying I fell out of love for Toxinelle's design to be a b*tch. I'm saying it from the stands of me wanting the show to put the same amount on effort into Marinette's designs as Adrien's.
Griffe Noire is allowed to be straight up punk and yet the most I can give Toxinelle is that her design is Gothic-INSPIRED:
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Again, her head is the most well designed part and especially the mask going underneath her chin, the amazing hair style and the conveniently fitting red-black color scheme works perfectly for Gothic.
As are her already incorporated gloves, the fact that she's wearing a mask in the first place and her dark makeup. Especially her vampire red eyes (like Monarque Bug, I love that detail) and I'll also give credit to how the upper red part of her body suit looks like a sleeveless dress and the little Ladybug symbol looking like a necklace.
All that combiened with her overall Gothic-elegance shows how AMAZING Toxinelle could have looked if they had for once taken an actual risk with her and prioritized what the fashion style is actually supposed to be over her looking universally pretty for every viewer.
I'm being nitpicky here because of how frustrating I find it that Griffe Noire has such a phenomenal character design, straight up one of the best in the show, and yet Marinette is still stuck with the same one-layer body suits a la "just this time the stripes go to the left"
Character design is not decided by if EVERYONE thinks they look great. The priority is what the character design does for the character. It's visual story telling.
I personally dress much more like Juleka or Emo Marinette in real life and yet in my opinion it's still crystal clear that Rose as Pigella has one of the best hero character designs because of how unapologetically ROSE it is:
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I personally don't have to want to wear it or even like it at all to think it's one of the best ones because of the simple fact that this design embodies Rose's PERSONALITY (as does her whole transformation) and tells me more about her.
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Especially in direct comparison with Griffe Noire, or even civilian emo Adrien probably wearing his dead mother's jacket while Adrien HAS TO keep dressing more low-key, Toxinelle barely tells me a thing about this Marinette's personality besides "slay Queen"
Because there IS no personality. The most you can get out of this is her being even more uptight and closed off because of how her collar directly blends into her mask, keeping her in a visual choke hold.
But that's mostly it. For Griffe Noire they explicitly went with punk fashion, meaning everything punk stands for can now be put into new context with Adrien.
But Toxinelle barely embodies a fashion style, she's just Gothic-INSPIRED (at most). And that's such a shame because Gothic, especially if you wanna use it in a darker way, was a PERFECT fashion style to utilize here.
The most common Gothic styles are inspired by Victorian funeral wear and give off an aura of authority, seriousness and melancholic detachment, being kept in the past (this is in no way meant as generalization, fashion is complex)
In what reality COULDN'T we have gone with that for Toxinelle? She would have been the perfect complimentary style for Griffe Noire by her side.
And we don't even need to go with a dress. Gothic women wear pants too:
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Can you imagine how amazing she could have looked as an actual goth? How much visual story telling through FASHION they could have put into her design when the evil Ladybug is a vampire goth whose fashion is inspired by funeral wear??
Yes, I AM pissed.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
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noddytheornithopod · 10 days
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Some more in-depth Tales of the Empire thoughts/questions
This is really nerdy and nitpicky of me to ask, but... what is Barriss' Inquisitor name? I can't help but wanna know. Then again, we don't know Marrok's name either, and also what the fuck up is with bird man (who until confirmed otherwise I'm treating as the the Sixth Brother being an edgelord dressing as a plague doctor, I will insist the only reason they aren't calling him Sixth Brother is because then the Lucasfilm Story Group would have to admit Tales of the Jedi overwrote published material in significant ways, and then they'd get more angry nerds than they already have to deal with, lol).
I do kind of wish we leaned a bit more into Barriss' established relationships a bit, Luminara Unduli is indirectly mentioned in the last short, and Barriss mentions having a "old friend" who would know more about the Imperials hunting after kids which I HAVE to imagine is Ahsoka... but we don't really explore these. Like, if she DID reconnect with Ahsoka, I kind of wish we got to see that? I do understand why Luminara didn't appear, with Barriss' characterisation I don't think she could've gone through with killing her if they had a test, but still. I don't know if we needed to see her react to her death, but part of me is curious about that anyway. I will say she seemed to sense something when Vader entered the room, though. Did she sense a familiar presence there? Also surprised they didn't even throw in a small nod to how the Grand Inquisitor became what he was because he heard Barriss' speech and that suddenly validated everything he thought already (if you follow the comics anyway). Not even a simple "pleased to see you as a candidate after your rousing speech" line (which was given to... see below). I wouldn't have called this necessary for the story itself, but I always found it annoying that we have to go off on so much of GI's backstory based on paratext instead of actual stories. Also, still don't know his original name even after a decade, RIP.
On a similar note, I'm not really sure how I feel about Lyn Rakish? Specifically, how her relationship was the central one to Barriss' here. I'm not opposed to Barriss knowing more people, it even helps make these characters' lives feel bigger, but I do kind of feel like there's stuff here that would be nice to know. Like, even when Lyn enters her cell, Barriss recognises her, and they way they interact throughout the shorts implies some kind of connection. Especially since...
...her stabbing Barriss was what made her snap out of being an Inquisitor. Okay, I'm not really sure how to feel about this. I love where Barriss ends up, but also... I'm not really sure how I feel about dying? If she's even dead? The scene was clearly mirroring the second short, where Barriss wanted to save that other Jedi, and nothing suggested that she never got to save her (I mean, she's known as "the healer" next short for crying out loud, also hey nice Legends callback), so even if Barriss looks far more dead, there is that part of me still in denial, lol. But thing is, it's kinda like they went "this is actually about Lyn, not Barriss". Sure, Barriss reclaimed her old self and her development was arguably "complete" in that sense, but that doesn't always have to mean death? Meanwhile, we only really get to know Lyn through these shorts, and while I'm very pro-villain redemption, I'm not sure if doing this through three shorts was enough to do it justice. So I'm kinda feeling like being asked to feel for a character finally returning to the light because she maybe killed her sorta protege while barely knowing anything about their actual relationship on a personal level is kinda eh.
That's something I felt in general. Maybe I'm just greedy, but I really wanted MORE of Barriss' story. Like, at least make it clear why Lyn is someone important in her life besides giving her a literal get out of jail card.
With Fortress Inquisitorius, I do think it's interesting they show it being built, but also not really alluding to how the headquarters is apparently on Coruscant, especially with Vader's throne and all. I don't think there's any real contradictions though, the Inquisitorius probably had several bases (I wonder if Stygeon Prime in Rebels was another?), and the main one just became Fortress Inquisitorius when Vader was given reign over the Mustafar System and therefore Nur, where FI is located.
Barriss' line about how she felt like she was lied to and deceived is actually pretty clever, because its placement is almost like an admission she was wrong. She's still clinging to the Inquisitorius by justifying it as "the Jedi failed because of their hubris, they deserved it, we're here to bring peace and order" but her heart was clearly never in it. Despite feeling like the Jedi betrayed their principles, she actually still followed them. In a way, I think it even kind of recontextualises the Temple Bombing, because it feels more like Barriss being panicked and desperate, basically having a breakdown. She did go to the Dark Side, but with the kind of person she is, those emotions aren't natural to her. We see she can certainly still go there, that other former Jedi basically saying "screw you, all for me" certainly evoked betrayal which would evoke those dark emotions, and of course she goes along with the Inquisitorius basically to survive, aka out of fear, and as mentioned justifying it to herself by saying this is justice for how the Jedi "fell" even if she's clearly hypocritical in that regard. We then see in the final short she's reconciled her past with the Jedi, talking fondly of her time as one, and regretting her turning to the Dark Side.
Huh, just noticed the Jedi is referred to with they/them pronouns.
Now for the other stuff
I don't have as much to say about Morgan, but I will say that Bo-Katan receiving the distress call kinda cleared up a contrivance in The Mandalorian for me. I was like "okay sure, even IF Bo-Katan still was in contact with Ahsoka, how would she know exactly where she is at this moment? what if she went off somewhere else?" But then this episode makes it clear Bo received the call, and thus would've figured out what was going on, and then actually tell Ahsoka to go to Corvus.
I hope the Eli Vanto fans are okay, especially since Pellaeon was shown as Thrawn's number 2 in the short. What I will say is - this was just a glimpse of one mission, this isn't retconning Eli out of existence. Thrawn and Eli wouldn't have been together on every single mission.
Morgan was the original person to pitch the TIE Defender? Huh, that is certainly a very random piece of lore. Also, surprised there's still Venator Star Destroyers instead of all Imperial Is at this point.
When Thrawn asks her the real reason she wants the Empire's favour and admits it's revenge, he accepts. He also shows interest in the Nightsisters even here. I do wonder if what made him receptive was he could kind of empathise on some level, if the threat of the Grysk made him open to Morgan's desire to avenge her sisters.
Mountain Clan appears in visual media, cool. Now people know there's even more witches on Dathomir. With the new lore about the Nightsisters, I do wonder if the other clans also have extragalactic origins in Peridea, or if they developed independently and it's specifically the Nightsister sect that was from there. Either way, it seems like the Nightsisters were the biggest and most powerful, apparently Talzin even united many witch clans. Also, I wonder if Morgan and her mother were originally from another clan but moved to the Nightsisters? Because obviously they look pretty different from the standard Nightsisters. Also was interesting to see the architecture resemble what we see in Jedi: Fallen Order, so that was cool.
Also thought it was a cool touch that the Separatists weren't done killing everyone on Dathomir. We only see the initial battle in one location in Massacre from The Clone Wars, but it does help make the genocide feel bigger, even showing that even other non-Nightsister clans weren't entirely safe. IDK if this makes the droid gunships appear earlier than implied to be their creation in TCW Season 5 (then again, chronologically the Dathomir and Onderon arcs are back to back), but also Grievous didn't have a cape in massacre, which is the REAL crime of this short. Hashtag remove his cape!!!!!!!!!!
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ozzgin · 4 months
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Dear Ozzgin,
Is your new addition to the repertoire, the yandere android, a Mixture of Experts like GPT-4.5, or something else entirely? Would his performance / 'humanness' degrade if he were talking to another machine (an inhuman one, not designed to be Spacer-ly human) for a long time?
Any random lorebits on Spacers you did not include but would have had you felt less constrained?
Hah, okay, I see you've gotten into the technical aspects. I'm about to go on a ramble so I'll do a cut here for everyone else to not clog your feeds. Feel free to read if you're into this kind of stuff. :D
First, I just wanted to point this out because I've read your hashtags and comment: the CCD sensors were a bit of an asspull because it's one thing I'm more knowledgeable about, but I don't feel like it'd be a realistic choice, if I am to be nitpicky. They're expensive to produce and are mostly used for really high performance work (telescopes), but a humanoid robot wouldn't need such advanced digital imaging for daily life use. So, you know, it's arguable whether or not there are better alternatives when it comes to a mass-produced agent processing the immediate environment.
Now to your actual question: I've used the machine learning approach because this is currently our most advanced way of developing AI, but it would not be enough to explain the Android's perfect understanding of human speech. ChatGPT analyzes sentences and their meaning purely based on grammar and associations, but there's many examples of it struggling against anything more intricate than literal context. So yeah, that kind of sarcastic dialogue and implied meaning is wishful thinking of times far away sadly. I'm only wildly guessing he wouldn't struggle with today's impediments. There's a black box somewhere in there that fills the gaps and variables we don't have.
If at some point you find yourself with time to spare, I'd recommend reading the book directly. It's very interesting to see how people viewed the "future" back then, and you will detect a lot of optimism regarding computers - such as Daneel (the original Android) being a flawless human. Funnily enough, the book was published shortly before the Dartmouth Conference, so Asimov was this close to discover that language recognition is, in fact, a terribly tangled business and not as simple as they had originally expected.
I think I covered the basics when it comes to Spacers, but then again I cannot tell how easy it is to follow for someone that isn't familiar with the original work. I also didn't want to reproduce every fact, mot a mot, from Caves of Steel, especially since this is less about politics and more about romance. I'd suspect the people reading the story are not too bothered by the only briefly mentioned murder. Cause is less important when the effect is a tall robot boy with a crush on you 👀 if you feel me.
Anyways, I'm very glad you like the story, every now and then I'll insert little facts and technical details - as it usually is when you study Physics and CS but have no friends in the field - so it's definitely nice to have someone recognize the stuff! :)
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sophieinwonderland · 5 months
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An Anti-Endo's Message for Willogenic Systems. Spoiler: Every Word is Wrong!
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Starting off with ableist accusations of delusions.
They also don't seem to understand that willogenic systems don't generally will themselves to develop DID.
Maybe they're thinking of transDID. 🤷‍♀️
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Accusations of DID faking stretch back a long time. Long before people started paying attention to endogenic and willogenic systems. And there's no evidence the existence of willogenic or endogenic systems has increased this.
In the infamous fakeclaiming McLean Hospital video, the people he used as examples from TikTok were mostly diagnosed traumagenic systems. In the incredibly flawed papers on "imitated DID," many of the case studies claimed to have trauma.
Also, I have it on good authority from many, many traumagenic DID systems that yes, DID systems can create alters.
Oh, and this gets even worse when you delve into the comments!
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Now, system isn't really a medical term, and definitely isn't strictly used for people with DID or OSDD.
See Internal Family Systems therapy, for instance.
And outside of that, it's been used in non-medical contexts by non-disordered systems for close to 30 years.
I covered this particular talking point more in my Syscourse Primer.
Aside from the general misinformation though, I also do want to draw attention to the general ableism of calling people you think are suffering from delusions "insane."
Something they double down on, while also saying willogenic systems need hospitalized.
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And they double down even further, saying that forced hospitalization is necessary for people.
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And I'll say that I don't completely disagree with this there being cases where it's necessary.
At least, I think there are some very, VERY extreme circumstances where people will need to be temporarily hospitalized, such as if they're an immediate danger to themselves or others. There may be no other choice. (Say, if someone has a delusion that they could fly and had plans to test it by jumping off of a roof to prove to people they could.)
Without any sort of immediate danger though, forced hospitalization is likely to do far more harm than good.
This should only be a LAST RESORT option
It's overused as it is. And guess what? The medical community doesn't just lock up anyone who has any sort of delusion!
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Not all delusions are harmful! Or, at least, not all delusions put someone at an immediate risk of causing harm to themselves or others.
And this is without touching on how "believing in something I don't like" isn't even a delusion.
At worst, the unfalsifiability of the claim puts this in the same realm as religion. You could just as easily apply this same logic to suggest anyone who feels the presence of God when they pray is delusional.
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Part of the reason this is sticky is... who determines who is of sound mind? What gives them the right to strip away an innocent person's rights?
Because like it or not, forced medical confinement is imprisonment without trial, when no laws have been broken. Even if there are extreme cases where this may be necessary, the standard for this needs to be a lot higher than it is now.
And notably, they're suggesting we need a lower standard where anyone with any sort of delusion, or anything they deem to be a delusion, should be forced into confinement.
That is completely unacceptable.
What's even more confusing though is that they seem to suggest in another comment that the thing that makes people "insane" is using the word "willogenic" instead of "tulpa."
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So it's not even wanting to lock people up for the belief they have people in their head...
But for calling them a word the OP doesn't want them to?
Imagine calling for people to have their rights stripped away and be forcefully confined because of disagreements over how a word is used!
...
And maybe this is getting nitpicky now...
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But no they didn't...
They later showed a picture of this, where a willogenic anon asked how to BUY headmates. But they did not mention selling any.
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The actual owner of that account, as far as I know, didn't identify as willogenic.
Oh, and they also posted another image as "proof" of this which didn't mention buying or selling headmates.
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Oh, wait! That one is mine!
@artistry-andfandom
What was this screenshot even supposed to prove? Why did you use my post as an example of buying and selling headmates???
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AITA for complaining about a teacher?
context before i start: the class i'm in takes up 3 hours of the day, and was the only reason i came to this school in the first place. it's an art school and is supposed to be somewhat serious—like, you have to apply to get in. but the 2 years i've been here we've had like 4 teachers (+ there have been even more before that) and none of them have been qualified for the job whatsoever
our newest teacher just got out of college and doesn't know what she's doing. she doesn't assign work that's actually creatively challenging, 1 hour of class time is usually dedicated to a really bad prompt and the rest of the time is independent work, it's barely an actual art class. she also never talks to the class and doesn't really have a clue what's going on ever. supposedly she has a degree but she just seems so. confused. the reason i'm still at this school is because i know people here who live upwards of 40 minutes away who i'm very close with + along with that i'm also autistic so any kind of drastic change would be hell. unfortunately leaving, though it would be the best option for me, is just not an option at all
anyway, we're already a quarter of the way through the year and people are still saying to cut her some slack because she's... new. which is kind of exactly what the issue is? i went through something similar to this last year because one of our previous teachers gave me really bad vibes and just didn't really work, so i complained about her to my classmates, and then i went to the administration about some issues i was having and she ended up quitting a few weeks after. people thought i got her fired on purpose. i was a little bit overly angry looking back so idk i can't blame them
anyway, i recently went to the admin about this new teacher (unlike last time, i tried to "give her grace" and hope for improvement, even though... idk... i just don't see it happening) but haven't really held back in complaining about her to my classmates too. most of the time people will say i'm being overly negative, or they don't want her to get fired, and honestly it's just fucking wild to me. they've also made comments about how she's not a good teacher! like everyone agrees that she's just not ready for this position and they're really sick of not being able to learn things! when i do complain though it's like i'm messing up some kind of social contract there is to just not do anything about the problem we're having and it's really confusing and frustrating
but at the same time i do wonder if this is me being overly critical and nitpicky of a situation that i shouldn't be. to me, because of aforementioned autism, i have a really strong sense of justice. this kind of stuff seriously bothers me and it upsets me that nobody else is as affected by the unfairness as i am?? idk. i just want the class to actually be worthwhile because the academics are really good
so AITA?
What are these acronyms?
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decepti-thots · 1 month
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I would like to hear about which characters would use which kind of fountain pen 👀
okay, so with the caveat that all of this is coming from me researching pens in my quest to become slightly a 'pen person' and not like. being one. (but also from the perspective of watching my friend talk extremely in-depth about this for many years, and cribbing from her, in my defense.)
here are some random character-pen matchups and headcanons bc why not!!
first off. minimus, obviously.
there's a few things i think about this: he's fundamentally conservative in his tastes i think (no wild experimental designs), someone who would not want to spend an Excessive amount of money but also someone who would definitely have a higher-end one quality wise, and he'd have really nitpicky taste about shit like quality control. with this in mind, the guides i read that were offering opinions on higher-end 'beginner pens' consistently brought up the Pilot Custom 74, which is like, the platonic ideal of just a functional good quality Fountain Pen TM:
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look at it. that sure is a ~£190 fountain pen! it's classic, functional, a solid 'name', expensive enough i feel like a person who grew up well off would be like 'oh this is my everyday pen' and i would be sort of like 'the fuck that costs half my rent'. lmao. but not like, someone splashing out a thousand quid or more expensive, yknow. he's probably had this same pen for like. the equivalent of twenty years or more. i'm sure he has more than one but this is his 'workhorse'.
here's another one i immediately am like 'oh i know what to pick' about. this one less in terms of specifically 'this character would use it' and more like 'this character reminds me of this pen'. it's rewind! and the pen is a Tombow Zoom 828fp because. well. look at this.
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MINI PEN. CHIBI LITTLE FOUNTAIN PEN. there's apparently a chinese pen that is a lot cheaper you can get of this little chonker's basic design, and i'm very, very seriously tempted to get one and call it 'rewind'. lmao. short and charmingly proportioned! i don't think rewind probably actually uses a pen but maybe this was one of those spousal in-joke gifts pre-war or something like 'haha this reminded me of you'/'are you calling me short' or whatever idfk. the point is. TINY PEN.
nautica got riptide a Jinhao 993 to cheer him up when they started doing lessons in that one issue towards the end of MTMTE/pre-DotL and he's finding it difficult maybe. "why would a fountain pen cheer him up-" THIS IS WHY LOOK AT THESE
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my pen friend got the pink one of these for a fiver or something, bc i pointed out it was a pink shark and therefore a Nimona pen. haha. anyway. that's why riptide has a fountain pen.
rodimus is having a mid life crisis, and also magnus will probably think he is Mature and Good At Work if he shows up with a fountain pen, he figures one time, so he wheedles money off drift and buys this monstrosity, which to be clear costs EIGHT THOUSAND EUROS and is supposed to look like a cool racecar themed... thing. montegrappa is so fucking overpriced and tacky and they're invariably hilarious to me whenever they release some godawful tie-in thing.
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now prowl. prowl doesn't have a fountain pen because prowl is the sort of person who insists on constantly having fucking. Gadgets TM. you know. the man thinks a smart fridge is a necessity, for some fucking reason. if it's electronic it's Better. however, LAMY, i found out, in addition to its wide range of pens, also makes like... high-end digital pens? you know, in the style of their most well known fountain pen design (LAMY safari) but like. a stylus. buying a brand-name pen manufacturer's stylus bc you want to have a fountain pen but also refuse to do anything not on a tablet or something is. 100% prowl to me.
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and i think that drift would have a LAMY 2000. look at this thing. it's somehow so slick and modern looking in a way most fountain pens aren't without feeling weird or like it isn't one. it's also a really well regarded pen across the board and so many people swear by this thing. (my friend does indeed have this one!) he's got it because he (canonically) journals, obviously, he is whipping this bad boy out after meditation to Chronicle His Emotional State (usually um. bad. moving along.) it's one of the nice things he bought himself after he somehow acquired all that money (stole it on his way out from the decepticons).
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sidenote: megatron doesn't use a fountain pen, despite being a canonical writer. his handwriting is fucking atrocious and he would break one pressing too hard if he tried. he privately thinks they're sort of pointless, but lets minimus endlessly explain nib types for the sake of indulging someone he likes and who clearly is used to being told to shut up.
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dissociacrip · 9 months
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Is it ok to use a cane if your gait/balance issues are caused by a neurodivergence? I have to take antipsychotics and I have a lot of balance problems because of them, and I have a scissors gait, but since it’s technically a neurodivergence would it be ok to use a cane? I think it would have help to hold on to something because I do better when I have railings or walls to hold, but I don’t want to appropriate when I’m neurodivergent. I also have a mild chronic illness if that matters
1. if you feel like a cane would help you then i encourage you to go ahead and use one. it shouldn't matter what conditions you may or may not have or even if you see yourself as able-bodied. the only people who you might encounter that are interested in policing who can and can't use a cane are those serving the interests of ableist ideas about disability and mobility aid usage. if able-bodied people treat mobility aids like they're just fun accessories or something (not including canes that are literally made to be accessories instead of aids bc that's been a thing since forever) then yeah that's kinda nasty but "i have this issue where a cane might help me" isn't doing that.
2. not all forms of neurodivergence are (purely) psychiatric or other mental conditions. chiari malformations, brain diseases, chronic symptoms of neurotrauma, etc. are also forms of neurodivergence and those conditions are considered physical in nature. so "caused by a neurodivergence" ignores that because i think the implication there is that "neurodivergent" means "not physical condition." that's just me being nitpicky about terminology though.
tl;dr - yes, please use a cane if you feel it would improve your quality of life and especially if it's to help you walk more safely. you don't need anything more than that to be "justified" in using a mobility aid. i don't think they really something you can "appropriate," especially if you're going into it with the mindset of "i have a chronic gait problem and i want more support." canes aren't in short supply or anything and they're relatively inexpensive. you are experiencing chronic mobility impairment. it does not really matter what the origin is.
if you haven't looked into it already, i would recommend researching what types of grip and bases would be most helpful to you and your specific issues + whether you need one that's foldable and adjustable or one that can't be folded/adjusted but is overall sturdier.
best of luck!
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the-monkey-ruler · 4 months
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I'm a fan of the Saiyuki/Monkey 1978 show and I thought I'd throw in some extra info after seeing that last anon ask about "why is sanzang often a woman in japanese media"
First off, I hope I don't come across as nitpicky, but the show in English is called "Monkey", not "Monkey Magic", and the only reason I point that out because there IS another JttW adaptation (animated series, but also from Japan) called "Monkey Magic" and I don't want anyone to get the two confused. (But the theme song to Monkey 1978 IS called "Monkey Magic" so confusion abounds lol) You said "many Japanese media followed its example and had Sanzang be a woman." While Sanzang is often played by a female actress in Japanese media, the character is almost always still male, at least in the more mainstream direct adaptations of the JttW story. DBZ is hardly an accurate adaption, and Bulma being made a woman was probably just inspired by Sanzang being played by actresses, like you said. I could be wrong but at least from the ones that I've seen, the adaptations that do change Sanzang the character to be a women are usually ones that don't take themselves as seriously when it comes to "accurately" adapting the original story (not that there's anything wrong with that).
"I can’t say for certain why they made Sanzang a girl in the 1970s" Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a definitive reason either, but I did read once that the actor who played Wukong for the show gave an interview and said that the reason they hired an actress was "to generate buzz about the show" (but I can't confirm a source for that quote). I've also seen multiple theories that another possible reason is due to the fact that Sanzang is supposed to be a beautiful man, so why not have a woman play him to amp up the attractiveness factor?
Also, in the English dub Tripitaka is often referred to as "the boy priest" which to me seems a weird specification to point out, unless they're implying that he's very young or not even an adult yet in this show. Wukong calls him "the lad" a lot too, which maybe lends a little credence to this Sanzang being young. I don't know if that's also true in the original Japanese, but if it is, then that might also explain why they chose an actress to play him, to make him look properly youthful.
(Or maybe the English dub kept emphasizing Sanzang being a boy/a lad simply to help audiences know that despite being played by a lovely actress, the character is still a man lol)
OR who knows, maybe the casting director for the show felt like being progressive for the 70s, because Sanzang isn't the only cross-cast character; Buddha is played by a female actress and Guanyin is played by a male actor.
Sorry for such a long ask, I tried to keep things concise while still hitting the main points. I really really enjoy this show and I'm sad there isn't a whole lot of information available for it!
I'm a fan of the Saiyuki/Monkey 1978 show and I thought I'd throw in some extra info after seeing that last anon ask about "why is sanzang often a woman in japanese media" First off, I hope I don't come across as nitpicky, but the show in English is called "Monkey", not "Monkey Magic", and the only reason I point that out because there IS another JttW adaptation (animated series, but also from Japan) called "Monkey Magic" and I don't want anyone to get the two confused. (But the theme song to Monkey 1978 IS called "Monkey Magic" so confusion abounds lol)
I like that Monkey Magic anime that you brought up. It's good stuff!
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You said "many Japanese media followed its example and had Sanzang be a woman." While Sanzang is often played by a female actress in Japanese media, the character is almost always still male, at least in the more mainstream direct adaptations of the JttW story. DBZ is hardly an accurate adaption, and Bulma being made a woman was probably just inspired by Sanzang being played by actresses, like you said.
I'm not saying that most Japanese media have Sanzang as a girl, just a lot of them, and yes most faithful adaptions of course have Sanzang as a boy but that doesn't discount how many girl Sanzang media has come out of this and could have been influenced by Monkey (1978). This is more just observing the combination of Japanese media that has femme Sanzang more than other countries' media.
The Saiyuki franchises do keep it that Sanzang is a male played by a woman there is other Saiyuki media that has him as a female on purpose. Saiyuki TV series (1993), Saiyuki (1994), and the Sayuki movie (2007) are clearly 1978-inspired but as such just have Sanzang is supposed to be a man. Maybe even Doraemon: The Record of Nobita’s Parallel Visit to the West (1988) since while the character is a girl she is still playing Sanzang as a man.
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I didn't even consider Dragon Ball as an example of Sanzang being portrayed as a woman. I was thinking Saiyuki Starzinger (1978), SF Saiyuki Starzinger Movie Edition SF (1979), and Saiyuiki Journey West (1999) where you play as Sanzo and choose your gender as either a girl or a boy. There is also the Japanese anime Nanbaka (2016) where Sanzang is played by two different characters also a man and a woman. There is also just anime-games like Monster Super League (2016), Dragalia Lost (2018), Granblue Fantasy (2014), and Monster Strike (2014) モンスターストライク.
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There are other non-Japanese productions that also follow the idea of having Sanzang as a woman and while these can be separated from Monkey (1978) I think they should also be considered to be have some influence. The Australian tv show Legends of the Monkey King (2018) is stated to be inspired by Monkey (1978) more so than Xiyouji itself. Korean Odessey (2017) and God of High School (2020) are Korean productions but I'm not sure if this is inspired by Monkey (1978) as it is a different modern take of the story and thus could be different. There has only been one Chinese media that I have seen with a female Sanzang Ultimate Westward Journey (2019).
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I could be wrong but at least from the ones that I've seen, the adaptations that do change Sanzang the character to be a women are usually ones that don't take themselves as seriously when it comes to "accurately" adapting the original story (not that there's anything wrong with that).
I guess they don't have to be taken seriously but they should still be noted all the same because this is still Japanese media that is portraying Xiyouji characters. It doesn't have to be taken seriously to still note when and to whom gender bent happen (should also be noted that Bailong and Wujing are also common characters to have their genders differ). Just cause they are games or cartoons doesn't make them any less media that should be considered how easily it is to change Sanzang's gender even for casual and common everyday games and shows.
It's not so much about accuracy as that isn't needed but how to widespread the idea of changing Sanzang's gender. It's not a bad thing but something that should be recognized. Personally, in terms of Dragon Ball, I always like the idea of Krillin being as Sanzang as well since I think that being an ex-monk would be clever. But since there is a lot of Japanese media that has Sanzang has multiple characters that could be Sanzang it could just be up to interpretation as Bulma was the original idea for Sanzang representation.
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"I can’t say for certain why they made Sanzang a girl in the 1970s" Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a definitive reason either, but I did read once that the actor who played Wukong for the show gave an interview and said that the reason they hired an actress was "to generate buzz about the show" (but I can't confirm a source for that quote). I've also seen multiple theories that another possible reason is due to the fact that Sanzang is supposed to be a beautiful man, so why not have a woman play him to amp up the attractiveness factor?
I was quoting from the Monkey 1978 Baidu page when I was talking in my last post and it did seem like they were going to hire Tamasaburo Bando until the change was made. @journeytothewestresearch suggested that it could have been to highlight Sanzang's natural beauty so perhaps that could be the case. But in any case it def left an impressive on lots of media later down the line.
Also, in the English dub Tripitaka is often referred to as "the boy priest" which to me seems a weird specification to point out, unless they're implying that he's very young or not even an adult yet in this show. Wukong calls him "the lad" a lot too, which maybe lends a little credence to this Sanzang being young. I don't know if that's also true in the original Japanese, but if it is, then that might also explain why they chose an actress to play him, to make him look properly youthful. (Or maybe the English dub kept emphasizing Sanzang being a boy/a lad simply to help audiences know that despite being played by a lovely actress, the character is still a man lol)
I think they could have been implying that he was younger in the show since there was some media in the early 1960-70s where young boys were played by women. I have only seen this in like musical movies though, so that the 'young boy' would have a higher-pitched voice.
OR who knows, maybe the casting director for the show felt like being progressive for the 70s, because Sanzang isn't the only cross-cast character; Buddha is played by a female actress and Guanyin is played by a male actor.
I do think that showing Buddha and Guanyin as genders differing from how they are usually portrayed was very innovative! Perhaps even touching on Guanyin's original legend where she was an Indian Prince, gives her an ambiguous gender role. It could be that the director seeing that both form and beauty are not limited to gender could be played by anyone as long as the acting is top quality.
Sorry for such a long ask, I tried to keep things concise while still hitting the main points. I really really enjoy this show and I'm sad there isn't a whole lot of information available for it!
I do wish that I could find more information and I'm surprised that there is very little despite how globally popular it was. I know that the sub was many people's intro to Xiyouji and further created a stronger legacy. But it could be that the show's run was to be short
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ae-neon · 8 months
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Posting an old draft
Acotar reread (very nitpicky and rant-y)
chapter 8
Feyre is crazy? SJM is stupid? One of the two.
Tamlin doesn't hate Feyre. Lucien hates Feyre. Feyre's plan? Get Lucien to "plead her case" to Tamlin. So go to the one who probably wants you dead to get the one who's trying to be nice to you to... Be nice to you?
I didn’t doubt Tamlin’s claim that the rest of Prythian was deadly for a human—and if there was indeed some blight on these lands … I was better off here for the time being.
But not without trying to find someone who might plead my case to Tamlin.
At this point Feyre is completely unaware of the need for her and still thinks that according to the treaty she must remain in Prythian.
She does however know that she's likely in the safest place, her family is taken care of and she's not a slave or servant. She even thinks to herself there's not really anything she can do if she gets back home.
SJM also didn't really build an emotional connection between Feyre and her family so why would the reader believe or care about Feyre wanting to go home??
I’d never been particularly good with words, had never learned the social warfare my sisters and mother had been so adept at...
I feel bad for her
we know sweetie, don't worry, sjm got a mind reader in the bag so you won't have to learn or grow as a person and even though you'll be HL you'll have no real power or job so it won't matter then either
Feyre can hear the Fae of the manor but not see them. I think it's Alis' nephews. They're laughing at her. I wanna see what Fae kids are like
And the plates … I could have bought a team of horses, a plow, and a field for just one of them. Disgusting.
Acotar Feyre hauls out the guillotine for High Lady Feyre
The stable boys she can see for some reason and they all have horse masks. Were they at Amarantha's ball too? Did she invite literally every member of Tamlin's court? And as stable boys why would you all wear horse masks to a fancy party? Was it a work event?
Chapter 9
Again, in retrospect, Lucien knows they need Feyre so why is he so committed to acting like he wants her dead or gone. SJM don't make your characters look stupid challenge: failed for the 498th time.
"He cares about Andras" Andras literally gave his life so they would have this chance??
"Where is the rest of Tamlin’s court?" Feyre says this and we're supposed to believe she doesn't know he's the high lord???
“Something was sent from the shit-holes of Hell,” Lucien and Jurian definitely bonded over how much they personally hate Amarantha.
Anyway,” Lucien went on, “the High Fae don’t have specific powers the way the lesser faeries do...
A lie????
*
I didn't finish writing this but I'm gonna post this anyways, maybe it'll make someone crack a smile
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bookshopsbizarreblog · 5 months
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I haven't seen anyone else talking about this, so I suppose I'll take the plunge. At the risk of being overly critical, Hilda S3 E3 "The Giant Slayer" felt a little sloppy to me. Or at least, underdeveloped. Don't get me wrong, I do really like the overall story of that episode. it offered some unique set pieces and opened the possibility of a Hildaverse, as well as teaching us a little bit more about Wood Man. But there were a bunch of things that just rubbed me the wrong way a little. I'm not going to go into all of them here since I don't want this post to be about negativity, but it all culminated with a few frames towards the end of the episode. It looked like part of the story board just wasn't erased, and it is floating prominently right above Wood Man.
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Now, I don't know enough to speculate about time crunches or production budgets or sloppy editing or whatever else. It could just be a single honest mistake in an otherwise fantastic season. When I first saw it, I thought it was probably just a feature of me having watched it all on the first day and it would be spotted and edited out soon afterwards. But it is still there today.
In retrospect, there's also a number of other little animation inconsistencies that popped up. The biggest one was that the framerate wasn't always consistent. Key example, towards the start of E8 "The Fairy Isle," it drops substantially when Hilda, Frida, and David start walking towards Tofoten. It's a little jarring and returns to normal right afterwards with Astrid's knitting.
Those errors don't really detract from the overall story and might be a little nitpicky, but it really felt like S3 was dropped before it was completely finished. Like there wasn't time to draw some of the in-between frames and scrub through the series for leftover artifacts from the production process. And when combined with some of the plot lines and character choices feeling a little off, I don't know. It just makes me feel a little bit sad.
There's not really anything that can or likely will be done at this point, especially as Hilda is tragically underappreciated and any errors are almost undoubtedly the fault of Netflix not giving it the support it needed. And if this is the last foray we will have into Hilda's amazing animated world, I don't want its memory to be tarnished at all by me fretting over tiny things that could have been better. But these things have been nagging at me since it released, and I needed to get them off my chest.
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