#esp with the crafter now
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extremely scalding hot take but if you only play minecraft to make a hundred automwted farms to get thousands of one item, usually something you really only need a few of or never even use. you are extremely boring, not playing the game right, and i genuinely hate sharing the community with you. ♡
#minecraft#not even joking redtone farmers in minecraft are some of the most insufferable people#esp with the crafter now#they go on for hours about how this farm will totally save their life because it pushes out a hundred compasses a second#how does it feel to be literally the saddest person on earth.#this is genuine#all of it
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job quests and how they went in my canon (very long post that i will return to and update on occassion.)
Warrior
guy that loves the warrior questline more than anyone else she knows: so anyway i rewrote the entire warrior questline
marauder quests are done by Roeh years and years before ARR - she’s in her late teens at the time (1565 6AE to be precise). it’s when she starts dating Solkwyb (though they break up a few years later amicably). Sighard grows older and eventually joins the marauder’s guild himself.
the 30-50 job quests are also done by Roeh, during 1 7UE (five years before the start of ARR). over the course of the questline she grows quite close with Curious Gorge and there’s a lot of back and forth UST... but then the fight where he loses control in the level 50 quest happens, and they both almost kill each other - Roeh’s neck is so badly damaged on her left side that even after healing magic she no longer has full motion of it, and Gorge takes a blow to the chest so forceful the only reason he survived is likely his plate armour. Understandably, this creates a rift between the two and makes the next few years... uncomfortably awkward, to say the least.
the 50-60 job quests take place during ARR, rather than hw, just after Roeh meets Niuwyb for the first time. The quests take place mostly as they do in game, with Niuwyb as a tag along as she learns how to be a Warrior from Roeh, Gorge, and Broken Mountain. At some point during this, Niuwyb meets Skaetswys, Roeh’s girlfriend, who privately takes her aside and is like. Can you do something about those two. make them talk. Roeh is driving me insane the way she talks about him to me and somehow hasn’t got with him yet. Skaetswys and Niuwyb team up to get Roeh and Gorge to Fix Their Shit and after five years of mess they finally get together just before the final quest.
60-70 job quest happens during post-ARR and.... is essentially a funny haha love triangle with the introduction of Dorgono that ends in a triad. Roeh is still way too embarrassed at the prospect of saying “I love you” even at age 31, but Dorgono and Gorge understand she shows it in other ways.
Paladin
Mellow is a longtime friend of Mylla, even if she wasn’t directly involved in the gladiator questline, she’s absolutely heard about it.
The 30-50 job quests in this case are done from an insider’s view - by Mellow, who has been a sultansworn for decades, and with the extra drama of her romantic involvement with Solkzagyl, who she firmly believes would never betray the order. She solves the issue much like in the questline, but is heartbroken when he decides to leave.
the 50-60 quests take place very early on during Heavensward - Mellow volunteers to find out what Solkzagyl’s investigation has led to on her own, as the Sultansworn are incredibly busy, for the most part, dealing with the aftermath of the bloody banquet. When she finds out that Solkzagyl is seemingly dead, Mellow is nigh inconsolable, but throws herself into training Constaint in his place and continuing the investigation. the quest proceeds as it normally does until she meets a travelling Roeh in Falcon’s Nest, en route to Dravania, who... not only saw Solkzagyl alive, but bedded him - something she regretted rather quickly, and even more so after finding out he was a liar that was already spoken for. She gave Mellow what information she could, along with an offer to get drinks sometime, before heading to her actual destination. She confronts Solkzagyl at the end of the questline, defeats him, takes Oathkeeper, and returns to Ul’dah with Jenlyns, telling Solkzagyl she never wants to see him again.
the 60-70 quests take place after Mellow has left Ul’dah with X’rhun - she receives a missive and returns to help with the situation. Everyone is relieved that she finally seems actually, legitimately happy with her lot, and don’t begrudge her at all for taking off when she did.
Worth noting: Sonje learned the fundamentals of the sword and shield as part of her training as a soldier of the ala mhigan army in her youth, and this was her bread and butter until she received a dark knight stone. Roeh also has minimal knowledge of gladiator style fighting that she learned from her mother (who, unfortunately, really sucks at it.)
Dark Knight
These are done by Niuwyb over the course of heavensward with minimal changes from canon - 30-60 during early heavensward, and 60-70 on the tail end of hw and very early sb.
Worth noting: Sonje is also a dark knight, but received her jobstone and training from a nameless hermit in Coerthas en route to Dravania - they actually followed Sandrine and Sonje to Tailfeather until Sonje’s training was complete, before disappearing without a trace. Sonje swears that the hermit was familiar to her in a way she was never able to place.
Monk
The pugilist questline is done by Roeh at the tender age of 12 years old, as her mother leaves her in the care of quite possibly the worst possible babysitter ever: her old friend Hamon Holyfist. After two weeks of failed adventuring, Wild Juniper returns to Ul’dah to see her child beating up bandits in the middle of the street. she is not pleased.
The monk questline is undertaken by @childofdrought ‘s Kihfo, and you should absolutely ask them lots of questions about it (evil)
extra note: Niuwyb is a monk, but learned this from Lyse during sb over the course of their travels, rather than during the canon questline for it.
Dragoon
The lancer quests were done by Niuwyb during post-ARR quests, fairly early on, and were followed very closely by the dragoon 30-50 quests, which were done just a little bit before Estinien showed up in msq for the first time. yeah it was funny.
50-60 job quests were done very early on in heavensward, and 60-70 was done between 4.0 and 4.1.
White Mage
Conjurer quests are done by Niuwyb late in ARR, after the events of the Chrysalis. Niuwyb specifically returned to Gridania and enrolled as a conjurer despite her lack of talent in magic because she didn’t want to see anyone else she cared for die, and if there was anything she could do to prevent that she would, even if it was difficult for her. Truth be told, she struggled a lot until she received the white mage stone and the guidance of A-Towa-Cant filled in the gaps of her natural abilities.
Worth noting: Sandrine learned a Gelmorran style of conjury during her time living in Gridania, with much less focus on attuning to the elementals.
Scholar
Flaming Orchid’s main job, and very key to her storyline, which is Drought’s domain once again, along with the arcanist quests.
Worth noting: Sandrine was a member of the arcanist’s guild during ARR, purely as something to pass the time until Operation Archon.
Astrologian
Another questline undertaken by Flaming Orchid.
worth noting: Sandrine first undertook astrologian training as part of her studies in New Sharlayan, years and years before msq. It’s still her main job today, although she has never met Leveva nor Jannequinard. Slightly ironic in that she is an Ishgardian that learnt Sharlayan astrology decades before THAT drama.
Machinist
Undertaken by Niuwyb with minimal canon deviation over the course of heavensward. Interesting of note is that her marksmanship improves in leaps and bounds after she receives Hraesvelgr’s eye. Every other time Niuwyb comes through and sees the machinists she ends up having a fling with Rostnsthal, and every time they end up going their separate ways again. It’s almost like a tradition at this point.
Summoner
Another job undertaken by Flaming Orchid. I’m glad Y’mhitra is friends with her sister’s gf
Red Mage
Upon returning to Ul’dah after the paladin 50-60 questline, a despondent Mellow takes her leave of the sultansworn, and is wandering the streets when she encounters someone in need. She may have left the sultansworn, but she is not one to leave someone in need alone, and resolves to help the child. It is then that she meets X’rhun, who invites her to share a drink at Black Brush Station, and then offers to teach her the art of red magic. She takes to the art quite well, and takes to X’rhun even more so...
#ffxiv#roe#niuwyb#sandrine#sonje#mellow#can you tell. can you tell which ones i dont even have to reference garlandtools for (its warrior)#guy that rewrote the entire paladin questline to be more interesting#to me at least.#also i rlly am gonna come back and edit this more cause i wanna replay some of these questlines and refresh my memory#esp like. drg and mch its been a hot minute#i also. need to come back and add the crafters/gatherers.#or well. specifically fsh. just for roeh#but its nearly my bedtime now hehe
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I haven’t played planet crafter yet is it good????
I’m studying to become an architect so it’s a lot of work but I love it even when it gets me so stressed I cry lmao
Also this Barça game is giving me heart palpitations like what is happening. This is making me so scared for Saturday
-🦋
i’m really enjoying it so far!! it can be a little slow at times but it’s fun to see the progress esp bc you start off with this dry ass empty planet and now my planet has water and plants and bugs!!
woah that’s so cool! i did a level art and when we did architecture i hated it but i think that’s bc we were essentially just learning how to bullshit analyses lol but overall i do find it really interesting!
and same 🥲🥲 we’re going to the final and ngl we’re lowkey primarily going bc we were expecting to see barça there and like???? what’s going on 😭
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Hello! ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ I'm ibrokemybluecrayon and this is my little corner of the interwebs!! If you found me then I feel the need to introduce myself and somethings about me, so here's 10 things about me and my page!:
I am nonbinary and use they/them pronouns; you can call me Crayon or Blue if necessary!
I am an advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community and am apart of it myself; I do not tolerate squander or disrespect of anything, I do not support any P*dophilia or I*cest or the likes of it in any form, I will defend myself and others whom are apart of the LGBTQIA+ community, my page is a safe place for anyone whom seems it necessary (and if you don't like it then there's the door ->🚪)
I am a huge nerd/fan and like a lot of things; Sanders Sides, Undertale, Deltarune (esp. Spamton G Spamton), FNAF Security Breach (Sun/Moon is my favorite but I like Freddy and Monty too), TMNT (I like the Bayverse, 2012, and Rise), Video Games (I have one called Spiritfarer, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, Crash Bandicoot (I have the N-sane trilogy), Sonic Colors ultimate, LEGO games, Bendy and the Ink Machine, Minecraft, Animal Crossing New Horizons, and quite a few games on Steam as well (Terraria, Don't Starve & Don't Starve Together, Stardew Valley, Deltarune, Among Us, Starbound, Jazzpunk, Sally Face, Misfortune, Little Nightmares 1 & 2, and Fran Bow to name a few) Disney/Pixar (The Owl House, Gravity Falls, Amphibia, Star Wars (esp. Mandalorian) etc.), musicals/Broadway (Beetlejuice, Little Shop of Horrors, and Wicked are a few of my favorites), LEGOs, cartoons, Tim Burton (I like a lot of his movies and can't pick a favorite), Halloween, horror, sci-fi & fantasy genres, Studio Ghibli, Sonic the Hedgehog (Tails is my personal favorite (I was so excited to see him in the second Sonic movie)), Nintendo (Luigi's Mansion (and just him in general), Kirby and their many games (I've been playing Star Allies) Legend of Zelda (I main him in Smash (not the toon version)), Pokemon (I have Pokemon Black Version 2 for the Nintendo DSI, and several Pokemon cards that I've collected over the years as well as pins and other merch), Cartoon Network (Steven Universe is one of my favorites), Sam & Max: Freelance Police (the show and the videogames!), the Muppets and other puppets of the like (I like Gonzo from the Muppets, and I like a show with said puppets called Fraggle Rock), Welcome Home (and RPG created by @partycoffin and if you like horror and puppets then it's definitely worth a look!) and so much other stuff!!
I am open to asks/DMs and am always down to chat! (It can be about anything I listed above or anything else as well!!
I am a writer and artist/I draw on the side, I love to see others works and like to get ideas/inspiration from things around me or on my feed!
I am a DIY/crafter; I make/paint tiny models of things mostly!
I am a collector of a lot of stuffs; bottlecaps, soda/pop tabs, tiny toys/collectables, jewelry, etc.
I have a yellow denim vest that's Muppets themed, a Beetlejuice jacket that I'm collecting pins and patches for (it's been going on for almost 4 years now but it's a fun thing to do!), and a red denim jacket with all sorts of pins and patches on it!
I have a sweet-tooth in both food and writing (I adore fluff!); My favorite food is strawberry shortcake and my favorite drink strawberry milkshake, but I also like sour candy too!
I collect socks or all colors and patterns, a few of my favorite pairs are my Christmas Dinosaurs Pair, my Boba Fett pair, my muppet pairs (I have Fozzy, Kermit, Gonzo, and Animal), and my Spiderman pair!!
(っ ^ ᴗ ^ )っ~♡
There you have it! 10 facts about me and what I like! And if I don't see you good afternoon, good evening, and good night!! ⊂ • ▿ • つ ~★
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i made a list of the vibes of the hermits i watch, so you might want to check some of them out! this is just mostly jokes, but i thought all of the more “serious” propaganda was missing something, so have what truly makes hermitcraft worth it; the players’ unique styles!
will be back on my dsmp stuff asap but it’s the first day of season 8 and i would really appreciate if you checked them out through the links provided :]
Grian; [ episode one link ]
vibes of a 17 year old mcyter, is actually 27 and married
noo not my red jumpah!
chaotic capitalist
someone is making the server better through order? *starts another war* whoops, hand slipped :D
he built a- he rebuilt his entire megabase in survival, above a giant lake of lava, in the nether, on hard mode, upside down??
“watching as scar dies over and over in my trap is peak comedy and i’m tired of pretending it’s not” but it happens like 5 times i every season
video editing is very main-stream and good for short attention spans!
*sad montage over losing stuff he’ll get back in 15 minutes because he’s rich*
pesky birdd! great elytra flier! amazing builder! will tnt your house! poultrymannn!!
wholesome, chaos incarnate, talented architect
why won’t mumbo respond to my messages it’s been two weeks :[ (clingy)
doors???????????? your house has doors???? no doors for you good sir!
will laugh a lot at a lot of things, esp when he’s with his friends
genuinely just so fun to watch
Mumbo Jumbo; [ episode one link ]
perfect british accent
mustache man (warning: he has no mustache irl)
*fails ten businesses in a row* iskall please help
redstone is his element
“it’s actually quite simple” i like your funny words magic man, now can you repeat how in the hell you made a that fancy vault work-
filmographer?? i think? met up with grian irl
him and grian have a robot son named grumbot. that has nothing to do with the vibes but i had to mention him because he means a lot to me.
tries to stay out of wars and server politics until someone (grian) drags him into them
minigame maker, makes the hermits competitive and that is scary (also very funny) e. g. button, hermit challengesss!
“it’ll be fineee” *que shot of everything on fire behind him*
makes his base a living being and then all his neighbors end up feeding it instead of him
conspiracy theorist. bumbo baggins. the usual.
very entertaining videos that help you learn more about minecraft mechanics!
GoodTimesWithScar; [ episode one link ]
wheelchair creator with literally the best vibes
so wholesome i. he is so cool he makes me so happy :’D
*extremely cool announcer voice* ooooo hello there my fellow miners and crafters, good timeees with scar heree, and welcome backk to the wonderful world of hermits and crafting, and we’re flying over-
commentates everything extremely well
spends tenths of hours on builds within a single video and doesn’t bat an eye
lore for all of his builds! he builds these amazing bases to tell a story!
“i wanna see white flags! white flags, outside your base, by-“ wait no wrong anti-rebellion army leader
all videos have a clear objective
mostly building, but he loves hanging out/helping his friends!
loves disney movies! wants to go to space! :D
kind-hearted, always makes everyone else smile
can be chaotic but usually just tries to have fun and make sure everyone else has fun too
*flies into a tree on half a heart* wait what why did i die D:
scar. scar please eat. you’re going to die for the tenth time this video-
the non-chaotic capitalist, has extremely creative shop designs
a danger to himself, but also the kind of person you can’t be angry at for long
BdoubleO100; [ episode one link ]
the guitar music at the beginning of his videos brings a smile to my face, it just has such an immaculate mood
*camera pans over him as said music plays* ladies and gentlemen welcome to another episode of hoimycraffff
the way he talks is extremely endearing
one of the best builders on the server - probably best builder of interiors in existence
able to make a palette using any number of strange blocks and then make amazing builds using it
built a whole castle as a backdrop, then built an entire giant mountain for said castle
extremely sensitive to short jokes, usually gets pranked by others because his reactions are always so funny
his daughters show up from time to time in his room while he’s recording and it’s so cute
*has no way to see the sun but still knows it’s nighttime* gotta go schleep!
scar, pointing at him “this is why we can’t have nice sunsets”
(scar dies because of mobs every time bdubs isn’t on the server to sleep)
likes to be accomplice because he isn’t the one being made fun of (/lh)
*shoots himself in front of a confused grian because he thinks the guy wants his face again when he’s actually just looking for a netherportal*
is usually the underdog so it feels good when he wins
they’re all actually such great friends so it’s genuinely funny to watch
he himself is amazing at entertainment and just a very cool guy
ImpulseSV; [ episode one link ]
what’s going on everyone, my name is impulse and welcome back to hermitcraft!
always speaks with a smile in his voice
has a good dynamic with basically everyone
great co-worker and always helps out if he can
had his base turned pink during the swap, and instead of changing it back afterwards, he dyed his skin’s hair and clothing pink to match it
very cool and original building style!
makes a lot of farms and sells what he gets in his few shops
makes money to be able to do more stuff and make more farms
blows up most his base ever so often to rebuild parts. you know, like a normal person does in minecraft survival.
the grind is never over
the guy who always gets all of the work done on the school project and proceeds to be chill about it
always has very cool side-projects going on and puts his heart into all of them
pog timelapses!!
Rendog; [ episode one link ]
*short, funny scene from the video at the beginning slowly fades out into great music
dogs howling as the half-dog half-cog logo comes up*
greetiiings cyberdogs and citizens of the interbubs! this is ren diggity dawg coming atcha, in another minecraft episodes varuuummm the hermit. craft. server. (hey!)
we’re kicking things off today my friends, from the- *location name on screen*
that intro gets me hyped every time
he’s a furry who talks in bro language it’s great i swear - very atypical but fun
he transformed an entire biome into a star wars planet for his base
his building skills and dedication are incredible
horny (just a little bit)
the only person who cared about mycelium in the whole rebellion
does a lot of roleplay-themed stuff and mysteries to be solved
“b-dubba-dubs one hundred”
extremely upbeat & sweet guy
adds -age after everything “biddage” “flyage” to make it sound Cooler
amazingly positive always and funny as hell
mcc winner!! wooooooooo :D
always tries to be where stuff is happening and interact with people
very entertaining editing style
Iskall85; [ episode one link ]
drives joke into the mud and then picks them up and does it again which is funny
starts videos with one-off bits
iskallman!!! the superhero literally no one needed and yet there he is
only has one (1) braincell when with mumbo
they both do and they’re hilarious together every time
like when they laughed at squeaky noises for ten minutes straight. guys please you’re adult men
bernie the leaf master
omega (something) of doom!!
encourages gambling (in a videogame)
he has so many jokes he keeps using i can’t possibly fit them all in here
basically a wildcard
i have no idea what he’s doing this season
i have no idea what he’s doing ever actually
tame chaos, confusing to the point when it’s funny again
really great builder as well!
mostly for younger audiences but his videos are a good watch in general
feel free to send asks about hc! i’m already loosely involved in hermitblr but yeah, my dsmp followers aren’t immune :] /lh /j
#long post#hermitcraft#hermitcraft s8#hermitblr#ruby's rambles#:]#all my personal opinions#just wanted to add to the hype lol
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maybe i’m stupid but i don’t see a reason to shit on ranboo rn?? like even if he’s doing variety now, everyone sees him and thinks crafter anyways. so i don’t mind that he’s there. please correct me if i’m wrong but being mad at him being in the mc category doesn’t make sense
its just the fact ranboo has been actively trying to distance himself from being considered a minecrafter and has shown a lot of resentment for mc and the dsmp and been super odd and mean about it, esp to the fans who enjoy it. like im not mad at him being in the category im just saying if he wins over tommy despite continuously shitting on mc and pulling himself away from the crafter label ill be annoyed LOL
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ffxiv for the fandom ask?
tyyyyy sophie! <3
also asked by @gautiersylvain ty <3
blorbo: right now, my brain is bouncing between emet and g'raha like a pinball. since emet fits another (too well), let's go with the funky lil cat boi. shout out to the blorbo-adjacent: aymeric, the OG scions (urianger, thancred, y'shtola), venat, hythlodaeus.
scrunkly: the twins, my actual children. I (and maty) would die for them, we would kill for them, we would sign their adoption papers had their mother not been a saint and their father not finally shown them the love they deserve. sometimes I go and visit them in garlemald for the same dialogue just to see them happy and productive.
scrimblo bimblo: there's a whole bunch of characters I love who seem way underappreciated by the game itself in recent content, like cid, nero, and yugiri. then there's others who aren't appreciated enough by the fandom, like krile and lucia. but I might actually say tataru here. I adore her and she gets so little appreciation. single-handedly keeping the scions afloat!
glup shitto: soooo many of the job/crafter/gatherer quest npcs (I saw best himbo oboro in zadnor the other day and got excited). also mikoto, even if I have *issues* with the writing of her echo abilities. special shout-out also to the role quest npcs in shadowbringers, esp giott.
poor little meow meow: emet-selch is the definition of my poor little meow meow. genocidal garbage man. imperialist rat boy. ilu hades.
horse plinko: estinien. I just want to annoy him. all the time. that's my estinien-specific love language.
eeby deeby: asahi. honestly, they just really pushed all my enrage buttons with his characterisation (esp in directly contrasting him with yotsuyu! two people who do terrible, evil things that are never justified, but one's evil can be understood while the other's is loathed. genius!!!) and I am actually kind of impressed with it. also the entirety of the syndicate except raubahn.
#asks#shadowglens#gautiersylvain#it should be stressed that the twins are both my scrunklies and my blorbos#my beloved children#I kind of love everyone in the main cast in this game#there's no-one i'm just 'eh' about (other than the butchering of yda/lyse in stormblood but she's kind of just dropped after then lol)#jessica plays ffxiv
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The Four Gospels Of Sci-Fi
The “canon” of science fiction is in the news again in the wake of the recent Hugo awards, and since I’m nothing if not opinionated and I also want to load up my posting queue before diving into my next big project, this struck me as an apt topic to write on.
So settle back; we’re going to touch on the history of sci-fi, the influence of its old guard, how it pertains to religious literature, and perhaps even delve a little bit on Christianity itself at the end.
First off, a quick recap of Christian scripture for those who aren’t read up on the subject. Vacation Bible School veterans can skip this part.
. . .
The foundational works in the Christian New Testament are the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
The first three are referred to as the synoptic gospels because they tell basically the same story in the same beats, differing in style and detail, but essentially the same.
Mark is considered the oldest of the three and the primary source for Matthew and Luke (boy howdy! Am I ever streamlining a lot of Biblical scholarship here but bear with me; I’m doing this to make a point about sci-fi, not religion).
The common Christian reading of the three synoptic gospels are that Mark is the basic story, Matthew (because of its focus on Old Testament prophecies) was written with a Jewish audience in mind, Luke was written for gentiles.*
John is the gospel that sticks out.
To grossly oversimplify, the biggest difference is that the synoptic gospels mainly record what Jesus said and did, John focuses more on the who and why.
And that’s all we need to know at this moment…
. . .
The four gospels of sci-fi are Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, and Bradbury.
(Before we go further, let us stipulate this applies only to those who came to the genre prior to Star Wars -- indeed, an argument can be made it only applies to those who were fans before Star Trek.)
Sci-fi’s synoptic gospels are the oeuvre of Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke; Ray Bradbury is the oddball.
I say they are the synoptic gospels because truth be told, you can only tell them apart by style, not content, certainly not by point of view.
If all three exchanged story ideas and plot outlines, the end results would be different only in tone and vocabulary, not theme or character.
Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke were all technically trained and worked professionally as engineers or chemists when not writing; Bradbury was a gosh-wow! fanboy.**
If Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, and Bradbury are the gospels of sci-fi, their John the Baptist was another John: John W. Campbell
Campbell is a problematic figure in sci-fi, so let’s just get him out of the way ASAP.
He was a good but not outstanding writer, but when you write “Who Goes There?” (basis of the various film versions of The Thing From Another World) you’ve earned your place at the table.
He was a visionary editor and under his helm Astounding / Analog set the gold standard for sci-fi for decades to come.
He was a white supremacist of the paternalistic bent, and while on the one hand that’s better than being an outright hate monger, on the other it’s more insidious since it presupposes a correct worldview without challenging that assumption.
He was a male chauvinist of the same stripe, not particularly open to female writers but willing to publish the occasional story with a female protagonist…written by a male.
He was a crank who believed a bunch of goofball ideas, from psionics (ESP, telekinisis, etc.) to dowsing to the Dean Drive to the Hieronymus Machine (a device so wonderous that even a schematic drawing of it would work!).***
Campbell by all accounts was not a bad individual and the field is still replete with those who knew and loved him, but like the cranky patriarch**** who refuses to divulge the contents of their will, forcing everyone in the family to kowtow to them, Campbell’s position atop the highest paying / most prestigious market in science fiction shaped much of the genre around him. (Full disclosure: One of the greatest highlights in my writing career was finally placing a story in Analog after fifty years of trying!)
Writers would typically aim at Astounding / Analog first, and failing to sell there, the Campbell rejects would start a long, laborious trudge down the stairs to the cheaper markets.
This held true even in the 1950s when sci-fi magazines of a more literary bent (Fantasy & Science Fiction and Galaxy in the US, New Worlds in the UK) started attracting stories written for them, not Campbell hand-me-downs.
As Jeannette Ng observed in her acceptance speech for the 2019 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer*****: “Through his editorial control of Astounding Science Fiction, [Campbell] is responsible for setting a tone of science fiction that still haunts the genre to this day. Sterile. Male. White. Exalting in the ambitions of imperialists and colonisers, settlers and industrialists.”
Campbell’s absolute faith in science and technology to solve all our problems (including the ones created by science and technology) while ignoring the very real problems that plague humanity since time immemorial (lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride) coupled with his prime market position led to a genre that unquestionably accepted those settings as the only viable ones.
Campbell certainly held more direct sway over the writings of Heinlein and Asimov than he did Clarke, but Clarke’s earliest sci-fi sales were to Astounding and nothing he wrote in his first decade as a writing professional fell outside the big cushy box Campbell crafter for the genre.
And even though Heinlein and Asimov broke off for cushier writing gigs elsewhere (Heinlein in novels, Asimov mostly as a popular science promoter), they remained steadfastly loyal and respectful -- as did Clarke -- to the ends of their lives.
And on a personal, individual level, that’s a good thing -- we all need friends who will stick by us.
But Bradbury never got invited to the party.
Which is not to say he didn’t try to crack Astounding -- he did, on four occasions, two of them humorous short-shorts for the magazine’s “Probability Zero” feature, one run of the mill magic-shop-disguised-as-super-science-store tale sold in the middle of WWII when Campbell’s best writers were on active duty, and the last in 1950 when he was no longer Ray Bradbury, fanboy, but Ray Bradbury, Important American Writer!!! and Campbell published an excerpt from The Martian Chronicles.******
. . .
We’re going to take a sidebar here to discuss one of Al Ries’ immutable laws of branding.
Ries long observed there are only two models for any brand category:
A single dominant top brand with a distant second place competitor then a host of niche brands (Microsoft then Apple then everybody else)
Two big rivals fighting for first place with a competitor placing a distant third then a host of niche brands (Coke vs Pepsi with RC Cola trailing third then everybody else)
The way to break through in branding is not to waste time and effort trying to knock out a dominant brand but to create a new category to dominate!
That’s what Bradbury did in the late 1940s and early 1950s: He stopped aping the default Campbell / Astounding style and began writing more lyrical / less techno-focused sci-fi.
Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke were no dummies and soon they too branched out more consciously to mainstream audiences.
But as successful as they were, none of them ever fully shook the influence Campbell weighed down upon them.
That is why telling people today they must read the old masters results in eyerolls.
Too often the old masters trafficked in cleverness, not as Faulkner observed “the human heart in conflict with itself.”
Heinlein managed to transcend the genre a few times, but finding the gems in his work requires a lot of effort.
Clarke remains dry and antiseptic: it speaks volumes that his best known character is HAL 9000.
And Asimov just isn’t that goof in either concept or execution. His Three Laws of Robotics demonstrates a failure of nerve and imagination: Humans won’t build robots programmed not to harm humans because the first thing humans will make robots do it kill other human beings!
So there’s our canon:
Mostly irrelevant,
often impenetrable.
The last author standing is the least technology oriented of the lot and Bradbury’s stories continue to work and delight because he doesn’t lecture on weights and measures but allows the reader to imagine along with him.
. . .
Okay, short Christian content now; if you came just for the sci-fi you can either stop reading or skip ahead to the footnotes.
Any field of human endeavor that does not constantly re-examine itself and challenge previous assumptions is doomed to irrelevance.
This does not mean established works need to be rejected out of hand, but we do need to ask what those works mean to us right now.
Truth is indeed timeless, but the package has a sell-by date and the contents do no one any good if they aren’t periodically taken down from the shelf and examined.
Modern Christianity -- in particular mainstream American protestantism -- has failed to closely examine the contents for quite some time.
While the field of sci-fi brims over with exciting new voices, we’re still straining to listen to the cracked / garbled / low fidelity wax cylinders of theologians long dead.
We need fewer Christians.
We desperately need better Christians.
Instead of demanding those outside or struggling with the faith must read things the way we were taught to read them, understand them the way we were taught to understand them, follow along the way we were taught to follow along, perhaps we should show faith in the material and let those who will read and re-imagine the text in the light of their own experience a fair hearing.
The old canon in sci-fi fails today because it is too dated, too rooted in the mindset of a bygone era. The exception -- Bradbury (he himself a Christian and it shows in his stories) -- stays vibrant and alive and appealing because he doesn’t tell us what to think, he walks with us as we discover things for ourselves.
© Buzz Dixon
* Acts Of The Apostles is a sequel to Luke and while Jesus appears briefly in the beginning in almost a flashback fashion, that book focuses on what his disciples did afterwards.
** An interesting trait Bradbury shared with Harlan Ellison was that despite their fanboy origins, both were one helluva lot more savvy to the business of writing and publishing than anyone else in the genre, and both skillfully created public personas that served them well (Bradbury’s better than Ellison’s, granted) while they guided their careers through the treacherous shoals of gatekeepers and public fancies. Bradbury has written of his fanboy epiphany when he asked himself if he was satisfied being a fan / autograph hound or if he really wanted to be a creator, and immediately began directing his career in a fashion that could only be described as ruthless were it not attached to such a charming gentleman. Wannabees are urged to study his career and how he did it if they want to be truly remembered.
*** All well and good as fodder for sci-fi stories, not so good in reality. As the movie They Might Be Giants states: “[Don Quixote] carried it a bit too far. He thought that every windmill was a giant. That's insane. But, thinking that they might be... well… all the best minds used to think the world was flat. — But, what if it isn't? — It might be round — and bread mold might be medicine. If we never looked at things and thought of what they might be, why, we'd all still be out there in the tall grass with the apes.”
**** To stretch our Biblical analog to the breaking point, if Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, and Bradbury are the New Testament gospels and John W. Campbell is John the Baptist, then sci-fi’s Old Testament has patriarchs such as Swift, Verne, and Wells plus the matriarch Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, a major prophet in Hugo Gernsback, and a host of minor prophets in various pre-WWII niche media including comics.
***** An acceptance speech which in turn won a 2020 Hugo for Best Related Work -- how cool is that?
****** Basically, Bradbury was perceptive enough to recognized he turned a creative corner in 1944 with “The Lake” and broadened his submission range to include far more prestigious slick magazines such as The American Mercury and Mademoiselle and Collier’s and The New Yorker and when tipped off that Warner Bros. planned to plagiarize “The Foghorn” as the basis for The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms he didn’t waste time or money suing but sweetly judo leverage this to get his name prominently displayed on the movie posters as “Ray Bradbury…Saturday Evening Post” writer and then holy %#@& he was a Major American Writer! I loved Ray, but his gosh-wow sweet exterior camouflaged one of the most brilliant strategists I’ve ever met.
#science fiction#sci-fi#Robert A- Heinlein#Isaac Asimov#Arthur C Clarke#Ray Bradbury#John W Campbell#Christianity
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ESP: YA SOMOS 700! MUCHAS GRACIAS! Muchas gracias a todos los que están participando en el giveaway, significa mucho para nosotros. Acuérdense que termina el 27 de mayo! 🌻 Estos pendientes de calcifer los hice hace tiempo :33 #calcifer #howlsmovingcastle #studioghibli #polymerclay #earrings #clayearrings #art #crafter #artist #resinaepoxi #resinchain #clay 🌻 🌻 ENG: WE ARE 700 NOW!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR PARTICIPATE IN OUR GIVEAWAY IT MEANS A LOT TO US! please remember that giveaway end at may 27th 🌻 (en Palma De Mallorca, Spain) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_j4GLeIONc/?igshid=y3wa953ocolz
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So... is SE going to add a ilvl requirement to leveling dungeons so I don't get stuck with lazy people who can't gear their characters? Or they are just a group that doesnt want to do any mechanics and etc. Because apparently I can get in trouble for leaving a bad group now???? The one thing I can do for my own mental wellbeing when I get in one???? Even if it puts me in time out for doing it??? Sometimes I'm upset enough to just stop playing the rest of the day because I'm paranoid that I'll get another group the same lol.
?????????????
??????????????????????????????????
I only real life get mad when it's the healer or tank that's severely undergeared and I'm playing the opposite role of whatever they are. And I go and look to see if they are "new" or only have 1 job leveled, because if it's that then I'll try to calm down. However, 99% of the time they have several jobs and most crafters leveled to 70. So they should have no excuse to be wearing level 50 gear in a lvl 61 dungeon. Or like that healer wearing level 40-ish gear in Sohm Al nm. And when I asked if he had better gear after checking his jobs, you know, seeing if he was just accedently running around in glamours because that does happen. and he said "lol nope" . So I just left. Like. I already hate that dungeon and he's just making it worse by being undergeared.
adding "intentionally leaving or disconnecting" to thing list of things you'll get in trouble for is stupid. Esp if someone leaves because the group they are with is interfering with their own game play happiness and stress levels.
Also, promoting that being undergeared for a leveling dungeon as "ok" and "that if you get hate for it then call a GM" is what I'm going to deem as semi-toxic behavior because it causes stress and mental anguish to those who have to suffer for it.
You can buy stuff from an NPC 90% of the time. And there are quests that DO give out gear. As long as you are at, or somewhat close to dungeon level gear, I'm ok. It's the ones that are so far undergeared and/or have other jobs leveled that I get upset about.
It's not fun healing a wet paper tank because he can't be bothered to put on at or close to ilvl gear for a dungeon. And suffering through a healer who is oom after one small pull because they can't keep up with healing the damage and all the tank cool downs have been used is the worst.
#i am acctually really salty about this#i already get put in time out for leaving#but now a GM can get called on me for it#lol#¯\_(ツ)_/¯#rants#complaining#aaaah#im ok with the other stuff tbh#those kinds of things are real life good to have
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You’re back to watching the blacklist?! Wohoo!! I’m so happy to see you back in this ((hell hole)) fandom. But what made you do that and why?
I do appreciate your enthusiasm, kind anon, but I came back for this one episode only. John Noble and Martha Plimpton joining James made it worth sitting through these 40+ minutes. They did not disappoint and I enjoyed every moment, esp those they shared. John was excellent as the tightly-wound, detail-obsessed alibi crafter. And Martha’s spare-me-your-bullshit attitude as a therapist (w/ that voice… ah I love her voice) was so refreshing. And James is still James, still a powerhouse, and it still resonates w/ me best in those quiet, emotional scenes like the one in the cemetery. It was so simple yet so rich.
But the rest - which is sadly still the majority of this show - I can’t stomach anymore. I can’t and I won’t be nice about it. Liz really outdid herself in the self-absorbed, ignorant, entitled, and repelling protagonist department. The idea of her being a profiler & FBI agent (or the prime focus of another character’s very existence) is laughable at this point. The PO team is a bunch of exposition robots. DG is flat and bland at best, at worst it’s cringeworthy af, esp. that whole “evil genes” shitscreen they are trying to pull up for Liz. Why they cling to the dumbest, most simplistic and damaging ideas as if their lives depended on it I will never understand. But TBL doesn’t have a genuine emotional core anymore. Even Red’s “I’m an honest man” remark lacked now bc dude either let Liz believe she killed her dad and drove her mom to suicide, or he is letting her believe he is her father now bc… why again? Is it yet another pseudo-mysterious non-reason of vagueness to float the show until the season finale where they again “shockingly” reveal the opposite is true, so next season they can confirm the opposite’s opposite again? What’s even the point?
So I came. I watched this one. I’m out again.
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books you should read: anything by chris cleave (esp the other hand and gold) because he's a superb character-crafter, making his brainbabies real and flawed and oh so very relateable and loveable and admirable (plus really really good descriptions), maybe the magicians if you can overlook someone's machowhitemaleness... the char's not so nice (though the people around him agree so he doesn't really get away with it) but the worlds described are fantastic. also beauty queens by libba bray.
Thank you sm!
url: don’t get it |1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ♥icon: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ♥theme: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ♥posts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ♥ your posts are great, it’s just that I love the b&w/pastel aesthetic, i’m sorry :/am I following: no, sorry | now | yes | forever
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this clip and the clip of tina talking about how dream and other dsmp creators brought an entirely new and diverse audience to twitch will never not fail to make me emotional. theres few creators that want to actually acknowledge dream and the dsmp for the magnitudes they did for the streaming and gaming community as a whole, but poki and tina truly get it and them speaking publicly about it makes me really happy. dteam and the dsmp deserve so much more credit for completely changing the culture of twitch in less than a year. it's ridiculous that there's so few people that recognize how crazy the influx was and how drastically they changed the streaming landscape for women and diverse content creators. i hope later down the line someone writes about the shift because it truly is so groundbreaking
ive never seen thos omfg thank u so much for showing me anon !!!!! its so nice to hear, esp from someone as big (and also sadly, as targetted) as poki, that the influx and change in the demographic of twitch was not just not a bad thing with a bunch of “annoying” blue haired girls with pronouns, but a genuinely GOOD thing and made her experience on twitch better and just made twitch in general a more inclusive space is seriously just so awesome to hear. like u said, ppl very rarely like to acknowledge the good that came from dream and the dsmp in general but their influence is undeniable and while u get a couple thousand dnf 💚💙 spammers, you also got an new set of people who have an entirely new world now open to them that is so much more approachable for so many different reasons. and it all circles back to the crafters and the way they completely changed the culture and created space for women and minorities in general :)))
#ask#this is always something that makes me happy to be a dsmp fan as cringe and lame as that sounds#like they truly changed the game in such a massive way and yeah i would LOVE to read something up on this in the future with proper research#put in to just pit in perspective how insane their influence was in suchba short amount of time#and#idk but there is something so special abt one of the most targeted and also biggest woman on twitch even acknowledging all the positive#change that came for her from the crafters and the way they broke the twitch meta and audience#to the point where the audience/userbase they brought in made her STAY#gahhh it just makes me so happy to hear such a concrete statement and praise about something weve been trying to get people to acknowledge#for so long now#and i couldnt be happier that she was the one to do it cant think of anyone better#i hope she is well and she gets unbanned 😞🤍 <- 😭😭😭
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