do i care about this or am i bored .

Your posts are in an AI model

and then Tumblr decided to sell them to AI models.

Now, don't get me wrong, tumblr selling out the users to AI companies is bad, yes, they shouldn't do that. It sucks.

but don't lets get this confused: your posts were already in there. Tumblr selling them is about tumblr making some money and about the AI models having more exhaustive post collections. It's not about your posts being in an AI model, vs not being in one. That battle has already been lost.

Can you find your post on google? Then it's almost certainly in an AI model already. Think about it: These AI sites showed up before all the sites were making deals to sell their users' content, right? How do you think they built them in the first place?

They scraped the posts. Just like google and bing and such do when they build their search indexes.

It's a fundamental part of how the open web works: you want your posts on tumblr to be visible to users, right? You want them to be readable?* Like, look how much stuff broke when twitter changed their whole read-while-not-logged-in policy, ruining a bunch of thread links/NSFW links. And if it's visible, it's scrapable. That's what the AI models were built on.

I've done website scraping before (not for AI models, of course. I was doing search engines and website archival), this is just how it works. You hire a few relatively smart CS graduates and tell them "build me a scraper that'll give us a bunch of tumblr posts" and they go off for a month or two and come back with a database of a few billion posts, and you stuff that into your AI model. That's how they got all the deviantart and flickr and twitter and pinterest and so on posts. They didn't pay for them: they just took them.

They only ever pay for this shit because either:

they fucked up in such a way that the site might be able to sue them for taking rather than paying

They can buy them cheaper than they can finish taking them. Maybe they'd need to pay the CS grads for an extra month? well, that might be more expensive than just throwing the site a couple hundred thousand bucks.

ANYWAY: my point is, don't treat this "oh no tumblr is selling our posts to AI" like it's a big thing that might happen and it would be bad to happen. Yes, it's bad, tumblr shouldn't do this, this'll let AI models get continual updates of content for far easier than just scraping them would be, tumblr betrayed user trust, and so on...

but realistically, this is not a black and white matter of "if only tumblr didn't do this, then we'd be safe from AI models!"

Nope. We already lost that battle. I'm sorry, and it does suck, but that's just how it is. The avalanche has already started, it's too late for the pebbles to vote. * I'm assuming here that you don't run a private blog that's set to only followers or something. You'd be safer then, of course, but you're not really my target audience for this rant

do you have any posts that kinda expand on jake as a character? i want to like him in theory, but i just dont Get him, you know? its kinda like that with me for all the alphas but its the most for jake.

Oh my gosh yes!! Yes i do!! Heres some i recommend rather than me typing at length points more articulately said before or by someone else. Please please PLEAAASE message me again after you’ve read some of these and tell me if your opinions changed and what you think you get abt him!!

Jake English writing guide - expansion on his mannerisms. : a rhetoric of shit hes said that made me side eye him.

Jake english: a fandom analysis : long discussion i had with two friends abt jake

Facade, dirk and jake: small but to the point

Jake english is a jackass, not an infant.

Why tony artreactor likes jake

Harlenglishes: “when you fuck up its ok! if i fuck up its the worst thing in the entire world.”

Not required but recommended:

His ass was not being serious with these comments man. : the caliborn jake convo is my fave out of these.

Alpha kids and why i like them : personal opinion alert

Other than that i asked my friend @tipsygnostalgy their opinion on jake and they gave these wise words (roughly paraphrased)

“for me jakes appeal is fundamentally about whether humanity can overcome their own insecurities in terms of engagement with others and grow to accept true love in this essay ill be pushing him into the neongenesisangelion shinji ikari role and analyzing him thr—

Kidding, but listen. The first sentence is the crux of it. He constructs personas (believing in himself but the facade version of it) and relies on hope ketamine (believing in others) because its easier to do than to confronting the reality that he doesnt know who he is or whether he likes that person at all. This doesnt mean he lacks a self; he cant fully break but he cant fully give either. he exists in this weird limbo state where he chooses neither to be completely passive (actually letting someone walk all over him) nor completely active (refusing it outright) demonstrated best by the way in which he "breaks up" with dirk i.e. he doesnt.

He doesnt like the status quo but also doesnt believe in himself to fix it proper and i think that signifies how a lot of people make decisions when youre in this weird passive middle area. the world fucking sucks but what can you do about it, youre just one guy. No business knowing how to do that. On the other hand the way he plays people should be studied.

the jane crocker patented question of "Does he know?" is what he asks himself every night and its so utterly interesting that hes not sure of the answer”

I realise you're HE, but any thoughts on how high school level education should be run/changed/etc? I'd love to know your views!

Oh sure, plenty, but they're not particularly informed lol

Well; Wales is actually massively and fundamentally changing secondary education atm, but we won't be getting students from it until the year after next, I think, so no real comment on effectiveness yet - but it's very interesting. They're getting rid of isolated subjects in favour of broad umbrella areas, as I understand it? So there's now Science and Technology (Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Computing, and all the various DT subjects like Woodwork, Electronics, Cookery, etc), Maths and Numeracy, Humanities (History, Geography, Ethics, Religion), Languages Literacy and Communication, and Health and Wellbeing (actually maybe Cookery comes under this one now? Dunno.) And there's a sixth to do with arts but I can't remember what it's called. But it includes Art, Drama, Media Studies, etc.

And then the idea is that a class will learn about a given topic at a time (I don't know for how long, so let's say six weeks), and this will be taught in each of those six umbrellas but via their own methods. So like... I dunno, let's say the Tudors:

That's fairly straightforward for Humanities, but in addition to giving you the historical facts you'd also explore historic trade routes and natural resources of the time and how they related to the politics (geography), the religious make up of the country and how THAT related to the politics (religion), etc.

Maths and Numeracy might explore how to use statistics to analyse Tudor era population or trade data.

Science and Tech could look at disease outbreaks and virology, or technological advancements and how they worked and get students to build one, or get students to construct a Tudor-era town using computer software

Languages can study plays from the era (Shakespeare), look at linguistic development, or use historical events as talking points to practice using vocab in conversations

Health and Wellbeing can explore stressors and challenges of the average Medieval peasant and how they overcame them, or play some popular Tudor sport or game, or make food to Tudor recipes, etc

The Arts one (god I cannot remember the name) can look at art history of the period, fashions, perform plays, etc

So everyone is still teaching the skills and knowledge of their subject areas, they're just united by one big case study. It apparently allows for far more integrated teaching, too, where two previously discrete subjects can join forces on a project.

All of which seems pretty good, on the whole, but also rife with issues if everyone isn't careful, so we'll see how it shakes out over the next few years.

From my own experiences of school though. Jesus. Something definitely needed to happen, fuck me.

What I should have learned in Textiles:

How to use a sewing machine

How to sew by hand to mend a tear

How to darn a hole

How to hem, dart, take in, and let out clothes

How to sew from a pattern

What I actually learned in Textiles:

How to use a sewing machine on its most basic setting

How to phone in creating a hand puppet out of felt because gluing was easier than sewing

How to badly sew an extremely makeshift and shit bag out of scrap fabric that you in no way want to then use

How to lose all interest in Textiles because it was useless and uninteresting

Like that is a VITAL skillset-imparting subject, and they fucked it, lads, they completely fucked it. Why did they never set us the task of buying a cheap shirt from a charity shop that we then amended in class? That would have been so useful.

Games and PE! Fucking hell! Here's what I should have learned:

How to stretch my body safely to target specific muscle groups, and in particular, how to cultivate a daily stretching routine I enjoyed and wanted to do

How to find a physical activity active enough to get me out of breath that I genuinely enjoyed, so that I wanted to continue it, e.g. salsa dancing or rope climbing or ice skating or hill climbing or assault courses or fucking anything at all

How to build my body up to doing particular activities safely and sustainably

How to find a physical activity to do on wet, cold, rainy days that would still be fun and I would still enjoy

Here's what I actually learned:

Physical activity is always uncomfortable and miserable and sometimes even painful

If you aren't enjoying running around in the wind and rain instead of the indoor gym The Problem Is You. Start Enjoying It.

Wanting to stay warm and dry and comfortable is a punishable choice.

You are only permitted to do physical activity in clothes that make you feel profoundly exposed and uncomfortable (a gym skirt and gym knickers in my school. Cycling shorts got you detention. Don't get me started on jogging bottoms.) Again, if you do not enjoy this, The Problem Is You. Start Enjoying It.

There are only three activity options. If you don't enjoy any of them, physical activity is not for you.

You should be able to Just Do physical exercise, without any training to build you up to it. If you can't and it hurts, this is because you're Bad At PE.

You will only be shown Once

Physical activity is only ever a team sport that you aren't good enough to be willingly picked for

LIKE WHAT THE FUCK

And you know what, LET'S round off with Food Technology/Cookery. Because I remember the things I was asked to make in FT. As a little baby Year 7, I still vividly remember two of the things we made.

Angel Delight. Easy, you might say! A simple treat, you might think! Easing the children into food prep, I hear you cry! But no, because the theme of the year was healthy eating, and so we were to add fruit to our Angel Delight. Any flavour Angel Delight, any fruit. Off you go. I don't know if any of you have encountered fruit, Tumblrs, but it famously has faintly acidic juice. This will prevent the Angel Delight from setting within the one hour lesson, no matter how well you mixed the pudding, or how quickly you got it into the fridge. It will result in soggy gross lumps of oxidising fruit in sloppy liquid pudding. Lesson learned: fruit makes food worse.

Cake. Easyish, you might say! A little harder than the Angel Delight but good training, you might think! A fairly straightforward process with a child-friendly food at the end, I hear you cry! But no, because the theme of the year was still healthy eating, so the teachers made it into an experiment; make four small cakes. One with sugar, one with sweetener, one with apple, and one with carrot. Then taste them and rank them in order. Off you go. I don't know if any of you have ever tried eating sugarless carrot cake, Tumblrs, but I have, and I can tell you categorically that it really puts the "Did you know" into the phrase "Did you know that fructose and sucrose are not actually equivalents of each other in a culinary setting?" It was rancid. It was disgusting. It was vile. It made me hate carrot cake for the next 12 years, in case my mouth had to go through that ordeal again. I'm still highly suspicious of the stuff even now. To (I assume) the surprise of fuck-damned no one, we unanimously put them in the order of sugar, sweetener, apple, carrot. Lesson learned: FRUIT MAKES FOOD WORSE AND CARROTS ARE ACTIVELY DISGUSTING

What possessed them?! No idea. Fucking hell.

Anyway this is getting long and I am still ill-informed. Peace out.

thinking about lucretia adventurezone and grinding my teeth down to the gums because holy fuck dude. holy shit. she was impossibly, horribly young on the starblaster. three hops and a jump from being a fucking baby. the two-sunned planet is devoured by the hunger in the same year that she graduates from high school. she is easily the youngest of the birds, even considering the differing rates of aging amongst the rest of the crew. teenaged astrophysicist, wizard, author, artist, without ties solid enough back home to keep her from the starblaster's maiden voyage. she writes and rewrites every moment she can wring from her memories into enough notebooks that it's damn near arthritis-inducing to step within 50 feet of the stacks upon stacks of field notes, of detailed accounts and gentle, domestic benignity. she loves and she loses and it still can't ever prepare her for the next decade. a century dwarfs the time she spends alone running the bureau, but the sheer magnitude of her loss is incomparable. lucretia learns to live in the stolen century, learns to rely on others, learns to trust and care and laugh and build, create, sacrifice, indulge. she pries these things away from herself in the name of a greater good, to what she believes to be their only hope. she sees the agony they're in, and she inadvertently compounds that anguish when she tries to fix it. she is 18 and 118 when she feeds fisher her journals. she is 30 and 130 and 50 and 150 when taako holds a staff to her chest and counts down like it means anything to her anymore that she dies. maybe it's atonement, but even that sounds far too holy a word to describe it. her brother grips her life in his hands, and she thinks it's only fair that he is the one to soundly smother it at last. the lonely journal-keeper is so young and so impossibly old and she is so, so tired. her family will outlive her by centuries. she will be a fine powder, dust beneath the crust of the planet, long before she believes their forgiveness will ever be known. if that day comes at all. everything she has ever done is soured by a guilt so weighty that she spends every day trying to play damage control with the havoc she feels solely responsible for having wrought. she lives within the confines of dichotomy, of red and blue and good and bad, even when she knows she's lying through her teeth, because its easier to live with herself (it's not) when she justifies it, when everyone else lives and dies by the idea that she got it right. she spends 12 years alone, sitting in the thick of her own grief. she mourns men who are right in front of her face. she sees the way they have changed, so fundamentally, sees the ways her choices have ruined them. 12 years is such a long time to be alone. 12 fucking years. she ages 32 in the same span, shedding decades in wonderland in the blink of an eye, and she knows she's running out of time. she's willing to give up whatever she has left, without question. lucretia loves so fiercely and so unquestionably and still she believes herself to be irredeemably cruel when really she was just so scared, tethered to any sense of hope only by the idea that she was doing right by her family. in a position that no one should have to be in, a situation that virtually no one else could truly understand. she was so young and she suffered so, so much. more than any person should. she is flawed but she is not the monster she convinces herself she has become. lucretia adventurezone they could never make me hate you lets kiss on the mouth ok?

hi randomly picking your brain here! (imagine a literal batjokes brain picking situation though...)

I really like stories with a villain/hero ship, but I feel like they're always in favor of the hero -- tons of aus and potential with reformed joker (AND I LOVE THEM!!!)

but also, I personally love corruption AUs, and I love the idea of the villain reforming the hero. pulling the hero to the allure of the dark side and finally accepting some of the appeal that villainy brings to the table. being able to foster their love in an environment where their desire is no longer focused on others but themselves... and I know some of that happens with the batman who laughs, but I was wondering if you had any thoughts on joker successfully corrupting batman?

maybe it would be a fundamental crack in their foundation and wouldn't work in some iterations, but I love a challenge! maybe joker could convince Bruce that joker+batman on the same side of evil is less damage, more control, and more fun than batmanvs.joker on opposing sides. maybe less death would happen if Batman would play by jokers rules for a while! I feel like Bruce would at least explore the potential for that in his own head, even if he may not agree in canon, typically... even if it's just to play the long game and come back out again a stronger hero.

what do you think? 🫀

I haven't toyed around much with the idea of Joker corrupting Bruce. I've written Bruce doing shady/awful things, but they stem from his own issues and are usually, uh, bad for Joker.

The Batman Who Laughs basically illustrates why the idea's never grabbed me. Joker has built his life around acting in opposition to Batman. That's what he thinks is fun, getting under Bruce's skin. If Batman joined him in pure destruction, the challenge between them is gone. It's not their roles. It's why Joker considers TBWL an offense to the natural order. And more simply than that, I think Joker would get bored. It's the same as when he succeeds at killing Batman: yay, he did it! And… now what? It's easier to see Joker being reformed— or "reformed"— because there's still lots of ways he can start shit. 😂

Plus on Bruce's part, I can't think of a reason he would take that kind of turn that doesn't feel like a stretch, other than having his brain chemistry altered as in the case of TBWL. Like I did have the idea once of doing an inverted Halfway Across, in which Bruce gives up and joins Joker— but part of the inverse is that this story is a comedy and Bruce is just really bad at being evil. He'd drive Joker nuts by only stealing what they really need, giving people a chance to escape traps, freeing animals Joker tries to test on, etc. Which gets at the "less damage" aspect you mentioned, but I could still never think of a great reason Bruce would cross over to start with, even a goofy comedy reason.

But then again, that assessment is based on more modern takes on the characters. I could see it more with earlier versions, when Joker is obsessed with Batman but his crimes revolve around getting money or jewelry or funsies. Bruce is goofier too, and he hasn't, you know, dealt with any dead children.

And of course there are AUs, like in Telltale, where John starts out wanting Bruce's approval so it's easier to see him compromising with Bruce than your standard Joker. So you could have a universe where Bruce isn't as stringent about his principles— but then it feels less like corruption, and you lose the fun!

Hmmm, there is Omega in Last Knight on Earth. Joker was not a fan, but maybe we take a similar scenario. There's an utter catastrophe, and Bruce is broken, and when he has the choice to rally his usual worldview like he always does, Joker is there and convinces him otherwise. But then I still come back to: would Joker get bored? Maybe that's just part of the story. Joker is entertained by guiding Evil Novice Bruce for a while, but inevitably turns on him, mocking him for abandoning the principles that made him such a great nemesis. And then Bruce realizes he's truly lost everything! 🙃

Weird question for you 👉👈 do you have any drawings of the lamb or narinder like, naked? NOT in a horny way I SWEAR, I love your style and I just wanna see how you draw their legs lmao, I can't figure it out myself and other artists I can find are like, too human.

(nakey animals ahead)

Okay, so to preface this I'm a hobbyist artist who commits anatomical atrocities for shits & giggles, and this is by no means a professional/accurate way to draw animals, humans, or any combination of the two. This started as me struggling to explain how I draw instead of just sticking to the most brutally honest explanation of "I just wing it", but having to draw out different parts of anatomy and how proportional they are to each other was hugely helpful to help me re-evaluate how I draw animals. So thank you.

I'll be mostly using Lamb and Narinder for reference, because the brainrot is strong and they're what I draw the most.

A lot of my style comes from the fact that I'm primarily an animal artist, not a human one. In fact, COTL's the first fandom that I've drawn anthro characters in, and it was a trial trying to adapt what I know to upright animals.

Best way to get a better grip on anatomy is to sketch from references. Nothing that can really replace practice. It's helpful to look at skeleton and muscle diagrams and get a good idea of where body parts are in relation to each other. Then, search up actual references and try to overlay the shapes and bones onto them. When I'm not sure if something of mine is proportioned correctly, I just measure something with my fingers and compare.

Some specific things to note: generally, the hind legs of quadrupeds have a larger metatarsal area (the large flat portion of your foot) compared to humans--that's why people say cats tip-toe. Humans have theirs relatively short; how long you make that area largely determines how Creature the design looks. I know some people who draw purely human legs, some who draw human legs then add the extra foot length on top, all of that's fine. Personally, I will shorten the leg length above the knee to compensate. In quadrupeds, the knee will draw up very close to the torso area, as you can see in the jackal doodle.

Another note: when standing, it's important give the impression that there's a center of balance. When standing straight, a straight line drawn from the hip to the foot of a leg should be relatively perpendicular to the ground.

(Of course this all goes out the window the moment anything other than standing straight is involved but w/e.)

A lot of the fundamentals carry over between my quadruped and anthro art: the general shapes, the proportions, etc. One thing I noticed while sketching Lamb is that sheep have a femur that's almost entirely against their torso, and their legs are mostly just the tarsal parts (sorry if I'm butchering the anatomy).

For the arms/forelimbs, I mainly just use human anatomy with a repurposed number of fingers. It's easier, plus I can't exactly have a sheep with sheep limbs carry an axe around. I mean it's doable, just kinda awkward.

After getting the basics down, I move to more complex poses. One thing I struggle massively with is anything involving knees--kneels were something that eluded me for months. There are things that humans do that look very awkward when you factor in other animals' anatomies. I'm not super good with action poses so I can't really say how I've overcome that limitation, because I haven't :'D.

When I'm doing more simplistic poses, I just result resort to drawing a slightly bent line and calling it a day. You don't see much outside clothing anyways.

Last thing I found interesting: because of the weight distribution, the positioning of the arms in relation to the torso is different in bipeds and quadrupeds. Drawing anatomy with arms that kinda come forward and legs spread apart give designs a more animalistic vibe to me.

Yeah the absolute inability for a lot of the people in this fandom to not do an insane amount of projecting is crazy and makes discussions borderline impossible. There are a lot of people whose only analysis of ASOIAF is Westeros is a Patriarchal Shithole therefore any action by any female character, no matter how evil/deranged/sociopathic, is fair and cannot be criticized because Patriarchy! Patriarchy Bad! No other analysis needed! The amount of times someone will try to critique Rhaenyra for her adultery or pushing out multiple bastards she intends to put on the iron throne it's always met with 'Okayy but Westeros is a Patriarchal Hellscape so who cares! Rhaenyra is Bad Ass for taking Back her SeXuAl AgEnCy.' Once again, these people have a great disdain for the world GRRM has built, and I don't blame them at all, but I just don't get the need to be hyper fixated on a series where you fundamentally hate the setting. Makes no damn sense to me.

I also think a significant portion of this fandom doesn't want to make a good faith attempt to engage with GRRM's work because a lot of it is considered deeply problematic in 2023, but was shit he could get away with writing in 1996. Basically, I don't think he's necessarily doing a lot of 'critique' so much as being transgressive and using the medieval fantasy setting as parameters for his edgelordiness lol. I mean, in western first world countries, it's not as if Feudal Monarchies that are Highly Oppressive to Women, are....a pressing issue? Even in 1996 lol. What exactly is he critiquing? lol. Like, some of it is the basic 'critique' sure, but a lot of it is him being a edgy nerd that likes to write about nipples and nubile teens, but the fandom isn't ready for that conversation lol.

Hi there, you raise some interesting points, so thanks for stopping by. I agree with the first part of this post and less so with the second part. Under the cut for ease of scrolling.

I think there is definitely a part of GRRM that is a boomer edgelord just writing for shits and giggles and anyone who has read any sex scene written by him can certainly attest to that. But as to the lack of good faith engagement with his work by many of his own fans, I'm not really certain they demonstrate enough interest in researching the topics to even try? A lot of the times I feel like I'm talking to brick walls, like there is a definite lack of intellectual curiosity and a dogmatic obstinacy in promoting their conceptualization of social justice as universal in any time frame, but more in the sense of positioning themselves as thought leaders and Havers of Right Opinions.™ IMO it's more a preoccupation with virtue-signaling than it is a tacit apprehension of the problematic quality of the work.

To return to the bastard conundrum, a lot of them can't seem to understand that "just pass a law lol" isn't a magical solution and that it would actually require the overhaul of the entire political system, including economic and cultural advancements that are simply absent. How are people supposed to earn a comfortable living if agriculture is the main occupation? Of course that landowners are not going to give that up, they can't simply just "get a job at the business factory" to support themselves and make up for what they might lose. In this context, the acquisition of more land becomes vital or, at the very least, avoiding its fragmentation. That's why the first born gets everything. Yes, it's also patriarchal because it's the first born son, but it's also dishonest to not admit that it's just easier this way. It's less of a headache if the gaggle of relatives are left as hangers-on dependent on the good will of the head of their family. It's less of a headache because people will go to war less often if there are clear rules for inheritance in place.

In no way is this a perfect system or a fair one, but how are you even supposed to spread more democratic ideas if the population is illiterate? If books have to be copied by hand? How are you supposed to learn a trade to earn a living if you can't access information? Then you are dependent on guilds, but the level of urbanization in Westeros is very low. Guilds also gatekeep membership and information and I'm no medieval historian but I imagine that you can get into trouble for practicing the trade of a guild without authorisation etc like these are simply not topics on their mind when they think that Viserys can just change inheritance laws for everyone within a blink of an eye. Just it is not, but it's a logical explanation as to why people might act in a certain way or be less receptive to certain ideas.

Moving on to the topic of GRRM's actual critique and contribution to the disk horse. In previous posts I expressed being perplexed by some fans' conceptualization of this setting. Of course that it's difficult to issue 100% factual assessments when the series is lacking two whole books. However, there have been many essays written already on the topic of his deconstruction of tropes only to reconstruct them later on and how the series is not supposed to read in this dudebro, grimdark, cynical key where the evil and powerful always triumph over the true and good, so I'm not going to get into that. But I think that applies to the political setting as well. I'm pretty certain he is not planing to dismantle the concept of feudal monarchy at the end of ADOS, like, we're still getting a ruler, but it's going to be a Good One, as opposed to all of the other unworthy ones that came before. We're not time-skipping 1000 years of human development to bring Westeros into the enlightened era of late stage capitalism where you can be a CEO girlboss, nor is there going to be a socialist revolution. If anything, he's being pretty apprehensive regarding the last one by giving Dany a violent revolution plotline that doesn't work out pretty optimistically.

So, yeah, in that regard, I feel like applying a lot of modern left-wing doctrine on this series might lead some to believe certain aspects are hidden criticisms when they absolutely are not and start demonising stuff that was never intended to be "bad" in the first place. I already mentioned death of the author in my previous post and, certainly, you can analyse any work of fiction through any methodology you want, but, at the same time, I feel like there are certain elements old man GRRM included in his story that are just typical of medieval fantasies and are just accouterments expected in this setting that people are taking way too seriously. Like the Iron Throne being the source of all evil and trouble in Westeros. No, it's just a mighty, imposing throne, because that's a leitmotif in medieval fantasy. Or the Conquest being a Bad Thing,™ because they view it through the lens of American colonialism. Certainly, he presents the Targaryens as problematic as a whole and the Conquest being a bloody endeavour, but I'm not convinced that Aegon I's idea of uniting the realms will end up being critiqued in and of itself.

Similarly, GRRM as an author falls into the trap of a lot of cliches about the medieval period - the prevalence of child brides in his work being such an egregious stereotype. This is indeed unfortunate, but he's also 75 and probably did his history reading a couple of decades ago; meanwhile, the field has thankfully progressed since then, as has the quality of the research. But I seriously doubt the man scours Google Scholar to stay up to date with the historiography of the period.

As to what he actually DOES critique. I think that there are two kinds of avenues for discussion here, the first being how ASOIAF is in direct conversation with the high fantasy genre - so it's actually attempting to criticize other books - which is where the trope deconstruction and the complex characterisation play in, as opposed to reliance on formulaic plots. Here I will leave it to people who are more versed in this genre than I am in order to draw the proper comparisons.

The second represents the in-world critiques the story engages in. The nature of kinghood is one of them, the age-old question of what does it mean to be a "good ruler", the nature of power and how to wield it are the central themes of the series. We have a varied cast of nominees for the role of monarch; each style and cause is weighed against each other and, as they become inoperable or obsolete, will be disregarded and eliminated.

Here I think there is a very interesting conversation to be had about Robb Stark and his role in the story, because IMO it brings together a lot of GRRM's actual criticisms (both in-world and genre-adjacent) and it's a deeply misunderstood plotline. In most other fantasy stories, characters like Ned and Robb are the ones who prevail in the end; or, if the noble father figure is unjustly slain on the battlefield or cowardly killed in some way, then certainly the valiant son will succeed in avenging him and achieving justice. I personally think it's fascinating why GRRM chose to sacrifice both of these characters specifically. You can say Ned would be a more natural choice, as it is also in line with the fictional trope of mentors dying, but why, in his plot construction, did he decide against making Robb the hero? Why did he focus on Jon instead? OFC, the secret R/L plotline, whatever, but then why did he specifically create Robb only to kill him later on?*

Anyway, the point of this digression is that I think the actual criticisms of these characters' ruling styles fly over the head of the audience. Which is why you end up with dudebros convinced that Stannis was going to prevail or people who don't understand what's wrong with Renly. If they're a player of the game, rarely is a character killed off randomly or fridged; their demise can be traced back to their own decisions & actions.**

Additionally, there are some obvious critiques on the topic of war and how the relentless ambition of nobles to acquire even more power only ends up hurting the lower classes, but that ties in very closely with the central theme anyway, in that, at some point, the candidates have to ponder the question of whether to pursue their political advancement or yield for the greater good. There is also critique of the patriarchy that's not perfect, sure, but there are a wide variety of female characters given actual personalities and depicted in their attempts to navigate societal restrictions. I think there is also critique on the rapid, overnight overhaul of socio-political systems without a plan in place, reuniting and confronting many thorny topics of human rights vs political advancement towards democracy in a way that's actually achievable and long-lasting via Dany's Essos storyline. And, of course, who can forget of the critiques of knighthood and how he specifically took the character of Jaime Lannister, changed his original moustache-twirling villain arc and decided it was better to have an actual debate on how honour and identity intertwine.

To conclude, I would also say that he probably never intended for this series to become his magnum opus and the work for which he became world-wide famous; otherwise, he maybe would have done some things very differently. So it's very possible that he never intended to write this great critique of medieval-inspired fantasy in the first place; he probably just thought it would be cool to write something in this setting a la Tolkien. Not everything an author writes has to be this huge social commentary relevant to the pressing problems of today, but I think there are enough elements in ASOIAF that are unique enough and offer enough of a different perspective to at least pose some questions or start a conversation.

*that's a post for another day because this already got too long

**ofc this doesn't apply to the commonfolk or children or other innocents

Hey so I see you talk a lot about the corruption of Townsville on both a political and police/prison level and how villains are treated. I have similar ideas floating around in my head for my fic I'm slowly chipping away at so it's fascinating to see somebody else talk about this. Townsville's police and politicians are canonically shown to be very incompetent and I've always been surprised to see how this is rarely included or dissected within fanon interpretations and stories. I'm curious about a lot of things and don't want to bombard you with questions (worried about being annoying lol), so I'll just ask you one for now:

Where do the Ruffs fall into all this in your head? In fanon interpretations, it's common to see people talk about how the Ruffs were failed on so many fundamental levels. Their creation, being used as weapons and tools as opposed to having their needs met by children (with them often being portrayed as homeless), being subjected to horrific abuse by the police and in prison systems. I feel like people talk about their experiences a lot in fanon, but they don't really dive into them outside of "oh it was traumatic" as opposed to dissecting how horrific Townsville's justice system is, especially for vulnerable groups. Especially in regards to them being paralleled to the Puffs and the (conditional) privileges they have from protecting the city.

I think a more nuanced look at the villains of the show is something I always really appreciate seeing in regards to fanon, wish it was explored more. Excited to see what ideas you end up coming up with, particularly for Sedusa who's tragically underutilized.

I think as the Puffs grow to become more and more critical of the system, the privileges that the do have start to slip and many start to be wary of them like they were in the Movie. The Puff/Ruff species legitimately facing discrimination for who they are as nonhuman inorganic creatures is something I also think should be explored more, and how the Puffs protecting Townsville gives them conditional privileges.

I am overthinking shit to the extreme lol but I love dissecting this show and the potential it has in regards to exploring it's villains and deeper satire about the police/prison industrial complex.

Anon, it is currently December 9th, 2023, sometime past midnight as I'm typing. I want to include a date to this post because it might take me a while to come down from the high I've received from reading this.

Okay, so first of all:

"I love dissecting this show and the potential it has in exploring its villains and deeper satire about the police/prison industrial complex."****

🤝

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP! I wish I knew who you were, Anon, because you deserve a virtual hug. It is so nice to feel SEEN. This is the second ask I've ever gotten on this sideblog and it's already one of my favorites, you are not annoying at ALL. Secondly, I have no idea where to start so I'll just dive right into the meat of this question and hope to God that I hit all the talking points that I want to cover lol.

I didn't want to go into too much detail about the Rowdyruff Boys given the fact that they are a few of the main characters of the stories in my head but I'll GLADLY do so here.

In my fics, I have the Rowdyruff Boys adopted by Ms. Keane.

Stay with me on this, PLEASE, lmao. It's not all sunshine and rainbows. She finds them when they're eight years old. They're starving, and powerless; the Chemical X in their bodies are working overtime just to keep them alive as they're on the brink of death...thanks to HIM.

If you want a Puff/Ruff centered fic (or just hero/former villain) to work, regardless of genre, you need redemption and forgiveness. While forgiveness is easier to portray, redemption needs a foundation to build upon. IMO, the only way to do that, would be to get the boys out of the influence of HIM and Mojo Jojo. In these fics of mine, Mojo is a permanent resident of the Townsville Correctional Center (name pending, imagine Arkham Asylum), a newly built prison made, strong enough to contain the Powerpuffs (hint hint, wink wink). Meanwhile HIM leaves the boys high and dry then goes M.I.A after their declaration of not wanting to "destroy the Powerpuff Girls" (If you really look at the post movie scenes of the Rowdyruff Boys, you'll see that at the end of the day, they just want to live life and have fun in their own diabolical way. You can even see this in Bubble Boy when Bubbles, disguised as Boomer ((iirc, it was either her or Butch)) suggests to blow stuff up and Brick replies "Nah, we blew a bunch of stuff up yesterday". These are elementary school aged boys, eventually, they're going to get bored and no amount of hate toward the Powerpuff Girls is going to change that). The boys being adopted by Ms. Keane, lays down a certain groundwork to start from; they need some sort of positive, older female influence in their lives that aren't the Powerpuff Girls or other love interests (especially to begin challenging their post movie misogyny). Plus, I also think they'll challenge her to not view the world as black and white as she occasionally tends to, and she's one of the only canon characters I think who would actually give them a chance.

Being adopted for them also means having to deal with: ✨ Townsville's Child Welfare System✨

And if The Mayor and the police are anything to go by, I'd imagine it isn't great (and now thinking about it, looking at Mitch's family issues that I mentioned, we see that the welfare system is SHIT lol) (Hell, you can take one step further and look at Jack Wednesday, the incompetent truant officer who's definitely their parole officer now). Ms. Keane wants to get legal guardianship over the boys after caring for them for however long, and I can see whoever's in charge of that wanting the boys to answer for the crimes they've committed against the city first. Long story short, it's a quiet case, as to not upset the citizens of Townsville, and the boys have to live in a group home for two years before Ms. Keane is granted her guardianship. For one, it's a confinement of sorts without having to jail them *(because as Ms. Bellum, Ms.K's lawyer, puts it, they are children and victims of circumstance), but most importantly, this allows the city to test out Professor Utonium's newest **(and most reluctant) invention: Antidote X handcuffs.

It sucks. They're subjected to religious zealots who condemn the boys as demonic abominations for coming back to life (as if it's their fault), weirdos with a superiority complex over kids, short tempered adults who hit first and ask questions never, other bullies in kids who are also victims of circumstance, and they're powerless. And honestly, aside from MAYBE the Powerpuff Girls, who believe the boys are M.I.A, and Ms. Keane, who'd care enough about their condition to make a stink about it?

So once they're finally out into the real world, having to spend an extra few years in house arrest, watching people tremble in their wake feels nice. And they (mostly and especially Brick) can't wait to blow this sorry ass popsicle stand known as Townsville once they're 18. They're not under Mojo's or HIM's thumb anymore but they're still mean, cold, rebellious, snarky, and conniving. And even if the newest girls in school, the Powerpuffs, don't see it yet, who could blame them? (This is only for one specific fic, keep in mind.)

Something I feel is highly overlooked in these types of fics would be the outside perception of the relationships between the Puffs and Ruffs, whether that be platonic or romantic. Because, sure, in a perfect world, everyone would see them hanging out and think the girls would be such a good influence on the boys, who would finally start to turn their lives around. However, we've seen time and time again that the city of Townsville has turned against the girls (and the girls against Townsville, Buttercup assaulted numerous albeit criminal, citizens to exchange their teeth for money, Blossom stole a set of $1000 golf clubs, Bubbles released an entire zoo into town, and they masterminded the robbery of a toy store with the Professor, as well as comply with the robberies of Femme Fatale, not to mention what happened in the movie), and there's no doubt in my mind that there'd be quite a few citizens who'd see any of the boys with any of the girls and think that their "villainous ways" are contagious and that the girls are being manipulated yet again. I could see this as a slow starting point for the said privileges to be revoked.

The parallels between the Puffs and Ruffs are CRAZY too. You have the Rowdyruff Boys, who never successfully killed the girls (granted they are still villains but their only "bone to pick" with society is the Powerpuff Girls)***, treated as scum of the earth for being kids listening to two of the worst possible role models ever. Then, you have the Powerpuff Girls, who've committed crimes and killed the Rowdyruff Boys once before, living life on a pedestal with their amazing dad and loving support system. Sure, you have the Powerpuff Girls reel in the Rowdyruff Boys to the "good side" by showing them that they're not as evil as people believe them to be and that they deserve to be treated as citizens. BUT, you also have the Rowdyruff Boys showing the Powerpuff Girls that they're only given this camaraderie as long as they continue to be used as tools for every inconvenience the city faces, that the city is taking advantage of their people pleasing ways (which no one ever talks about), and that they deserve to live their lives.

*I didn't speak on this before, but I also headcanon Ms. Bellum attending law school, passing the bar exam in flying colors, as sort of a back-up plan. It couldn't hurt to know the law if you're planning on working in politics, she's just that bitch. I'd like to think she took the case pro-bono as a way to make it up to herself for not doing the same for her estranged niece (granted, her father's money and connections got Princess acquitted of all her crimes and a court ordered therapist, but Ms. Bellum would've defended her in a heartbeat regardless).

**This is also another headcanon I haven't touched on yet. There has to be someone in the governing office of Townsville who realized that these girls are practically unstoppable and that they needed a backup plan in case they choose to "turn on [them]". As an agreement to "allow the girls to save the day", Professor Utonium invented three things: 1.) Antidote X handcuffs, which are regular handcuffs with spikes on the inside to inject the user with Antidote X, rendering them powerless, 2.) Mini Dynamos, smaller robot versions of Dynamo to operate like robocops, and 3.) Help with the construction of the new prison.

***Yes they're still villains who've caused massive damage to the city, but they're only ever worried about the Powerpuff Girls. If they were as evil as their creators, they'd have killed every innocent civilian in their path. As far as we know, the Powerpuff Girls have a higher body count than the Rowdyruff Boys do. An INTENTIONAL body count, might I add.

****I wasn't gonna say anything, because this is long enough as is and I could do a whole essay alone on this but YES EXACTLY. It's very interesting how these criminals in the show commit some atrocious acts (theft, vandalism, attempted murder, crime of treason, kidnapping, assault, life endangerment, etc.), yet they're always released. 🐸☕

LMAO, that's it for now. If you have any other questions, I'll be happy to elaborate in another post.

im sure ive said this before but im thinking about it now, like. its very possible that my sexuality is more accurately described as 'demisexual' rather than ace. but god all the people i meet who are demi are just as fuckin inscrutable to me as allos. like yeah i would be willing and even excited to fuck someone if we had the right kind of relationship, but there is still something deeply and fundamentally different between us, somewhere between the sex repulsion and the extremely low libido and whatever else. i just dont give a shit about sex as a concept. its like fuckin, the filet o fish at mcdonalds. and im living in a world where everyone posts up close pictures of a fuckin fish sandwich and sometimes theyre eating it and like ive got nothing against fish i like fish just fine but what the FUCK is the hype. and the difference between me and someone whos demi is that they say to me 'well i am only interested in this fish sandwich if i know the girl who prepared it'. which sure. but then they also just post the same exact fish sandwich images as everyone else. you know? anyway its just so much easier to say im ace and then to post about sex and kink every other night bc of course i still have opinions on the fact that burger king's fish sandwich is better.

im gonna do a rambly thing because this is a rambly thing thats been in my brain and its actually sort of coherent and im incapable of shutting up so i want to share it. it also happens to be ace attorney because. ace attorney is running my life rn. but see more for said rambly thing (which will make the above make more sense, probably)

as much as i love the idea of the scene where apollo and klavier first meet, apollo looking at klavier and being Very Queer and klavier being like "ive never been looked at this way by a man before" and also being Very Queer, i dont think thats exactly what it is.

as ive mentioned a tiny little bit in a previous post, kristoph and klavier are nearly identical, and its kind of eerie how similar they actually are. theyre both easy to anger (though kristoph is a little more subtle until his breakdown) and tend to show this by hitting solid objects (wall for klavier, witness stand for kristoph); they have the same hair (which klavier seems to hav copied from kristoph); they both have sprites/animations of moving their hair out of their eyes, though klaviers is more sweet and suave while kristophs is more annoyed and disgruntled; kristoph has a sprite/animation where he kind of flicks his wrist and shakes his head, and klavier snaps his fingers (in the same general area); they both wear purple; they both wear glasses (klaviers sunglasses) with the same shape. the point is that they mirror each other

but, they are also fundamentally DIFFERENT. klaviers style is obviously rock n roll while kristophs is more traditional gentlemanly, and klaviers purple is much darker in comparison to kristophs. when klavier laughs, his head is tilted downward, but when kristoph laughs (in the flashback of what happened after the trial) his head is tilted up. kristoph tends to hold himself while klavier is much more loose. while they both tend to talk down to people, kristoph is more belittling and purposeful while klavier doesnt exactly seem to realize the wwords that are coming out of his mouth and just think hes being cool, yknow, like his brother. but, point is, theres a clear difference between them

you may be saying, "ok man can you just get to your point this is really stupid and youre dragging it on and its really hard to read paragraphs when you type so poorly" and to that i say yeah! i know! just hold on!

when apollo first sees klavier, he is HORRIFIED. a man so similar to his old mentor, the man that was supposed to teach him everything there was to being a defense attorney, the man that he helped send to jail on account of MURDER, appearing out in the open, so free and smiling. apollo is in terror and klavier somehow equates this to "i must look SO fine that this guy is giving me the same look women give me 😏" (which, i dont know what that says about the women he sees but) and completely misinterprets apollo looking him up and down in shock (apollo also literally says "mr. gavin?")

the reason apollo just seems to shit on klaviers person so much is because of how goddamn similar he is to kristoph, and he cant shake the feeling. and i think he recognizes that klavier and kristoph are NOT the same person, that klavier is not the same as kristoph, but he cant change that everywhere he sees klavier, he just sees kristoph in his place. and apollo cant find it in himself to be able to put a little trust in klavier being he just gives him this Icky Feeling.

i dont think apollo WANTS to hate klavier for being klavier either!! in turnabout serenade (i think?), when apollo and trucy go to talk to klavier on the stage, klavier greets them and apollo gives him an awkward "hiya". hes trying to be nice and polite and bypass his flight or fight responses but it comes out strained and uncomfortable. its much easier to say you dont like someone because theyre arrogant and whatever as an excuse than to say that oh my god, they look/act like someone who has made lasting damage/impact on your life. some jealously aspects could come from apollo thinking that klavier has it so easy despite also being horrendously betrayed by someone close to you because klavier just seemed to bounce back just like that.

i dont exactly know where to put this point, but after the first case and kristoph gets sent to prison, klavier literally cannot be lead by kristoph anymore. his brother isnt watching his every move, and he cant use klavier anymore (whether klavier was aware or not). theres just klavier, his own person

but, ok, whatever whatever, whats with the pictures. this one i can summarize easily, actually. in thinking [all of the above], i also thought of what would break the mirage apollo has floating around klavier at all times, and i think that would be something along the lines of klavier doing something that apollo physically cannot imagine kristoph doing as well. in this case, its kneeling down in the mud trying to find his key ring and then getting mud in his hair and being so oblivious to it. kristoph just isnt the type. and i think something like that would give apollo a moment of thought and realization. and then some like rivals to lovers stuff happens idk this post is over

hey! ward of rage here, have any tips for when [Infinite Rage]'s player id fuckery just. doesn't go away? I've turned off the skill, tried to sleep (not the best idea. it was weird. couldn't tell if i was actually dreaming, if i was in my dreamself, whatever) asked some of my coplayers for help, but no dice. i think if we had a heart player things might be a bit easier to get to normal? i feel more or less the same player-specific shit just doesn't work. my dungeons work just fine though, so I'm clearly still a rage player, it's just working weirdly otherwise????? could probably beat the game like this with sufficient help from my coplayers but it would be annoying as shit.

There are three possible solutions, which sound increasingly stupider but are increasingly likely to work.

Just wait for it to wear off lmao, it may be lasting unusually long but it can't last forever, can it? [this is the bad advice]

Use your Rage powers to try and order the game to correctly identify yourself as yourself. The apex of this method is triggering Infinite Rage again and seeing if you can do a "have you tried turning it off and on again".

Unironically, take your Sprite Pendant off and then put it back on again. Or maybe let someone else wear it and then put it back on yourself. Your Sprite Pendant is essentially your player ID, and wearing a player's Sprite Pendant identifies that play as that player for the purpose of performing duties and other matters of registry. Your Sprite Pendant doesn't permanently attune to anybody, so if it's not recognizing you as you, it's just a matter of giving it to yourself and wearing it, so your Sprite Pendant can recognize you as you. This should work, because the Sprite Pendant itself is mostly uncorruptible, given its heavy DRM and encryptions. And don't tell me "oh no the Pendant itself got warped", because if that were true then you would have either had several aspects of your personality and very existence fundamentally altered, or else you would straight-up cease to exist.

The thing you're not getting about why genshin is worse is because events are not meant to be the primary source of quartz in fgo. It comes from your weekly log in, live streams, 50 day ten pull, ascending servants to their second last ascension, story quests, free quests and the ten quartz you get from doing ten of them, rank up and interludes and the quartz you also get for doing ten of those, and special occasions like anniversary and new year. If you do ten rank ups you get a ten pull and you can do this in maybe an hour or two, now try grinding a ten pull in genshin. It'll be a lot more time investing and taxing considering you're just pressing buttons in fate. Also genshin's odds are just lower and it bleeds whales way harder by making constellations do more than just damage and they make modern 4 stars suck without them. Yes genshin has a better pity but that isn't the be all end all, you need to get 5 copies to max a 5 star in fate where as genshin its 6 AND 5 copies of their weapons. I could keep going on about ways that it's worse all day long, especially when genshin has way more micro transactions and predatory practices like battlepasses and resin but take that fate is worse is utterly baffling tbh

Oh boy let's get into the math here because this is where the fun begins.

Don't get me wrong, I'll never defend Genshin's dogshit practices, but I have a personal grudge against FGO fans sucking on it when it's literally the bastard of the mainstream bunch. This argument is me pitting garbage against garbage to say which one is stinkier.

This gonna be long so I'm putting this under a cut:

Alright FGO dailies list (I'll use NA for FGO, since Genshin is a global server schedule):

Day 2=1 SQ, Day 4=1 SQ, Day 6=2 SQ and Day 7=Ticket (3 SQ equivalent)

Total: 7 SQ

Needed for a tenfold: 30 SQ

Weeks needed for a tenfold via Log-In alone: 4 weeks and 4 days. 32 days total.

It should be noted that if you miss a single day, it resets from the very start. You must log in no matter what. It might take but a few moments, but note, you have to.

Genshin dailies list:

10 Primos per Comm/action, total of 40, and a 20 Primo bonus for turning into Katherine

Total: 60 Primos

Needed for tenfold 1600 Primo

Weeks needed for a Log-In alone: 26 days total.

Genshin's big detriment is that while you never lose your place, you need to spend time on Commissions. It can be anywhere from 5-10 minutes, which is a bit of a serious timesink. It's a bit better with the Fontaine update but it's still a pain in the ass for those on the go.

Alright, but Lord, that's just raw Log-In, what about monthlies?

Monthlies are the same, since both give you 5 tickets/fates to use. Genshin is at the disadvantage here since you need to spend the stardust you get from summoning on it, but Fate also requires you to spend Mana Prisms. Fundamentally similar, it's just that Fate wins out by the small margin Mana Prisms are slightly easier to obtain.

What about pity?

Eat my ass, Fate's pity system just happened cause they were getting this ass beat monetarily and they gave up and did a base-tier QOL update. Six FUCKING years we waited for pity and its over 900 SQ??? ((330 pulls btw))

I saved a whole year and a half back for Musashi's inital release and I just barely had that shit. And that was events, dailies, so on and so forth. (I got her in three tickets so nobody come at me with the fact I'm just a bitter old bird who didn't get my cute girl.)

While there's the 50/50 mechanic with Genshin, that levels the idea of 180, and that's going to hard-hard pity. No matter what, you can, and will, at least get the character you want.

Now what if we include Weapon Banner, since people assume Weapons+Characters *must* go together rather than it just being BIS and disregarding the completely different game mechanics of turn-based FGO and action rpg Genshin (<bitter).

Weapon Hard Pity is 240 pulls. You get a Fate Point for 80 pulls if you don't get your directed weapon, and you get another one if you get screwed again. Two Fate Points guarantees the next 80 is what you want.

Now, that might equal 420 pulls, but there's a catch few people acknowledge: Soft Pity.

Genshin has a system that, the closer you get to that hard pity, the higher the rate goes up. Therefore, it's not often someone actually goes to the hard 80 or 90. I'm just using the hard numbers as a point.

FGO is a hard pity, nothing about the rates changes from Summon 1 to Summon 330. Plus no guarantee you actually even get something from those 330 pulls--at least in Genshin you get a Basic Banner character who has some measure of utility you can use to make progress.

Also FGO pity doesn't carry per banner, but Genshin's does, so if you get fucked over and wanna wait a few months, you have another shot instead of wasting all of it cause you got close but no cigar.

But what about upgrades? Constellations?

NP-bonuses are rather minor and not as key as say, Xiao C1 or Hu Tao C1, so FGO has the edge there. However, that leads me to the side point of:

Weapons.

Reasonably, everyone talks about how the 3-star weapons suck, yadda yadda. You get so many weapons from the game as welfare that are good and can be used by multiple characters. You don't need a 5-star weapon, just because you aren't hitting 300k a hit doesn't mean shit.

Genshin has a lot more versatility in team building than FGO tbh, since a lot of FGO's boils down to "Do you have Merlin/Skadi/Chen Gong/Waver/Tamamo/Castoria/Support Caster.png" that you can then use with any other character.

Not saying Genshin doesn't have that too with Qinqiu and Bennett, but due to the nature of Spiral Abyss, people have gotten smart about using others instead of just them cause it's a split up team system.

Citation: I didn't get a single 5-star Weapon until Year 2.5 of Genshin. Fun fact, I also didn't have a single DPS 5-star either (all I had since launch was Diluc and Venti), until fucking Cyno came out. I managed to play the game just fine.

Now in FGO NA, I was also there since Launch, and I didn't get my first SSR until the Solomon raids, in which I finally got Florence Nightingale. I was playing the game carried by Kiyohime, Salter, and throwing SQ at revives. And guides, christ, so many guides it made Arknights look elementary.

What about general SQ/Primo flow (the Anniversaries and whatnot mentioned)?

FGO, the year of 2023, had, according to a Reddit post which I can link if people want the source, is: 2571 SQ, tickets included.

This Reddit post involved Servant NP Ascension Quests, Events, Chunked Log-In Bonus, Live Streams, Bond Stuff, ect ect (also, stuff you can't do if you didn't roll them, the post was being generous with people getting what they rolled or had)

That is about 85.7 tenfolds. So, if you don't spend a penny and not miss a day of logging in, the average joe might get about 2, 3 hard pities on who they want. Presuming I'm doing the math right on that.

Genshin, in the year of 2022, had, according to another Reddit Post, roughly 100k Primogems.

That equals about 62.5 tenfolds, or over 620 Fates. Now, tossing that into the system with someone with the worst luck imaginable that wants a character, that's about the same amount of 3 to 4 guaranteed pities.

One might note that the numbers are about the same, and yeah, that checks. However, there's a lot of variables, such as Spiral Abyss for Genshin, and actually having the characters to do Interludes on.

Half-baked conclusion

FGO is a money sink, Genshin is a time sink. They both sink your serotonin. Nobody wins.

Look, I play both, I have grief with both, I have fond memories of both. I wouldn't have a stupid expensive Okada figurine sitting next to a custom Cyno plushie if I hated these games.

But they're gacha, they're both out for your money, it's just that one is just a raging cunt about the whole affair.

Reddit Post Citations:

I have fundie fatigue. I used to be so invested in what the Duggars and some others were doing. The Josh trial and conviction took the wind out of my sails. It used to be like “Ha ha look what these wackos are doing!” But Josh and the Shiny Happy People documentary put into sharp focus how fundamentalism hurts and continues to hurt people. It makes it so that I can barely muster up any enthusiasm for a courtship, a wedding, the birth of yet another baby. I wonder if the Jill Duggar book will really examine what happened or if it will be a soggy cereal retelling of events like Jinger’s book.

I am totally with you and I think a lot of others are too. I'll always be interested in America's relationship with Christianity and the prominent people in that universe, but I find it rrrreeeeeaaaaaaallllllllyyyyyyy hard to give a fuck about these people's life milestones lately. At least in a neutral, not immediately critical way like I've been able to in the past lol.

I think for me it was everything you've mentioned and then also just how silent they all were about it, especially with the documentary, when ex-members of their organization were risking a lot to come out and talk about it. And a lot of that silence I think has to do with the fact that, even if they don't identify with the IBLP anymore, they still hold some similar beliefs to that organization and don't want that found out. I guess it was easier to give them the benefit of the doubt in that area before and feel more optimistic about them when I wasn't so sure they still sucked so much. Jill R might be my one exception because I've always known she sucked and never been able to treat her neutrally lol.

That and the fact that women and queer people in this country have been having a hell of a time trying to combat conservative political bullshit and are losing rights left and right because of it. And you just know every single one of these bozos votes in support of those values (assuming all the women are allowed to vote) which just puts a really bad taste in my mouth as far as giving a shit about what's happening in their highly curated lives.

But yea I'm sure you all have noticed that I check their personal socials a lot less and it's just because I can only tolerate them in small doses lately. And I kind of don't give a shit what their baby count is anymore, I wish they'd just stop having them.

auggggggh ive been wanting to make this post for an eternity but i havent been able to because I keep trying to explain myself WELL guess what. Im giving up, heres the song Wenn ich tanzen will from Elisabeth: das Musical with english translations, does it not make you think of what if Feysand was interesting

If you dont wanna watch the whole thing for some reason, I'd like to highlight this part

Fly!

I'll fly alone!

I alone want to accompany you through night and storm

I don't want to be accompanied anymore

Not even by you — I won't let myself be led

You're free only through me

Only through me

Only for me

For me!

For you shall make the way for me

I'm going my own way now

I've seperated myself from you — Leave me alone!

You've fallen in love with me

Because there's no freedom without me

And no one can understand you except for me!

Oh and also this part (theyre kinda singing over each other at this point)

I'm strong enough on my own!

You were only strong as long as you still thought that you were weak

I'm not calling for you!

You will call for me!

I'm not seeking you out!

You will seek me out!

I'm beginning to love my life!

Soon you will hate it!

Okay, I actually lied at the start of this post, I am gonna try to explain myself. My ideal not-boring version of Feysand that I think of when I listen to this song is like. Okay so, the structure of the story is fundamentally the same (except it takes place over a wayyyy longer timespan) with Feyre initially just kinda going about her new life as a traumatized fae and Rhysand coming to pick her up once a month, which ends up helping her because the SC manorhouse is kind of just covered in a bunch of depressing ooze rn (figuratively) and she cant really leave and Rhysand is basically giving her an excuse to hang out in a place without ooze, so its easier for her to have a good time. Rhysand is kinda awkward around her initially because hes basically like "ohhhhhh shit oh fuck, the woman that I tortured UTM as a fucked up way of coping with what Amarantha was doing to is my soulmate!!" because i really hate the fact that Rhysand apparently already knew about her and dreamt about her before she was even fae, it shouldve snapped in place for both of them during that little scene at the end of ACOTAR but Feyre has no concept of how a mating bond is supposed to feel like so shes just kinda like "huh, that felt kinda weird. anyway"

(this inexplicably got very long. like, 6 more paragraphs long. so much for me not explaining myself)

So yeah, Rhysand is hardcore struggling trying to figure out how to win her over despite all of the torture, but fortunately for him all she wants is to be left alone, so he does that, no putting her in unecessary danger and no asking insane favors of her even though theyve only been hanging out for like two weeks. Idrk how, but at some point they would start to get closer, this all happens very slowly, its a true slow-burn. And then one day Tamlin is like "I cant stand it, I need to find a way to break this bargain" so he collects a bunch of guys and he tells Feyre that theyre gonna go out and travel through all of Prythian and maybe even beyond in order to find a way to do it and itll probably take them atleast a few months. And then when Feyre says she wants to come along because this is about her after all, hes like "no, its dangerous and also, if Im gone then the Spring Court is gonna needs its Lady" and then he puts the shield around the manor because yeah, Im keeping Tamlin shitty in this one, sorry. This is about me trying to make Feysand good but trying to figure that out with Tamlin being in-character is too complicated for me rn so Im just gonna stick to the character assassination (thats something SJM probably also said while writing ACOMAF)

So yeah, like in canon, Mor gets her outta there and then Feyre starts permanently staying the night court except shes not going out on political errands because of the war with Hybern because honestly, this whole war plot is so stupid and it feels so unecessary like cmon Sarah girlie, I can tell youre not actually interested in writing politics, just stick to the romance and the healing journey. Anyway, during her stay she inadvertantly starts spending more time with Rhysand and realizing that he suffered too and that hes only human or fae or something like that, which helps her deal with her UTM trauma because she kinda thought of him as the embodiment of all her new trauma, so seeing that hes really not that and that hes just a person that she can make peace with helps her

Rhys is falling head over heels for Feyre because she just reminds him SO much of Cassian while Feyre is kinda conflicted but starting to develop some affection for him, and again, this happens over the course of many many months instead of just two. And after all that time, Feyre is starting feel pretty good and she doesnt really wanna go back to the spring court if shes totally honest with herself and then oops, Tamlin's back! He finds her and hes super worried like "oh my cauldron, feyre, my servants told me he just kidnapped you and they couldnt find a way to free you!! but Im here now and Im taking you back home dont worry" and Feyre feels guilty and shes basically like "yeahhhhh this was totally necessary, I definitely wanna go back... home, its just that he exploited this loophole in the bargain so had to stay here. Totally against my will, oh no it was so bad" and Tamlin tells her not to worry, theyve found a way to break they just need to get back to the spring court so they do that

At the Spring Court, Feyre gets to thinking. She thinks shes basically completely defeated her trauma by hanging out with Rhysand and shes like "well, my trauma was pretty much the main thing that made mine and Tamlins relationship not work, so now that my trauma is gone its gonna be all smooth sailing from here" and she just willfully ignores the fact that his way of coping with his UTM trauma was suffocating her and making it impossible to deal with her own issues and when she pointed it out to him he had a panic attack about it. Also, at this point it kinda hits her that shes been spending all this time with Tamlins enemy and feeling this affection for him that she hasnt really felt for Tamlin ever since theyve been back from UTM and their relationship started getting really bad, so now she feels very guilty and wants to rush into a marriage with him after all. Also, maybe by this point shes revovered enough to take a step back and start focusing on her surroundings again instead of just herself, and she realises that the people of the Spring Court would really need this kind of big celebration after this long time of turmoil and suffering, so maybe that plays into her decision to marry Tamlin as well idk

Meanwhile, Rhysand is back at the night court absolutely CONVINCED that Feyre is gonna come back to him even without the bargain or atleast send him a message or something, because of the mating bond and because by this point he thinks that Feyre loves him back, she just hasnt said it because Tamlin interrupted them or whatever. Yknow, because Feyre stopped throwing shoes at him and started to tolerate his presence somewhat, which are obviously the surefire signs that someone is in love with you. But anyway, Feyre never does get back to him because shes busy with her wedding and also trying very hard not think about either Rhysand or Tamlin too much so she doesnt simply run out into the forest to avoid dealing with all this bullshit

So yeah, Rhysand finds out about Feyre marrying Tamlin and he gets very upset and so he winnows to the Spring Court on the day of the wedding. Feyre has just been dressed up in this gorgeous pastel pink and green pantssuit (thats very important for the story) and now Ianthe is leaving her alone for a bit before the grand wedding ceremony. At this point Rhysand comes in and they have a confrontation thats basically just the song except in dialogue-form, remember when this post was about a song I really like, yeah me neither. During this confrontation I really want Rhysand to bring up the mating bond and kinda throw it in her face and I want Feyre to basically respond "oh, so now the guy who always preached about giving me choices and not letting others decide for me is gonna get on my case for not doing what some god wants from me, gtfo" and thats basically how it ends. Then the next book is the book where Feyre hay to make the choice between Tamlin and Rhysand because its a romance series at the end of the day, so even though I would like the last book to just be Feyre ending up single and going on her own adventures, I recognize that thats not a great ending for a romance series so

I wanna end this off by saying that I was trying to only focus on the romance for this because its easier, if I were to write my ideal acotar sequel it would look different than this even if I used the original acomaf as a base. So yeah, thats it hope you enjoyed my 7am ramblings, I have been awake for three hours already writing this

Just a ramble about last night below the cut.

So a friend of my parents' (and mine at this point, tbh, I've cooked at his house often enough that I think it counts despite the 25+ year age gap lol) was talking to me last night, and he has a daughter who's having what we in the business would call A Bad Fucking Time of being a teenager.

And kudos to him, because he knows I also had a rough time of it, he just asked 'what would have helped you back then?'

And damn, I had to think about it, because at the time it felt like absolutely nothing would ever help, and that the only real issue was who I was fundamentally as a human being, etcetera etcetera. But I eventually managed to give a few more solid options that help me out now.

Being allowed to just pick up and leave any social engagement or activity if she's not handling it, being given a chance to come back afterwards without a big thing being made of it. Setting up smaller opportunities for an apology if there's been an argument. It's excruciating to have to try and do that in front of a massive audience, but a lot of kids really do want to fix stuff they think they've broken. So yeah, all that stuff that just kind of helps to prevent and mitigate arguments and blowups when you have a kid whose response to triggers is to lash out.

Anyway, the more important thing is that he took all that stuff in, and then said something very sweet, which was that I seemed to be doing great these days (which, I guess I am tbh? Definitely in comparison, but it still felt wild to hear) and asked what the timeline was for that. And it took a bit, but I managed to break it down into around three steps plus one bonus level.

Step 1: knowing that something is wrong and it's not just you, as a person. It's something that is happening to you, and might be a part of you, but it's not the whole of you. See: ADHD, depression, anxiety, all that other good stuff.

Step 2: identifying the thought process. Not necessarily CBT, but recognising the point where something like RSD is coming into play and just. Actually seeing what's happening. Spotting the little bastard brain fucker who's making you feel like that and going 'YOU! YOU BASTARD!'

Step 3: now you've got the process down, practicing processing it, recognising it, not letting it control you. Telling it to fuck off sometimes, sometimes just going 'thanks, that's important, but we don't need to react like this'.

Step 4: (ongoing, advanced level) unlearning giving a shit to begin with.

Anyway I wanted to get this one down in words because it was a good conversation. No real point to the post, just glad that this dude is doing his best to support a kid who's struggling, and trying to pull in some inside sources on the whole 'being a mentally ill teenager' thing. It sucked that I couldn't give him a cure-all, or a foolproof method, or even a solid timeline. But I think it's going to be a lot easier for his kid than it was for me, because they're already at step one, moving to step two, and that's great.