#narrative bias
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Was Feanor's Death Anticlimactic?
(thank you to @ckgoksoy's artwork and @nyarnamaitar's tags on it that inspired this)
I’m sure the fandom has seen this idea floating around, that his death was quite anticlimactic*, a letdown after all his hype and drama, so I won't elaborate on this common opinion, one that I initially shared. I instead want to challenge it. Furthermore, I posit that not only was his death not anticlimactic, but that it was one of the most glorious fights in the whole legendarium.
*(I'm speaking of the whole scene in general that ended in his death, not the outcome of it - let's be real, self-combustion isn't boring and that epic circumstance was unique to Feanor alone)
Buckle up.
I'm not going to dive into "narrative bias" - it's a touchy subject and a deep discussion in itself - but it does need to be acknowledged here however briefly because it's so glaringly obvious that it directly impacts how we the Reader interpret Feanor's final fight scene.
My belief of the problem is not that there wasn't anything significant to report about Feanor's fight with the Balrogs, but that it was deliberately withheld from us. Let's look at Feanor and Fingolfin, two incredibly imperative characters to the drama. Compare the scene of Feanor's fight to Fingolfin's duel with Morgoth. In the silmarillion, from the moment he elected to go forth to the conclusion of his death, Feanor gets 1.5 paragraphs containing 344 words. Fingolfin using the same window gets 6 paragraphs containing 766 words. Of those 766 words, for text dedicated specifically to the actual combat alone, Fingolfin got 261 words.
Feanor got 29.
That's quite a gaping difference, especially when it's between these two. But you might make the argument that these two combats had entirely different foes. Feanor faced Balrogs, but Fingolfin fought Morgoth, the Enemy, the only occasion in which Morgoth emerged to fight anyone, so of course it should shine in the spotlight with some detail as to how it went (and yes, it should). It has nothing to do with bias against who was fighting, but what they were fighting.
All right. I'll pretend that this distinction is important. Let's turn to the other recorded Balrog-fights. Again, not including all the narrative revolving around their fight & subsequent death, but specific to the combat alone:
Fingon got 94 words
Ecthelion got 144 words
Glorfindel got a whopping 210 words
Feanor got 29. Now, length is not the deciding factor in this, obviously. The content contained within is what matters, and that's the rub: there's content. Which is why I literally figured out the word-count dedicated to what happened within the timeframe of the combats. Length is not important, but the point I'm trying to make with highlighting the lengths is that some measure of detail of the combat was included for ALL the other deaths-by-Balrog. Except Feanor's. So the argument that it was because of what Feanor was fighting that we were left with a truncated account is moot.
And remember, the three other Elves above were each fighting a single Balrog whereas Feanor was up against many. And I'm to seriously believe that there was nothing noteworthy to write about that? This was Feanor. Because that's another thing. The other three accounts were of minor characters (and Ecthelion and Glorfindel were very minor characters compared to Feanor). This was the legendary Feanor, the greatest of Elves to ever live, larger than life, powerful, intelligent and skilled beyond measure, and without who's driving force we wouldn't have had a story...and a few dozen words only are dedicated to his demise?
Now to clarify, Glorfindel's and Ecthelion's fights weren't included in the silm. Like I said, minor characters, so it wasn't surprising their combats were cut from the final draft. Their word-count was pulled from their accounts in The Fall of Gondolin. So, to be fair, I took the (really long) time and looked up Feanor's death in every. single. book. and, much to my genuine surprise, the silmarillion had the longest and most detailed account. The measly 29 words. What were those words? I should probably include them at some point since I'm going on about it:
"Long he fought on, and undismayed, though he was wrapped in fire and wounded with many wounds; but at the last he was smitten to the ground by Gothmog"
That's it. No wonder people are underwhelmed when reading it. So vague and containing absolutely nothing specific after he was surrounded. And it says "long he fought on", which means this fight was no short thing. This is an interesting element, because even Glorfindel's fight, which was given the most detail, was described as a fast event: "Now there was a deadly combat upon that high rock above the folk [...] yet it was over ere Glorfindel's men could leap to his side." Long he fought on. Logic dictates that Feanor's fight therefore would have the most to report of what occurred therein, but all we get is "wounded with many wounds" and "wrapped in fire"? (though that's an awesome visual to imagine, I have to say)
Am I really supposed to believe that every Balrog-fight was interesting enough to spend time writing about it except Feanor's? Especially when he faced not just one Balrog but many? And not one at a time, but all at once? (because it says he was "surrounded") And when this combat lasted a long time? All of these factors tied together hint at something awesome that happened, and you want me to believe it wasn't a jaw-dropping showdown?
This history was written by Pengolodh who, with reason, had a very negative outlook towards Feanor and, while he was a brilliant historian, he wasn't wholly objective and one way I believe this manifests is, in fact, in his lack of documentation of this fight. I'm only highlighting this factor and not the narrative he penned about the people he was writing because, especially comparing Feanor's and Fingolfin's accounts, that becomes very problematic and is a separate post entirely.
Feanor only got 29 words for his combat. I'll even be generous and say it was 35 words if we include the preceding line where it explains that Feanor was surrounded by them. What would happen if we rewrote Fingolfin's 261-worded duel with Morgoth and condensed it down to something short and sweet? Something like this:
"Fiercely he fought in rage and grief, and with Ringil he hewed at the Black Foe ere Morgoth crushed him to the ground. Thus died Fingolfin before Angband's gates."
Kind of anticlimactic, isn't it? (and yeah, I made that 29 words)
What an astounding difference detail makes for the conclusions we draw about these two fights. Now, if Feanor had died straightaway at the start of the fight, then yeah. Deeming it anticlimactic would carry a lot more weight.
Except he didn't.
Which brings me to my next three points. Because now after harping about the egregious lack of information, how can I dare suggest then that his combat with the Balrogs was glorious?
Ignore everything I've said up to this point. Dismissing the narrative bias completely, if I were of the opinion that it doesn't exist or its impact on the text is nowhere near as substantial as I've implied, the minimal detail of Feanor's death scene itself still convinces me that this scene was epic.
And yes, I do believe Feanor's fight was in fact glorious.
1: the Balrogs weren't able to kill him immediately
Those four words, "long he fought on" cannot be overstated. Fights with Balrogs in the First Age were fast, if you managed to live long enough to actually fight them, that is. And if you did, it was shortlived. Not Feanor's though. He was wounded with many wounds (so creative, Pengolodh), but he was never dealt the killing blow (I'll come back to this). The final wound Feanor received put him to the ground. Maybe Gothmog swept his feet out from under him with the fiery whip. Maybe this wound was to his thigh and caused him to fall to his knees. Maybe it took four of them converging on him with attacks for Gothmog to finally slip in. WE'LL NEVER KNOW. But he's on the ground and he's still alive. Still alive when his sons and army arrived to help and still alive when the Balrogs left:
"Then his sons raised up their father and bore him back towards Mithrim. But as they drew near to Eithel Sirion and were upon the upward path to pass over the mountains, Feanor bade them halt; for his wounds were mortal and he knew that his hour was come."
And still alive while they carry him away. Feanor didn't die on the battleground of his Balrog-fight. He died here, near the slope of the mountains. It says earlier in Feanor's account that he pressed on, thinking perhaps that he could reach Morgoth himself, which means they were far into the fields of Ard-galen, far from the mountain pass. From Eithel Sirion to the skirt of Thangorodrim's mountains, Ard-galen stretched around 70 leagues wide (one map has it around 100 leagues). Let's be generous and say this fight occurred at the midpoint; 35 leagues. If it takes an hour to walk a league, that's still 35 hours of non-stop walking without rest-stops, sleep or being weighed down by supplies and an army to get back to Eithel Sirion where Feanor died (some accounts have him being borne all the way back to Mithrim before he died).
At minimum, Feanor didn't die until at least a whole day later. He needed assistance getting up from the ground and moving, but he was very much alive, still talking, still coherent. Can you imagine how awful that was for his sons? The adrenaline of running as fast as they could to help him, the overwhelming relief that he was still alive, badly hurt but alive, they tend to his wounds as best as they can and get him out of there, probably smiling at their father being irritated by the outcome of the fight because that sounds like him, he's normal haha he'll be fine...But he's only getting worse with each league, face paler, can't move at all on his own, becoming so quiet. They keep tending to his wounds, try to keep him hydrated, steadily get terrified at how he gets weaker and weaker, and then he tells them to halt. The fact that he survived for a time, for many hours, led me to believe that whatever fatal wound he got, it caused severe internal bleeding, because his sons had plenty of time to patch him up and Elves' bodies are resilient and heal fast, but this wound was unstoppable.
Feanor fought against multiple Balrogs, and they couldn't kill him. He fought multiple Balrogs all at once, and they couldn't kill him. He fought multiple Balrogs all at once for a long time, and they couldn't kill him, one and done. He walked away from it, if for a short while, and that's amazing.
2: the Balrogs fled the scene
How has the fandom not lost their collective minds over this tidbit? Feanor gets struck down by Gothmog. He's on the ground, exposed, and it says he would have perished right then and there if his sons hadn't arrived to help. Feanor's vulnerable on the ground, unable to defend himself. Gothmog had to only strike him one more time and done, mission accomplished (he could've just stomped on him, just saying). Gothmog probably moved to do so, but didn't. Let me ask you a question:
What the hell did Feanor do in that fight to make the Balrogs AFRAID?
This was one Elf, a single Elf that they were all piling on, they finally get him to the ground...and they run. They can finally kill him, but at the mere SIGHT of his seven sons, the children of this one Elf running full pelt towards them enraged and desperate, they elected to flee instead of taking the two seconds to finish the job. I can see it; Gothmog's eyes blazing down at this prone Elf, raising his weapon for the killing blow, hears yelling, looks up, sees these Elves coming, takes a second to consider and then nopes out of there.
What in the world did Feanor do to them during their fight to make the Balrogs believe that fleeing from these coming Elves was the better option? They're Balrogs! Monsters, demons of living fire, the greatest of Morgoth's servants...and they run at the sight of Feanor's sons and the people with them. See now why I'm so desperate for details of that fight? Feanor put fear into them. There was really nothing worth writing about?
3: Morgoth was desperate
"[...] Morgoth was dismayed. Ten days that battle lasted, and from it returned of all the hosts that he had prepared for the conquest of Beleriand no more than a handful of leaves."
Morgoth was dismayed. Can we not appreciate the magnitude of this simple sentence? Appalled, apprehensive, frightened, nervous, shocked - Feanor and the Noldor made Morgoth, mightiest of all beings, dismayed.
This was a landslide victory for the Noldor, and it's often forgotten because of Feanor's death in the hour of that victory. The size of Morgoth's army here can't be disregarded. This wasn't a troop or two he sent to kill the Noldor, this wasn't a regiment sent to take over Mithrim. This army was of such a gargantuan size that Morgoth intended to use it for "the conquest of Beleriand". Not just the Falas or Doriath, the entire continent. It was THE army, that's how huge it was. And the Noldor massacred them to such a degree that "no more than a handful of leaves" returned to Angband.
And that puny remnant was running for Angband as fast as they could, because these terrifying Elves were hot on their tail, Feanor at the lead. And he runs faster, pulling ahead. (the Elves are hot with victory, how did Feanor manage to outrun them by such a distance? dang dude) He's coming for them. For Angband, for Morgoth, his father's slayer and thief of his treasure. Vengeance is nigh.
And from afar Morgoth sees Feanor coming. For him. His army is destroyed, gone, and Feanor, blazing like the Spirit of Fire he is, is charging for his fortress with the army of Noldor in his wake. And I absolutely love that Morgoth's solution to this wasn't to send one Balrog but several of them, including his General. That's what he deemed was necessary to stop Feanor. The Balrogs probably went out thinking "kill that one Elf? Easy, no problem", until they started fighting him...and struggled to do it.
It's interesting because Feanor wouldn't have been able to breach the walls of Angband. Not even the Valar could, and Morgoth knew this. He knew Feanor wouldn't stand a chance if he actually reached Thangorodrim. But such was his dismay that in his fear and anxiety, that fact no longer registered to him. He reacted instead, and his reaction is so telling. The Balrogs were a last resort, a desperate attempt to get these Elves to stop.
And it worked.
Thus why I say that details of his fight were deliberately withheld from us instead of the idea that they weren't worth reporting. The question, then, is why? Why withhold it? Feanor's death scene was never anticlimactic. It was instead given such a disservice in the tomes of history, for the historians simply neglected to report anything about it (for the sole purpose of making it seem unnotable perhaps?). This fight was badass. And side note: "wrapped in fire"? There's no sun or moon yet, guys, and that close to Angband I'm willing to bet even the stars were veiled by Morgoth's gales. It's pitch black on the Ard-galen except for what light the Elves carry...Try to envision what his sons saw as they were running to him, in the distance, the whirling inferno Feanor was engulfed in, that lit up the entire fields up to the skies. (Were they confused at first? Thinking it was simply a manifestation of their father's fire until they saw dark shapes moving in it?)
How could anyone omit information about such a marvelous event? Feanor died very early on, but he made sure his final stand was so glorious as to put fear into the Enemy. Think about it; this day was the first time Morgoth learned to dread the Elves.
29 words. Why oh why did you withhold everything else? Yes, all these factors woven together coalesce into an incredible impression of what transpired, but it's remanded unto our mere imaginations to guess and envision. I'm fully convinced Feanor's fight with the Balrogs was jaw-dropping, and I'm resigned to being forever embittered that we were given a lousy account of that event. There is one thing, though, that pacifies me and with it, I'll make my conclusion to this long meta. Why was it withheld? There's one detail written about this battle in The Quenta that I think provides the answer:
"no tale can tell the valour of Feanor"
Perhaps I'm being too harsh on Pengolodh for his lackluster description of Feanor's last fight. Maybe it was less of a passive-aggressive hostility towards Feanor...and more so the simple fact that no amount of words would've ever done it justice.
#feanor#silmarillion#dagor nuin giliath#morgoth#balrogs#gothmog#feanorians#ard-galen#pengolodh#meta#narrative bias#unreliable narrators
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Seeing Twitter users recommending the People Make Games documentary as a good way to get insight on the issue is so….
I know, I’m always extremely disappointed whenever I come across someone who thinks it’s the end all be all explanations regarding the Studio ZA/UM situation.
Recommending that video always comes with a heavy caveat from me that the person needs to stop around the 40 minute mark since the interviewer shows a very clear bias that’s unbecoming of a journalist.
Regardless, now that more people are finding out about these layoffs, which might take out members of the studio that have been there since the beginning, it could finally help smack some sense into those Twitter users that actually thought, FOR SOME REASON, Rostov, Kurvitz, and Hindpere were lying for shits and giggles rather than seeing what's ACTUALLY going on which is that the investors have a very obvious agenda against the real wronged party. Hopefully this'll also open their eyes to how the People Make Games video fed into this twisted narrative that Kurvitz was somehow at fault/responsible for the theft of his own IP, but that might be asking too much from their concrete brains. Here's hoping though!
#disco elysium#studio za/um#za/um#people make games#and I’m not even getting into Bratt’s response to the criticism he got#this man deleted so many YouTube comments that pointed out the inconsistencies and bias#it’s such a reddit conspiracy theory but at the time I briefly thought Kompus paid him off to push the narrative in his favor#now I’ve talked about this before in a post from almost a year ago#but i truly believe Bratt’s heart was initially in the right place but let his anger cloud his judgement#after kurvitz rightfully denied him a way to wrap up his video in a neat little bow cause he knew the studio would use his words against hi#something in Bratt must've snapped cause all the blame got pushed on Kurvitz for no reason other than he felt slighted by his response#it's kinda tainted PMG's work for me b/c moving forward I'll have doubt if the story truly is being accurately reported#my response#mp
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Many journalists are, unknowingly or otherwise, aiding and abetting in the constant dehumanization of, and therefore the genocide of Palestinians.
Also complicit are social media platforms that are shadow banning pro-Palestinian blogs, and throttling pro-Palestinian posts, and incessantly promoting pro-Israel propaganda.
Never forget. Remember.
Remember who did what. Remember what happened at Jabalya refugee camp. Remember how western media outlets used false equivalencies to imply both sides of this “conflict” were on equal footing when only one side has nuclear weapons, an army, a navy, and an Air Force; remember that the passive voice was deployed to avoid assigning accountability to Israel’s war crimes; remember how the media used negative and dehumanizing words to describe Palestinians who were intentionally starved and denied food and water and access to healthcare, as “looters” when they found food for survival; remember that this decades long assault on noncombatant civilians did not begin on October 7th. Remember that only one side has had decades of apartheid and only one side is committing genocide. Remember how news outlets talked about some “humanitarian crisis,” as if the aftermath for survivors, following the murder of more than 8,000 Palestinian civilians, was an act of nature rather than what it was: the completely foreseeable results of civilian infrastructure + noncombatants being targeted by incredibly precise IDF weapons systems.
Remember so that the truth—that war crimes were openly committed by Israel—cannot ever be whitewashed away. Bear witness now so that you can speak the truth in the future.
👉🏿 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bbc-staff-crying-at-work-in-divide-over-israel-gaza-coverage-l5g2bk0nf
#politics#tim davie#bbc news#palestine#israel#gaza#the media is complicit#media bias#media narratives#false media narratives#genocide#never again#never again to anyone#settler colonialism#settler violence#hamas ≠ palestine#bds#boycott divest sanction#banjamin netanyahu is a war criminal#nakba#israel is an apartheid state#remember#never forget#jabalya refugee camp#social justice#bbc
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the idea that european teams are invincible and set the standard when it comes to football needs to die immediately
#like the ‘shock’ the ‘horror’ whenever a non euro team beats & outplays a euro team…literally only those w a bias are shocked#to look down on teams in africa asia…fuckin latin america!!! as if they don’t make up all the talent in european leagues#as if they don’t play the most entertaining games#we’ve had this narrative shoved in our faces our entire lives im sooooo sick#anyways lemme not get myself riled up…again!#world cup#wc22#tx#mine
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Which intellectual property do we think Bethesda's done the most damage to over the years?
#tes#fallout#the elder scrolls#fnv#skyrim#crossposting so fallout fans get a say. i dont rly have a fair audience bias as a tes blog obviously but i am interested in whether tes#fans think fallout got it worse or not#which like. imo it did fallout 3 and 4 are narrative war crimes that shit all over the series' core message
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The Snipers reader bias is so funny. Comment after comment will drag a wizard for every generic, minor misjudgement, but that time Ed was totally hyped to set off an EMP he admitted would probably have blown something up, who knows how big or dangerous, everyone went aww poor baby wrecking ball, cruel and mean they aren't letting you knock down more buildings :( the secret to a successful coup is to have fun and be yourself, but you're being unjustly limited :((( maybe a threesome would fix this
(I'm not criticizing, it just gave me a laugh reading them)
Don’t you understand we have to kill 15 year old Hermione for daring to exist near Roy Mustang
#aksnsjdf no yeah it is really funny. AND very understandable bc im writing it mostly Ed pov#and ed is palpably my favorite#plus with the narrative convention of ‘crossover fixes all the Problems of canon’#it’s understandable that readers - and the story itself! - holds bias#some comments’ reactions WERE far more extreme than i ever imagined tho. lol#yap yap#99% sniper
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oh yeah i should probably post my PAFL doodles over time here too
#haven't posted much art here recently its mostly on pixiv and sometimes twitter nowadays#but ive been finding a bunch of cool PAFL art here so itd probably be good to throw these here if ppl wanna see#oh also watch PAFL i'm begging#PAFL#parties are for losers#my art#also please don't mind the Katya bias it's because I'm cursed with 'anything i draw turns out cute' and also bc I am just biased towards he#characters doomed by the narrative >>>
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ꜰᴀᴛᴇ, ᴅᴇꜱᴛɪɴʏ, ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ʀᴏᴀᴅ ᴛᴏ ɢᴇᴛ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ.
𝘓𝘦𝘨𝘰 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘦 𝘒𝘪𝘥: 4𝘹11 // 3𝘹14 // 4𝘹07 // 2𝘹09 // 4𝘹01 // 4𝘹07 // 4𝘹07 // 4𝘹13 // 4𝘹07 // 4𝘹06 // 4𝘹08 // 2𝘹10 // 3𝘹14 // 4𝘹10 // 4𝘹07
#posts for literally only me#I have never made one of these and I don't know what I'm doing!#but I had fun!#hmmm perhaps I have a bias for s4.#I am going to make one of these for tdp. it's decided#lmk#lmk rant#lego monkie kid#monkie kid#fate vs freewill#While making this I had an ''I am so cringe'' moment and then I remembered: I can do anything I want forever#the narrative
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― Stephen King, The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
Hockey Poetry Post 29/?
(Photo credit: Ethan Miller, Bill Wippert, Ellen Schmidt, Paul Swanson, Andy Devlin, Claus Andersen, link, Andy Devlin, Paul Swanson, David Becker)
Inspired by this ask
#declaring my bias: I like Eichel A Whole Lot#this isn't a poem but after the vgk/oilers round I couldn't NOT make an Eichel/McDavid post#so#yea#hockey poetry posts#jack eichel#connor mcdavid#edmonton oilers#vegas golden knights#HOCKEY NARRATIVES MAN
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Esteban on what it means on being a teammate.
#Esteban does the type of driving/racing people say they want but from a driver they don't want it from#I remember seeing this comment in reddit before and it actually makes a lot of sense#this speaks volumes on how hypocritical the f1 fanbase is in their treatment and opinions on Esteban#He races hard but clean and precise but people are so wrapped up in their bias and made up narratives that they are no longer objective#when they watch him race. It doesn't help also that the f1 media just loves repeating his clashes with his teammates#but without giving proper context on who was actually at fault.#as for the “bad teammate” nonsense...my pinned post says it all#Esteban ain't no pushover and definitely isn't anyones doormat#Esteban essentially debunked the narrative that he doesn't get along with his teammates.#But now watch people spin what he said to fit their narrative.#esteban ocon#eo31
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“hiSTORy iS WRitteN bY THe vicTORs¡”
Oh do fuck off with that Churchillian, pompous, small-minded, imperialist, triumphalist Great Man Theory bullshit!
That stopped being true after 1945 and you know it!
Get in the bin with that shite!
Besides I’m pretty sure that quote was actually about biased narratives.
Mind you, I’m not using it to justify revisionism or “lost cause” narratives! That shit can also get in the fucking bin! Starting yesterday.
#dougie rambles#personal stuff#vent post#history#great man theory#bullshit#historians#historiography#political crap#more or less#academics#social history#bias#biased#narratives#quotes#kind of#refutation
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False Equivalence
Why does the mainstream media keep depicting lunatic-right Republicans and normal Democrats as equidistant from the center?
With the final passage of the debt ceiling deal, Democrats got off easier than one might have expected, given that it was a deal between a mainstream Democratic president and a Republican House in thrall to the lunatic far right. In drastic contrast to the scorched-earth budget bill initially passed by the Republican-controlled House, the cuts were about par for the course in a divided government; and they spare the country a repeat of this debt-hostage ordeal for two years.
However, much of the media played the agreement as a compromise between two equal extremes. The New York Times story about the House passage of the deal included this astonishing sentence: "With both far-right and hard-left lawmakers in revolt over the deal, it fell to a bipartisan coalition powered by Democrats to push the bill over the finish line, throwing their support behind the compromise in an effort to break the fiscal stalemate that had gripped Washington for weeks."
Think about that for a moment. There is no doubt that Matt Gaetz, Elise Stefanik, Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar et al. are far-right by any definition, as white supremacists, Christian nationalists, election deniers, and nihilists on fiscal policy.
But no Democrats in the House can fairly be described as hard left. Those who voted against the deal included moderate liberals such as Joaquin Castro, mainstream progressives like Rosa DeLauro and Jan Schakowsky, as well as self-described democratic socialists including Cori Bush and AOC. But none of them are "hard left," which suggests anti-democratic, any more than Franklin Roosevelt was hard left.
The Times coverage reinforces a narrative of false equivalence that the media keeps repeating, with lazy catchphrases like "partisan bickering." It also plays into the hands of corrupt No Labels and Third Way types, who promote the idea that the best course for the republic is to split the difference between neofascists and a normal mainstream Democratic Party and president.
Big media, obsessed as it is with the appearance of fair and balanced coverage, took years to give itself permission to accurately describe Donald Trump with the impolite word "liar." But its treatment of the two parties as in any sense symmetrical is far more insidious than using euphemisms to characterize Trump’s lies.
Our friend Peter Dreier, whose observations inspired this post, points out that by any reasonable definition, "even the most left-oriented Democrats (AOC, Bush, Bowman, Raskin, Jayapal) are not extremists. They are shades of social democrats. They are pro-union, pro-choice, pro-affirmative action, pro-LGBT equality, pro-Green New Deal, pro-progressive taxation. But the most right-wing Republicans are extremists and reactionaries."
(continue reading)
#politics#false equivalencies#false narratives#media bias#both sides journalism#republicans#the media is complicit#false neutrality#third way#no labels#3rd way
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I love dnd and actual play shows but I do tend to get a lil bored when a battle goes on for a while so thank god d20 moved away from the storytelling and battle being their own respective episodes. I really like the blend of the two they’ve been doing for junior year.
#I just started this episode so it could be all battle this week but I’m hoping and praying we get see the rogue teacher#at the start of the season when there was like 2 eps dedicated to the night yorb fight I got worried but I love how theyve been blending it#it feels like things flow better#I love campaigns that are narrative and storytelling heavy#that’s my bias 🤧#dimension 20#fantasy high junior year#d20 fhjy#fhjy
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Sometimes I sit back and remember just how GOOD Link Click is as a story. Excellent plot? Check. Compelling themes? Yep. Characters well built that you can root for? Obviously. Deaths that do actually mean something? Yeah. Multiple kinds of relationships that colour the narrative? Yes, and it hurts us all. Banger soundtrack? Both the lyrics-based music AND the BG music. Incredible animation? We have that too. Balance of light and dark moments? Again, yes, and it hurts us all. Balance of show and tell? YES, EPISODE 9 S2. Supporting characters and antagonists who obviously exist as their own people even if the stories revolve around our three protags? Mhmm. Symbolism spun to deal max damage? We're still recovering from that
It's just Link Click is SUCH a well-written piece of media and I'm not ready for what happens in s3 but at the same time can't wait
#link click#fandom spamdom#link click spoilers#just in case#ITS SUCH A GOOD STORY AND NARRATIVE#and it doesnt need to be meta or life altering in the sense that orv was#its....i cant explain it#it feels almost like tma - the writing i mean#with a clear story thats going to be told (i hope anyway but so far i havent been proved wrong)....#...and character with complex moralities and inner lives#and symbolism that WILL destroy you slowly#and im rotating the soundtrack on repeat so much#seriously i dont usually listen to movie/show soundtracks except maybe one score#but the link click one is SO good#maybe that just my brainrot and bias speaking but im dying on this hill
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At the bus stop one time there was a gaggle of preschoolers waiting to catch the bus for a field trip day, and someone walked past with a couple of friendly little dogs, to great general delight.
But after a little bit, the dogs were getting overwhelmed, and the preschoolers were gently coaxed to back off so the person with the dogs could continue on. Specifically, one of the preschool teachers said, "Sometimes, when you're small, being surrounded by big people can be a bit scary and overwhelming. Even if they are friendly."
This was recieved as great wisdom: after all, the preschoolers were also small, and understood how scary and overwhelming big people could be! And the dogs were indeed even smaller than the preschoolers, so it made sense.
What was funny and charming was that, upon absorbing and reflecting on this wisdom, they all felt the need to tell it to one another. In tones of great insight, they turned to one another and said, "Did you know? Sometimes when you are small, being surrounded by big people can be scary and overwhelming! Even if they are friendly!" Back and forth, without any particular concern that they were all saying the same thing. Have reached comprehension of an insight, it must be shared!
I must say that this behavior is less charming in tumblr users than in preschoolers. Not least because tumblr users, having gained a little analytical skill to misuse, insist on Summarizing and Generalizing and Unifying the insights they repeat, quickly turning any interesting new information into formulaic dogmatic mush.
#i made the mistake of looking in the notes of the beach sand post i reblogged to see if anyone else had interesting comments#And the rate at which it went from like#1) person states with moderate confidence an opinion based on their personal observations#2) multiple people reply with “wow thats so insightful!” (aka it aligns with my preconceived notions of how things work)#3) someone else adds additional personal observations which are not really relevant but which can be absorbed into the narrative#4) people start outright stating the underlying belief on which this bias is constructed as if it were a fresh insight#5) general derisive attitude towards people who haven't seen the Obviously Correct solution to this complex real world problem yet#It's very.......#It's not like it's a high stakes post but it's such a microcosm of the whole dogmatic phenomenon#Also this js a more specific gripe to My Field or w/e#But the degree to which people react to the problems caused by the whole “Control of Nature” era of engineering#with this equally reductive “Nature will Fix Everything” type of attitude#Is sooooo frustrating.#Yes a great many of our current problems could have been avoided if we had not made massive changes to ecosystem processes on the assumptio#That they were simple and we understood them. And that they would respond in predictable ways.#the simplicity in retrospect of “wow we Should Not have done that” does not mean that they are simple to undo!#You can't go back in time. You can't turn back the clock on chaotic processes#Which is. Almost every process ever.#Restoration is hard! Returning to previous regimes of sediment or flooding or fire is tricky and full of foibles!#Moving towards a future which doesn't suck as much even if the past cant be recreated is also uncertain and difficult!#It's frustrating to see people act all high and mighty about how they Respect Nature unlike whoever is making all these decisions#When their understanding of the natural processes in question is AS simplistic as the people who caused the whole mess back in 1910 or w/e#Like I'm not saying there's not bad interests standing in the way of functional restoration on all levels#That's very much a fight to be fought.#But looking at that fight-in-process and saying “wow none of you Respect Nature like me uwu let nature fix it”#Is.#Ugh.
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Percy is a misogynist??
But yeah, I definitely agree that some of Percabeth's writing is iffy when you consider one of them is a survivor of domestic abuse and is constantly considered stupid for his ADHD and dyslexia.
percy has some questionable moments. he disses the aphrodite cabin, on circe's island he says that the worst thing ever is that annabeth is dressed up and wearing makeup, he acts controlling over annabeth's choices in ttc, he frequently says girls mess things up and make things complicated.
ofc this is rick's bias* (and why it's important to address ur fav author's implicit biases), so i don't really think percy is a misogynist, but if someone really wanted to they could use these moments to make that argument. similar to how u could, in theory, argue that the iffy moments w percy and annabeth mean the ship is abusive. do i really think that? no, i mean their relationship is built on mutual respect, but these moments being romanticized is frustrating given the exact context u said.
#i don't think i've rbed posts abt percy's narration specifically either?? i have one in queue talking abt ttc and that's it i think#rr crit#answered#*all of these moments have a pattern that extends outside of percy's narration and/or is not punished/refuted in the narrative#which is why it's a bias and not a character flaw. thanks for coming to my tedtalk
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