"If you want my acursed wears, you need to make a deal!"

Impromptu costume for a fancy dress party. Was going for 'Happy Masks Salesman in art nouveau / Edwardian attire'. Featuring an Yangban mask (comedy mask repping aristocracts) from my Korean brother-in-law. Aswell as an actual 100 + year old sheleighleigh that I should not have brought to what turned out to be a mini frat party. It's okay, I kept it safe, but it was a very very dumb decision. Sorry Great gran pappy, a prize for best dress was on the line and I got greedy. Won't do that again.

Paintings for the 2024 Grumpy Bert/Harman Projects Red Envelope show celebrating the Year of the Dragon. Artists painted on the ubiquitous red envelopes that the Chinese fill with money and give out as a symbol of good luck and prosperity. "Yangban Dragon" is inspired by a nobleman portrait I saw at the National Gallery in Seoul. 3.5x6.5" acylic painting on red Chinese new year paper envelope. If you didn't know, Koreans also celebrate lunar new year. The gallery asked a few artists to also paint big 18x36" paintings, so I painted mine in acrylic on wood panel. Dragons are associated with agriculture and rain and the show has a red theme so it seemed natural to paint the Korean heirloom peppers I grow on our roof every year. Show runs from Feb 10-24th, 2024 https://www.harmanprojects.com/exhibitions/65-red-envelope-show-2024/

God it’s almost laughable how racist worm is wrt orientalism / xenophobia

Kurogane: Why haven’t you risen up against him? Chunhyang: We did try a number of times. A great number of times! But we were never able to set one finger on the Yangban. The Yangban’s castle has some kind of magic around it. Nobody was able to get close.

wait isn't yangban a korean word why are they in china?

wildbow moment

she's so proud about her brass bowls

There's a whole myriad of ways that worm has fundamentally broken my brain, of course, but one of the most random really has to be doing a double-take every time I'm listening to a history podcast and the pro-colonial Korean aristocracy comes up.

,

Today I was once again reminded, that the royal line of the Chŏnju Yi clan is absolute insanity. Because they really went from zero to one hundred in like....three generations tops....

Just as a little reminder:

T’aejo, the first king of the Yi Dynasty (1335-1408): eight sons, five daughters

Chŏngjong, son of T’aejo (1357-1419): fifteen sons (two not acknowledged),  eight daughters

T’aejong, son of T’aejo (1367-1422) (yes, the one that fell from a horse that one time): twelve sons (+ four that died in infancy), seventeen daughters (+ one that died in infancy)

Sejong the Great, son of T’aejong (1397-1450): EIGHTEEN SONS, four daughters (three died in infancy)

......so yeh....uhh that’s where we start off

and now we get to the thing that started this tangent:

The line of Prince Hyoryŏng (1296-1486), the second of T’aejong’s twelve sons, recorded seven sons, 34 grandsons, 92 great-grandsons, and 152 great-great grandsons. (source: Edward W. Wagner, “The Korean CHokpo as a Historical Source,” in Studies in Asian Generalogy, ed. Spencer J. Palmer (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1972), 149.)

And I am not going to go count the daughters as well....bc wtf...

Cultural Practices: Fire Nation Festival Masks

In the episode “The Deserter” (Book 1 - Episode 16), the Gaang visits a festival held by a local Fire Nation colony in the Earth Kingdom. There are some fun cultural details at this event.

The festival masks that the Gaang wear are based off of traditional Korean performance masks called hahoetal (하회탈). Hahoetal, like other Asian masks, were used in shamanistic rituals to ward off negative spirits and to depict certain character types in plays.

However, hahoetal masks are also distinct in how cartoonish they tend to be; they often depict exaggerated facial features and expressions. This is because an additional purpose of hehoetal was to satirize public figures and help the masses express otherwise suppressed thoughts. For example, peasants wanting to mock the clergy might do so by putting on a performance where they wear a hehoetal and pretend to be a drunken monk. The mask simultaneously created an unflattering caricature of the person being mocked, while hiding the identity of the person doing the mocking. This also allowed the audience to air their opinions and grievances at the caricature. For example, yelling that the monastery is corrupt and blowing all the alms money on liquor.

The smiling mask depicts the yangban (양반) or “nobleman” archetype: The nobleman is only superficially genteel and hospitable; in reality, he takes joy in abusing his power over others. The blushing mask depicts the bune (부네) or “concubine” archetype: She’s beautiful and easygoing, but also manipulative and unrefined; she’s sometimes depicted as a seductress or temptress. The crying mask depicts the nojang (노장) or “wayward monk” archetype: the monk’s loss of faith has transformed him into an alcoholic, hence the yellow eyes representing jaundice.

Having Aang initially wear the wayward monk mask might be a fun little Easter egg by the Korean designers/animators.

Like what I’m doing? Tips always appreciated, never expected. ^_^

https://ko-fi.com/atlaculture

Nilbog , it was staring me in the face for so long and I had missed that nilbog is just goblin backwards ...I had figured out secrets like accord selling cody to the yangban seconds after reading a newly dropped chapter but could not figure out that Nilbog was goblin backwards ...I am forever shamed ! that being said I always picture this guy with a legion of brightly colored muppets that you never see fully like in cheap horror movies where they are peeking around corners or seen in shadow or hiding behind something . after the Rick and Morty episode "The abc's of beth" and the trip to froopyland I really began to understand what a hell nilbog had created ...a bright technicolored hell full of manic smiling faces

Liberals on Earth Bet claiming every leftist cape is funded by the Yangban

Alternate ways to beat scion:

Big yangban

Teacher University

The power of friendship™️

Glastig Uaenae

Everyone finally listens to Accord

Worm Hot Takes (don’t like don’t read 🤷‍♀️)

Trickster has chronic sinusitis

Marquis is a Girgentana goat

Cody wasn’t sold to the Yangban. He made it up for attention

I don’t like rape jokes very much

Kiishim: Had I the choice, I would never have defended that brainless Yangban and his son against two such steadfast children.

Precognition in Worm is interesting to me for a singular reason. It can be wrong.

Glimpsing the future as a Parahuman isn't an actual vision of what is to come. It's a simulation of what can happen. Which is why Precogs can mess with each other's visions, rendering them entirely inaccurate.

As such, even the Simurgh isn't 100% accurate. Her plans work along assumptions of how people will act by viewing their entire self and twisting their thoughts with her scream. But it some deviates from their typical actions, if they grow as a person or have second thoughts then they break from her plans and stop being a Simurgh bomb.

The Travelers are a perfect example of this. Especially since the only character who actually shows this in story is Cody.

Krouse, for example, is a selfish, pragmatic person. He will do what's necessary for himself and what he cares for. And if something requires a selfless act, like giving Noelle mercy when there's no saving her, when her personality is visibly dying in the face of what she's becoming, he'll betray everyone and everything to suit his interests.

And Cody is someone driven by revenge and pettiness. Always wanting to fuck with Krouse for replacing him, even if it's a drastically stupid idea like making Noelle clone him. So when he goes against the pursuit of revenge and spares Lisa's life rather than killing her like he was going to, choosing to go on living and find the girl he likes in the Yangban, he changes his character and breaks from the Simurgh's plot.

Precogs in Worm are powerful, but they're aren't always right.