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ipatrichor · 2 years

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1 and 2 for the ask game?

1. give short descriptions of all your current WIPs

there are so many. i cannot give descriptions of all of them, but i will try to run over my unpublished ones briefly based on how they’re organized in my google docs :’

- i have about 2 set in the antarctic empire, and another royalty oneshot set in newfoundland

- there are 3 vague concepts for time travel aus centered around sbi, and two more for karl. there’s also a magic au that doesn’t involve time travel exactly, but definitely time fuckery

- an au where i adapt the jedi fallen order game, as well as one where i adapt tgcf for beeduo (with plenty of crimeboys thrown in)

- about four unpublished superhero aus, and some uncounted oneshots with similar settings- a crack vigilante au, a reluctant supervillain wilbur au, a twinsduo hero/villain au, and the catbur au

- there’s also the graceland au, which i’ve talked a bit about previously, and an urban fantasy au where psychic detective wilbur goes to solve a missing persons case and ends up uncovering a conspiracy with roots in his own home and consequences for magic society in general

- aand finally a bunch of oneshots ^^ there’s the sam nook gaining sentience one, a crimeboys time loop au, one about wilbur’s death, a fundy 2nd person pov character study, one where grian shows up during new l’manberg, a modern au where wilbur dies and tommy has to figure out how to live without his brother, one where dream breaks out of prison and ranboo fucking ends him, a dnd-esque injury-sharing one i’ve shared snippets of, what i fondly refer to as my butcher army ace attorney au, one where tubbo confronts techno about everything, one where i project my shit memory and optimistic nihilism onto karl, one i started but never finished for the 16th that was wilbur reflecting on what happened, and finally one that’s just 5+1 wilbur biting people affectionately but the +1 is him biting dream with intent to maim so

2. give short descriptions of all the main characters for [WIP]

okay, you’re gonna have to specify :’ i have so many wips,, you’re really gonna have to pick a couple and ask about those specifically skbhdsf you just read the whole list, there’s no way i can cover all of them

ask game

#asks #ask game #themagpieszenith #mutuals #please do send another ask specifying which wips you want me to answer 2 for!! that sounds very fun #but also i'm pretty sure i've forgotten to add at least 3 wips to the list so like. u can see why i can't do it for all of them jgkbfdh #and that's not even getting into my original/non dsmp stuff #like yeah graceland is more osmp but still i take dsmp dynamics and stuff :''

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always-and-forever-pan · 3 years

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MCU Vs. DCU in Character Arcs

The DC universe made me care about their villains, gave them better backstories and semi redemption arcs more in 1.5 movies than the MCU gave any of their characters in 23 movies, 3 short TV shows and numerous shorts.

And I'm honestly kinda mad about it. Mostly because MCU is one of my 3 most favourite fandoms of all time. They're my go-to action movies. But I've only seen Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey and am watching Suicide Squad as I type this.

To make a villain likeable, to bring them back to a hero or an anti-hero, or even just make them a villain we stan, you need to show something that views can get behind, something to make them relatable. Most commonly that's empathy, understanding of wrongdoing, and an active desire to fix their wrongs.

It's why the Winter Soldier works so well, we were given this assassin who's cold-blooded, deadly, the worst of the worst, but once he is a person again he's soft, he feels bad, he's actively trying to make up for it even though it's not truly on him.

And in direct parallel, we have Deadshot, a cold-blooded assassin working for money, deadly, one of the worst people. But then they put him in a team setting and within hours of meeting the team he has formed enough of a relationship with them to literally risk his own head to not have to kill one of the members. And when Harley's plane is shot down any way he is visibly upset and another teammate actually says "You couldn't have saved her".

And we love both of those characters for that. We want that! We NEED that! But where the DCU was able to do that on a smaller scale for some of their others, the MCU didn't do that for anyone else.

(Warning for some salt from here on)

And I hear you arguing "Oh Wanda showed empathy", and sure they showed her feeling bad in CA: CW but the context of that scene, and the lines they gave her made it so she was feeling bad because people were saying mean things about her and not because she accidentally hurt and killed people.

Like don't get me wrong, I was so excited when they decided to make Maximoff's MCU characters because what little of the comic I have seen made me STAN them. But the MCU butt fu*ked those two raw and I'm PISSED.

Like honestly they had the twins join a terrorist organization. Had Wanda mess with Tony's head making her an accomplice to the creation of a murder bot. Had Wanda mess with the teams head and then Bruce's so the Hulk would go on a murderous rampage with no one to stop him. Had them willingly working with Ultron, only to switch sides when he wanted to kill the entire world instead of just a few people making it seem more like a move of self-preservation than actual good motives. Then summed the movie up by saying "Oh her brothers dead so that good enough".

Only to turn around in the very next movie and have her show 0 empathy about the people who died past "They're saying it's my fault". Then they backed it up by her causing physical harm to some she's supposed to love with 0 hesitations.

Then the next time we see Wanda she's with the same guy we just watched her put through god knows how many floors, and within minutes of them being on the screen together she is refusing to allow him to choose between his life and the lives of half the universe. She is an accomplice to the decision of sacrificing an entire Black nation to save her white presenting boyfriend only to decide otherwise at the very last minute as her boyfriend begs her to kill him (Which in itself, MCU WTF!!!).

Even in endgames when she goes up against Thanos they give her some shitty line about "You took everything from me". They made her character revolve around the love of a man like she wasn't a complete person in her own right without him. They made her fighting Thanos seem like she wouldn't have if Thanos hadn't gone for Vision at the base of it when they could have had 1000+ other lines to make it seem like she was fighting for the right things and not just 'cause boy, love'.

The next time we see Wanda she has enslaved an entire town of people. Is forcing them to act against their will and for her enjoyment. The one person woken up while under the influence talks about how it hurts. And then they brush it off with some quip about how the people should be happy because Wanda wasn't doing it with malicious intent, that it was an accident. But still, Wanda shows absolutely 0 remorse for what she's done.

Now having said all of that let's compare her to Harley Quin. Harley Quin also willingly joined a terrorist, in her case, it was a person and not an organisation but still. The first we see of Harley in Suicide Squad we see her enjoying the pain and suffering she's causing, we see her willingly killing people including herself. And they summed it up with "Oh she did it cause she loves him" which I have some massive issues with.

We see Harley willingly steal, and kill, and hurt over the course of both movies. And yeah it's not making her a hero by any standards. But the DCU never tries to push that she's a good person either.

But what they also do is show us a Harley who is affectionate, who wants friends, who mourns when she thinks her love has died. They make us see ourselves in those little moments. They make her funny to offset her heavy crazy weirdness. They show us Harley who is empathic with her team and later with Cassandra.

They make Harley an anti-hero when they have her turn down bringing her love back in favour of saving people. Something the MCU did the opposite of with 'WandaVision'.

Do you see how those are different? Do you get why I can get behind Harley but not Wanda? And I will always say it but I hate that they made Wanda so HARD to like because if you ignore the red flags she is a BOSS ASS BI*CH.

And they did it to Tony as well, gave us so many likeable characteristics and boss moves, but never actually bothered to address personality flaws that lead there. They just made him go from 'not a single F for anyone else' to 'all the F's for everyone except me'.

They did the opposite to Rogers, made him go from 'countries and governments may be flawed but a single dictator having power isn't okay either' to 'I am going to ignore 117 countries and do what I want anyone even if it kills/hurts/maims your citizens because governments are wrong and I know best'

And I'm not saying that one is better than the other, actually, I kind of am saying that DCU did better than MCU here but the point is you cannot expect an audience to love and support a character you are unwilling to show to have humanity, to have empathy. And I really hate (Mostly out of jealousy) that the DCU, a fandom I'm not in was able to get that and the fandom I am in is still wandering in the dark with problematic lessons being relayed to us.

I JUST WANT A REDEMPTION ARC THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME HATE THE MOVIE IS THAT SO HARD!

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afrikanza · 6 years

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12 Interesting Facts About Mozambique

Facts About Mozambique’s Culture, Geography, and History

Mozambique is a country with a long stretch of Indian Ocean coastline south-east of Africa. Its attractiveness compelled Portuguese explorers to make it one of their earliest colonies way back almost 500 years ago. Mozambique’s coastal beauty makes it a great place to visit. We are going to explore 12 interesting facts about this great country to enable you grasp some perspective on it.

12. Since 2001, Mozambique’s annual average GDP growth has been among the world’s highest. Mozambique is still a very poor country however, with half its people living on less than $1 a day.

Fueled by new discoveries of natural gas and the end of over a decade-old civil war, Mozambique economy has been growing at an extremely high rate. However, it is still far away from lifting up over half of its population that lives on less than $1 a day.

11. Mozambique is drained by five principal rivers and several smaller ones with the largest and most important the Zambezi.

Some of the biggest rivers in south-eastern Africa cuts through Mozambique. Zambezi River is the longest one covering a distance of 1,559 miles and crossing over 5 countries (Namimbia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia). Other major rivers include the famous Limpompo (1,087 miles long), Ruvuma (497 miles), Olifants (348 miles), and Komati (298 miles).

10. Mozambique is forecast to be one of the fastest growing countries in the next 10 years, helped by exports of coal and natural gas.

The increased global demand for natural gas, Mozambique’s strategic geographical advantage, and its continued exploration and discovery of more natural gas fields makes Mozambique’s prospects luminous.

The return to democracy and improved governance makes better utilization of proceeds from Mozambique’s plenty of natural resources that also include coal and metals. All these have contributed high economic growth rate and extremely positive future prospects.

Another Must Read: http://afrikanza.com/best-athletes-from-mozambique/

9. Situated in the Tete Province in Mozambique, the Cahora Bassa Lake is Africa’s second-largest artificial lake.

Cahora Bassa project started in the late 1960s by the Portuguese colonial government. While its intentions were great – that is, controlling flooding and generating hydro-electric power, its ecological disaster was never considered.

As such, the ecological damage done to the lower parts of Zambezi river far outweighs its benefits. Disappearance of many fish species, drying up of wetlands that used to sustain wildlife thus leading to over 90% decline in Cape buffaloes, hippos, reedbucks, zebras, and waterbucks, among other negative effects, are attributed to this project.

Decline of mangrove trees that used to arrest severe soil erosion, soil salination, lower rate of grassland recovery, among others are some of the ecological disasters that have led to poor soil productivity.

8. Often referred to as ‘the place where Noah parked his Ark’, Gorongosa National Park was a playground for the rich and famous back in the 1960s, lured by the abundance of wildlife in the area.

Often referred to as ‘Serengeti of the South’, Gorongosa means “place of danger” in Mwani language of Mozambique. Serengeti Wildlife Park is home to the 7th Wonder of the World – Wildebeest migration. With an exception of migration between Mara in Kenya and Serengeti in Tanzania, Gorongosa exhibits a similar kind of plains and wildlife.

In as far as “place of danger” is concerned, Gorongosa is home to some of the most dangerous wild animals – Lions, Elephants, and Buffalos, among others. Of course, the other danger emanated from the civil war in which FRELIMO rebels pitched their tent in Gorongosa. It is during this civil war that almost 90% of wildlife was lost due to the need to feed the rebels and sell ivory to fund the rebel movement.

After the end of the war, the reconstruction and repopulation of Gorongosa began in earnest. As of now, Gorongosa is almost returned to its pre-war glory as the place where ‘Noah parked his Ark’ and emptied all the animals there.

7. Spanning an area of 42,000 square kilometres (10 million acres), the Niassa Game Reserve is the largest protected area in Mozambique, and one of the most pristine wilderness areas in the whole of Africa.

Niassa Game Reserves is located in the Northern Mozambique as part of the Miombo woodlands that covers southern parts of Tanzania and Malawi. It is one of the most pristine wildlife ecosystems in the world characterized by widespread biodiversity. It is mostly inhabited by wild herbivores which include elephants, buffalos, different species of antelopes and gazelles, among others.

Together with Gorongosa, they form a great place for tourists to explore African wildlife.

You May Also Like: http://afrikanza.com/richest-african-footballers/

6. Mozambique is only smaller than twice the size of the state of California in the United States of America.

Mozambique has an area of 313,661 square miles. Yet, there is a huge contrast between the two. While Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in Africa, California is the richest State in America.

Life expectancy in Mozambique is shorter than that of California by almost 20 years. While California is one of the most technologically advanced States in the US, Mozambique is one of the most technologically backward countries in the world.

Nonetheless, at almost double-digit growth rate, Mozambique is actively making efforts to turn away from its ugly war-past. This is a virgin land oozing with lots of investment opportunities. It is all a matter of having a global perspective, discovering what is needed and focusing on the long-term goals.

5. Bantu speakers migrated to Mozambique in the first millennium, and Arab and Swahili traders settled the region thereafter.

Like most of the Southern Africa, Mozambique is dominated by the Bantu speaking people who are believed to have originated from the Congo basin.

Arab and Swahili traders spread along the coast of Mozambique after descending downwards from the East African coasts of Kenya and Tanzania. Most of these Arabs came from Oman and Yemen. Swahili people are as a result of intermarriage between the Bantus and Arabs from which the Swahili language originates.

Swahili language is widespread in Eastern and Southern Africa. If you want to trace its origins, East African coast stretching from Kenya, Tanzania down to Mozambique is the place to explore.

4. The diet of rural residents in Mozambique is based on the cassava root, which is called mandioca in Portuguese. Its importance is testified to by its name, which translates as “the all-sufficient.”

Mozambicans love cassava. It is their staple food. Boiled/steamed Cassava is usually served with vegetables and at times beef stew. Apart from the roots, leaves are also used to make Matapa. Matapa is made from stewed cassava leaves, peanuts (ground), coconut milk and garlic.

There are interesting mandioca recipes to learn from the locals while in Mozambique. Give it a try and you will certainly be left licking your fingers.

What to Read Next: http://afrikanza.com/best-african-literature/

3. Greetings in Mozambique are lengthy and involve inquiring into the health of each other’s family. People generally stand close together and are physically affectionate.

Mozambicans are very social people. Greetings are not ritualistic but a kind of a goodwill dialogue moment in which parties to the greetings enquire from one another about each other’s welfare and that of their respective families and even neighbors. It is time to update each other with the latest information and news.

When in Mozambique, don’t be in a rush while greeting. Take time to have a small chat as you learn more from your hosts.

2. In the northern coastal region and islands of Mozambique, it’s common to come across women with faces covered with a natural white mask, called mussiro or n’siro.

Mussiro is a natural white mask that has both aesthetic and therapeutic values. Traditionally, it used to be put on by girls who are nearing marriage-age during special parties to symbolize that they are virgins ready for marriage. This way, potential suitors would be attracted to them and whoever the girl fell in love with would be signaled to the girl’s handlers for potential marriage negotiations.

In modern times, mussiro is used basically for therapeutic purposes – as skin cleanser, softener and tonic. Mussiro is a concoction of herbs rich in natural substances that boosts the health of the skin. For those who love natural skin care products, this is one such product you would love to experiment.

1. Some of the scenes from Blood Diamond starring Leonardo Di Caprio was shot in Maputo, Mozambique.

Blood diamond was a highly successful film that showed human greed for material things, more so, diamonds which led to shedding of blood and death. It is this human greed fanned by conspiracy between merchants of precious minerals in the West with African warlords to foment troubles in Africa for the sake of its exploitation.

Diamonds and such other precious minerals have been associated with wars in Sierra Leone, DRC, and Mozambique, among others bloodspots in Africa.

As you watch ‘Blood Diamond’, reflect on the dead, maimed and impoverished victims of bloody civil wars in Africa fueled by merchants of death eager to spill blood just to exploit its wealth. You could find a cause to campaign for Africa.

The post 12 Interesting Facts About Mozambique appeared first on Afrikanza.

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