#i.e. that it's even from a different source then that's not exactly it then is it. but also that even finding an original document For OP

[ohnoitstbskyen]

I just saw your aro video and in it you said you would like to be spared sympathy because it alienates aromatic people.

But when you described that in your video that's exactly the reaction I had and so I just needed to ask what's a way to process in solidarity when someone says they cannot feel that way?

(this is the video in question)

That's not... quite correct. What I was talking about there is the tendency of alloromantic people (i.e. people who do feel romantic attraction) to approach the aromantic experience from a place of pity.

So, I say "yeah I don't feel romantic attraction," and they respond with something along the lines of "oh that's such a sad thing, I'm so sorry you are missing out on this."

And that's... rather grating, because it treats me as though I am defective in some way, or as though I live through a human experience which is lesser, rather than simply different.

People respond to the idea of not feeling romantic attraction with confusion, disbelief, and incredulity, because culture teaches us that to live without romantic love is to be embittered, lonely, deprived, sad and miserable. And so people pity us, and express their sympathy in the same way you might express sympathy for a bereavement.

Now, the truth of course is that I do feel some longing, some sadness, and an internalized desire to be "normal," to have the same experience everyone else does. I absolutely do feel that I am missing out, that a part of what it means to be human is closed off to me.

But the source of those feelings is self-pity, the source of those feelings is self-hate and insecurity and a rejection of my own experience. When I feel those things, it's because I have internalized the idea that my experience is not normal, that there's something wrong with me which ought to be fixed.

It is miserable to feel that way. I hate feeling that way. Because the rational truth is that I am not broken, I am not abnormal, I am not deprived, I am simply living a different version of the human experience, and I get to have emotional connections and relationships that alloromantic people will never have access to, too.

It has taken me a lot of long, hard work to get to a point where I feel my aromantic nature in neutral terms, where it is not a good thing or a bad thing, but simply a thing. And every time people respond to me with pity, they cut at the foundations of all that work, and invalidate it.

But in answer to your question: All aromantic people are different, we all feel different ways about what it is like to be us. But when it comes to me at least, if you want to express your solidarity with my aromantic experience, treat it as though it is normal. If I tell you I am aromantic, react as though I've just commented on the weather, or told you what my favourite color is. Just accept it, and don't make a thing out of it.

You're more than welcome to ask questions, or be confused, and you have the right not to instantly understand things, but approach it from the presumption that even if you don't understand it, this is just a normal part of what it means to be human. Because it is.

#tb answers #aromantic #aspec #aro pride #aromantism

[oliviabutsmart]

Physics Friday #12: Interpreting Quantum Mechanics

Preamble: "God does not play dice"

Education Level: High School (Y9/10)

Topic: Quantum Mechanics (Physics)

Developing the Schrödinger Equation

Quantum mechanics had it's origin in the nature of light, and then over the course of 50 years from 1900 - 1950, the entire field of physics was overturned as we realised that waves weren't just limited to light, but everything.

This came to it's head in 1926 with the creation of the Schrödinger wave equation, which dictated how particle 'waves' evolve in time and space.

Now you've probably heard of the wavefunction. Effectively, it's a probability wave, where the amplitude of the wave corresponds to the most likely location you'd find the particle.

The wavefunction doesn't just involve a probability distribution in space, but also in other quantities.

For example, if you put an electron in a small box, you can imbue it with an energy.

But because of quantum mechanics, energy is quantised - there is an energy of X joules, 2X joules, 3X joules, etc. If you put an electron of 2.5X into the system it can't just work like that.

Which is why the electron forms a weighted combination of different states corresponding to specific multiples of our X value. And this superposition just so happens to be the average energy, which is considered the classical energy of the electron.

For example an electron with a superposition of 2X, 50% of the time, and being in state 3X 50% of the time. This averages out to 2.5X.

Collapsing the Wavefunction

But how do you find a particle? Or measure it's energy? Well, via what's known as the wavefunction collapse. When we take a look at the particle as a wave, it suddenly snaps to a specific value and then evolves from there.

This wavefunction collapse can occur for any observable property of the particle. If you measure the energy of our 2.5X particle in our above state, it's a 50/50 chance that you'll catch it in either state.

And once the coin flip occurs, the particle's energy will suddenly jump to 3X or 2X and remain at that value.

You may think this violates the conservation of energy, but remember that the act of 'measurement' intrinsically involves interacting with the electron - a very important point.

But wait, what does this collapse mean?

The Schrödinger equation does not explicitly mention this collapse. It simply describes the evolution of an undisturbed wavefunction. Thus, we need to include collapse as a part of the three postulates of QM:

Particle states are described by a wavefunction, a vector belonging to a Hilbert space

The Schrödinger equation dictates the time evolution of these states

Measurement of an observable (i.e. a hermitian operator) collapses the wavefunction to an observable's eigenstate (each eigenstate being associated with a probability of collapse)

But this still doesn't really answer the question. What is measurement? What counts as measuring an observable property of the particle?

Well here's the thing ... we don't have an answer ... it's an open question and the topic of this post.

The interpretations

An interpretation of quantum mechanics is effectively a theory that aims to answer this question: where and how does this measurement occur?

After almost a century since the formulation of standard QM, we have a litany of many interpretations, most of which fall on a spectrum of when exactly it occurs.

On one end, we have ideas where the wavefunction never existed in the first place, or that the wavefunction naturally collapses.

On the other, we have ideas that the wavefunction collapses at a point very far in the process, or even that it never collapses at all.

I'll talk about 6 of these interpretations, although some of these theories of collapse are more categories of theories.

Think of the Ocean (Pilot Wave)

In the 1920s, de Broglie developed an interpretation of quantum mechanics that posited that subatomic particles do, in fact, physically exist.

The source of the wavefunction and the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics is caused by the particles being guided by a series of "pilot waves" - which push and move the particles around and imbue them with the motion and energy we observe.

The randomness comes from the fact that the waves themselves depend on the positions of all particles. These guiding waves are dictated by a special guiding equation.

dear lord that's complicated Image Credit: Wikipedia

This guiding equation, when applied to particles just so happen to result in our neat and clean Schrödinger equaiton.

So what happened to this theory?

The biggest problem with this theory is that it's non-local, meaning that the evolution of the guiding wave requires knowledge of all of the particles in the universe.

This of course, violates special relativity.

Another problem is that it lost the authors' support, or that the authors lost support. de Broglie rejected the theory in 1927 and David Bohm, the other author, was distanced from the other scientists for being outwardly socialist during the early red scares.

Pilot wave theory, in a sense, is so strict on the physicality of particles that it ends up sort-of wrapping around and becoming a many-worlds theory instead, to quote David Deustch:

Pilot-wave theories are parallel-universe theories in a state of chronic denial.

This arises from the problem of branching, a tacked-on attempt to reconcile the nature of the theory. That since the wavefunction was a physical thing, and the pilot wave and particles kept self-interacting, it sort of creates branching realities caused by distant communication with other particles.

Those silly numbers are hiding from us! (Hidden Variables)

The EPR (Einstein-Podolski-Rosen) paradox is another famous problem in QM, caused by entanglement.

Take two electrons and force them to collide with eachother, bounce off, and travel far into the distance. We know that after the interaction, these electrons propagate with free-particle wavefunctions. And we can fire them at eachother such that we don't know their momentums initially - i.e. they entangled.

Now wait for the electrons to travel very far away from eachother, and then measure one of the electrons momenta. In order to maintain conservation of energy, we instantly know what the momenta of the other electron is.

What we also know is that because of this measurement, and that the electron is entangled with the other, that we have just collapsed the other wavefunction instantaneously from a distance.

This is a problem, due to special relativity, we cannot transfer information faster than the speed of light. So clearly our QM is broken.

Hidden variable theories aim to solve the EPR paradox as well as just generally trying to interpret quantum mechanics. Effectively, there are a series of unobservable entities that dictate how wavefunctions collapse.

The wavefunction in the EPR paradox has a hidden variable stating the electrons' momenta so that we aren't violating causality, for example.

Fortunately, but unfortunately, this theory makes a testable prediction via Bell's theorem, which utilises entanglement to determine if these hidden variables work locally.

The experiments conducted show that only a non-local hidden variable theory is possible. One example of this just so happens to be our previous pilot-wave theory!

Observing isn't needed (Spontaneous Collapse)

We could be thinking of this wrong. Perhaps the wavefunction is real, and it is non-deterministic. But that at some point, it collapses on it's own.

There are several ways to do this, but at it's core, these are how the theories go:

There is an extra non-linear term in the Schrödinger equation, that is insignificant at the small scales

This non-linearity causes the wavefunction to be unstable, and prefers it to collapse to observable eigenvalues

With increasing complexity, this term becomes much more important, as more entanglement = more instability

The rate of decay increases as you entangle the system. And if a system is large enough, it's likely to collapse into a classical environment

Effectively, they say that the wavefunction will collapse on their own. And the reason we don't see it on larger scales, or see a collapse when measuring the system, is that the act of interaction (entanglement) causes the wavefunction to be more likely to collapse.

Of course, the theory has trouble reconciling with relativity. As entanglement works over large distances. Models can be made to try and say that entanglement over these distances increases instability for example, but we're still waiting on developments.

Lastly, we have the problem of tails. The wavefunction of a particle exists for all of physical space. At these far out distances, it is very possible for particles to get entangled with distant objects. Meaning that a wavefunction may end up collapsing further than we think.

The easy way out (Copenhagen)

The Copenhagen interpretation was developed in the 20s to attempt to come up with some placeholder answer to what collapse is. It is our middle-of-the-road theory which states that observation of an observable causes collapse.

Observation is defined as the act of applying an observable operator (like the energy operator) to the wavefunction by an external source to gain information on that operator's outcome.

The problem is that this is a meaningless statement. Because anytime a system entangles itself with something greater, it technically does this 'observation'.

Take the double split experiment.

Image Credit: Discovery Channel

What defines the moment of observation? Is it when:

The particles interact with the measuring laser

The measuring laser interacts with the larger observation device

An electronic signal is sent from the device to a computer

The light from the computer interacts with the conscious observer

We can't pinpoint the specific cut-off between the quantum world and the classical.

After all, we know that lasers can entangle themselves with atoms. And that electronic signals are nothing but moving electrons.

The point of the theory is that it's a placeholder. The definitions are ill-defined because we're kinda waiting for another theory to help us.

It's all in your head! (Consciousness)

The immediate answer to the Copenhagen interpretation could be that the collapse occurs at the end of the specified chain. When a conscious observer interacts with the entangled system.

It's a nice idea given that it kills two birds with one stone - it helps point to a physical theory on the nature of sentience, but also allows us to solve the measurement problem.

This does come into conflict with our current understanding of sentience. Our placeholder theorem is effectively that conscious experience is an emergent property of a series of interacting electrical signals in our brain.

This placeholder helps explain why humans are more 'sentient' than animals, or very young children, as we have a very active and complex central nervous system.

Of course, it's just a placeholder. We don't have an actual meaningful answer to sentience, and probably won't for a while. So for now it's left to the dark realm of god of the gaps.

Where it comes into conflict with QM is that a series of interacting electrical signals sounds exactly like an entangled system. So there clearly can't be just emergent properties involved otherwise we're just dealing with a spontaneous collapse theory.

There has to be something physically unique about a sentient brain to cause the collapse - effectively you require the existence of a soul. Something which is even further in the dark realms of philosophy.

Another issue is that it doesn't work with special relativity, as it violates the EPR paradox still.

We also need to determine what counts as sentient. Sentience isn't an on and off switch. There are many ways it can be expressed.

We know that some mammals have some form of conscious experience - so then are cats capable of collapsing the wavefunction?

Finally, what about the universe prior to consciousness? Did it just end up in an entangled nightmare until somehow we got an observer to collapse it all? How can something built of entangled particles end up collapsing itself at some given size?

This interpretation is very interesting, however if it turns out to be true, we'll be stuck with our measurement problem for quite a while.

For now, the biggest problem with the interpretation is that it opens the door to many, many quacks like Deepak Chopra. Who think that we can control this collapse with our minds and alter our reality by just thinking it away WoOOoOoWwowoWoOo!

Forever entangled (Many Worlds)

So, assuming that our consciousness theory is not the right answer, then what causes the collapse?

We can keep getting bigger and bigger:

The electrons in the double slit entangles with the laser photons entangles with the measurement device entangles with the electrical signals entangles with the computer entangles with the observer entangles with the room their in entangles with the Earth entangles with the solar system entangles with the galaxy ...

This out-spiralling entanglement continues without bound until the entire universe is in a superposition of states. And every time an interaction occurs we ourselves are being pulled into a new wavefunction.

This entanglement would've happened early, at about the time of cosmic inflation. But every new quantum event comes with a new set of entanglements.

This leads to the name Many Worlds, as we're creating new realities with every event.

Now it's important to note something important: this is not a multiverse theory. Multiverse theory is proposed source for cosmic inflation. Here, there is still one single universe. Much like how an electron in superposition isn't multiple actual electrons. The universe is just being treated as an electron.

This theory sounds far-fetched. Arguably the fact that it's unfalsifiable makes it not a good interpretation of QM. However, it is a lot simpler than the previous consciousness interpretation - it simply removes the need for a measurement process.

This satisfies Occam's razor as well. It doesn't require a mathematical formalism because the point of the theory is that the formalism doesn't exist.

However, not having a formalism makes it quite difficult to prove. It only seems to be correct in the sense that it doesn't necessarily say that measurement cannot happen, just that it's not measurement. It's entanglement.

Conclusion

Interestingly, the theories on the "wavefunction collapses early" side of the spectrum are more likely to be disproven. Primarily a consequence of the fact that they have the opportunity of making testable predictions.

Despite all of these interpretations, it's clear who stands as the best theories: spontaneous collapse and many worlds. They have their strengths, but they have fair grounding. You could argue that consciousness is also a fair contender, but it's a bit too much in the realm of fantasy - attempting to tie one big unanswered question with another.

Spontaneous collapse has proper mathematical formalism while many worlds seems to work well in an Occam's razor sense.

Regardless, that is a surface-level exploration into the many different ways we have attempted to answer the measurement problem. I hope y'all enjoyed this post and god I need to make them less long.

Please can someone fix this inverted colours issue it's like causing all of my colours on these posts to invert too thx

Reference post: https://www.tumblr.com/oliviabutsmart/732200630726377472/for-some-reason-some-reasons-only-some-images-i

Anyways, feedback appreciated, follow if want, send memes and send help.

#physics friday #stem #academics #stemblr #science #physics #quantum physics #quantum mechanics

[kradogsrats]

thinking about Terry and idk it actually kind of makes sense that Earthblood elves in particular would be like... not receptive, per se, but possibly the least unreceptive to dark magic of the elves??? or at least the most susceptible to reasoning that attempts to justify it

All of the other primal sources are very abstract in their nature, much more energy or concept than tangible reality, and also extremely constant: the sun and moon don't need anything to be able shine, the wind doesn't need anything to be able to blow, the tides will go in and out no matter what. That energy just exists, it doesn't come from somewhere and it doesn't really go anywhere. The part of the Earth primal that relates to living plants and creatures is the only primal source that relies on a cycle of consumption—you can't have herbivorous animals without plants that they eat, and then you can't have carnivores without herbivores that they eat, and if you're out of animals you're going to have some challenges with your plants growing because their waste and remains aren't around to return nutrients to the soil. The concept of consuming something, even something living, to strengthen yourself is not going to be as anathema to Earthblood elves as it is to others. Literally a part of their core nature, what they are born understanding, is tied to things eating other things. There's not gonna be any "eating the flesh of animals is a disgusting abomination on a similar level to dark magic" bullshit, there.

Now, there are definitely still things about dark magic that would be a problem: humans, and dark mages in particular, are not exactly discriminating in what Xadian creatures they consider to have sentience or personhood. Additionally, I think there's a strong case to be made that dark magic inherently disrupts the harmony of the cyclic or interdependent nature of life and consumption, in that the magic that is consumed is not eventually returned to the primals, but is corrupted and lingers as unusable waste or poison. However, that might be something that requires a fairly advanced understanding of how dark magic actually functions, which an elf would be unlikely to have (aside from maybe powerful mages). Actually, it's not really even 100% clear whether human dark mages understand that aspect of it.

The other thing with Earthblood elves in particular is that they are the most diverse of the primal elf types, probably because the Earth primal source is so broad, and they become very in tune and adapted to their environment. The Earth primal and arcanum are associated with things like stubbornness and endurance, as well as resilience. From there it's pretty clear, I think, why Terry likes and even admires Claudia: she's a human, deep in Xadia (a place she does not naturally belong, and is very different from the home she's used to), and with her dark magic has adapted so well to that environment! She doesn't let anything stop her in pursuing her goals, she just finds a solution—one that frequently has to involve understanding and working with what is naturally available around her.

The conceptual pattern of behavior for dark magic—harvesting something from your environment, consuming it, and using what it gives you to survive—is very similar to things Earthblood elves understand and even value. We also see where it breaks down for Terry: when Claudia uses dark magic or even just behaves viciously purely for emotional satisfaction (taunting Rayla with the coins, or unnecessarily fighting and then almost killing the dragon that was following them) and not because it supports her survival or goals.

so yeah basically for an elf to be chilling with a dark mage in the way that Terry does (i.e. not for business purposes) I think it does make the most sense for them to be an Earthblood elf (like Terry)

#primal magic #dark magic #terry #i don't see as much 'why is terry with claudia' as i do 'why is claudia with terry' #but idk if that's just my dash curation

[raayllum]

what fae like qualities do you believe aaravos has?

I don't know enough about the fae to say definitively (I've read some works depicting fae, such as The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser from the 1500s, A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare, some other folklore myths) but I try to stay away from sources that are too Christianized for stuff that's more Pagan / northern and western Europe and the 1500s has plenty already.

When in doubt I'm loosely using wikipedia / old class notes for reference but if there's a site or source I think is cool and helpful I'll note it down below.

There is some that are generally common knowledge, such as:

Fae being mischevious tricksters with very particular phrasing. They don't tend to often be outright malevolent as a motivation, but often do harm to humans anyway either due to ignorance or blue-orange morality.

Blue-orange morality (for those who don't want to watch a video) is basically when a creature or being does not have a morality that operates that we would define it (on a spectrum of ethical right or wrong actions per consequence or intention). A good example is the spirits from ATLA (not LOK) or One-One from Infinity Train. He's a helpful little robot guy and he loves his friends, but he is ultimately bound and operates within the Train's rules. It's not that he can't deter from the Train's rules without distress or that he doesn't want to, it's that deterring from the Train's rules just doesn't compute to him as even a thing to do. He's operating on his own unique level and it's what turns him from a S1 ally to a S2 antagonist (but not villain).

There tends to be an emphasis on names, deals, and exchanges, i.e. if a Fae says "Can you give me your name?" and you tell them it, they own it and you by extension now, stuff like that. Also have a tendency to give humans they like, or humans who do nice things for them, gifts (whether it's actually a beneficial gift is sometimes debatable).

The Fae often lure humans away from the Ordinary Realm into the Faerie Realm, where time and magic work differently. Sometimes this means being whisked away, or unknowingly stepping through fairy rings. This can include both the Seelie and the UnSeelie Court (Scottish folklore).

Examples of the Fae in popular culture include Spirited Away (don't eat the food!), changeling myths (faerie leaving their babies in place of your own, nowadays seen as a connection to old stories of Autistic individuals), arguably Coraline (film and book), will-o-the-wisps, and other figures in Welsh, Cornish, and broad European folklore, etc.

Variants / similarities include huldufolk (Icelandic and Faroese folklore), sirens (Greek), kelpies (Scottish), etc. Over time Christian (bc of course) associations have also been applied as both demoted angels and tempting devils, but that sort of works given one of Aaravos' most prominent comparisons is Lucifer, and Prometheus, who were as crafty and clever as they come.

Basically:

Aaravos emphasis (or lack thereof) regarding his name and the general mystery surrounding it — "My name would mean nothing to you" even in the face of Viren's demands

We see the emphasis on phrasing given that it's been stated by the crew that Aaravos never lies, but we know he purposefully obscures and omits information

Entering into deals and exchanges with humans, giving them gifts and promises (Ziard's staff, Viren's rule for himself and Viren's life for Claudia)

Him seducing Viren yes I said it / everything with Sir Sparklepuff tbh

Fae can also sometimes set trials to pass or tasks for people to fulfil, similar-ish to Aaravos giving Viren a little fetch quest for them to communicate / "Those who fail tests of love are simple animals."

We don't know what Aaravos actually wants, exactly, or why, but given the indifference of the other Startouch elves to humanity's plights (and the fact they've let Aaravos wreak havoc and have never stepped in to stop him) it's a far bet their long, illustrious lives have given them a decidedly warped morality, and that Aaravos is pretty indifferent to other people's immense suffering at this point, too

His mirror realm being its own sort of faerie realm that he can bring Viren in and out of

Aaravos having multiple names and monikers — the Fallen Star, the Midnight Star, one of the Great Ones — much the way the Fae folk have many — the Good Neighbours, the Fair Folk, the Kind Ones, the Wee Folk, the Others (citation).

This isn't as much of a thing but all the nature motifs surrounding Aaravos (Elarion as a flower, the nature-esque patterns on the box that held the Key and that match the key, the flower and vine emulations on his mirror).

#tdp #the dragon prince #aaravos #tdp aaravos #requests #analysis series #analysis #thanks for asking #anonymous #tdp meta

[starrywangxian]

hello i am here to remind you that lan wangji did not wait for wei wuxian for 13/16 years because wei wuxian died. (now with edits!)

people don't come back from death! what happened to wei wuxian was the first time it had ever happened and probably the only time i would happen (at least in a long time) because the riutal can only be done under certain conditions, i.e. someone has to be willing to sacrifice themself, you have to call a spirit that is vicious enough etc. and most importantly, lan wangji had no idea about any of it being a possibility! [edit: only four people had used to ritual before mo xuanyu - so my point still stands i just forgot that detail - source: "only three or four examples [of using the sacrificial ritual] have been proven to be true" novel chapter 2]

lan wangji did not wait because waiting implies that he knew wei wuxian would come back, which he didn't because he died. he spent those 13/16 years mouring and taking care of lan sizhui, the only connection he still has with wei wuxian. he spent those years preparing to spend the rest of his life in mourning and wearing white mourning robes!

he played inquiry [edit: lan wangji does this in the donghua, consider that canon or fanon] to try to talk to wei wuxian but lan wangji's cultivation and skill with the qin language is so powerful that spirits he calls must answer him truthfully! so when he'd call for wei wuxian and get no answer: that was his proof that he had died. then he would ask other spirits if they knew what happened to wei wuxian, where he was, how he was etc. none of them knew anything about wei wuxian. [edit: spirits cannot lie to lwj when he uses inquiry (as seen in chapter 22: "Under his [lwj's] control, the spirit who came was unable to lie, and had definitely been answering the truth.") and lsz reveals that some people have the power to ensure spirits must answer in chapter 37: "the spirit that i summon will be able to avoid answering, but will not be able to lie. so, if it is willing to answer, then it will definitely speak the truth." this doesn't exactly mean that lwj has this skill but when speaking with jin ling, it says that lwj has mastered qin language in chapter 22: "As he mastered the language, without any hesitation, Lan WangJi confidently played a few limpid notes."]

because wei wuxian hasn't born to a sect, he didn't go through the rituals to make sure his spirit would reincarnate so when he died he turned into a spirit but because even his spirit was torn apart by ghosts and demons he was unable to do anything. [edit: i worded this weirdly - i was trying to say that the ritual prevented people from becoming ghosts and that wwx didn't have this ritual because he was the son of a servant and wasn't raised in a sect. this is mentioned in chapter 60: "disciples of famous clans, like Jiang FengMian and Yu ZiYuan, had been affected by their clan and their clan’s treasures since they were young. When they grew up, they’d receive countless soul-calming ceremonies so that there was only a miniscule chance of them becoming ferocious ghosts. But Wei WuXian was different. He was the son of a servant. He didn’t grow up in the Jiang Sect since birth, either. He didn’t have the chance to go through so many ceremonies. If after he really died with too much resentful energy and became a ferocious ghost to haunt them, it’d be quite a pain."] he spent those 13/16 years being fully unconscious and aware of what was happening but not having the power to do anything about it. he was in literal hell for 13/16 years! [edit: this you'll have to bare with me because i read it in a tweet and can no longer find it ;-; basically it stated what i said] so no spirits knew what happened to him and he couldn't answer to lan wangji's inquiry!

in conclusion, lan wangji did not wait!! [edit: it's still wrong to say that lwj waited for wwx even if i got stuff wrong lmao]

#it's a simple fact but i see so many people say lwj waiting for wwx on the daily and it's just /wrong/ #lan wangji #mdzs lan wangji #cql #mdzs #the untamed #wei ying #wei wuxian #lan zhan #mo dao zu shi #mdzs wei wuxian #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #wangxian #starrywangxian #now with edits !

[catty-words]

i’ve made no secret of the fact that nhie season two nearly single-handedly demolished my deep, abiding love for - or, less dramatically, my minute-by-minute gleeful enjoyment of - the show, but i’m in an ongoing struggle to articulate to myself why exactly that’s the case.

i mean, there is, of course, the way the season handles devi’s agency, with her largely being a victim of circumstance rather than a character making terrible-if-sympathetic choices. the ‘devi abandons her friends when they need her most the second she’s acknowledged by paxton’ vs. ‘devi running her mouth and revealing a secret about aneesa that she didn’t even know was true in the first place’ dichotomy. even the act of dating ben and paxton at the same time is written with such incidental, ‘oh no, this is all so fast’ energy where devi’s concerned, that the storyline is nearly robbed of all characterization intrigue it held because the writing manages to make it feel more like an accident than a choice.

given how important devi’s agency is to the themes of the show, the fact that season two mishandles it so monumentally is honestly a satisfactory enough explanation for why season two irks me the way it does, yet my brain continues to puzzle. and, so long as you’re already indulging me this rant, i think i unlocked something tonight that’s essential to both my discontent with season two and my developing thesis that season three is the rightful continuation of season one: season two messes with paxton and ben’s roles in the triangle in a way that confuses the emotional gravity of devi’s grief.

at this point, it’s well-covered ground here on catty-words dot tumblr dot com, but for the sake of thoroughness, let’s establish what those roles are. paxton is devi’s escapism, ben is devi’s accountability. paxton’s attention offers devi the chance to be the normal girl who’s so hot and cool, it doesn’t even matter that she ever found herself wheelchair-bound in devastation. ben’s attention forces devi to reckon with hard, unflattering truths about herself that she cannot simply rebrand away, to the point where he plays a major role in devi overcoming her denial of her dad’s death.

and this should not be read as a value-judgement on who’s the better romantic interest for her. once again, if you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know i have my preference, but also that i find both relationships narratively rich, swoon-worthy, and important to devi’s development. she needs both the escapism and the accountability to process her grief; there’s a time and place for each.

season three honors these roles by interrogating how it makes devi feel to date a paragon of her own creation (spoiler alert: it makes her feel the need to escape into a different relationship even further removed from the grieving freak she feels herself to be) and by restoring ben as a constant source of tender advice dressed up in snide remarks.

season two, on the other hand, tries casting ben as the unattainable dream, with all his ‘one that got away’ energy and his placement off in the background giggling with aneesa, and paxton as the snide remarker, with all his anger over devi messing up his swimming career (another incidental circumstance, not one that devi manufactured in any meaningful way).

which is not to say the boys absolutely have to be married to their roles - they can and should grow and change as the story requires - but abandoning them entirely when season one had such a strong sense of their purpose does necessarily give season two tonal dissonance.

and, more importantly, the triangle becomes a less useful, far murkier mirror in which devi’s grief can be reflected back to her. mohan’s voicemail becomes the centerfold of devi’s identity (i.e. casting devi as mohan’s ‘perfect girl’ and forcing her to reckon with all the ways she’s failing to live up to that) as well as the escape from her messy life when she gets too stressed. and frankly, having the one manifestation of devi’s grief for the season filling ben and paxton’s season one roles while season two ben and paxton create bland, teen-romance-driven problems in devi’s life is the shittiest possible iteration of both the otherwise complex, well-balanced love triangle and the story of devi’s grief.

the season takes the beating heart of the whole freaking show - devi having to process the death of her father - and makes it feel very one-note. it also robs the love triangle of its profundity; the boys aren’t there to represent the paths devi can take to heal and grow, the three of them are just being kinda shitty to each other for the sake of drama.

#never have i ever #nhie meta #devi vishwakumar #mohan vishwakumar #devi x paxton #devi x ben #season two my belothed

[homochadensistm]

Saw the bodypic on your sideblog and hot DAMN! Any workout+nutrition tips for us peasants to get like that?? I'm a hardgainer myself so I would appreciate the advice!

lmao shouldve sent the ask there then :(

important disclaimer: I look Like That largely thanks to good lighting and the fact that I had a mad pump. I dont look like that 24/7, nobody does. If you remove me from that specific spot under the gym lights and wait 10mins for my pump to disappear Id look entirely Normal.

As for hardgaining, youre not gonna like the answer but - just eat more. We like to think we eat a lot already (because it feels like that, because most of us have tiny stomachs) but if u actually took 1 week to record everything u eat, including its nutritional values (mainly macros - carbs, protein, fats, etc), youd see youre probably lacking and/or eating exactly at maintenance (i.e., maintaining your current weight, nothing less and nothing more). The best way I found for myself to eat more is to split my meals, so instead of eating 3 big meals a day, I eat 5-6 smaller ones, and I make sure each meal contains a decent amount of protein (at least 10g). And yeah I wasnt kidding - record what u eat for just 1 week, itll help u see where/what ur lacking.

As for protein - I dont use powders. I find their texture disgusting and most of them give me stomach issues. Personally I view health and fitness as something I should enjoy so Im not gonna do things that actively make me feel like Im suffering or forcing myself, hence, no powders. You dont even need powder to eat a lot of protein, too. Lots of idiots will tell you you need to eat 1gr of protein per 1lb of bodyweight to get larger, but thats protein powder marketing bs (unless ur like, an olympic athlete). Normal people need around 1.2-1.5g of protein per kg of bodyweight to grow muscle mass, according to almost all studies on the subject (again, unless ur an olympic athlete), so for me, weighing around 55kg, thatd be between 66-85g of protein per day. As I mentioned before, I structure my meals so that each contains at least 10g of protein, so right off the bat I start at 50-60g on avg. My lunch (meal 3 usually) is around 40g on its own (blessed Pork steak & greenbeans), so I easily get to 85g of protein a day, and maybe a lil more. Meat shouldnt be your only source of protein, theres a variety of foods to choose from and if u enjoy cooking then ur gonna have a great time! The price of not using any icky powders is learning how to cook lol. If you still want to use powders thats fine, theres nothing wrong with them, but just so u know that eating more protein wont necessarily help u grow, cause ur body has a natural cap on how much it needs/wants to use of the general amount u give it, the rest itll shit out. So, if eating more is difficult to u, I suggest avoiding the powders and just restructuring ur meals to fit you.

As for working out - if youre a woman focus more on volume (higher reps, lower weight), if youre a dude then the opposite. If youre doing more reps at a lower weight make sure that the weight is still somewhat challenging to you though. The distinction between male and female here is important because our bodies respond differently to training so if ur purpose is building the big mooskles and ur a girl - lighter weights will get u there faster. If you want to maximize strength gain as well - dedicate 1 day a week to heavy weights (so less reps but increasingly challenging weight). Im not gonna delve into the types of exercises or workouts u should do cause idk u or what ur experience is but theres enough content online abt that.

The most important thing about the eating and working out is the consistency. ur muscles grow because they respond to stimuli, they adapt to the pressure ur putting on them. theyre not gonna adapt if this stimulation is momentary. Try to work out 3-4 times a week, even just for 30mins each. Get in those reps per muscle group, train each group about twice a week and ur good. Youll see longterm results once eating+working out becomes a habit.

Last thing I wanna touch on is cardio. Theres this weird belief that, if u wanna gain muscle mass, you shouldnt work on cardio. Idk which lazy cunt invented that but its not true! Cardio is important for ur heart, health and ur ability to lift heavier loads! You dont have to run for cardio, theres many activities you can pick from: swimming, boxing, jump rope, dancing etc. Hell, even walking is really good cardio (and is actually better for you than running, longterm) and you can easily do that if you got 1hr to spare twice a week. Developing your cardio will not only make you feel better and healthier, its also detrimental to your strength gaining journey, to avoiding plateaus.

goodluck!

#health #fitness

[moontheoretist]

Tweet by @thegamerwebsite: "As games become more realistic, our beauty standards can broaden to include characters like Dame Aylin"

Tweet by @BestBoyBosco: "Not if you want normal males to buy your stuff. Games are, typically, aspirational products. That is, players get to do or see something they normally don't. Games are an escape. Only the uncreative and those with an axe to grind advocate for escapes to reflect reality".

Those two tweets are proof that men are not okay and have no taste.

Spoiler, a rage rant of offended media scholar incoming.

Exactly as Anthony said. HOW can anybody think that Dame Aylin is ANYTHING BUT A TOP TIER WOMAN?! ARE YOU ALL DAFT!? Are they all just nuts? AYLIN IS A FUKING MODEL! SHE IS A BEAUTY STANDARD ALREADY! SHE DOESN'T NEED TO BE ADDED THERE BECAUSE SHE SETS THE FUCKING STANDARD! Normal males? YOU MEAN DUDEBRO IDIOTS?! Those are not normal men. Those are just men who never saw a normal woman in their whole fucking life close enough to notice she is not made of plastic. And I also have a bone to pick with "games are aspirational". Games like what? Tetris? It's also a game. It's a video game that has no models (not counting the colored blocks you are stacking upon each other). Hell, there are game studies scholars who insisted that game models or narrative have no impact on how you perceive the video game because video games are about mechanics only (i.e. Aarseth and his babling about how playing a dot doesn't differ from playing an avatar looking like a human which is BS of epic proportions, but I will not shit on him here, I already did that at uni when we talked about his ideas and how wild they all are to reject the narrative and design layers of video games). Games show gamers something they normally don't do or see? Hah! Bold of you to assume you can just say something like this without excluding so many games that you would get a whiplash from the number alone. Only uncreative advocate for "escapes" to reflect reality? Oh, yeah, sure. Those very well known escapes like CALL OF DUTY WHERE YOU GO TO WAR. Yeah, definitely super escapist from real life, for sure. Especially now.

I got so angry I nearly blew a fuse here. Anyway, I don't trust any man who says Dame Aylin is unattractive... and I don't trust any man who says that games exist only for escapism, when games have so many other uses like exploring mental illness or gender, making art etc.

Only dudebro men who feel like their "sacred place" of video games is threatened by women, people of color and queer people, talk shit like this because to them games are escapism from real life stuff simply because they're too short-sighted to see that all their fav games are political or talk about topics they despise in real life to the point they don't even notice video games critiquing things they love in real life.

Source: Here you can watch Anthony's video!

#dame aylin #game studies #fandom critical #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #I didn't make masters and wrote my master thesis about games #so some dudebro idiots would put shit like this online #I feel personally responsible to end their idiocy now #i will fucking show you unatrractive you assholes #rant

[maya-chirps]

Celebrating Christmas in the Philippines: The Christmas Capital of Asia (Part 1)

A store in the Philippines that sells Filipino Christmas decorations sourced AFP Photo/Noel Celis, posted by Ana Catalina Paje (2021) via Yahoo! News

Filipino Christmas is notorious worldwide for being some of the longest celebrations of the holiday in the world. Often said to start on the month of September and ending at around February, being the main event for almost half the year is nothing to sneeze at. Even with this, how much do you know about Filipino Christmas exactly?

Just like all Christmas traditions from all around the world, the Filipino way is rooted in long tradition and history that stems from colonial, and postcolonial practices that continue to evolve into the present day with many more additions in the future.

Before I start

As usual, it is important for me to recognize that the Philippines is a diverse country with different cultures, traditions, and histories with each community having their own unique practices and experiences with the holidays. There is no way for me to fully encompass every single experience that every Filipino has for this holiday as well as the experiences of those who don't even celebrate the holiday. This is besides the fact that uncovering sources for more specific traditions or practices may be either difficult or impossible for me to access easily.

I also want to note that not all Filipinos celebrate Christmas such as Filipinos of different religious backgrounds such as Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist Filipinos, or of different denominations that may not celebrate Christmas such as members of some Protestant denominations.

I also had to split up this post into two parts because Tumblr wouldn't let me make extremely long posts. Part 2 is linked here.

With that being said, feel free to add your own stories and experiences to this post if you have any to share or even information that I may not had discussed at all.

(This was supposed to go live on the 25th but it got delays because of personal stuff sowwyyyy. I'll just reblog this for next year too lol)

Etymology

In the Philippines, Christmas is primarily called pasko with the season itself called kapaskuhan . It comes from the Spanish word pascua, from the phrase pascua de navidad. Pascua comes from the Latin pascha which then comes from the Greek πάσχα (páskha) which then came from Hebrew's פסח (pesach) originally referred specifically to Passover (Vivas, 2021).

From pascua and, by extension, pasko's usage to refer to Easter (i.e. pascua de resurrección and pasko ng pagkabuhay respectively), the word was then later used to refer to Christmas (i.e. pascua de navidad) as the word often referred to the celebratory aspect of the holiday. The Spanish brought over the dual usage of the term for both holidays during the colonial period.

Certain variations of the word around the country typically follow the same root with pasku or pascu being used in Kapampangan, a closely related language to Tagalog, and some other languages keeping the usage of pascua like the Spanish creole language of Chavacano.

Filipinos today often interchange the usage of pasko and Christmas when discussing the holiday, and sometimes may use an informal Filipinized spelling of Christmas as krismas by spelling the English word by sound (a trait of a lot of Filipino languages) which mimics a Filipino accent but I honestly had not seen this in a while.

History

Surprisingly,according to legend, the story of Christmas in the Philippines doesn't start on 1521, the year Ferdinand Magellan landed on the island of Cebu, nor the subsequent years after that, but on 1324, nearly 200 years before the Spanish came anywhere close to the Philippines islands.

In an old church called Saint James the Great Parish Church found in Bolinao, Pangasinan, exists a marker that makes the interesting claim that the first mass, and by extension the first mass in the history of the Philippines took place in the very place where the church now stood as a thanksgiving mass for their safe landing on the island (Sotelo, 2015). Ocampo (2012) states that there had been claims within Pangasinan folk legends that this first mass was also specifically the first Christmas mass that had taken place in the history of the Philippines which had embedded itself on the town of Bolinao's folklore.

A photo of the plaque found in St. James the Great Parish, Bolinao, Pangasinan showing Fr. Odorico posted by Vera Bajado (2021) via TripAdvisor

The story goes that on a stormy night, during his missionary travels to Asia, Italian Franciscan friar and missionary Blessed Fr. Odorico of Pordenone landed on the islands to take refuge in the town to wait for the rains to pass. It is said that they had met "hostile natives" who later changed their disposition after he proved himself harmless. He later celebrated the mass with his crew and the locals, people attributing these events to have taken place on the 25th of December (Yuvallos, n.d.). The full text for the marker that relays this story was transcribed by the blog Vagabonding with Chu (2017) and reads:

"Blessed Odorico From Friuli (Italy) Franciscan Missionary Born in Pordenone (Italy) around 1275 A.D. – Father Odorico, a courageous and religious Franciscan missionary pioneered the spread of the Gospel in Asia and China. He traveled always barefooted among indescribable difficulties and dangers exhausting his energies in the service of the Kingdom of God. In 1324, after landing and taking refuge in Bolinao, Pangasinan during a stormy weather, Father Odorico celebrated a thanksgiving Mass in honor of their safe journey and his mission. He also indocrinated and baptized many of the Malay immigrants in Bolinao. He returned home to Udine (Friuli) Italy after thirteen years mission. He died a holy death on January 14, 1331. His precious remains are kept in an artistic tomb of the parish church of our Lady of Mount Carmel, in Udine (Italy). Blessed Odorico, Pray for Us." - Marker in front of St. James the Great Parish Church

This claim is contested by historians including Ocampo (2012) who even adds that the additional parts of the story makes it much more unbelievable such as the claim that Fr. Odorico also planted the first Christmas tree which had not been a popular Christmas staple until the 19th Century. The National Historical Commission of the Philippines later affirms that the first mass did not in fact take place on Bolinao, Pangasinan but on Limasawa, Southern Leyte on Easter Sunday 1521 (Yumol, 2020).

The first Christmas mass most likely happened either a little after this time with a celebration possibly taking place during the stay of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi when arrived in the Philippines in an effort to start colonizing the islands. He was able to establish a Spanish settlement called the Villa del Santisimo Nombre de Jesús where he and his men lived in from 1565 - 1569 where celebrations for Christmas definitely must have taken place. The last of the Spanish forces in the country had also, incidentally, left from Cebu on Christmas day 1898 (The Freeman, 2021).

An old map of Villa del Santisimo Nombre de Jesús, now modern day Cebu posted by the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño de Cebu (2017).

A lot of older traditions persist to the present day but the more modern-looking Christmas, much like in other Western Christian countries didn't become as popular until the late 19th to early 20th Century coming mostly from other European and American influences.

Traditions such as the Christmas tree had not existed in Filipino Christmas celebrations until the late 19th century, with the first seen mentions of it in the writings of Dr. José Rizal both in his translation of Hans Christian Andersen's work as well as a letter he had wrote home from Berlin to his sister Saturnina, who was called Neneng, and her husband Manuel, who was called Maneng, where he translates a story about a sad pine tree with the words"Ang Puno ng Pino" (en. The Pine Tree) next to two drawings of Christmas trees, Ocampo (2012) writes.

Ocampo continues to explain how Rizal wrote about the many German traditions that he had encountered in Berlin, including the decorating of a pine tree for Christmas. Ocampo later transcribes this letter in his article:

"There are some beautiful and good [German] customs, like Christmas, which gives me pleasure to describe here for it is not found in Spain and you have not read about it in Spanish books. On Christmas Eve they bring from the forest a pine tree, and this tree is chosen because, besides being erect, it is the only tree that keeps its leaves during winter—I say it badly; not really leaves, but a kind of needle. It is decorated with tinsel, paper, lights, dolls, candy, fruits, dainties, etc., and at night time, it is shown to the children (who should see the preparation of it), and around this tree the family celebrates Christmas." - Dr. José Rizal in a letter to his sister Saturnina Rizal and her husband Manuel Hidalgo (Ocampo, 2012)

The Christmas tree, however, didn't become fashionable for the wider public's own Christmas celebrations until the arrival of the Americans, of which brought their own American traditions to the Philippines.

Ocampo continues to write that Rizal compared the customs of Germans and the Spanish and said that the Spanish holiday gets ruined because of too much praying. Rizal states that the Germans and those of Northern Europe, celebrate with the idea of preserving some level of childhood innocence and allow children to play unlike the Spanish which he describes as a much more crass culture who don't allow much play for the season and instead make these children pray during the holiday. Ocampo continues to transcribe:

"... the Spaniards do not indulge in poems for children and young people, or as the vulgar expression goes, they do not beat around the bush. They attend more to the positive, or the stomach. And Carambas! they would say; let us amuse ourselves and let children and young people seek their own amusement as best they can. They do seek their own diversion, with the result that the children and young people in Spain lack the charming innocence and candor of those in the North [of Europe], without malice, without great preoccupations (...) This is because here [in Germany] they know how to give age its due, unlike in other countries where children are not allowed to be themselves, to make noise or to play. Instead, they are made to recite the rosary and novena until the poor youngsters become very sleepy and understand nothing of what is going on (...)" - Dr. José Rizal comparing German and Spanish Christmas customs in his letter to his sister Saturnina and her husband Manuel (Ocampo, 2012).

This aligns with the shift in most Western Christian societies from viewing children (mostly white children) as sinful or ignorant smaller adults to a more romanticized ideal of innocence, allowing children more time for play with less responsibilities that wasn't afforded to them in the previous centuries. The romanticized view of childhood shifted the focus of Christmas on prayer and generosity to be more family, and more specifically, child-centered (Cecire, 2020). This was especially true for more industrialized countries of the time including late 19th Century Germany, of which Rizal was living in during the time he sent that letter to his sister and brother-in-law.

Photograph of the "exhibition of Christmas trees"; at Maryknoll Normal College which features students from the 1930s showing off their Christmas trees that they had created during an art class with Sr. Caritas in the center and art teacher Miss Cristobal at the left-side of the photo at the back. The image was sourced from the University of Southern California Libraries' International Mission Photography Archive, ca.1860-ca.1960, Maryknoll Mission Archives posted by John Tewell (2016) via Flickr.

Filipino Christmas continued to be influenced by non-Hispanic Western Christian countries with the turn of the century and the start of the American colonial era. Traditions like greeting cards which the Americans introduced popularized the figure of Santa Claus and white snow as strong associations with the holiday despite the Philippines never experiencing any snow in its entire history (Roa, 2017).

After the American occupation, Filipino Christmas continued to develop into the modern day adding new traditions stemming from older ones, continuing to change and grow even today.

(Part 2: Practices in the Present Day)

(Reference List)

#mayaposts #mayapino #filipino #philippines #filipino culture #christmas #filipino christmas #history #filipino history #christianity #christian history #traditions #christmas traditions #filipino christmas traditions #colonial history #spanish colonial history #american colonial history #long post

[generouslyandrogynousdragon]

[Image ID in alt text]

The people reblogging the post this is from really need to understand what exactly this post is saying. Because while some may share it with good intentions, trying to help support the people of Palestine, this part of the post is calling for genocide.

"Erase the Israeli occupation" which parts? That's answered in the next bit: "decolonise the entire land". Bit tricky to decolonise a land from the ethnic group indigenous to it, tbh. And yes, Jews are indigenous to the Levant, whether you call it Israel or Palestine or the Middle-East or whatever other names people come up with these days.

The foundations of Judaism sprang from the transition of the Canaanites to a monotheistic religion. (As far as I can discern from my own personal research, and if this is incorrect then please reach out, I would rather be corrected than spread even more misinformation into the pot.)

Please note, I am not naming the deity which this group worshipped as I am aware that Jewish people typically prefer such names to be unwritten - there are resources which can explain this further, and the Wikipedia page I mention at the end of the next paragraph gives details of this.

But the key thing to note here is that the people who first settled the land were the Canaanites. There was then a period in which Ancient Egypt controlled the land, before it returned to the control of the Jewish people. (Source: Wikipedia, specifically the Jerusalem page, sub-section: History of Jerusalem. I'm not sure I like the word control in this paragraph, but I can't figure out a better word to use in its place.)

And even if you put aside the entire issue of indigineity, where are the people of Israel going to go? Where are you going to send them? You can't just say "Go back where you came from", because 1) there are Israelis who were born in Israel, and 2) nearly every single Israeli citizen that wasn't born in Israel, i.e. refugees, came to Israel because they were threatened with death in the countries they previously lived in!

So are those people just supposed to smile and eat a bullet? Or maybe you'll send them somewhere else? Okay, where? Because no matter what piece of land you send them to, some country is going to have to give up that piece of land first. And then you haven't solved anything, you've just shoved it into a different corner of the room and pretended it's all fine.

You cannot solve this by saying Israel should just go away. I don't know how to solve it, I can only hope that there is a peaceful solution for Israelis and Palestinians alike, and soon. But both groups of people live there. Neither group can just be moved somewhere else - the countries surrounding the Levant have acted to exterminate Jewish people, thus creating the refugees I mentioned previously, and refused to take in Palestinian refugees, and nowhere else is going to take either group in - and neither group should be moved, frankly. Forced relocation is wrong no matter who it happens to.

So that only leaves the total extermination of one group if you truly will never accept a two-state solution. If a two-state solution is truly unacceptable to you, then either you are arguing for the genocide of Palestinians, or the genocide of Israelis. Because both groups live on that land, and neither group is going to just magically disappear.

Palestinian and Israeli left-wing activists alike are all saying to us that a two-state solution is the best - some even go further and say "only" - chance for peace in the Levant. So the rest of us should amplify their voices, and put pressure on our own politicians to help make that happen.

#tw antisemitism #tw genocide mention #again: if I got that bit about the origins of judaism wrong #then I'm more than happy for corrections on it #I'm aware that my own interpretation of the information I found may be biased #whether by the author or by internal bias I'm unaware of #long post #world politics #israel #palestine #also I'm aware that the triple brackets is an antisemitic dogwhistle #I try to only use single brackets #but I do use them fairly regularly #because 1) it's a good way of listing a source without breaking the flow of writing #and 2) I have ADHD and everything I say comes with extra exposition as a coping mechanism to stop people from misunderstanding me

[asteria7fics]

i'm back!!! o(>ω<)o i don't usually make outlines (mostly because i was never taught in a way that makes sense to me) i guess what i wanted to ask is how u make your outlines? or how you decide what will be in ur story ik i could just search it up but i like hearing it from someone I'm mooties w/ or someone in the same genre as me sorry for bothering u w/ this pooks (ᗒᗣᗕ)՞

-i'm stalking ur blog and inbox again (◞ ‸ ◟ㆀ)

Welcome back! Thank you for gracing my ask box once again!

I'll happily break down my outlining process! I've tried a couple of different methods and have found success with both! (´⌣`ʃƪ)

Mild spoilers for TSOB under the cut, so if anyone hasn't read it yet tread lightly!

SO specifically for TSOB I kept my outline really simple because I ended up coming up with the logistics of a lot of the events as I wrote them (a bad idea, truthfully! If you don't have to do it this way, don't!)

I literally found some kid's presentation on the Trojan War (paired with my existing knowledge of the war lol I promise I know things) and copied down the events in chronological order, using the original characters names and everything.

i.e:

Wedding of Peleus and Thetis

Judgment of Paris

Paris goes to Menelaus 

Paris steals Helen

Menelaus goes to Agamemnon for help

And so on and so forth, until I'd covered the entire war. I chose to use events outside of just The Iliad because I thought the additional context would be helpful for readers who maybe weren't as familiar with the source material.

I did make a few small notes for events I had planned in advanced (the crappening was one such event!) but for the most part, that list was a majority of my planning. The rest of my notes were character based, or just small things I wanted to remember to include (like all of Jimmy's jokes, I would write them down as people told them to me irl)

I cannot lie, my outlining for this fic was not very extensive. If you want a more effective idea I'd honestly recommend trying the method I used for my next fic, Exactly Where I Left You (coming to an ao3 near you veeery soon!!)

For that fic, I ended up with a whole board absolutely covered with sticky notes. I posted this picture a while ago, but I'll drudge it back up because I know a visual can be helpful!

Obvi I blurred it because I don't need you goobers getting spoiled for the whole dang fic before I even post it, but I found this method to be extremely helpful for crafting a narrative fully from scratch, rather than pulling it from a pre-existing source like I did with TSOB.

You don't have to follow a 3 Act structure (I hardly did myself) but I found it easier for my own creative process. I also prefer using stickies to, say, writing on a whiteboard or chalkboard because if an idea didn't fit in a specific part of the story I could easily move it. I regularly rearranged entire arcs as I was working on this fic.

I don't have a photo of the backside, but that's where I wrote down character information, as well as plotting out the overarching narrative of the story. This will all make a lot more sense once the fic is out!

I hope this explanation has been helpful for you! Finding the right strategy takes time and lots of trial and error, but if you try either of these let me know how it goes for you! (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡

Thank you again for the lovely ask!!

#ask asteria #once again i remind you i am not a professional writer #but the stickies are the best method #hands down #try it you won't be disappointed #writing #fanfiction #TSOB #EWILY

[gumdefense]

Iris Fey <3

THANK YOU FOR ASKING ABOUT IRIS I’M TAKING THIS OPPORTUNITY TO TALK ABOUT HER AS MUCH AS I WANT APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE (and apologies for answering late)

I love her so much idk how to describe it. She is everything. She’s such a kind and gentle person, and she cares and loves so much which fits so well with Phoenix. She helped dahlia make the initial plan to steal the diamond and get away from their fucked family, she kept helping her with criminal plans from then on because she just loves her sister even if she wasn’t particularly happy about the path she was starting to go on, she volunteered to get the necklace back for her. You know the necklace full of poison. That dahlia used to (nearly) kill someone. She knew what it was, and still wanted to help her (at her own risk, might I add) because dahlia is and always will be her sister, and if she soiled her own hands to try to get her “off the sinful path” or however she worded it, so be it.

And then Phoenix. I think a lot about how she came to fall for him. Because she can’t have loved him immediately, there must have been a period where she didn’t have any feelings and just wanted the damn necklace, but was unable to get it. Can you imagine ? Realising she was getting attached to this man ? Realising she was actually falling for him, the very last thing that she should do ? I wanna know what this specific period of time was like for her so bad.

And in subject to how she loves— we all know the rest. She knitted that horrible sweater for him, which is by itself insane btw like that takes an enormous amount of time, effort, and money (with how much yarn has to be used). And it looks like a really complicated sweater honestly ! Like it looks quite thick instead of being a simple single layer, and— idk what the right wording would be, but ”doesn’t have holes”-y. It looks really well made. That is absolute smitten behaviour it’s hilarious and adorable

But most importantly, she went against her sister’s wishes, because of how much she ended up loving him. The same sister she loved so much as well. We know she wasn’t really happy with dahlia’s actions at this point, and she wanted to save her from sinning further etc, but as established, that was from a source of love. She knew dahlia could be different in the right environment. She believed in her. But somehow, for some reason, she loved Phoenix enough that, as she says, if she knew dahlia’s plan to kill him- she would have stopped her even if it meant one of their lives

There’s another thing about iris that I love, which is that she’s just as crazy as everyone else. We always joke about every character being insane and she is no exception

I do have thoughts about the decision to have her portrayed so… gentle, specifically in regards to how ace attorney treats women in general. I do think it’s kind of meh that the perfect female love interest (as she is sort of depicted I think, based on how the game ends hinting at her and Phoenix still having feelings for each other) is a “loves others so much she makes herself suffer” character. While her evil twin is an evil woman !! Who hates men and people in general !! And is mean and the opposite of caring !! (I’ve grown to really like dahlia too and to find her fascinating as a character, but I think with the way the game was written and how it portrayed her, you’re meant to dislike her)

But, in my biased purely subjective opinion, she is so fucking amazing and I just love her

And this part of her of caring about others to the point of self sabotage makes her connection with Phoenix so interesting. Because that’s exactly how he is, too. He loves and cares so deeply, and he constantly puts others before himself and places his own self-esteem and self-worth on how much he can help people; especially those he loves, i.e. maya, edgeworth, trucy… even apollo and athena based on how much he looks down on himself for his errors as a mentor in aa5. But of course, also iris. As he denied even after the trial that the woman at the witness stand was her, that she could have killed Doug and said those cruel things to him, and that she could have killed Misty, even after 5 years of not having seen her. Their relationship is built with two people who care so, so deeply, and for whom this amount of devotion they always show to loved ones ended up dooming their relationship to each other. Phoenix couldn’t give up the necklace, iris couldn’t take it away from him. I’m a narumitsu endgame kinda guy, but feenris is so incredibly compelling and narratively interesting I’m so unwell about them

Ahem. This long rant aside. What I mean by “most fandom takes are incorrect” is that !! No !! She is not some evil liar that didn’t give a shit about Phoenix and just cared about her selfish desires !! What the fuck !! And she did not fucking “rape him by deception” holy shit !! Like that’s such an insane thing to say, and shows a lack of understanding of what rape by deception is. ALSO: she is a huge victim of… how shall I call it. Gay shipper misogyny ? Let’s go with that. The phenomenon of people hating the guts of a female character for no reason other than “she gets in-between the two men I ship”. I’m not saying it would be the only reason someone would hate her; if you hate her that’s your business and it’s fine, but I’ve definitely seen people acting like she is wayyy worse than she is, and not so subtly showing what their real problem is is that there’s another character who could be a love interest for Phoenix instead of edgeworth. Tldr people are so mean to her :(

And what I mean by lost potential is that I think she could’ve been a lot more. This ties into the kinda misogynistic writing I touched on earlier. I don’t have a great explanation for this honestly, I just have this feeling she could’ve been a top 10 character if she was given a bit more time and more depth. Like if her fucked up parts like being willing to kill dahlia or herself was shown a bit more idk. Like I said I don’t really know how to explain this part. She should’ve been written more as her own character, a bit less as Girl In Love With Phoenix. Which ties with “not enough canon”

And for underrated, well that’s because no one appreciates her rip

This ended up being long as hell lmao anon I hope this is a good answer for you !! And thanks again for asking me I am so happy to talk about iris. Genuinely one of my favourite characters <33 I hope this is coherent I wrote all this late at night when I really should be sleeping as I’m supposed to wake up early tomorrow. But iris is of course more important

#iris my beloveddd #<- basically tldr of this post #iris hawthorne #iris fey #general my post tag #not sure how many tags I’m supposed to use

[sexydreamgirl]

i've seen on a lot of accounts where bloggers mention to take what resonates, so does that mean that even if we all have different perspectives on how the law operates and etc, that i could make it work however i want to, even if i haven't seen any other accounts that would apply it like me? is this one of the perks of being the operant power?

That's not exactly how it works. I used to think that at one point until I outgrew it. I explain here why "you create the rules" doesn't make sense.

The law of assumption has an established set of principles and oftentimes people will take those principles to rationalize their own ideas about the law (i.e. a common one being "robotically affirming works if you assume it does"), which only creates unnecessary extra steps. If all you need to do is assume that you are beautiful, why would you first assume that affirming nonstop is what will make you beautiful when you can simply assume you are beautiful now? See how it doesn't make sense?

At the end of the day, people are gonna do whatever they want regardless of principle. If someone doesn't follow the law the way I do that's fine. Do what you want. People have different approaches and usually end up with the same end goal which is turning an assumption into a fact. I would still highly recommend that you study the law from a legit source and apply what you learn, though.

[thisisnotthenerd]

followup to my silly little post-c3e51 thoughts

the other half of bell’s hells is going to be a powder keg and then some. no real voices of reason, because even though imogen takes the lead pretty often, she contributes some pretty crazy ideas. the soothing influences of orym, laudna, and ashton on fearne, imogen, and fcg respectively have been taken away with the care of a man who has been planning this since before they started investigating ruidus. our easiest PvPers are all here and highly distressed. oh boy.

i think fearne is going to be a little lost in herself. she’s just lost orym, who’s her main anchor and confidant in the party, along with ashton and laudna, who are both friends that reach different places for fearne. if the moon beam has started changing things for the ruidusborns, she’s in for a hell of a ride personally, but also maybe as imogen’s watcher, especially after her and orym’s conversation in e49. now that we’re post-initial solstice battle, i don’t see her forgetting that. not in the sense of party betrayal, but if the moon or even the stress starts getting to imogen more than it already has, i can see that becoming a thing for fearne. for now i think this is an opportunity for her character development as she’s away from her first anchor--the fey sociopath of the party could go many ways.

for fcg there’s a few different aspects i hope they get into. first off, he’s probably getting more than a little stressed out, coming out of this situation. Not only are they now separated from ashton, they’re also away from orym and laudna, who have both become closer friends with fcg; much as i love fearne, imogen, and chetney, they aren’t mitigating influences in the way that ashton, laudna, and orym can be. Also, they’re just coming out of having been disabled by ludinus in the warder--i can only imagine that that will come up i.e. his ability to be turned off. I hope we get an aeor visit--they have a real opportunity to find D, other aeormatons, and a way to really get into the nitty gritty of their existence. also, it will be very fun and spicy to see how fcg’s faith in the changebringer plays out in the coming eps. he deliberately chose to act of his own volition after the first coin flip on the airship because he did not have the time to delegate his choices and distance himself--in the warder they could only act on what was happening in the moment. also, the compatibility with other automatons is something that i hope will come up again. i want to see fcg as a jaeger pilot.

for imogen, i hope this is going to be an arc where she’s planning and working a little more in the background. she knows her mother’s fully in on the plan, and that she almost convinced her. depending on how her powers were affected by being one of the sources of ruidusborn power for the key, she could go many ways--loss of power or particular manifestations, gain in power as the seal cracks and the beam continues, etc. i’m excited to see where she goes with it. something i think we’re probably going to see is heavier use of sending for interparty communication. since the other party (deliberately) doesn’t have sending, it’s going to be on imogen and fcg to check in with them. I don’t know exactly how that’ll work--are they going to be simultaneously at the table? guests to fill out the party? i’ll come back to that thought. it’ll mean that they have at least something to reach out with, while the others have nothing.

chetney’s got a lot coming his way. back home in uthodurn, we’ve got a lot to see: the toy mafia, the claret orders, maybe family? this is a chance for us to really dig into his story in this world and i, for one, am excited. i can see the party dynamic starting to change here; where orym and imogen tend to influence the party direction the most obviously, i can see that role falling to chetney in orym’s absence. he’s their only real investigator at the moment, and team powder keg has a lot of investigating to do as the party makes their way through wildemount.

funny thought--if caleb and beau got yeeted with this group, and they manage to get the collar off of caleb, i could see them potentially going to the savalirwood and maybe seeing caduceus. I wouldn’t necessarily want this--the liam and marisha cinematic universe (lmcu) happened around the solstice for a reason and keeping them around would start getting into weird territory, especially in terms of the power imbalance. it would just be a silly way for liam, marisha, and taliesin to be at the table. the sillier way would be if they run into the darrington brigade. i don’t see that happening until much later--perhaps they get the recommendation to go to see tary as an automaton expert.

while the lmcu has enough plot armor not to have died, anything that happened to them has to be crazy enough that they can’t immediately run into bell’s hells again. keyleth, once she recovers, is on a warpath. if she and the ashari got yeeted to zephrah, she probably has a way of contacting the rest of vm and getting them on the case. caleb and beau, if they were sent home, individually or together, will have the mighty nein up in arms. stupidest scenario is that instead of teleporting they all get on a ship with fjord, jester, and kingsley and set sail for marquet. i can’t see them all being together in battle the way they were with e51, but i can see them rallying their allies to try.

the only thing that i hope stays paramount is that it’s bell’s hells’ turn to save the world. they were the ones to slow ludinus’ plan down and cause a ruckus. part of having the lmcu there meant that bh was constantly trying to keep track of their new allies not just in character but also as players. without that, i think they really have a chance to focus in on these characters and how they’re going to save the world. if the apogee solstice is still going even after ludinus rewound time, i can see this becoming a groundhog day scenario or even a time dilation--if they’re stuck with the beam holding ruidus in place, they’re on a weird time limit. possibly one we can track if the logo changing colors is any evidence.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #critical role speculation #c3e51 spoilers #bell's hells #fearne calloway #fcg #fresh cut grass #imogen temult #chetney pock o'pea #i'm only calling caleb + beau & keyleth + vax the liam & marisha cinematic universe from here on out #cr spoilers #cr meta

[damonblack966]

6 Things That You Don’t Need To Be An Effective Witch

You get people who are otherwise preaching a philosophy of oneness and being in tune with yourself and valuing nature and peace, becoming utterly irate because someone else is doing something different. Am I the only one who sees the huge contradiction here?

What Is Witchcraft?

Here’s the thing, witchcraft isn’t a set of rituals. It isn’t the worship of a particular god, it’s not a religion, it’s not even the methods we use to cast spells. Witchcraft transcends all of these things because witchcraft is about doing what works. And if the massive diversity in magical tradition speaks to anything, it’s that there are a LOT of ways to do magic that work!

What witchcraft really is, at its core, is the manipulation of the energy that makes up everything from the tiniest microbe, to massive sequoias, this wonderful planet that we live on, every star, every breath we take, and every god we may or may not pray to. Magic is literally everywhere. It’s inescapable because it IS us. It’s everything!

Why So Many Things Are Optional

This base nature of magic and our universe is exactly what makes so many things in magic optional. Since magic is everywhere and everything, there are basically infinite ways to take advantage of it. And the vast majority of these methods work given the right circumstances!

Think of it this way, if magic could only be accessed in one way, we would see the exact same magical structure repeated over and over and over again in every culture and at every point in history. That is not the case, though! All you have to do is look at the amazing diversity present in our current magical culture. You have ceremonial magicians summoning demons and performing long and intricate rites while housewives practice folk magic involving nothing more than a whispered incantation and some spices from their cupboard. Both methods work. How can we claim that there’s only one way to practice magic when Hoodoo, Santeria, Wicca, Appalachian granny magic, and so many more traditions exist simultaneously and all seem to work? The answer is that we can’t. They DO all work because they are all taking advantage of the exact same universal forces in a myriad of ways.

So What Is Optional?

There are so many more optional elements than I could possibly list here, but these are some of the most common elements of the craft that I see being touted as non-negotiable.

1. Gendered Energy

The use of gendered energy (i.e. masculine and feminine energy) is an incredibly prevalent part of modern witchcraft, and this is largely due to the widespread nature of Wicca. Wicca teaches this gender split as a core part of its practices and, because of this, such methods have filtered down into the collective consciousness of neo-Wicca and nondenominational witchcraft as a result. The widespread nature of this concept does not make it mandatory, however. There are plenty of forms of witchcraft that do not teach or use any form of gendered magical energy, and some (like Feri) that actively teach that one should strive for the freedom of energy that comes from releasing oneself from such limiting concepts in magic.

If the idea of gendered energy makes you uncomfortable, if you find it difficult to work with, or if it simply doesn’t resonate with you, you don’t have to use it! You can simply omit that part of the craft without suffering any ill consequences. Your magic will still work, it won’t be any less powerful and in fact, by removing an element that didn’t resonate with you personally, your magic might become even more effective!

2. Specific Tools

You can find a list of “beginner’s tools” in pretty much every book and website about witchcraft out there. Everyone seems to have an idea of what tools are must-haves for practicing magic and often, these lists of tools don’t match up with each other! One source will tell you that you absolutely must have a wand, while another doesn’t even mention wands, but says that two knives rather than one are essential. Some sources use herbs, others essential oils, still others make no mention of such things. You’ll find everything from bells to cubes, mirrors, chalices, and candles on these lists. So what’s a witch supposed to think?! Which tools are really necessary?

The reality is, none of these tools are necessary. Sure, they all have their uses and can help you in harnessing your inherent magical power, but these tools don’t give you magical power and you can certainly access that innate connection to your energy without them. The best thing to do is to only use the tools that speak to you and make you feel as though your magic is working. If you’re short on resources and can’t afford tools, makeshift tools, DIY altarpieces, or nothing at all, can suffice as well. Magic can be done with nothing more than your will and intention, no tools, no words, and no outside trappings of any kind, if you so choose.

3. Divination

Divination methods like tarot, pendulum reading, and scrying are incredibly prevalent in modern witchcraft. They’re so prevalent, in fact, that many people feel as though without these elements they’re only practicing half the craft! This simply isn’t the case, though. Divination is a wonderful form of magic and can add a lot to your daily workings, but your witchcraft is still witchcraft even if you don’t use it. Some people really hate divination. Some people don’t want to know the future. Some people just find that they’re not very good at divination. There’s nothing wrong with accepting that divination just isn’t your thing if you don’t feel that it’s beneficial to you! 

I’m not very fond of math and you know what, despite the warnings of every grade school teacher, my life has suffered very little for my avoidance of math. I simply choose to focus my efforts on those things that I’m actually good at! In the few instances where I might need some math, there are always people in this world who have the skills that I do not. I can seek out people whose strengths complement my weaknesses. You should take this same approach to witchcraft (and possibly the rest of your life too). You have developed a set of skills, talents, and strengths that are unique to you. Why would you go out of your way to average yourself by becoming mediocre at those things that you have no natural aptitude for when you can spend that same energy becoming truly great at those things that you’re naturally good at?

4. Spirit Work

In much the same way as divination, spirit work is everywhere and is often seen as a completely necessary part of witchcraft. One of the most common questions I get from beginners is about whether they have to work with spirits. Many of these beginner witches are considering giving up the craft entirely because spirits scare them and they’ve been led to believe that they won’t be able to practice the craft without spirit work! How terrible to think that someone might give up their own power simply because they’re afraid of something that they never have to deal with unless they want to.

It’s true that spirits are everywhere and that becoming a witch will get you in tune with your own capabilities to see and interact with these spirits. That doesn’t mean that you have to work with them, though! If you feel unsafe around someone, you don’t force yourself to spend time with them simply because it’s expected of you. You do something about it! You get away from them, you choose not to live your life in their presence, you can even take out a restraining order if you need to. Spirit work is the same way. If you don’t like spirits, you can just avoid them! Put up wards to keep them away from you and your home, tell spirits that ask for your help that you’re not the right person to help, give stubborn spirits the boot with a solid banishing spell. If you don’t want to work with spirits, then DON’T. There are plenty of people out there who will do the spirit work that you don’t want to do. Let them deal with the spirits. Protect your space and your peace of mind if that’s what feels good for you.

5. Gods & Religion

Has anyone else here noticed how hard it is to find non-religious witchcraft? Because I have. The thing is, gods and religion are not mandatory in the craft. No matter how many spells you see invoking a deity or how many witchy sources you find that involve the horned god and triple goddess, you do not have to work with any god that you don’t want to. That includes gods that show up and want to work with you. You have every right to say no to them and not work with them if you don’t want to. Personally, I’ve told Odin to get lost more times than I can count. Do I have something against Odin? No, not necessarily. I just don’t think that working with him will further the path that I’ve chosen for myself. I respect him, but I don’t want him all up in my life and my witchcraft. You have every right to do the same. Pick and choose those beings that you allow into your life carefully. Remember, witchcraft is about claiming your power. Do not give your power of choice up just because the being contacting you is a god. 

You also do not have to believe in gods at all. If you find yourself in the atheist or agnostic crowd, you’re still a totally valid witch. Your power is still real, your magic still works. Don’t let overzealous people force their beliefs on you or make you feel that your personal path is wrong. There are many paths that lead to many places in this life and no two people will walk the same path. We are all here to learn and experience something different. It’s only natural that we will each need to choose our own path to fulfill that.

6. Being a nature obsessed person

I know, I know. We should all care about the planet and love mother nature and blah blah blah. And that’s all great but you know what, even if someone does care about not harming the planet, that doesn’t mean they’re going to be an outdoorsy, tree-hugging, garden planting kind of person. Or even if they are into being outdoorsy, that doesn’t mean they’re actually going to be able to. Plenty of people have limitations that prevent them from being able to go outside a lot. Sun sensitivity, physical disability, anxiety, introversion, and just plain old not wanting to can keep people inside year-round and you know what, that’s fine. A witch who never works a single spell or ritual outdoors is still a witch.

The truth is, your craft should be tailored to you as an individual. Intuitive magic is guaranteed to be more powerful for you personally than any other form of magic on the planet. It’s like the difference between wearing clothing off the rack and wearing clothing that has been tailored to fit your body precisely. The off the rack stuff might feel fine and look good but it will never compare to the look and feel of something tailor-made for you. In the same way, magic that you find in a book or through a teacher might work well for you, it might feel good and give you the results you want but it will never compare to the feel and the power that you can attain through intuitive magic.

If you only take one thing away from this post, let it be this: Stop worrying about whether you’re doing witchcraft “right” by other people’s standards. The only yardstick you should measure your craft by is whether what you’re doing works or not. Do what works. Forget about the rest.

#witchblr #witchcraft #witch #occult #occultism #hoodoo #rootwork #rootworker #conjure #black girl magic #afro witch #black witch

[meichenxi]

Hello!! Tell me what you think about Polish 😊

hiiiiii karo!!!

SO. I am fairly ignorant about Slavic languages in general - I have never learnt any and I don't have imminent plans to.

given that I know relatively little - let me go on wikipedia and RATE POLISH for typological features I PERSONALLY find very sexy.

(for legal reasons, all languages have intrinsic value, this is just for fun, and I know very little about polish. my opinions hold no weight and that's ~just fine~)

'characterised by a high degree of inflection, and has relatively free word order' >>>>> VERY sexy objectively speaking, cases are sexy, the ability to put random words in random places to mean slightly different things is very sexy 10/10 would go home with probably

'dominant arrangement is subject-verb-object' >>> hmm very averagely Indo-European, 5/10

'frequent dropping of subject pronouns' >>>> this means I assume that if there's relatively free word order that the verb endings are distinct enough. I'm assuming there is NOT the same tolerance for ambiguity as in chinese (lmao) so this bodes well!!! all cool people hate obligatory subject pronouns, so 11/10

'vowel alternations which cause vowel changes in some words depending on whether the syllable is closed or open...' >>>> EXCELLENT FUCKING. YESSS. no further comments 9/10

'consonant changes....now produce a number of different changes depending on which consonant is involved' >>>>> Ohhhhhhhh we love a good bit of fossilised grammar from a previous stage in the language!!!!! conservatively going to go for 100/10

'it retains seven cases' >>>>> YESSSSSSSSSSS *sicko meme* haha....yess......1000000/10

'singular and plural; it used to have dual' >>>>> very indo-european, points for effort, like the synchronically irregular plural but COULD 5/10

'there are three cases that always have the same ending in the plural, regardless of gender or declension class' >>>>> you better keep a fucking EYE on that syncretism!!! we don't want your nouns going the way of the old english!!!

dative plural -om!!!!!! instrumental plura -ami or -mil!!!!!! hello my old indo-european friends!!!! so good to see a familiar face in my time of need!!!!! loses two points for predictability, but 8/10 for those nostalgic proto-indo-european vibes

oh I am So intrigued by this. a THREE WAY animacy distinction??? but only in the masculine???? what, and I cannot stress this enough, the fuck. and for EVERY plural to collapse into a generic non-personal-masculine category and be exactly the same (te)!!!!! also hiiii to neuter nominative and accusative being the same, waving at my other little indo-european friends across the table <3

(after spending time doing Weird indo-european languages like scottish gaelic i.e. ones that really don't....do typical indo-european things, and then languages like chinese....it is so immensely comforting to look at an inflection table of a language I have never studied in a language FAMLY I have never studied and go...hm. that looks familiar.)

I'm also very intrigued by the nom. plural masculine personal demonstrative 'ci'. I don't know enough about polish orthography + phonology to know but...is this an expected pronunciation change? like is it because of the vowel / palatalisation? how would 'ti' be pronounced? or is this properly suppletive?? (i.e. is it a word that originally came from a different source and has sort of Snuck its way in?) if so YES ALL my homies love suppletion

Absolutely 100000/10, and this is ONLY nominative and accusative. what a stonker of an ability to inflect!!! I am SO curious!!

this is getting SPICY!

'emotionally charged nicknames' >>>> this is even better than the german 'some rivers'. 16/10 polish can have that point.

but also I'm going to take away some points for predictability. oh?? your masculine nouns end in a consonant??? you can KNOW that? boring 4/10

.....I take it back. it's pure chaos. 16/10 once again.

Ok, it's FAR too late for me to unpack all of these delicious animacy treats, but....my gosh!!!!! I think this has to be my favourite thing so far. I LOVE animacy, and the personal / animate distinction here is fascinating to me. the idea of elevating objects to animate that have something to do with human activity / beloved objects is fairly common with what I know of animacy in general.

'it is common for personal masculine nouns to change gender to inanimate to create semantic neologisms' >>> OHHHHH this is EXTREMELY cool and makes total sense. an editor = not a person, but a thing that edits = becomes inanimate to showcase that difference in meaning. EXCUSE ME 5000000/10, extremely cool.

------

that's it for now - thank you Karo and thank you Polish for this wild ad wonderful cornucopia of delights!! I am not likely to learn it soon, but I may spend some more time pouring over the wiki page. the stuff about animacy is FASCINATING.

thank you!!!

#polish #please do not bully me this is so far outside my sphere of knowledge #I am just reacting to what I read. if there is controversy or disagreement I Do Not Know Of It #thanks karo!!!! #will get to the other languages tomorrow~ #I love the idea of ranking typological features for no other reason than vibes. #yes I love suppletion. no I will not elaborate #linguistics #I guess??? lmao