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jamesvowles · 15 days

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MORE SHOVSON PLEASE I NEED HEADCANONS PLS

sorry anon this took so long. ive had this blog for like two years now but ive only talked to a few ppl about anything adjacent to this because of the complexes. i revealed my ao3 to the insanity zone like a month ago sooooo yeag that's about the state of meeeeeeee.

i don't know if ur looking for something specific but erm…here and also sorry im writing an au thats kinda follows the timeline but also doesn't so ill try not to get mixed up by accident

here's what's been bouncing in my mind recently

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firstly look at my chart boy

and then so general dynamics….first of all….i think jenson is crazy about shov and shov is probably crazy about him but the problem that arises is that: 1) jenson's reputation as being a fun and silly guy makes it so nobody takes him seriously when he's pouring his heart out about shov and 2) shov cannot imagine a man like jenson coming onto him so he's just given up hope.

I think jenson would laugh at every one of shovs jokes even if it wasn't funny or if he didn't get it he would laugh and pretend it was funny. side headcanon is that this would annoy the fuck out of bono because he knows jenson is laughing because he loves shov and not because the joke was funny.

shov would not trust jenson with his glasses and there's probably an incident where jenson broke his glasses and was BANNED from touching them ever again

they probably slept with other ppl before they got together…jock and shov fucked and jock knows and probably tries to give shov some sort of advice to just go for it but he's too scared

jenson confesses first and he also pre planned it then just went off script

they don't move in with each other right away….probably spend some time figuring each other out and spending loads of time at the other's place….but I DO think they move in and live together. it's like a comfy house with a guest bedroom and office and lots of natural light.

jenson probably does most basic tasks like house cleaning, laundry, and whatever but shov does all the maintenance because he enjoys solving problems and upkeeping the house. LOVES renovating that house.

they have a cat and a dog! shov adopted a stray cat before he met jenson. they adopted the dog after a long back and forth about it.

jenson has tried shovs nasty pizza combos and he tells him it's awful but in the nicest way ever and shov won't back down…..so they probably order two different pizzas when they get food

they're a really independent couple (maybe to the point where some ppl forget they are in love). they have similar schedules in terms of race weekends but jenson probably has more media duties and stuff. but they'll always try to find spare time somewhere once a month to be all gay and gushy and whatever at home.

affectionate ass physical touching and feeling couple

they both probably communicate really well and jenson is open about his feelings and stuff and so is shov but shov probably does keep more stuff to himself while jenson is more transparent. (thinking about when shov couldn't tell jenson about honda backing out)

they also have long phone calls when they're away from each other….hours long of jenson saying he misses shov

shov doesn't mind that jenson gets recognized but he's praying to god the interaction is kept to a few minutes because he has to stand there and look stupid while waiting for jenson

bedtime ritual in present day is shov reading a book and jenson watching something on his ipad

also bono and james fought about who should be shov's best man......

and also also in the lore its bonos hell to be stuck forever as the third wheel to shovson if he goes to hell he just has to be the third wheel forever

#asks #i typed these in bed and came to post them on pc anyways zzzzzzzz #shovson #rpf mention

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koinvyokan · 2 years

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what technoblade means to me

this still feels so surreal. its so strange to know that one of the most impactful content creators, and people in general to me has passed away.

i only joined the dream smp/mcyt fandom a year a ago. lore was really daunting to get into, and one of the only reasons i kept up watching old lore was definitely technoblade. watching his doomsday streams and daring escapes from the butcher army made me feel like i was truly watching something cinematic and dramatic in a way that no other lore did. he's the reason i stuck around at first. he's the reason i have this blog and have been able to meet so many great people.

he became the most interesting character and cc to me quickly, his sense of humour just perfectly fit with mine. i binged all his skywars, skyblock, and potato war videos. like i got home from school and only watched techno videos till i went to sleep it was actually a problem to my schoolwork at a point. i watched his old smp earth vods and minecraft monday tournaments. i was so consumed that a non mcyt irl knew enough about techno to buy me a pig plushie for christmas (of course named techno). here's some techno plush content to hopefully make you smile

my mental health took a big dive from it's already kinda shit starting point around november 2021 and up until recently. one day, the one year anniversary of my friend's suicide, the only thing that made me smile a little bit and took my mind off of things was rewatching techno's potato war videos. i will always remember that. i suffered from a lot of insomnia in that period, and for a very long time the only way i could reliably go to sleep was putting on a long techno stream and waiting. it always worked. he was my healthy coping mechanism. it sounds like a joke or something, saying 'i watched technoblade just to feel something' but yeah, i did and i still do. i know that his videos or streams will make me laugh, or put me in awe and appreciation of his skill and dedication, or that i will be transported to a story where this decked out giant pig guy singlehandedly takes on the world and always wins. his content has served as such an important escape for me, i would have been so much more miserable without him. im so so thankful. i hope he understood even a fraction of the impact he had. techno accompanied me through my darkest times, he was joy for me.

the passion that this man had for everything he did was immense, his dedication inspires me to this day. his skill was unmatched because of that, and i will always consider him the greatest of all time at the craft. he displayed such kindness towards his friends and fans alike, i try to treat my friends how he treated his. his wit and humour brought life to everything he did. he managed to make hundreds of bedwars and skywars rounds each be interesting and memorable thanks to the strength of his personality. also he murdered orphans. an all around great guy.

god when i saw that notification. i saw 'so long nerds' and immediately my mind was jumping to conclusions. oh, so he was taking a break from youtube. maybe he had to go through with the amputation after all and couldn't continue with minecraft. i didnt even consider the reality as an option. when his dad started to speak my heart dropped to the floor. my love is going out to his family and his friends, what theyre going through is just horrible and it must be exacerbated by having to go through it so publicly. techno deserved a long and happy life, but it gives me comfort and i hope it does for everyone that he said he would choose to be technoblade all over again.

i really dont know if there is anything after this life, but i believe that the people we love stay with us and it is our duty to keep them alive in our memory. i also know that it is necessary for a while, but unhealthy to wallow in the grief. this is sad. this is terrible. but techno brought so much joy, and i just want to remember that. its gonna be a challenge to get to that point, but he deserves to be remembered like that. for you the world, techno.

#dont rb #also i changed the url back he deserves it

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tempenensis · 3 years

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Halo! Here's a reddit link to information and research papers about onmyodo consolidated by other people and a link to an overview. Tried to summarize below bits and pieces that may be relevant to jjk (and which I tried to understand to the best of my abilities :P )

I think this will be the last time I write such a long-ass ask again, my apologies

About cursed spirits and mono

Court onmyojis in Heian used divination to find out the cause of things like curses, strange events (kaii), natural disasters, illness, why your dog is barking at a seemingly empty spot (answer: Megumi's divine dog is barking back) and so on. Strange events were referred to as mokke (物怪) or mono no satoshi (もノノサトシ) and believed to be omens of calamity that were caused by mono or "things" which could be anything like the curses of gods or something from the Imperial mausoleums. Furthermore, during the rule of Emperor Kanmu from end of Nara to early Heian, the Ritsuryo system of government began to crumble as imperial rule changed hands and political victims were feared as onryō (怨霊) that caused disease or death to the Emperor's nearest relatives (but not the Emperor himself). The fear of strange phenomena spread through the aristocrats and became commonplace. Onymojis were believed to be able to deal with the curse of mono as well (otherwise it's off to the chopping board for their jobs (and lives) they go, chop chop). And so the Imperial Court funded them to perform quelling rituals and ceremonies to appease gods, clear away damages by insects, pray for harvests and prevent the spread of epidemics (which ironically was exacerbated by the court's overspending and large-scale deforestation but that's another story). For individual cases like the spirits of living persons (ikiryō or ikisudama), or spirits of dead people (akuryō, ryō, onryō, shiryō or bōkon), onmyojis might determine that spiritual energy or evil spirits (mono no ke) was the cause but mikkyō genja (験者) or ritualists were the ones to subdue it by incantations. JJK cursed spirits resemble mono no ke in that they cannot be seen and may harm humans. Whereas jujutsu sorcerers are more like genja ritualists (complete with flashy kamehameha bombs) (and besides being cursed).

Lifespan rituals

The most popular theory for Sukuna's fixation with Megumi has already been covered by this blog owner with additional info on the Ten Divine Treasures. Another theory is that Sukuna could have been aiming for a higher level of enlightenment. Besides the Shinto-Buddhism angle, Onmyodo also has its own set of rituals concerning life and death. Onmyodo is basically a system of divination and techniques that focuses on worldly benefits and has no vision of the world after death. The rituals were instead based on the Chinese beliefs in honmyō (本命), Zokushō (属星) or the realm of the dead (冥界) and by the end of Heian, there were more than forty Onmyodo rituals to pray for the individual health and longevity of aristocrats (commoners: eat the rich 👎). For the terms honmyō and Zokushō, the closest meaning I can give without being too horribly misleading would be the life/destiny that you are born with according to your birth year, zodiac, constellation and so on. The most popular ritual was Taizan Fukun sai (泰山府君祭), which originated around the beginning of the tenth century and was closely associated with Abe no Seimei (yes that guy you keep seeing in anime). Taizan Fukun (泰山府君) is the lord of the eastern peak of Mt. Tai in China, a deity that summons the spirits of the dead and administers the lengthening and shortening of human lifespans. Twelve deities of the realm of the dead including Taizan Fukun were involved in this ritual. It was implemented on every honmyō day, but also as needed for illness, childbirth, natural disasters, and strange events. Media adaptations often depict Abe no Seimei (or other onmyojis) using the ritual for resurrection or reincarnation 😅 e.g. Tokyo Ravens, Shaman King, Onmyoji (2001). I don't think Gege will go for the same cliché trope for Sukuna but it's still interesting to know.

Seimei and Dōman (Gojo and Getou)

Anyone who knows about the folklores of Abe no Seimei 安倍晴明 would be familiar with his eternal rival, Dōman 道満. Like Gojo who's the strongest jujutsu sorcerer, Seimei was the leading onmyoji specialist of his time. His position as the Kurōdo-dokoro onmyōji (highest-ranking onmyoji), legendary reputation and long lifespan lent to the notion that he had mystical powers due to being born from a human father and a kitsune mother. During Heian, Onmyodo referred to the organization of onmyojis under the control of high-ranking people of the same profession (kinda like the JJK elders) rather than the system of beliefs known today. Onmyōji with official status like Abe no Seimei would be kanjin onmyōji (官人陰陽師) or official onmyōji. Non-official onmyojis would include hōshi onmyōji (法師陰陽師) or priest onmyōji, who had the appearance of Buddhist priests (like how Getou was dressed as a cult leader), and presumably the control of the Onmyōdō did not extend to them. Official onmyōji, under the strict supervision of their superiors, would not have been permitted to have any connection with criminal acts such as curses. Instead, the Heian nobility turned to hoshi-onmyojis like Dōman to lay curses on their political rivals. There were many incidents involving curses within aristocratic society in Seimei’s time, and in a majority of cases the curses were placed by hōshi-onmyōji. Dōman himself had been spotted visiting a noblewoman, Takashina no Mitsuko, who employed hōshi-onmyōji to put a curse on several prominent political figures. Getou: "Let's curse each other... to our hearts' content!"

War onmyojis (and questioning of Gege's probable naming sense)

The Sengoku era treated court onmyojis poorly (ceremonies were expensive to fund). Warrior onmyodo being more practical (divining auspicious days for battle/forming alliances and exorcising evil spirits) became prominent instead. Academies that taught Confucian studies with divination and medicine as part of the curriculum flourished and the most famous was Ashikaga Gakkō (足利学校) (not as modern as Tokyo Jujutsu High though). Like Nanami and co. who became professional sorcerers, many of its students went to the battlefield as diviners and doctors. When peace returned during Tokugawa Ieyasu's rule, a few practitioners thrived by attaching themselves to powerful men. One would be Tenkai (天海) and another Kanshitsu Genkitsu, head of the Ashikaga Gakko. Being Ieyasu's bff, a temple Fushimi Enkoji (伏見円光寺) modeled after Ashikaga was built and Kanshitsu appointed as its head. Ieyasu also sponsored Kanshitsu's Fushimiban (伏見版), a publication project printed with wooden blocks. I'm definitely reaching here for Tengen and Fushiguro but I do wonder if Gege ever chanced upon those names.

🦆A Tail of Many Kamos: 鴨川, 下鴨, 鴨, 加茂, 賀茂 🦆

鴨川 - the Kamo river northeast of the Heian capital (modern Kyoto)

下鴨 - the Shimogamo Shrine (下鴨神社), a Shinto shrine dedicated to the Kamo family of kami

鴨 - the clan associated with the Kamo shrines and the famous poet-priest Kamo no Chōmei (鴨長明) who witnessed the end of Heian. Also Bucephala albeola.

加茂 - Kamo no matsuri (加茂祭) or Aoi no matsuri (葵祭), an annual festival of Shimogamo Shrine and Kamigamo Shrine and one of the three major festivals in Kyoto, also one of the three big jujutsu clans (加茂家) in JJK. It's funny that Gege would choose a name with the same pronunciation as a real-life historic clan, which brings to the next point.

賀茂 - the formal name of the Shimogamo Shrine (賀茂御祖神社), also a once-prominent Heian Onmyoji family that died out during the Sengoku era. Thereafter, the Tsuchimikado (former Abe clan) took over their hereditary duties of keeping the calendar. Abe no Seimei's teacher was the astrology scholar (tenmon hakase 天文博士) Kamo no Yasunori (賀茂保憲). Could Kenjaku be based on Abe no Seimei as well?

The Musical Exorcist

The rock-n-roll grandpa, Gakuganji, might be based on the lesser known lute-priests called biwa-hoshi (琵琶法師) or zatō (座頭). Their musical style is referred to as heikyoku (平曲), which literally means "heike music". Accompanied by their mōsō-biwa (盲僧琵琶), the often-blind lay priests would chant Buddhist mantras, placate earth deities, perform spirit pacification chinkon (鎮魂) of vengeful spirits including onryō, communicate with the dead (Principal Yaga 😢), purify defilements haraikikyomeru (祓い清め) and border rites kyōkai girei (境界儀礼) that expel malign forces. The thesis "From Heike to Nomori no kagami" suggests that the musical practices and theories of Heike correlate with Yin-Yang principles. Which I will not further expound bcos I haz zero music theory knowledge and also this ask is far too long 😛 Hopefully Gakuganji will not remain blind to the less-than-holy intentions of the jujutsu higher-ups as the story continues.

Hello, lore anon! Thank you for compiling another stellar read!

Aaw, you'll be missed, but it's fine. Just do things and drop by if you feel like it.

Yes, onmyodo has a large influence on Japanese pop culture. Numerous manga takes their inspiration from onmyodo, jjk only one of them. Onmyouji had a very large political influence in the court. They were also a legit government position, literally civil servants back in the day.

The legend of Abe no Seimei and his rival Ashiya Douman is also famous. Abe no Seimei was said to be born from a kitsune (fox spirit) mother and human father, so he is often thought to not be fully human, hence his supernatural ability. I wouldn't be surprised if one of these characters is inspired by either Seimei or Douman; Sukuna, Kenjaku, or Tengen.

Kamo, yes, it seems that Gege actually takes the name of the clan. The fanbook said that Kamo clan arised to influence during the heyday of Heian period, the Golden age of Jujutsu. While it's lesser known, Kamo family is quite a legend too alongside Abe no Seimei in onmyoudou. As you said, Kamo no Tadayuki and his son Kamo no Yasunori has been known to teach Abe no Seimei.

#le-ask #jujutsu kaisen #jjk lore #jjk meta #thank you for this!

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sinnhelmingr · 3 years

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♢ Has anyone ever tried to steal your blog? Your headcanons? Icons? All that jazz // @monagxrie

OK SO I HAVE TOUCHED UPON THIS IN PASSING BEFORE. Saying that a friendship I had to drop before was as a result of the mun getting weird and just stealing everyone else’s muse concepts and ideas and ‘improving’ on them while refusing to acknowledge why the community was upset at them and didn’t want to interact until they changed things. The eventual punchline was them starting a multi with ‘original lore’ that was just them ripping off C*ll of Duty: M*dern W*rfare as a franchise.

But it went so much deeper than that. You have to understand that MW, before the remake games, was pretty sparse on characterization. When I was in the community, pretty much everything was fanon or personal headcanon. Within the RP sphere, everyone’s takes were very personal and not drawn from any serious canonical sources.

So today I bring you a long but also truncated history of..... The Theft Saga.

To start, my friend Tin played a canon villain-turned-hero as he gained a conscience and realized that the new leader of his rebellious faction was a genocidal warlord. That was the canon lore. The fanon she introduced was that this muse and the primary antagonist had history before canon, and were lovers as well as comrades in arms, but eventually had a difference of ideals that caused her muse to switch sides in the eleventh hour. Problem began to play basically the same character but better, with more backstory with the primary antagonist (childhood friends) that made their bond ‘deeper’ than what the antagonist had with Tin’s muse, little bits and bobs like that to try and undermine Tin’s plotting.

It was just juxtaposed enough that you could read it as a narrative foil rather than outright stealing concepts from Tin, but even then a lot of us were kind of side-eyeing the OC as a lighter and softer version of Tin’s canon saying that while the primary antagonist did bad, he wasn’t irredeemable. Which is... a weird hill to die on if anyone knows about the franchise in question.

Which then brings us to the point of the question. Shit that got stolen from me.

My OC Julia was a Russian woman with a tragic backstory who eventually defected to the West shortly after the fall of the USSR and came to work for MI5. Over the course of RP, she became a part of the military faction that opposed the main antagonist, being their liaison and advising them with what knowledge she could glean from her assets and superiors alike. Due to the machinations of RP, she slid down the slippery slope and became a double agent for the primary antagonist and began feeding him intel as well, so soured to the xenophobia she faced as a Russian in a new Cold War that she valued her own survival over loyalty to country or ideals. This eventually led to a romance between Julia and the primary antagonist, as played by a friend. So we have this morally ambiguous, long-suffering woman in military infrastructure undermining it from within while routinely bumping uglies with the main villain.

Wow, Kadi, why would you expand that much about a character you no longer play? Why, so I can show you the startling similarities!

Problem introduces their OC, a Russian woman with a tragic backstory who eventually became a medic in the Russian army. Over the course of RP, it was revealed that she was actually a double agent for the primary antagonist the whole time, and had been a childhood friend of his (sensing a pattern?) who had fallen in love with him in her youth and never let go. She was already at the base of the slippery slope and was a seductive, charming bombshell that ‘just meshed’ with the more theatrical and charismatic primary antagonist. She was soured to the current Russian government for being ‘slaves to the West’ and so sought to see them brought down and a new Russia reborn in the ashes. So we have this morally ambiguous, long-suffering woman in military infrastructure undermining it from within while being the apparent soulmate of the main villain.

She read like a knock-off of Julia which polished off any flaws or unattractive features she had, as Julia was made to be more unsettling than attractive, to make her a more ‘proper’ partner for the villain. Even the FCs favored in general aesthetics -- J*nnifer Connelly as Julia vs L*v Tyler as the rip-off .This was the point that the theft become apparent even to people who weren’t involved based on the messages I got at the time. Unfortunately, it did not stop there.

I played a canon character I interpreted as a flirtatious, sexually liberated military man from afar who was everyone’s best friend and therapist? What a coincidence! They now have an OC who is a flirtatious, sexually liberated military man from afar who is everyone’s best friend and therapist!

I envisioned a canonical sniper as being of Romani descent and with a complicated relationship with a white parent? Well, now their sniper oc (AS PLAYED BY SEBASTIAN STAN. THE WHITEST WHITE MAN.) is Romani and has a complicated relationship with his family. Replete with dropping a slur OOC and trying to argue it was okay to use bc they were referring to an actual Romani person.

Someone else in fandom played a wholesome, excitable American character who struggled deeply with her time on the battlefield? Oh baby you know the thief had to get on that gravy train.

Tin comes up with a therapist OC to try and keep the walking nest of neuroses that existed on that base from imploding? You’ll never guess what kind of OC the problem dreamt up next :)

They also made a duplicate of the canon I played as bisexual and POC, but made theirs heterosexual and white to be more ‘canon accurate.’ Literally looked at what I was doing with interpreting a character’s model as non-white, looked me dead in the eyes as a queer person, and said the equivalent of ‘eat shit.’ They then proceeded to ship with a friend who shipped their OC with the canon in question and vagued that I must be such a bad ship partner bc I also shipped my muse with another (male) canon character and wasn’t giving ‘his wife’ attention. The biphobia popped off the page, truly. Even ignoring the fact that both of those ships took place in separate universes, so there was no wife for my muse to be ignoring when he was shipping with Tin’s muse.

It was obvious by then that they were trying to make ‘better’ versions of their partner’s characters, who reflected better on the main villainous faction or were less ‘diverse.’ There were clear implications that we were trying too hard or some such, despite the fact most of the community was queer or belonged to other minority communities. What representation we put out was being undermined as trying to be woke and that only the problem was doing this right by not pandering.

They started branching out and stealing from even more roleplayers, and then demanding interaction in the most godmodding way possible. Eventually, the rest of the community put our foot down and demanded they quit their bullshit. They just got real passive aggressive, made a farewell post, then fucked off to the multi where they are sad enough to be ripping off Call of God-Damn Duty like it’s original lore, when each character is cobbled together from other people’s muses.

It’s been almost a decade. I still lose my shit thinking about this. The best part was the primary antagonist Julia shipped with looked at their rip-off’s lore and said outright ‘I never plotted this with you, it doesn’t work for my aromantic muse, I’m not acknowledging any of this, ask before you spring this on your partners.’

#monagxrie #askstba #negative //

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katygorl · 3 years

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TTM Concept: Queen Delula Vale of Valemont

So since I’ve been so inspired by all the parent and royal exploration happening lately for the “The Three Mages” verse, I thought I would go ahead and spruce up a bit some of my concept ideas from last year for Cole’s mother, the queen of Valemont. Now, none of these ideas are officially canon, since they were just what I envisioned for her at the time, but I hope you’re still able to enjoy them~ ^w^

The Three Mages and any character mentioned belong to @thethreemages, whose blog and original universe is something I highly recommend you guys check out, since it is so amazing and is one of my most favorite fantasy stories to have witnessed from when it was just a dream concept to the expansive world and lore it has now~ :3

But anyways, onto my little ideas for this queen! Info under the readmore^^

(I’m still working on drawing this concept of her out, so no visual for now. Also, a little bit of this info will be in relation to Cole’s dad and deceased older brother, and I have no name ideas for them yet so they won’t be mentioned much in detail here.)

- Bio: The current reigning royal of the kingdom to Valemont, her son Cole being the heir. Her people are known to be some of the fiercest and strongest warriors in the land, her own family having a long line of strong and proud warriors the citizens of their country to look up to. It’s always been something that fascinated her, even as a young child, as hearing her papa’s stories of his adventures inspired her at an early age to become a warrior herself. She started training as soon as she could, eager to get out and fight for herself, ignoring the strange looks and hushed whispers of the nobles and older warriors for having the then-tiny and frail princess trying to join their ranks. She was determined to prove her strength and her worth, no matter what others thought. When it became apparent around her pre-teen years that she possessed no magic of her own, she did not let that get her down as she continued her training and by the time of her young adult years, had already made a name for herself as being a formidable opponent to face on the battlefield. During her young adult years she was courted by a few other warriors, at least ones that were brave enough to approach her, but Delula had never been one invested in romance as she much preferred continuing on with her life as a warrior. During her mid-twenties her father had set her up with a hunter who was fairly reputable, though no one knew of his coldness at first. After marriage they eventually bore two sons, but Delula’s husband was always very stiff and emotionally-distant around them, often preferring to go out on his hunts then spend anytime at home tending to his families or duties as king consort. Delula was never entirely invested in him romantically, but she was having enough of his attitude after a while. In private they would have many heated arguments and fights about his inattentiveness, eventually leading to him walking out on his family when his sons were quite young.

Even though she did not want to be like her former husband, a part of Delula’s heart went cold from his leaving as she was not so carefree as before, being a lot more strict and firm in her ruling and parenting. Though despite her harsher disposition now, Delula loves her sons no matter what, even if she’s always been awkward at expressing affections. When her eldest son expressed interest in becoming a warrior she was more than willing to allow him to, often being one of his main trainers. Eventually when he was old enough he started to go off on his own war missions, though one in particular proved to be fatal as he was never seen or heard from again, presumably “dead” to the public and any who knew him. With her eldest son now gone, Delula has shut off all her emotions as a way to cope, though she greatly mourns his loss and focuses on maintaining her bond with her remaining son so she does not end up feeling totally bitter and alone.

- Appearance: A bit on the shorter side compared to Terra’s other queens, with a stocky and muscular figure, a light brown skin tone much like her son’s, hooded gray eyes(a signature feature of Valemont citizens) that have the slightest tint of icy blue to them, a short, black pixie haircut that’s on the more spiky/messy side, fashion sense being more on the warrior/tomboyish side as she’s not a very girly queen in the slightest sense. While her warrior days are over as she is more focused on her queenly duties and dealing with the territory disputes between her kingdom and the kingdom of Everes, she is still quite strong in her own right as she makes sure to work out when she can, and is still quite the arm-wrestling champ from her younger warrior days.

- Personality: Delula is more of a “socially-distant” kind of person and ruler, mainly focusing on her son and duty as queen and not trivial things like socializing with the other royals unless she has to. Very guarded and aloof, her warmer side only coming out around close family like her son. She can hold a grudge for a long time, being quite stubborn, but would secretly like for things to be better. Like previously mentioned one of her ways of coping with her husband walking out on their family and her eldest son disappearing was for her to “shut off” some of her more sensitive emotions, though underneath the harsh exterior she’s made for herself Delula has a big and noble heart for her closest loved ones and allies, and would be quite selfless in the fact she would do anything to make them happy despite what her normal disposition would suggest.

#the three mages #ttm #character concepts #for some reason I can see a lot of parallels between her and some of the other older/adult characters #like meradyth and queen vira for examples #there were a few others but those were the main ones I was thinking of #also apologies for this getting a little lengthy #I got a little more into this than I thought I would #but I hope you are still able to enjoy anyway^^

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venus-says · 5 years

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Aikatsu Friends! Episodes 58-63

Smiles are the seeds that bloom into flowers of happiness.

Me? Posting Aikatsu again? Oh boy, I think I’m sick. XD

Okay, jokes aside, aikatsu is back in the blog. I promise I still like aikatsu, the thing is, the subs come out very late and I kinda forget about it because I have stuff to do, and since doing these without subs ain’t the best idea (you gonna see why in a minute) the episodes end up pilling up. I’m a mess, sorry. XD

But anyway we got a lot to cover so let’s get going.

Episode 58 is the start of the Sorbet Kingdom ark.

So to starters, I have to apologize. I always very mad about the whole borders situation last time I did this mostly because I thought Sorbet was like an entire country and what they’ve shown us was just the capital, but from this episode is clear that this isn’t the case. Sorbet is either a city-state or a microstate, pretty much like what Monaco is (the difference being Monaco doesn’t have a king, when sorbet has one), so denying their visa wouldn’t do much since they were traveling to another country that has free passage to Sorbet. So I’m sorry.

Now back to the episode itself, I think they went a bit overboard with how Alicia treated the girls. I’m not saying that she should receive them with open arms and everyone be happy forever, but when you have a scene of she coldly saying that they should fuck off and in the next scene she says to let them use rooms from the castle it gives mixed signals and it just seems dumb. I think they should either had toned her coldness in the first scene and denying Hibiki in a less rash way or make Charles find another place in town to put the girls and be something like “my sister doesn’t want you all here, but I know she’s in pain and I wanna help so I’m gonna sneak you guys to X place”, either option would’ve worked better.

That little flashback about the kingdom was nice, but I don’t think it had a lot of purpose. I think it serves to show Hibiki why Alicia went back to her country and never went to meet her again, but seeing that their relationship was already going places via their text messages and phone calls, it’s odd that this was never brought up by Hibiki or Alicia. I must say for a show about friendship, people in this universe don’t seem to talk to each other at all and is just weird.

The performance... it was okay, I guess. I still don’t know why they had to perform the most basic song in their most basic outfit but I really don’t care that much. What I’m more curious about, as someone who lives in a country where snow isn’t a thing, is can you actually make a stage out of snow and have people stand on top of it without the whole thing collapsing? XD Friends from the northern hemisphere, please tell me.

One last thing before we move on, CHARLES IS ADORABLE AND HE’S THE BESTEST BOY EVER AND I WANNA HUG HIM TILL HIS OUT OF BREATHE. Thank you. XD

I kinda wanna skip talking about Episode 59, because I don’t have a lot to say about the episode itself and all I have in my mind is Mirai’s performance because that’s the only interesting thing this episode has going on for itself.

Like, LMT is there and that’s nice (even though I don’t see why they traveled separated from the main group), I didn’t really understand the whole evol ustakia thing (but those three sisters were a lot of fun), and I honestly didn’t see the point of having Tamaki flashing here and there having troubles just to upload a video.

That final scene with Hibiki and Alicia was nice, we got a little bit of the jeweling dresses lore and a lovely moment of Hibiki promising that she’ll bring everyone’s smiles back. But that’s not enough to hold the episode high.

Mirai’s performance does lift things up a bit, Nice na to meet you is an A M A Z I N G song and it was very refreshing to see something new (which for some reason it seems to be a very rare thing for friends!). This reveal could’ve been more impactful if the opening hadn’t spoiled Mirai’s dress? I believe yes. But even that can’t take away the positives of this performance that was, without a doubt, the highlight of the episode.

While 59 was meh Episode 60 was kinda good, I quite enjoyed this one, I dare to say this is the best one of this ark.

This episode goes hard on the emotional side, we all know this is the first time in the Aikatsu series we see a character die, and it is a very strong scene. Sadly it seems that all of the emotional parts were focused only on the flashbacks and they forgot of bringing this to the present a little bit.

Like, in the present we see more of Alicia’s struggle on trying to be a good ruler for the people and the country she loves while still wanting to do Aikatsu, but everything is still very undertoned. We know she didn’t want to stop Aikatsu but she had to because in her mind that was the correct thing to do, but we don’t see that being verbalized or acted in the present, we see glimpses of it which is interesting, but we could’ve seen more of that.

The main conflict of this episode works just fine, and I like how Tamaki deals with the situation, but when they pull out a kotatsu out of nowhere they lose me in that scene, like how’s that supposed to work outside? Aren’t those things electric? Where are they plugging it in????? C’mon people. I’d like much more to see more of Alicia, maybe she talking to Charles about her duties and everything so that we can see in her the desire to do Aikatsu again rather than the kotatsu scene (even though Mirai’s impression of Aine was really fun to watch).

Seeing Hibiki perform is always great, but seeing Alicia asking Hibiki to perform holds more meaning and is one of those glimpses that I mentioned that I wish we could’ve seen more. Regardless is still great and the moment when Hibiki reassures her promise to Alicia from the last episode just crown up this episode as a good one, despite its flaws.

Loose notes from the episode: Hibiki and Mirai’s competition was fun, I like Karen being the one who gets to win even though she wasn’t competing; the three sisters again are a treat like always; Charles remains the goodest boy ever and I want a plushie of him; and to top it all we got to see Honey Cat for a little bit so we know at least someone in the writing team didn’t forget they exist so, points for this episode.

Episode 61 is the polemic one.

So, the first time I saw this episode I watched it without subs and I watched it alone without watching the 3 episodes past. And at that moment it worked for me, it seemed like a good resolve for this mini-ark.

But watching now with the subs I don’t like it as much.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love Alicia’s performance and the moment she and Hibiki reconciliate is pretty good. I also appreciate having more lore in the Jeweling dresses, I feel like we desperately need a lot more info on them because so far they all just seem like a gimmick and they don’t have a purpose or reason to exist at all so any bit of info we get I’m happy.

HOWEVER.

This episode has a massive throwback, everything on this episode was build upon a lie. I get that Mio’s suggestion was supposed to be a “white lie”, a lie that causes no harm. But that doesn’t work when you make AN ENTIRE CITY LIE and tells them TO PRETEND THEY’RE LIVING AN EXPERIENCE THAT CAN GET THEM DEAD just to make their princess sing and dance on a stage. This is so selfish and so wrong. *sigh* I don’t even want to continue talking about this. Let’s just move on.

Episode 62 is a good change of pace after the low point that 61 was.

Yeah, it was silly. I have a lot of questions about how Love Me Tear got there earlier than the other, and what was the point of the frogs, and how they didn’t give much of a reaction to knowing about Karen’s house when none of them went there before.

But I’m okay with all of that because this episode was very sweet and it was good seeing the “side” girls get some attention. And how good of a combination that Reflect Moon and Wakaba was, I’m legitimately surprised I wasn’t expecting this to work so well, but they formed a very good group to follow around for this period of time.

Having two performances on this episode was a cheap move probably to fill up time but you know what? I’m not complaining. I’m just glad I got to clear my pallet from the terrible after taste last episode left in my mouth.

Episode 63 was nice. I like that they had an episode to reintegrate Alicia in the idol world. Sadly the episode had to share space with Karen's plot that wasn't as strong and interesting and makes a potentially great episode become just a regular one in the end.

And this time I'm being true to my words when I say I don' have anything else to comment about this episode. Like, Karen's dress looks good and her song is nice as well, but I like her old ones better. I don't see the point of Karen hiding to read her fan mail in the middle of the night. And most of Alicia's adapting process was very fun but there's not a lot there to create a conversation on my eyes.

Like, my brain didn't have a lot of work going on while I was watching it, it was a nice watch to just space out a bit while I was thinking in the job application I just dropped in the mayor's office today. I'm sorry if I wasn't as invested in this one as I was for the other ones I promise to dedicate myself more next time FOR THE HONEY CAT EPISODE THAT I'M SUPER EXCITED ABOUT. See ya~ XD

#Aikatsu Friends!#aikatsu

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centerofstupidity · 6 years

Text

Dracula the Undead: Author’s Note Part 1 Snark

If you enjoy the content you are reading, please like and follow the Center of Stupidity blog.

Interested in reading the previous Dracula the Undead chapter snarks? They can be found here.

Summary: An aperitif of the clusterfuckery that is to come. This is a long-winded and self-congratulating author's note.

Both writers claim that their novel stays true to Bram Stoker's vision even though it contradicts and re-writes the original story.

In case anyone wants to read the original author's note in order to form their own conclusions, you can read it here.

~ Dacre's Story ~

Since I am a Stoker, it is not surprising that I have had a lifelong interest in the work of my ancestor.

At the risk of sounding like a complete ass...

This "interest" is financially motivated.

Bram’s youngest brother, George, believed to be the sibling with whom he had the closest relationship, was my great-grandfather, so I am Bram’s great-grandnephew.

"Which means that I am related to Bram Stoker and can write an 'official' sequel to Dracula. And that will make me a shit-load of money."

In college, I wrote a paper on my great granduncle,

I'm getting the impression that is statement is supposed to make Dacre Stoker sound unique...

Even though there are plenty of other college students who have written an essay about Bram Stoker or Dracula for an assignment.

For instance, yours truly did a PowerPoint presentation on Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley for a class in college.

examining what may have motivated him to write Dracula.

Again, this isn't groundbreaking stuff.

Many people have published articles or books discussing Dracula.

Scholars like Professor Elizabeth Miller have dedicated their lives to studying it.

My research opened my eyes to how, from my family’s perspective, the history of the book Dracula, is pretty tragic.

"And before I give everyone a history lesson, I'm telling you all this so I can justify butchering my ancestor's work."

Bram Stoker died without ever seeing Dracula become popular. The sales of the novel were so limited at the time of his death that his widow, Florence, thought she would never benefit financially from Bram’s “wasted” seven years of research and writing. With Bram’s other fiction and nonfiction books out of print, Florence was convinced she would live out her days on a tight budget.

Actually, that isn't true.

According to scholar John Edgar Browning, the majority of critics gave positive reviews.

His findings were published on February 1st, 2012.

It is important to note Dracula: The Undead was published in 2009.

But in an interview in 2013, Dacre Stoker said this: There is this statement that used to kind of drive me crazy—‘Dracula was met with mixed reviews when Bram was alive’.

He then briefly discusses Browning’s research.

Which means that Stoker knew about Browning’s findings...

But he ignored it and printed misinformation.

Dacre adds that it was only "ten years after Bram’s death" when Dracula became popular.

Posthumously, Bram started to receive recognition as the progenitor of the modern vampire/horror novel.

Not to diminish Dracula and its impact on popular culture...

But it is not the first influential vampire novel.

Varney the Vampire is.

Dacre Stoker goes on to talk about Florence Stoker (Bram Stoker's wife) and her legal dispute with the creators of Nosferatu.

He also states that Dracula became public domain in the U.S.A since 1899 because Bram didn't complete a requirement so Florence Stoker had to live off the U.K. royalties.

With the U.S. copyright lost, Hollywood, corporate America, and anyone else was free to do whatever they wanted to Bram’s story and characters.

This is the part where the reader is supposed to boo and hiss at Hollywood...

And then give Holt and Stoker a standing ovation for writing Dracula the Undead.

Dacre Stoker talks about how his family wasn't asked for approval of "any of the hundreds of incarnations of Dracula over the next century."

My father’s generation had a negative feeling for all things Hollywood and Dracula.

Which is understandable given what happened.

But after reading the author's note...

The history of Dracula is being used in order to deflect any criticism.

And to justify bastardizing Dracula under the pretense of honoring Bram's original vision and righting a past wrong.

—except, of course, for Bram’s original novel.

So we have two options:

They knowingly endorsed a novel that defamed Bram and mocked the original novel.

Or they loved Dracula and would be appalled that Bram was dragged through the mud and the original lore was ridiculed.

According to Ian Holt in an interview in 2010, he says that “Bram’s bitter demeanor was even worse in real life than we depicted in the novel.”

And in the same interview, Holt passively aggressively says: “Do your research. The fact that the chapters with Bram were written almost completely by Dacre in consultation with his family means nothing to them.”

So yeah...

I’m leaning towards option number one.

I didn’t write about these issues in my college paper, but they were always on my mind.

Dacre Stoker admitted that he didn't read Dracula until he went to college.

Stoker says it was "a shame" that his family was unable to "control the legacy of my great-granduncle" and "lay claim to the character of Dracula."

It was many years after college that I met an interesting character, Ian Holt.

Stoker doesn't realize that calling someone "an interesting character" can be a veiled insult.

Ian is a screenwriter who has been obsessed with all things Dracula since childhood.

A lot of people love all things Dracula.

Doesn't mean that they are a talented writer.

Ian, being a true idealist, had a plan that inspired me to not accept the frustrating history of Dracula.

"He was my knight in shining armor!"

He wanted to change history.

History reveals that change isn't always positive.

Sometimes it is negative.

Ian’s plan was simple: to reestablish creative control over Bram’s novel and characters by writing a sequel that bore the Stoker name.

To my surprise, none in my family had ever considered this.

Translation: "Why haven't any of my family members tried writing a novel? It's the obvious solution to the problem."

And it didn't occur to Stoker none of his family members had any interest in being a writer.

It really pisses me off when people act like writing any kind of fiction is easy or that anyone can be a writer.

While any literate person can write, not everyone can be a writer.

It requires talent and passion along with the desire to learn about the craft and improve your writing skills.

Intrigued, I decided to join Ian on a roller-coaster ride as coauthor.

And for readers, it is a nightmarish ride where clusterfuckery gallops and a literary classic is violently raped.

In writing Dracula the Un-Dead, I felt a strong sense of duty and familial responsibility.

"It isn't because I wanted to piss all over my relative's legacy and make a shit load of money."

I hoped to work with Ian to represent Bram’s vision for the character of Dracula.

Bram's vision should be called Sir Not Appearing in This Novel.

We aimed to resurrect Bram’s original themes and characters, just as Bram conceived them more than a century ago.

The Dracula characters appear in name only.

They are cast in an unfavorable light.

As for the themes?

They are discarded.

So many books and films had strayed from Bram’s vision—

It is extremely rare for adaptations to stick extremely close to the original story.

Usually, adaptations take artistic license with the source material.

And just because an adaptation or a retelling differs from the original story, doesn't mean that it will automatically suck.

For instance, I like films, mangas, and video games that are inspired by/loosely based on Dracula.

and thus our intent was to give both Bram and Dracula back their dignity in some small way.

Dracula is depicted as a misunderstood man with fangs who is every woman's erotic dream.

And readers are supposed to despise Bram.

I think Bram would be proud that a family member has taken this initiative, and finally done justice to the legacy he created.

Bram would be livid that his work was bastardized and that his descendant depicted him as a desperate and a talentless hack.

~ Ian’s Story ~

I am not ashamed to say it, I LOVE horror films.

Ah, all-caps.

How I loathe thee.

A lot of people like horror and it is a popular genre.

So that doesn't make you unique.

And horror movies are no longer considered depraved or scandalous.

Holt mentions that his favorite horror movie as a kid was Dracula (1931).

When I was ten years old, my mother bought me a record for Halloween with Christopher Lee narrating the story of Dracula by Bram Stoker. Reading that record sleeve changed my life, for it was then I learned that Transylvania was an actual place and that Dracula was a historical figure.

Where do I begin?

If you are LISTENING to an audiobook, you are not READING IT.

Ian was "inspired" by the audiobook that he decided to read Dracula.

I was surprised at how different the novel was from the films—and I had seen every Dracula film ever made.

"Who knew that Count Dracula swings both ways? Or that Mina is an assertive and intelligent woman and not a stupid Dracula fangirl?"

The novel was more intelligent, astute, and dark.

While this literary abomination is a cash-grab filled with gratuitous gore and sex.

The novel had more intricate and exciting characters than I could have ever imagined.

While Dracula the Undead has depraved lesbian vampires and a whiny prat along with a handsome and misunderstood vampire who only wants tru luv.

I felt cheated by Hollywood. I vowed revenge!

I get it, Holt and Stoker.

I'm supposed to hate Hollywood but adore your literary travesty.

Fifteen years later, my opportunity came.

And Dracula fans wished that it never arrived.

Flipping channels one night, I came upon a program on the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

I'm getting the sneaking suspicion that this story will result in name dropping. And Holt insisting that he is a scholar.

On the program, Coppola held up the 1972 book In Search of Dracula written by Fulbright Scholars Professor Raymond McNally and Professor Radu Florescu (Prince Dracula’s actual descendant).

Vlad the Impaler is also known as Vlad III, Vlad Dracul or Vlad Dracula.

Sometimes he is referred to as Vlad III of Wallachia or Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia.

But I have never heard of any scholar referring to Vlad III as "Prince Dracula."

A quick Google search reveals only this book and a YA novel called Hunting Prince Dracula.

Every time I see Vlad III being mentioned as "Prince Dracula", I can't keep a straight face.

Because it reminds me of Beni Gabor calling Imhotep his "prince."

Coppola had used the professors’ research of the historical Prince Dracula’s life as inspiration for the opening sequence of his film.

And he discarded the rest of it in order to make Dracula a guy who is looking for his one tru luv.

Before taking a breath I was on a plane to Boston College to meet the professors. After showing them some notes on the screenplay I planned to write based on their book,

"I smelled an opportunity to make some money!"

the professors sold me the rights for one dollar

"They were impressed my awesomeness!"

The friendship I forged with McNally and Florescu has borne fruit in many ways. I soon began traveling with the professors giving lectures on the impact of Bram Stoker’s novel on our culture.

According to Dracula the Undead on the official Penguin Publishing House website, Ian is being described as:

There is a BIG difference between being a fan, a historian, and a documentarian.

A quick Google search reveals that Ian Holt has not published anything in an academic journal.

However, one of the first things that pop up in an internet search is this.

This garnered me an invitation to speak at The First World Dracula Congress in Bucharest, Romania, in 1995—a gathering of Dracula/horror scholars from around the world.

I don't doubt that Holt went to The First World Dracula Congress.

But I don't think he was a speaker.

Elizabeth Miller wrote a report about the gathering.

And Ian Holt isn't mentioned among the speakers.

Holt went sightseeing in Romania and how he made "the dream I had as a ten-year-old come true."

Thanks to the friends I made at the First World Dracula Congress, I was asked to join the Transylvanian Society of Dracula—a scholarly organization dedicated to the study of all things Dracula.

We get it, Ian Holt.

You want us to think that you are a scholar because you are friends with scholars and historians.

But I don't think a scholar would be constantly name-dropping.

Through friends in the society I met Professor Elizabeth Miller, the world’s foremost authority on all things vampire, Dracula, and Bram.

"And I'll use my scholar friends as a shield to deal with criticism."

Professor Miller asked me to speak at the Dracula convention in Los Angeles in 1997, where we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the release of Bram’s novel.

According to a report on the 1997 Dracula convention in Los Angeles, Holt isn't mentioned as being one of the speakers.

Holt says during the convention he came up with an idea to write a sequel to Dracula. He admits that a Dracula sequel isn't a new idea.

But a Dracula sequel was never written with "input from a member of the Stoker family."

Holt goes on to say that "securing that input became my goal" and contacted the Stoker family patriarch.

Still scarred by the Nosferatu copyright affair and years of being ignored and abused by Hollywood, the members of this generation of the Stoker family wanted nothing to do with me.

I could be wrong...

But I'm getting a strong feeling that Holt was miffed that some members of the Stokers didn't want to touch him with a ten-foot pole.

Especially since Holt said the Stoker family at "long last" supported the idea for an official sequel.

But I wouldn’t give up.

Holt says how he "kept building up my film-writing résumé and Dracula connections." He eventually meets Dacre Stoker.

I pitched him my sequel idea, which at the time I had been planning as a screenplay. Dacre was enthusiastic and suggested that the proper way to proceed was with a book first.

If it is a novel, then it will be proper lit-ra-choor.

Because a movie wouldn't be "deep" or "elevated".

Both Dacre and Ian agreed to a writing partnership.

And Dacre contacted his family members and presented them with the sequel proposal.

Once it was understood that this would be a labor of love,

"We gleefully shit all over the original lore and insist that it was all a lie."

our intentions honorable, and that our plan was to restore to the world Bram’s original vision and characters,

If that was the case, then:

The original lore of Dracula wouldn't be repeatedly violated.

The Crew of Light wouldn't be depicted in an unflattering light.

And Bram Stoker wouldn't be vilified.

the Stokers offered support, at long last.

Translation: They finally appreciated my genius!

Dracula the Un-Dead is the culmination of my lifelong dream and years of hard work.

"And why is the Devil laughing and doing a victory dance?"

It is my gift to every horror nut out there.

If by "gift", you mean a literary turd, then I agree with you.

My greatest wish is we have created a book that is close to Bram’s original gothic vision

"Close to Bram's original gothic vision"?

Hell no!

It contradicts the original story and reads like a shitty Coppola's Dracula fanfic.

—while modernizing it at the same time.

By stealing a twist from The Empire Strikes Back and copying a scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Believe me, I realize how lucky I am.

And readers will regard this novel as a plague upon mankind.

I have been truly blessed that in some small way, my name will be linked with

a mean-spirited and shitty novel.

that of my hero, Bram Stoker—

I'm not convinced that Dacre or Ian regard Bram as their hero.

Here is an excerpt from the novel:

"If there were to be any truth to Stoker's novel it would have to be where no sunlight could ever reach."

Translation: you can stick it where the sun don't shine.

the man who invented modern horror.

I'll say it again...

Stoker wasn't the only one who invented modern horror.

Some of the other writers were Edgar Allen Poe, Ann Radcliffe, Sheridan Le Fanu, Algernon Blackwood, and H.P. Lovecraft.

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paladinsheadcanons · 7 years

Note

Here's a non-shipping request (albeit one that could be pretty time-consuming): Who does each champion like the least among their fellow champs? The idea that everyone get's along well enough to live in the same building together seems to be a widely accepted headcanon on this blog, but there must be SOME animosity between certain characters... This might sound a bit hypocritical after I just sent in such an extensive request, but please make sure to take some time off to prepare for finals

I went through every single champion’s voice lines and little available canon lore for this. Because I really had no idea how to answer for some of them. Just saying though, there are a lot of champions repeated through this list, as I wasn’t sure how a few characters could plausibly end up as another’s least favourite champion (YING). Also, please don’t take this as any kind of character bashing. It was just what I felt were the most fitting for each character.

-Mod Inara.

Makoa: Androxus. He legitimately believes Androxus to be a wicked soul for him to be cursed, and doesn’t trust him at all.

Fernando: Drogoz. He really doesn’t mind pretty much anyone, but he really, really, really, hates it when Drogoz Dragon Punches him through his shield, which he is very proud of.

Ruckus: Grohk. It’s not really a hate or anything, but the goblin really doesn’t like it when the orc short-circuits Bolt with his lightning. Bolt doesn’t mind though. Let him rest.

Barik: Pip and Skye. Barik already doesn’t like the Vulpins nor the Elves (I’m not kidding his voice lines to them are so mean), but he has a particular dislike for the two who keeps throwing annoying bombs at him and his inventions.

Ash: Fernando. She finds him a disgrace to knights in general, and hates his flirtatious and seemingly carefree attitude.

Torvald: Buck. Long story short, he thinks Buck isn’t intelligent, and doesn’t fully trust him to be on the same team. He doesn’t ever voice this though.

Inara: Barik and Zhin. She doesn’t hate them, but she is extremely against the way the two treat nature, with Barik carving up mountains for his inventions and Zhin burning down forests for what seems to be no more than sadistic fun.

Drogoz: This was hard Drogoz seems to hate everyone. Kinessa. Having someone who constantly slows him even in the air then shooting him out of his place in the skies had really ticked this dragon off enough times.

Bomb King: Willo. He can’t help but find her a little annoying, and he doesn’t find it amusing how her seedlings are technically bombs. It’s petty, but what kind of bomb doesn’t have a fuse and proper explosions?

Cassie: Drogoz. He tried to eat Zigs. Multiple times. As a joke. Yeah she’s not doing him any favours anytime soon.

Lian: Jenos. He pulls off the white hair better than she does. She doesn’t like Jenos’s arrogance and doesn’t believe he’s truly a god. Also Zhin, who she finds extremely dishonorable as a fellow leader of somewhat noble standing.

Kinessa: Strix. Their relationship is extremely strained due to Kinessa walking out on him while he was still her mentor. She’s not eager to try and repair that relationship.

Sha Lin: Maeve. She keeps mocking him and stealing from him, cuz he’s apparently an “easy target” for her and his pride lowkey hates her for it.

Viktor: Lian. He strongly dislikes her arrogant attitude, and hates how she seems to believe him cowardly even though he views his escapes as tactical retreats and finds it foolish for her to lead troops into battles where they can only “win or die”.

Tyra: Pip. Honestly just doesn’t see him as anymore than another hunted animal that isn’t worth her time and energy. Doesn’t pay him much mind at all.

Willo: Fernando. She really didn’t like it when she stepped on that one flower in front of her that one time.

Evie: Tyra. Evie simply hates the way Tyra keeps throwing Fire Bombs, which affect her more than most, and their personalities don’t exactly match up well either.

Skye: Drogoz. That stupid flying lizard attacked and knocked her out for a single gold coin, then left her there alone in the middle of an empty temple. Of course she’s still mad.

Androxus: Seris. Honestly Androxus doesn’t like anyone, but Seris is the only fellow champion he feels genuinely uneasy with. Yes, she helped him out of the Abyss, but he cannot help but slightly fear the true extent of her powers linked directly to his place of torment.

Buck: Barik. Buck finds Barik too grumpy and rude to some of the others, especially those who weren’t of the human or dwarven species, such as the elves. Besides, Barik clearly thinks Buck’s an idiot, which does cause reasonable conflicts.

Maeve: Lex. While the two have somewhat formed a truce and have a pretty decent relationship overall, Maeve still cannot help but harbour a fierce resentment towards Lex, as he keeps telling her how her thieving actions were wrong when it was literally the only reason she survived after being thrown out onto the streets as a child.

Zhin: Mal’Damba. Zhin has unstable relationships with most of his fellow Paladins, but he secretly resents Mal’Damba especially for the support’s ability to invoke fear into others at will, as Zhin hates to ever feel scared in any way.

Lex: Zhin. The guy’s literally against everything Lex stands for as a lawman. Of course he hates Zhin.

Mal’Damba: Evie. He strongly feels that Evie has gravely disrespected the spirits by forcefully binding her soul to one. He does not bother ever showing his displeasure though, satisfied with knowing that her actions had led her to spending eternity in a weak form.

Pip: Bomb King. Pip really doesn’t like how the guy just throws his active bombs everywhere, because they could easily set off Pip’s own potions or severely damage his fur. He always feels like he’s walking around broken glass when BK is around as a result.

Grover: Drogoz and Zhin. Grover absolutely hates fire, and hates how reckless and destructive the two are with it, particularly with Zhin, who actively likes watching things burn. He’s fine with Fernando though, as the knight only ever uses his fire in a fight and still tries to be careful with it in forest areas.

Grohk: Willo. He and her might share the same love for flowers, but that’s where their similarities end. As far as Grohk is concerned, a tiny fairy with a temper tantrum wasn’t on his list of people he was interested in becoming friends with.

Seris: Maeve. Seris generally has a very neutral relationship to everyone else, but every time she looks Maeve in the eyes…something never feels right.

Ying: Terminus. It’s less of a dislike, and more of a sense of pity and fear of said person. Ying cannot help but feel uncomfortable knowing that Terminus is essentially a reanimated, hollow body with a soul forcefully attached to it, though she still tries to be as caring and friendly to him as much as she does with everyone else.

Jenos: Skye. Jenos thinks himself far above her annoying and persistent flirting, as well as the mocking she gives out whenever she kills him in matches. He hates how he cannot see her coming most of the time even outside matches, and her poisons were always a serious pain both literally and figuratively.

Strix: Lian. While Strix doesn’t harbour as much resentment towards her as Viktor does, he can’t bring himself to trust her or work well with her. Kinessa as well, as he feels she abandoned him and their duties. He avoids her most of all.

Talus: Torvald. Talus is extremely suspicious of where Torvald got the knowledge of runic magic and refuses to trust him despite Torvald’s attempts to befriend him.

Terminus: Ash. It was her fault he ended up the way he did in the first place.

#all champions #paladins #paladins champions of the realm #paladins headcanons #long post

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crystalnet · 7 years

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The Awkward 7th Gen of JRPGs and Mistwalker Games

Ah the seventh generation. The era in which, partly because of the actual state of gaming and partly because of unrelated circumstances, I fell out of love with games. It wasn't until the dust had cleared on the gen that I got back into this past-time and was able to appreciate and re-evaluate the generation by doing a bit of an autopsy on it once this long, strange gen had finally come to a close. The 7th gen seems troubled and problematic from the outset for a variety of reasons, but being a JRPG-centric blog, I'm going to specifically discuss the state of the JRPG during this gen.

To very briefly summarize in a likely unacceptably reductive sense the prior generations in order to contextualize the seventh gen, the prior gen, (gen 6: dreamcast, ps2, gamecube, og xbox in that order) was what I would refer to as the bronze age of JRPGs if we are going to go by a condensed version of the generations of American comic books as a model. JRPGS had fully made the jump to full 3D graphics, began integrating voice-acting and had even feauted some titles that made the first major moves away from traditional turn-based or active-time-battle-esque combat systems, whether that meant leaning closer to the action-RPG genre or using MMO-esque semi-automated combat devoid of random encounters.

That was a slightly awkward, growing-pains-ridden period that had, despite the odds, having some pretty strong titles. Still riding the hype and massive popularity/sales of games like FFVII, this specific genre was still a big deal at that point and hadn't quite begun its quick fade into obscurity which happened later in the first decade of the 21st century. The best JRPGs of this gen built on the success of their prior gen and examples include the solid to great FFX and universally hailed Persona 3 and 4, as well as Dragon Quest 8, just to name a few of the most well known of several strong candidates. These games were about as strong as the best of the previous gen, while enjoying the advantage of much stronger graphical presentation, and potentially deeper systems. The PS1/Saturn generation had some really strong titles in this genre and for some this is easily the peak of the genre, but even if you’re partial to this one the most (which includes the run of FF7-9), you have to admit the graphical limitations led to these games being visually trapped between the more detailed graphics of the next gen and the clean-cut if limited pixel art of the SNES/genesis games (which are the golden age to PS1's silver). Indeed, the Cthonic era of JRPGS (NES/Master Drive and earlier) culminated in an explosion of inventiveness and refinement in games like Final Fantasy 4-6, Phantasy Star 4 and Chronos Trigger, all games that would become the actual gold standard of the genre.

And so without derailing much further, we thus have three straight generations of impressive and semi-consistent JRPGs and development of the genre. This would peter out significantly though, even before the 7th generation began, and the muted reaction to Final Fantasy XII, towards the end of the PS2's life-cycle may have marked a bit of a sea-change. As big, mainstream games like Halo and Call of Duty gained more and more momentum, I think more specialized and more-- for lack of a better term-- Japanese genres and institutions took a bit of a hit around this time. Developers wanted to cater the American and Global market and so big shooters and neu-platform open-worlds like Assassin's Creed had a lot more cache at the beginning of the 7th Gen. I also think that part of the problem was the question of what to do about turn-based combat. As technical possibilities opened up in gaming, the back-and-fourth of true turn-based combat that was previously expected from the genre began to feel more and more archaic. This was partly due to titles like Ocarina of Time or the several strong Action-JRPGs around the time making real-time combat seem like a viable option for deeper role-playing experiences. Alas, there was still a feeling, and for some there still is, that turn-based combat will always be the central tenet of the genre, and that real-time games just don't count.

In fact, JRPG's themselves reflected the feeling that turn-based systems were passe by openly experimenting with it in the 6th gen. Games like FFXII and the Tales game, as well as Level 5's string of Action-RPGs all feature the depth of systems that RPGs of olden always offerered, while also featuring real-time combat or something close to it (Indeed FFXII featured the pseudo real-time of MMO-style combat, which would be the way forward for other franchises going forward. And so in a way the genre could be seen as undoing what it once was in order to adapt.

But where did that leave it by the time the 7th gen was underway? Well, it practically left it in absentia. This was about a decade after the massive and fortuitous success and sales figures of FFVII (which, considering, it was always strange to me that it sold so well in US. Was that evocative cover with the buster sword, and Cloud looking toward Midgar amidst a clean-white backdrop the sole marketing for that game?). Alas the landscape had thoroughly chanced, and this was before Skyrim would drop. There were over 3 years of 7th gen games before that mini game-changer was unleashed on the world, helping to shift any attention on the RPG that existed at that point in a westward direction. But certain sign-of-the-times moments were abound before this even, like the release of FFXIII to initially positive critic reception which quickly faded to very very scathing reception more generally, almost instantly after initial buzz wore off. What used to be the paragon of the genre had reduced said genre to a largely automated, overly-slick walking-and-fighting simulator, sending the reception of the genre down one long, linear hallway of death and despair. Now this specific gamer actually appreciated a lot of what that game did despite the hate, but I can't deny that the game sucked out a lot of the life of the genre in the way exploration, free-will and customization was either limited or entirely absent. The games a giant anime movie with tons and tons of successive fights. If you like the combat system, which imo was a valiant if slightly superficial riff on the active-turn-based systems of old, this might have been okay, but if you didn't-- and many don't-- then the game was nothing but endless cut-scenes and confusing lore. But hey it was gorgeous, and that's what this generation was all about right? Right...

The very Western focus on graphical prowess and polish was something Square Enix seemed to believe was an essential part of Final Fantasy, and so put more focus on that than, oh I don't know, having anything in the way of a single town or basically any exploration in that game. And this focus on graphics was kind of the story of the gen, save for Nintendo who defiantly snubbed their nose to processing power and went the way of innovation instead (innovation that largely did not include all that many JRPGs...). Speaking of Final Fantasy though, the once titan of the genre took another hit around the time this gen was about to begin when Sakaguchi, the OG creator, left Square to form Mistwalker Studios. This would be a hit for Square as far as many fans were concerned, and even a nail-in-the-coffin for some, but it also meant good things for the genre as a whole. Sakaguchi ostensibly left Square Enix in part due to the increased pressure that management was putting on the creatives there during the fall-out from Spirits Within’s financial failure-- their dalliance in Feautre Film- headed by Sakaguchi himself and the project which caused the company to briefly experience financial free-fall as they hemorrhaged money right up until FFX and Kingdom Hearts turned things around for them in a major way. But the damage was done, and projects at the company would be handled differently going forward. It is a bit ironic then, that Sakaguchi would go on to struggle with management at Nintendo while working on Last Story after returning to the company he previously had left along with Square when they refused to adopt CD-technology a decade prior. Last Story-- the game he made for the Wii-- would still come out as a brilliant answer to the dearth of the genre at the time, featuring inventive real-time combat that put a focus on positioning-based strategy.

Indeed some of the more promising games of this genre during the gen were developed by Mistwalker. Not all are perfect, but their third big effort in Last Story is quite good, and is still a unique and novel example of what combat could be in JRPG's going forward. Their first two games, Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, both had tried-and-true turn-based style combat, and felt a bit uninspired, if not unwelcome in a very dry stretch of time for the genre, the former's Toriyama-led art-style giving it the feeling of Dragon Quest 8 and Chrono Trigger. It didn't quite live up to those games, but Lost Odyssey is an interesting entry considering it gives us a glimpse into what FFXIII could have been in some alternate universe where Square stayed Square-Soft forever maybe.

And so, weirdly, Sony takes a huge hit from Mistwalker's sheer existence, since all three of these games were released on 360 and Wii--consoles that basically had no JRPGs otherwise-- and to top it off, another one-time Sony loyalist Tetsuya Takahashi, who also having left Square earlier in the decade, went on to work on Xenoblade for the Wii, after previously doing the terrific Xenosaga trilogy on PS2. Alas, Sakaguchi and Takahashi may have singe-handedly kept the genre alive with their games, keeping the promise and magic of the golden age of JRPGs alive, if just barely (indeed, both of these men cut their teeth on classics like Final Fantasy 4 and Chrono Trigger). Meanwhile, Sony holds things down with only a couple big JRPGs, among which is Ni No Kuni, an excellent offering from Level-5 and Ghibli which is super solid and yet skews a bit young (as any Ghibli-related project reasonably should), alongside Nier, from the whacky Yoko Taro who had previously released uneven if cult-status-y JRPGs on previous Sony consoles in the form of the Drakengard games. And while Nier, Ni No Kuni, the Mistwalker games and Xenoblade are all solid to great JRPGs, they’re pretty much the extent of the genre this gen-- five measly games, all of which are spread across the three systems unevenly. Indeed, no single console this gen could stand on its own this gen when it came to this genre, with Sony being the old stand-by failing to deliver on that unless you just happened to really love the entire FFXIII trilogy.

Things we could formerly rely on like Persona, SMT or Dragon Quest were either just straight up no-shows this gen, or were relegated to handhelds. There was Last Remnant on PS3 as well, and I haven't played it, but reception is mixed to negative. All of the other aforementioned games though offer solid experiences, with some sticking to their guns by way of old-school turn-based combat and a few others pushing ahead with new iterations of Active/Semi-Real Time systems (Last Story, Ni No Kuni, Xenoblade), and yet, they are simply too few and far between in number compared to the previous gen. This problem really dogged the entire gen, and was merely symptomatic of the darker turn gaming took around the time, and I'm glad to see things feel like they're headed in a better direction as of late. JRPGs are always the deepest games I play out of the various genres that I fuck with, so my estimation of a console's library is directly related to how many solid JRPGs there are. And while I love the Wii and PS3 overall for what the do offer, they come close to not having enough to offer based solely off their relatively skimpy JRPG offerings. Wii comes out on top for me based only on Xenoblade and Last Story, and sort of Muramasa and Zelda insofar as Vanilla Ware and Zelda games count, but even the freakin 360 might have a stronger offering than PS3, which is a serious problem.

Luckily, I really do think things are on the up-and-up lately though, with smaller, retro-style JRPGs coming into vogue among other things, giving smaller developers wiggle room in terms of acceptable budget, and big franchises like Persona are finally thawing out of deep-freeze after being a no-count dring the previous gen (save for Catherine), while Final Fantasy and Square in general are enjoying a bit of a comeback (Nier Automata, Nioh and I Am Setsuna all in one year). Alas, Persona 5 showed up finally and just in time to universal acclaim, and the fact that it's a successful and truly turn-based JRPG with a decent budget and progressive, forward-thinking mechanics is very impressive in itself. I think Dark Souls was a bit of a beacon of light last gen, in the way that it showed how a Japanese dev could make a deep RPG in a style that was markedly different from more traditional action-JRPG style, while also drawing on western games like Skyrim in its approach. It seemed to bridge the gap between western and eastern-style RPGs and gave people a reason to hype Japanese RPG developers once again at a time when there were less reasons than ever before. I'm not a big Souls guy, but I really appreciate that it brought attention back to a dying genre at a crucial time. So despite this awkward generation's slightly lacking and inconclusive answer to the question: "what should JRPG's this gen be like?", things may finally be settling back into what just might be described as progress for a genre that some may have thought was down for the count. Perhaps it was a necessary awkward period that has allowed developers working in the genre some time to re-calibrate and reassess the landscape,

Now if only devs could figure out how to resuscitate the 3D platformer--Indeed, If JRPGs experienced a drought during last gen, then the 3D platformer went into a near permanent coma and was basically pronounced dead save for the big, mainline console Mario games that come out every 5-10 years. But that's a story for another day, for now, I still need to beat Persona 5 before Xenoblade 2 drops...

#7th generation #gaming #jrpg #last story #mist walker #blue dragon #ps3 #wii #360 #sakaguchi

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mrasheedcartoons · 6 years

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Awakening the Atrophied Eye: INITIATION

It's embarrassing to see the date on the last entry in this series. lol Paradoxically, those five years have flown by even as September of 2013 somehow seems like a lifetime ago, and indeed, I have experienced what has often been considered a sort of rebirth.

The concept of 'correct meditation,' as described in the lore of spiritual science developed by the ancients and recorded on the granite stele at Saqqara in Egypt, was the intended point of the blog series. I had ventured to chronicle my own attempts to build up the habit of meditating every day with the hope that at some point my diligence would be rewarded with the opening of the UDJAT Wisdom Eye, initiating me into the enlightened state of the 'Followers of Second Sight' (called 'Shemsu Hor' in the well-known Greek and 'Shemesu Heru' in Ancient Egyptian, the latter which I prefer and have titled myself with).

To be clear, the practice of correct meditation with the hope that the third eye would open is completely separate from the third eye opening. I point out that distinction here because, on Sunday, July 1, 2018 at approximately 6:15am, my third eye opened for me, and the drill of correct meditation was the furthest thing from my mind at the time.

I will describe the event itself, but I will hold the content of what the Wisdom Eye showed me close, because it was very personal... pregnant with meaning for me to meditate upon and extract knowledge for my own path... and I do not care to share it. So unless the prophet Joseph (peace be upon him) magically steps forth to offer aid in deciphering the content for me, I am uninterested in the opinions of others on that narrow topic. To even a well-meaning outsider, the content very well may quite reasonably seem mundane to the extreme – even to the point of provoking an instant "That's IT?! So what?" type of response – and I am in no mood for all of that since I'm still very protective of the experience in general.

Although I initially started not to share that part either, I will share my experience of what actually happened around what was shown to me though, since I believe it is the duty of all of us to record an accurate account of any and all spiritual experiences we have to add to the body of human literature. It's important. Contrary to the empty opinions of the secular, it is precisely our spiritual experiences that have humanized us, enabling us to build our civilizations. (I may end up writing out a detailed description of what the third eye showed me anyway and hiding it somewhere, to be found after my death. Then y'all can make fun of me all you wish when I genuinely really, REALLY won't care a damn.)

On the morning of 01 July, shortly after I had finished uploading the political cartoon of the day, I found I had about 30 minutes to kill before my alarm went off to get ready for work. So I decided to lie down and get a bit more sleep, but I noticed as I got in the bed that I was keyed up for some reason. Similar to the caffeine-induced "UP!" feeling when I've had my one cup of coffee during the day. Since I hadn't had any coffee in almost 24 hours, I expected the feeling to go away once I got comfortable, but it didn't.

I squirmed around for a few minutes until I finally noticed that the feeling was getting progressively worse. All by itself it wasn't a necessarily unpleasant feeling – this building excitable sensation – just wildly inappropriate considering my intention was to actually fall asleep. It felt like a strong 'bzzzzzzzzz' feeling building near/around/through me, and I remember that at its peak I began actively worrying as to whether it was one of the symptoms of a heart attack.

And then the third eye opened.

Suddenly my entire field of vision was filled with the darkened imagery the eye was showing me, but in the fovea focus area, there was a jagged 'hole' where a portion of that same imagery was quite bright. When I looked around, the scenery shifted, but the 'hole' stayed in the same place, and it didn't take long at all to notice that with my will alone, I could zoom closer to stuff, see stuff behind the darker areas and pull them up for better scrutiny in front of the 'hole.' I also noticed I wasn't really allowed to focus too much attention on one particular thing in what was shown to me; there was a level of zoom-in and detail it wouldn't let me achieve. This experience was clearly intended as a 'big picture' glimpse of something. All while this was happening, I noticed that the 'bzzzzzzzzz' energy feeling was retreating/dropping/defusing, which gave the very strong impression of a countdown. Then sure enough, once the 'bzzzzzzzzz' sensation stopped, the 'hole' in the veil closed. For precious fractions of a second, I could still see the imagery behind the now even darker veil, and then there was just normal darkness.

I continued to lie there, stunned and amazed and humbled beyond belief. I started praying, thanking Allah for gifting me with this great blessing. And it was absolutely a blessing! I felt an immense gratitude that my path had led me to the literature I had read gobbled that enabled me to recognize what was going on at the exact moment it started; I had no doubt or confusion as to what I was seeing. I replayed the event over and over, teasing and probing my memory for every precious bit I tried to take in during what seemed to be a few seconds.

I've thought long and hard about this event over the last few days, and I have some speculations regarding the how and possibly even why it may have happened for me that I'd like to share.

The Holy Qur'an 42:51 — It is not fitting for a man that Allah should speak to him except by inspiration, or from behind a veil, or by the sending of a messenger to reveal, with Allah's permission, what Allah wills: for He is Most High, Most Wise.

THE HOW I wasn’t meditating at the time I had my third eye experience and in fact, I hadn’t meditated in quite a while. So how was I able to experience this wonderful thing if I wasn’t engaged in the technique of ‘correct meditation’ that was specifically designed to trigger that third eye experience?

Well, obviously an accurate answer requires a necessary adjustment in my understanding of ‘correct meditation.’ The third eye experience that I had was the truth; my understanding of what I needed to do to create that experience was wrong. Based on what ‘correct meditation’ actually does —

uses a specific rhythmic breathing technique to get your body's natural N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) levels up, corresponding to the rise of the 'Serpent Fire of the Universe' energy ('Sekhem/Chi/Kundalini') on the other side

trains you to comfortably focus visual concentration into the area the Wisdom Eye opens at for up to an hour at a time

encourages you to begin the drill while well-rested and generally healthy

...it’s now clear to me that the point of the technique is to set a stage. You are by no means 'activating' the eye to open, but instead, you’re creating a physical scenario that we believe should be ideal-optimal to invite the third eye to open… to make things easier for it to open for us should the forces that direct it decide to do so.

And that’s it. That’s all it does. The technique of correct meditation is a hopeful invitation to the unseen to pleeeeeeeeeeeeease open the third eye for us.

Yet, when I had my third eye experience, I was not breathing in a measured, rhythmic way. I was just breathing. lol My DMT levels were not already elevated, thus when the unseen forces elevated them for me to the levels required to rip a third eye ‘hole’ into the veil between realities, it was very noticeable to me in those moments as an intrusive, alien sensation.

When I had my third eye experience, I was not focusing my visual concentration into the fovea spot. Far from it, as I was looking around, semi-annoyed at the excited energy sensation I was feeling that was preventing me from falling asleep.

When I had my third eye experience, I was not well-rested either. Although I am generally healthier than the average Black American male of my age/peer group, I’ve been getting less sleep than normal for the last few months in order to stay committed to my on-going project of producing one political cartoon per day. I do walk around tired, enough to require that one cup of coffee during the day so I’ll be alright.

So the man-made understanding of the ancients' conclusion of what should be the most ideal conditions for the Wisdom Eye to open were not met when I had my experience, but that doesn’t mean that the optimal conditions that it DID require weren’t in place. Obviously they were. As a Muslim, I’m analyzing this from an ‘Islamic Theurgy’ position. In the Qur’an, there are very specific things Allah commanded (or even just softly advised sometimes) the believers to do in order for them to be “prosperous in this world and in the next.” I am a practicing Muslim, and other than not yet performing the Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca), I have made the sincere effort to keep up with the ritual core pillars of my faith, as well as other items that in my research into scripture I felt were related in some way and should also be adhered to as a believing seeker of truth. Here are the practices I did leading up to my experience:

1.) I had just finished fasting the month of Ramadan. It is well known that the act of fasting is a spiritually rejuvenating practice, and in my case I successfully completed the full 30-days of one of the most intense forms in the world.

2.) I pray to the One God of Abraham in the formal ritual five times a day, during which I pointedly ask Allah to strengthen me with His spirit and teach me that which I know not. I’ve been asking for that for about 8-9 months now.

3.) Allah said that those believers who will prosper are the ones who seek His help with patient perseverance and prayer, “for Allah is with those who patiently persevere.” I believe this requirement is being met just by my commitment to my one cartoon a day project. No matter what, I make sure I get up and make that cartoon before I start the day, and God is with me for the sincere effort.

These three bullets, combined with my goal to win paradise by being a good person in general as described by God in scripture, puts me in the optimal state for receiving a spiritual breakthrough. Make no mistake… the phenomenon known as the UDJAT Wisdom Eye of Heru is absolutely a Sign of Allah. Therefore, if one holds hope of achieving an authentic third eye experience (or repeating it), one must be minimally purified according to the criterion of the One God of Abraham, the all-powerful Supreme Creator of reality. I believe my own sincere efforts, especially within the last year or so, to adhere to God’s minimal requirements for the believer are what enabled me to achieve the state favorable for the coveted third eye experience, this being far more powerful than the mechanical techniques of ‘correct meditation.’ This understanding aligns to the truth of God’s core message to humankind in scripture regarding that which the Lord our God wants us to take away from our spiritual study.

THE WHY According to Clesson Harvey’s research, the first 2 or 3 third eye experiences will guide you in a specific direction, with subsequent experiences enabling you to explore the unseen realms through the Wisdom Eye within a more self-directed, quasi-independent state. It is in my best interest—as I do indeed hold hope that the Wisdom Eye will open for me again—that I maintain this optimal state for it to do so. Indeed, since the rewards and punishments of God are merit based on a tiered system, I obviously need to try even harder in my spiritual walk and work to do more than the base minimal requirement as a believer.

Basically this wonderful, initiating third eye event happened in order to assure me that I was on the right path, and I must continue and even strive for better if I wish to have another. The technique of correct meditation then is but a communication tool and although I do plan to continue my quest to personally build up that skill (I'm very motivated now! hahaha) , I understand that it is the righteous behavior of the believer in good standing with God that is the true way towards having that amazing, supernatural experience.

Peace.

Very respectfully,

M. Rasheed, PMP®

Cartoonist | Socio-Political Commentator | Graphic Novel Serialist | Shemesu Heru Second Sight Graphix www.mrasheed.com

#Awakening the Atrophied Eye #enlightenment #fovea #pyramid texts #saqqara #Ancient Egypt #second sight graphix #followers of second sight #third eye #shemsu hor #shemesu heru #UDJAT Wisdom Eye

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daleisgreat · 7 years

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Top 10 and Worst 5 Films of 2014 through 2016

I meant to do this last year, but completely neglected it. When I ran my old podcast, one episode a year, my friends Matt, Jay and I would host our annual best and worst movies of the year episode. We did three installments for films that hit in 2011-2013. The podcast is not around anymore so I have not done it since, but I still have been keeping Word documents on my computer with a list of all the movies I saw each year and constantly update my top 10 and worst 5 rankings of the year. I meant to post the best and worst of 2015 as a blog, but as I said it just slipped past me and I will make up for it now with a triple best and worst list for 2014 through 2016. I had a whole extra year to catch up on Netflix and VUDU on 2014 and 2015 releases I missed so I have seen about 20% more films than I did than 2016. So hopefully that will excuse any glaring omissions that did not make my rankings. That said, I am still feeling pretty good about my 2016 list and there were only a handful of films that slipped by me that I have not seen yet. Movies linked on the lists will take you to my review of the film if you want to see my expanded thoughts on the film. One last thing before the lists, I want to give a shoutout to one of my favorite film critics, Scott Sawitz! I have discussed movies, wrestling and a ton more with Scott for well over a decade and have had the pleasure of having him guest host on my aforementioned podcast several times. I have always been a fan of his reviews and weekly column, Monday Morning Critic, over at Inside Pulse. His latest column is his annual top 10 films of the year I always look forward to. Scott has a twist on his rankings this year because he has been putting a ton of work into his weekly YouTube series, Confessions of a Super-Hero, weekly bite-sized episodic viewing all about what super-heroes do in their off-duty downtime. If you have a moment, please check it out! Now, onto the lists! 2014 TOP 10 10) Wild 9) Nightcrawler 8) Gone Girl 7) Equalizer/John Wick 6) Imitation Game 5) Interstellar 4) Guardians of the Galaxy 3) Whiplash 2) Captain America: The Winter Soldier 1) Boyhood Best Documentary – Life Itself

The two comic book films on the list ranked high with Marvel having a stellar year. Guardians surprised me because the concept just seemed impossible to pull off in live action with an animated tree and talking raccoon, but somehow Marvel did it and it kicked all kinds of ass. Winter Soldier was an awesome modern day follow up to The First Avenger. I seem to be in the minority of people when discussing Interstellar, and while I would rank it a notch or two under other non-Batman Christopher Nolan classics like Inception, I still very much enjoyed it that it made it into the midst of my top 10. Life Itself is an excellent documentary all about Roger Ebert in his final days as it documents his and Gene Siskel’s breakout rise as the go to film critics of the nation. Wild hit all the right nerves for me on Cheryl Strayed’s arduous journey of self-discovery. Nightcrawler shocked me at the lengths Gyllenhaal went to get the ultimate creep-o look down and his convincing transition from wannabe ripoff artist to the quintessential conman. I was expecting Equalizer to be a by-the-numbers action flick, but Denzel Washington proved me wrong by adding on many layers to it, and it is bizarre how John Wick came out within weeks of it and both were nearly identical plots, but both delivered in their own unique way. John Wick also gets my dubious award for best ever Kevin Nash cameo. Finally, props to Richard Linklater for delivering on his film that was literally 12 years in the making with Boyhood. Linklater is a risk taker with his ambitious projects, and he knocked another one out of the park with Boyhood getting my vote as best film of 2014. 2014 WORST 5 5) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4) Tekken 2 3) Pro-Wrestling Zombies 2) Amazing Spider-Man 2 1) Transformers: Rise of the Fallen 2014 saw many terrible films, I actually had nearly 10 films as being ‘worst 5-calibur’ material. The TMNT remake had a few bright spots and scene-saving moments from Will Arnett, but he alone could not save a film with so many gut-wrenching jokes and awful retconning of the TMNT lore I grew up with. I actually dug the first Tekken film as a kind of solid nonsense fighting tournament movie that was kind of faithful to the source material ala Mortal Kombat, but the sequel was this awful attempt at a mafia-crime-mystery-drama that failed on all levels. Pro-Wrestling Zombies was a very low budget zombie slashing film starring Matt Hardy, Jim Duggan and Roddy Piper, but with these wrestling legends it was not even enjoyable in an ironic way like most zombie films, and was just flatout bad. Amazing Spider-Man 2 shocked me because I legitimately enjoyed the reboot, and thought this would be another easy follow up with most of the same cast and crew returning. However, Spider-Man and Electro both cast painful jokes and banter throughout that did not exist in the prior film, and there were countless groan inducing moments. The latest Transformers film outdid the straight-up bad humor and moments throughout the entire wreck of a film. Michael Bay somehow found a way to make it a nearly insurmountable task to get through. 2015 Top 10 10) Southpaw 9) Ant Man 8) The Martian 7) End of the Tour 6) Mad Max: Fury Road 5) Revenant 4) Creed 3) Steve Jobs 2) Spotlight 1) Hateful Eight Best Documentary – Tie: Electric Boogaloo & Winning: Racing Life of Paul Newman

Yeah, I like my feel good boxing/sports films as Jake Gyllenhaal shined again this year in Southpaw and Creed surpassed my expectations with its contemporary take on the Rocky franchise. While the lighthearted moments from Damon seemed a little forced, I still very much dug his Mars survival story, but not as much I got immersed into Dicaprio’s and Tom Hardy’s intense wilderness survival adventure that is The Revenant. Fury Road marked the first Mad Max movie I saw and the bombastic costumes initially had me raising an eyebrow, but once the heavy metal guitar semi-truck graced the screen in its infinite glory I instantly went on board with the film and never got off. I recently reviewed Steve Jobs, and if you recall I absolutely loved its use of creative license to tell a nonstop dialogue juggernaut of three big moments in Jobs’ life. Spotlight is the perfect way to tell a slow building mystery film where investigative journalists gradually picked away at their biggest scoop ever. Finally, I am biased towards Quentin Tarantino as I view the man as being one of the absolute best at dialogue in films, and he delivered once again with countless another excellent script and scenes that stole the show in The Hateful Eight. The setting worked perfectly and I was on my toes waiting to see which one of the eight was going to make the first move in a powdered keg filled with characters ready to burst. 2015 Worst 5 5) Fantastic Four 4) Jupiter Ascending 3) Chappie 2) Ted 2 1) Pixels

I was surprised at how bad Jupiter Ascending turned out to be, and did not expect Channing Tatum to be the only decent part of that film. After the dud that was Sucker Punch and now Jupiter Ascending, I am cutting myself off from all future Wachowski-directed films. I am a fan of District 9 and its director Neil Blomkamp and felt burned by his latest film, the insufferable Chappie in numerous ways. I was anticipating bad things from both Fantastic Four or Pixels, but part of me forced myself to go to see how awful they ultimately were. Fantastic Four was mostly drawn out and dull, and had some very head-scratching moments throughout. I cannot remember the last Adam Sandler film I legitimately liked, does the first half of Funny People count? Any marginal hopes of a semi-decent film were squashed the second Kevin James popped up on screen as the dopey president of the USA. Practically the entire film was bad, but I will at least give it minor props for some pretty good use of the videogame CG in the film. 2016 Top 10 10) Purge: Election Year 9) Deadpool 8) Star Trek: Beyond 7) 13 Hours: Secret Soldiers of Benghazi 6) Captain America: Civil War 5) Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice 4) Hacksaw Ridge 3) Sully 2) Fences 1) The Accountant Best Documentary – ESPN 30 for 30: The ’85 Bears

The last two Purge films have turned into guilty Halloween pleasures like the old Final Destination films. Election Year kept up the same gritty, over-the-top tone and pace as Anarchy Reigns before it. Deadpool surprised me at not being a dud, and far exceeded my expectations with tons of great jokes, dialogue, action and unapologetically aware 4th wall-breaking references throughout. It has been awhile since I got wrapped up in an intense R-rated war film, and 2016 had two of them with 13 Hours and Hacksaw Ridge that both get high recommendations from me. I am a wee bit of a Clint Eastwood fan, but I will give him and Tom Hanks righteous props on how they somehow made Sully’s heroic emergency plane landing into the Hudson River a thrilling feature length film. Some of you who saw the list are probably baffled at why I rank the controversial Dawn of Justice over the much-loved Civil War, but the two ranked so close together I just might change my answer if you ask me any day of the week. If I am splitting hairs I did not care for the shoehorned Spider-Man extended cameo, and his dialogue has me worried that Homecoming is going to be filled with an equal, if not worse script than Amazing Spider-Man 2. Denzel Washington and Viola Davis are sublime in Fences. The small, but mighty cast here delivered powerful performances, with Washington and Davis especially delivering in this dialogue-driven-tour-de-force about hard times for a family making ends meet in the 1950s. I did not know too much going into The Accountant other than it had what appeared to be a gimmick of an assassin with Autism. I could not have been more wrong as there is so much more going on with this film that it entertained me throughout its near two and a half hour runtime. Ben Affleck continues his streak of excellent performances, and I cannot wait to see how his upcoming solo version of The Batman turns out. Worst 5 2) Suicide Squad 1) Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

I have only seen two movies this year that qualify as “worst 5-caliber.” I could not get into Suicide Squad. The first third of the film played out like an extended trailer scored with worn out songs that I am use to only hearing off trailers. There were several WTF moments throughout, and add in the film felt compromised after audiences griped that Dawn of Justice was not lighthearted enough. DC/Warner Bros. responded by pasting in several post-production groan-worthy zingers that played more to the mainstream, but made me cringe. I am optimistic for the presumable sequel though, because I did dig Will Smith as Deadshot and Margot Robbie’s portrayal of fan favorite, Harley Quinn and I am even interested in what direction they take The Joker next. Halftime Walk usurped it as my worst film of the year however because of how unlikeable the cast is. About 20% of the film is war flashbacks that I actually liked, but the other 80% is the members of the military squad’s day being honored at a football game, and just being super dick-ish and incredibly un-empathetic throughout it. I know this is based off a book, but I do not know if something got lost in translation or if this was the desired vision of the film. Either way, it yields my worst of the year honors! Thanks for sticking with me rambling all this way, see you next year!

#random movie #top 10 #boyhood #transformers rise of the fallen #the hateful eight #pixels #accountant #billy lynn's long halftime walk #suicide squad #spotlight #captain america #fences

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