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sepublic · 4 years

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Xian Characters, Features, and Landmarks (Pt. 2)

Karzahni- Karzahni is a delusional, questionably-sane despot in the Voymari District. A crimelord, he has –in addition to traditional thugs- amassed an army of orphans to do his bidding. He sends them out every day and night, scouring the streets of Voymari for small scrapes of riches and anything else of value that they report to him; Orphans who bring back better things get higher status, more food, comfortable rooms, and so forth.

Of course, many other crimelords mock Karzahni for resorting to children, but nevertheless he is terrifying in his own right. Karzahni himself also has a penchant for ‘rebuilding’ people, taking them apart, modifying them, and grating mechanical limbs and masks and so forth. Many of his victims include people who have angered him, or just the general unfortunate homeless Xian; Regardless, Karzahni has modified many, turning them into horrific, shambling abominations with unusual proportions, too frail to be alive while also partially-mechanical.

The sick tyrant enjoys this- He likes to build and craft, even if his materials are the bodies of people. Alas, he is somewhat frustrated by his inability to truly ‘fix’ someone, because to Karzahni he is doing a service, or at least trying to, by ‘repairing’ Xians he and others deem faulty. He tends to take his frustrations out not only on his twisted creations, but his own underlings and orphans as well. If in a particularly bad mood, he’ll tear apart a creation down to their most base parts, and/or feed them to his Manutri Penguins, which he has conditioned to be only carnivorous.

The terror does not stop there, either- Karzahni possesses an uncanny ability to inflict powerful illusions on others, showing them ‘alternate timelines’, or so he claims, of things that could’ve happened to them; If something in their past, or another’s, turned out differently. Many times he has used this ability to torment and traumatize others, but Karzahni has also used this power to comfort himself with alternate timelines of victory, grandeur, and success of himself.

Because he dives so frequently into the subject of alternate timelines and what could have been, he is often dissatisfied and bitter over his lot- Not only that, but he occasionally has issues remembering what is or isn’t real, and will have to be reminded that what happened in one vision didn’t happen in real life. Sometimes he’ll randomly start talking to someone else that isn’t there, as if interacting with an alternate timeline; It is disconcerting to watch. Additionally, Karzahni uses his power to create simulations and predictions of events as he attempts to figure out the most optimal decision or strategy for himself. The exact accuracy of these predictions are questionable and seem to be somewhat rooted in the data he is aware of.

Karzahni wears unusual, green-and-violet armor. He has a mask that is a patchwork of various other elements, and he wields chains in combat that can lash around foes and rise to burning temperatures, searing through opponents. He has an unusual amount of strength and durability for Xian- Apparently, he has modified himself in the past as well. Even if one were to break through Karzahni’s powerful, demoralizing illusions, the tyrant himself is still a dangerous enemy to fight.

Whenua and Tehutti- These two roommates have a thankless, low-paying job as minimum-wage librarians and occasional tutors. Despite their poor wages and lack of appreciation for their work, these two have a vested passion for history and are eager to share their knowledge with others. With no prompting or personal gain beyond the satisfaction and triumph of it all, these two have pooled their lifetime’s earnings and savings towards expanding their simultaneous home/book store to include a ‘Xian Museum of History’, for any and all who are interested! No cost is required to enter and enjoy their exhibits, but unfortunately no one seems to be interested either…

Rorze- The warden of The Archives, Rorze is an Archives Vahki with the latest, most advanced AI programming in order to achieve maximum efficiency. Although all other Archives Vahki are specially designed to prevent any level of free will whatsoever, Rorze was ultimately granted the ability of sapient thought in order to enhance his leadership abilities and control over the Archives’ security. He constantly supervises every single step of each procedure, while inspecting all possible inches of his facility. Rorze has dedicated his entire existence to maintaining the Archives and protecting whatever is within- It was all he was made for, after all.

Throughout the years, Rorze has subjected himself to new patches to ensure that his programming is completely immune to computer viruses, hacking, and other forms of tampering. After each update is installed, past memories and data are transferred to the new ‘brain’. Whether or not each version of Rorze is truly the same person is up for debate, but Rorze himself does not care. As far as he’s concerned, he has no allegiances or loyalty to anyone, and acts as a neutral party whose sole concern is preserving objects and even living creatures within the Archives. Because of his robotic, single-minded dedication towards his task, Rorze will do anything to accomplish his goals, so long as he is permitted; He is still technically beholden to The Powers That Be and those that he serves.

Idris- A grumpy, surly overseer, Idris was placed in charge of a field of Airweed and its workers after the past overseer and his hired guns mysteriously died, obviously killed by The Beast. Hired specifically for her apathy on the subject, Idris doesn’t particularly care that other workers are at risk of being devoured by The Beast each day they work; Xia’s harsh climate for workers has taught her to be similarly callous. Still, when three masked strangers appear, offering to help find and kill The Beast –and for free no less!- she can’t help but take the offer. Even if their help is on the condition that Idris herself attend the mission…

Fero- Amongst the Bone Hunter clans, one is led by the persistent, vindictive Fero. Fero is the leader of his clan for obvious reasons- He is a skilled, cold fighter who knows when to cut his losses, when to retreat, and when to strike suddenly from the cover of the sands, or the darkness of night. Like any successful Bone Hunter, Fero is a patient individual, and he has led countless raids on villages, caravans, and so forth. His clan has amassed a wide variety of goods and weaponry to sell, alongside prisoners to keep or sell off as slaves.

Fero knows that he is human, just like anyone else, but he manages to get around this by being an incredibly stealthy and skilled hunter. He is an intelligent strategist, knowing exactly how to track footprints in the sand, find resources, or take advantage of the environment to swiftly ambush enemies. He has led various guerilla attacks on past opponents and emerged in victory in the process, and is experienced in the realm of survival in any circumstance. Fero himself wields a hand-held rail gun, and rides atop his personal Rock Steed Skirmix, with rider and steed having known each other their entire lives. Skirmix is fiercely loyal to Fero, and would die for him- And should he die, Skirmix intends to go down alongside him. Skirmix is intelligent and understands Fero’s harsh orders well.

Berix- Travelling across the arid sands of the Baran Desert are Water Merchants, who will sell precious stores of water or replenish them to thirsty travelers. Among them is Berix, a heavily-cloaked, hooded figure who keeps himself cool with mechanisms and air-conditioning units underneath his pack. Despite Berix’s rough, coarse demeanor and voice, he is still trustworthy; He is a man of his word and will not try to scam or take advantage of his customers.

Berix is also a scavenger and collector, and with his supply of water is able to make extended trips out into the desert, hoping to dig up neat artifacts to keep. One can barter for water by trading him a unique item of some sort. Berix owns quite the collection of knick-knacks, some gathered from corpses, or found in the sand, or sold to him; Others bought directly from the market. There is some suspicion towards him having killed or robbed for his collection, but he maintains that he is totally innocent.

Berix wields a sword for self-defense, one that has an edge etched with carvings in the shape of sharp waves. It is a keepsake from the past, one of the first things he found in the desert, and an item he treasures and cherishes. In addition, he also has a shield that doubles as a wide, double-edged sword.

Perditus- Perditus is a frequent champion of Zakaz’s brutal races, riding his own Thornatus V9 into victory. Amongst its modifications are an Exsidian front, an improved engine, a rail-gun, and a few Force Blasters. Outside of his races, Perditus will frequently ride across Zakaz’s deserts, and will offer rides; For a price, of course. The longer the trip, the higher the pay. For someone of his title, he is of course a skilled and quick-thinking driver, able to outmaneuver bandits and Bone Hunters on the fly.

Perditus himself is a mysterious figure, often wearing a racing helmet that obscures his face. There is even a bit of a rumor going about that he is a serial killer, but nobody can know for sure. Outside of his Thornatus, Perditus keeps a rapier on himself for personal defense.

Sahmad- Riding across Zakaz atop his chariot, pulled by a Spikit steed is Sahmad; A ruthless, nihilistic bandit, smuggler, and poacher. Armed with a powerful whip, as well as a rail gun merged with a blade, Sahmad has made a living not only robbing helpless travelers, but also hunting and selling even endangered species- Attached to the back of his chariot is a wheeled cage that he keeps animals in. Poached animals are kept in line with brutal whip-cracks as Sahmad gathers them, before eventually selling them off. On the side, he helps carry cargo of questionable legality across the Baran Desert.

Supposedly, Sahmad was once a member of the decimated Iron Tribe- Apparently, members of the Iron Tribe one day found themselves unable to dream when asleep. This predicament began to spread amongst others, with those afflicted soon going mad as they could not sleep; Rest had no effect on their addled minds, which became unable to recover and sort through the events of each day. Victims of the ‘Dreaming Plague’ eventually could not fall asleep, and died of exhaustion.

Naturally, neighbors of the Iron Tribe reacted in fear, and worked to shun the group. It eventually got so bad that the Vahki, normally scarce in Zakaz, were called in to quarantine and contain the entire tribe. Sahmad escaped the quarantine, traumatized after seeing his loved ones die, and became an outcast- Others in Zakaz feared he had the Dreaming Plague and would spread it to them. As a result of his trauma, Sahmad has become an embittered, nihilistic individual who sometimes wonders if his cruel crimes are his attempts to lash out at the world that had forsaken him and his people so?

Telluris- A mad, brilliant inventor, Telluris was also another survivor of the Iron Tribe after the Dreaming Plague wiped it out; Although he and Sahmad didn’t really know each other back then, nor do they interact much in general. Still, a general kinship between the two is still there, as they both share the same trauma and have also been shunned by Xia for their association with the Dreaming Plague. Once, Telluris partnered up with Sahmad, believing that if they colored their armor a dark-blue, people wouldn’t recognize them…

It didn’t work out, and his armor has remained a rusted-orange since. Yet despite his eccentricities, Telluris is nevertheless a brilliant engineer. On his own, he scavenged parts for and created the Skopio-XV1, a massive four-legged mech with treads built into its limbs. The Skopio has a ‘stinger tail’ equipped with powerful cannons and other weaponry, such as a targeting rail gun and Force Blasters. Telluris himself rides on the back of his Skopio, and has grafted mechanical bits into the back of his head that let himself plug cables leading into his Skopio, enabling a more accurate and precise control over it.

Perhaps to get back at the world that hurt him –or just because- he rampages frequently around Zakaz, attacking villages, settlements, bandits; Anyone that comes across his path. His Skopio-XV1 is unmatched in firepower, and can even fold up to assume a faster vehicle mode as well. Telluris is paranoid, believing everyone has it out for him, and aims to take over all of Zakaz with his personal weapon. Thankfully, his own madness inhibits his effectiveness- If Telluris were fully sane, he likely would’ve taken over Zakaz by now. One has to wonder if he didn’t totally avoid the Dreaming Plague…

Between the occasional rampage, Telluris will suddenly calm down and become peaceful in order to visit markets to buy parts and tools from. He has a hidden garage where he performs maintence on Skopio, which he seems to treat as a living creature and beloved pet of his, often talking to it. Damage against Skopio is a personal affront to Telluris, who believes that people are hurting his precious creature, and he will retaliate tenfold for such an action. Between his sudden mood swings and genuine brilliance, Telluris is a dangerous, volatile character that is hard to predict.

Tuma- Once a slave, this towering titan of a Xian has risen to fame and glory as an esteemed Glatorian. Operating in the Baran desert, Tuma is intimately aware of his place and status in society, and knows that the villages of Zakaz see gladiators like him as nothing more than a tool to use; And he is familiar with indignity and dehumanization of slavery as well. Initially a slave-fighter, Tuma earned his freedom after winning countless battles with his unusually potent strength and huge frame.

Now an independent master of himself, Tuma has become dissatisfied with his lot in society, and still feels like a puppet. To remedy this, he has begun to make recent alliances, hoping to establish a ‘Glatorian Monopoly’ of sorts; Him and other like-minded Glatorian have begun to make deals with one another, purposely losing fights, or choosing jobs, according to the needs of one another. Members of this ‘ring’ of individuals will make alliances, giving out recommendations to one another, and helping to recruit new fighters and training them.

With his lieutenants Stronius and Branar, Tuma hopes to control the gladiator system that many villages in the Baran desert rely on. Ideally, his network of gladiators will collaborate and coordinate with one another, scheming to lose or win matches with each other, reject offers and services unless at a proper price, strike for better conditions, etc. With Tuma at the top of this Glatorian Monopoly, Tuma hopes to rule the Baran desert by proxy of having control over its gladiator matches, which decide the majority of its political decisions and conflicts. With his wealth as a champion, Tuma has also set up betting offices, and employed his fellow Glatorian, whom he essentially commands, into collecting on debts, as well as accepting matches that he deems beneficial, and in general swaying the events of the arena as he pleases.

A Glatorian strike and unionization is much-welcomed, and needed. Many gladiators have benefitted from what Tuma has brought about, and the concerns that some villages have on Tuma are not exactly out of the goodness of their hearts, or for the safety of society. Still, Tuma must not let the power and greed get to his head… It seems that gladiators who refuse to join his alliance tend to get bullied into submission, or find themselves out of a job as other members of the network will take job openings and positions from them. Tuma must beware becoming the tyrant that his masters were, and continue providing power to his fellow gladiators instead of oppressing them as well.

Born with unusual genetics, Tuma towers over most and wears black-and-green armor while wielding a massive sword, shield, and additional blades on his back in combat. Even though he is older than most gladiators, he retains his peak strength, height, and stamina, and stories of this ‘titan’ have spread across Zakaz. Some have interest over the secrets of Tuma’s body…

As a result, groups in the past have attempted to kidnap Tuma for their own gains. Tuma has resisted such efforts naturally, and is used to Exo-Toa Baterra being sent in to spy on him and his actions. Tuma is not open about his Glatorian network, and the Baterra have been sent to keep an eye on him. Unsurprisingly, this kind of surveillance has made Tuma somewhat paranoid, but rightfully so, and he remains sharp-minded as ever to avoid any mistakes.

Metus- A silver-tongued businessman and merchant, Metus has since become a recruiter in the Baran desert. He works to spot out potential fighters and introduce them to the gladiator system, as well as recommend combatants amongst villages, settle disputes, and so forth. Metus has a good eye and nose for potential, able to scout out a potential Glatorian amongst a group, and grant them the funding, investment, and support they need to reach success.

Metus himself was once a trader in the northern-kingdom of Iconox, only to lose everything within the crossfire of a war he wanted no part in. He does whatever it takes to survive, and will gladly sell out anyone else. He is untrustworthy, and while his recommendations are often good, he has also been caught giving villages poor fighters or else granting dishonest advice. On the side, he makes sure to place his bets well and carefully, and has amassed some wealth as a result.

Metus hopes to get in on Tuma’s planned network of Glatorian and gather a share of the riches, yet is also reporting intel and data to Baterra spies as well. Tuma doesn’t trust him of course, but Metus is insistent on getting a hand on the stocks and treasure; He aims to one day become rich enough to truly leave Zakaz behind, perhaps starting his own business in Stelt…

Surel- An aged veteran from the same conflict that robbed Metus of his livelihood, Surel was left wounded and dying on a blood-stained battlefield. But amidst the White Quartz Mountains, she found salvation in a pack of Iron Wolves that tended to her need, helping protect Surel and bringing her food as she recovered.

Now, Surel is a leader of this Iron Wolf pack, and leads them on hunts in the White Quartz Mountains, off the fringes of the kingdom of Iconox. She is mostly crippled from age and old wounds, and walks with a limp and walking stick; But armed with a dagger, she can be lethally fast, taking down and gutting an enemy in seconds. She knows how to conserve and utilize her strength well, and with her pack of Iron Wolves by her side, Surel is a lethal opponent and not one to cross. She has no interest in Zakaz’s politics- She has long ago rejected the battlefield she almost died in, and now intends only to live a life of hunts alongside her trusted Iron Wolves.

The Sisters- A cult of powerful telepaths and mind-readers, this all-female (trans-inclusive!) coven of ‘witches’ lives in a desolate forest, somewhere along the borders of Zakaz. They worship a deity named Annona, and their exact intentions and plots are unknown. They prefer to live to themselves, occasionally venturing out in their forest for supplies, and have used their mental abilities in the past to place others beneath their thrall- Such unfortunate victims are not only robbed and used as proxies to gather more materials, but are occasionally even harvested for their body parts.

The Sisters perform many unusual, arcane rituals. It is unknown to outsiders what they have planned, but evidently they seek to one day find Annona, whom they attribute the cause of their powers to. Attempts to infiltrate the group and learn their secrets have failed; They can sense intent and faultiness, and even Exo-Toa Baterra have been caught by them. Rumor has it that they can even perform magic, and the gladiator Tuma has an unknown connection to them that he’d rather not talk about. Things are apparently uncomfortable between him and The Sisters…

The Kraahl- In the darkness of night, people have spotted them- Darkened, cloaked figures who can be sighted briefly, only to suddenly blip out of existence as if they were never there to begin with. The Kraahl, as they are known, have been known to access areas under heavy fortification, somehow teleporting across massive distances with no one able to catch them. The Kraahl are cryptids in Zakaz, and known to occasionally appear to gather resources for themselves. Attempts to plant cameras and trackers on the things they steal have failed, with signals abruptly ending entirely once the Kraahl disappear. Where are these mysterious people going? Where do they come from? How do they have their power? Attempts to understand and decipher their strange, teleporting abilities have failed.

#bionicle #bionicle rae #xia #karzahni #whenua #tehutti #rorze #idris #fero #berix #perditus #sahmad #telluris #tuma #metus #surel #kraahl #glatorian #bara magna

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freedom-of-fanfic · 6 years

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I'm kind of torn on the Mary Sue issue. On one hand, I don't care what anyone writes for their own amusement, but writing is still an art that does and should have standards for professionals. As someone who has degrees in writing and does it as a profession, it's a little insulting to be told that the work your poured tons of research and time into is on the same level as amateur self-insert fic. That's why I advocate for different standards for fandom vs pro work.

I feel you, anon. and I have a lot of respect for people like you who got degrees and write professionally, because words are held rather cheap with the internet being around and anyone who can get paid to write words impresses me to some degree. but:

I’ve always felt like comparing fanfic and original fiction to be not exactly congruous? and

I think Mary Sue suffers from maligning because she’s disproportionately evoked by the youngest/least experienced of writers.

this got … pretty long … so i’m dividing it up a little for ease.

the concept of ‘standards’

first of all, I also advocate for different standards between published/professional/marketed works and fan works, but I do so because of 1)potential spread and 2)they aren’t accomplishing the same thing.

In general, a fanwork will have limited appeal outside of the fans of the canon the work is based in; they cannot stand on their own without some additional effort. Further, fandom has its own language to some degree or another, and fanworks are frequently best understood in the context of other fanworks, like scientific papers citing other scientific papers in passing because the audience is expected to be other scientists in the field who have read it. In other words: the audience is probably fairly niche and in on the ‘lingo’. its potential damage circle is therefore relatively small. if somebody fucks up their research for a fic, it’s nbd, for instance.

On the other hand, an original work with a professional marketing team will certainly reach a much more diverse audience and probably a much larger one. It’s therefore responsible, imo, to be proportionately aware of the potential impact of the subject material and approach it accordingly (though true fiction will always have an unpredictable effect on any given individual, so there’s only so much the creator can do). I’d expect accuracy where research was done, if for no other reason than to avoid spreading false information to such a big potential audience.

and of course I’d hope that if somebody is being paid to write, their grammar/prose/proofreading will meet a certain standard of readability. (the same cannot be expected of free works done for fun that take a few minutes to post on the internet.)

having said that: standards for quality fiction writing will always be subjective. I’m always going to have questions about why The Sound and the Fury is an American classic (I couldn’t make sense of it no matter how hard I tried). What gets published can be as simple as having good luck with the slush pile reader that day. I’ve seen fanfiction complimented with incredible research: there’s a Tokyo Babylon work-in-progress with an author who has traveled to fic-relevant locales to nail story and character details. I feel the line is blurring these days, especially because there are people who make a living off writing commissioned fanfiction now (too small-scale to be an IP concern, of course).

I think the fundamental difference between fanworks and original works is not quality of the work itself or effort expended. It’s related to structure and aim.

Fanworks, even AU fanworks, are like interior decoration. A 'good fanwork’, even an AU fanwork, works within a pre-built framework to elaborate on or add to or evoke what drew its audience to the framework in the first place.

Original works build a whole new house, creating a new framework from bare construction materials to draw in and house the emotions of its readers. (and then maybe its readers decorate the house with their own fanfic.)

tl;dr: if an AU fanfic was so different from canon and the characters were so OOC that the author can shave the serial numbers off and repurpose it as an original story, it might be a great original work. But it wasn’t a very good fanfic, was it?

why is mary sue so offensive to us?

I don’t know if you’ve ever read the post Mary Sue, What Are You?, but what I keep coming back to is its iconic opening. the author describes an OC at length: orphaned as a child when her parents were killed in front of her, she decided she would dedicate her life to fighting for justice. She grew up to be rich, athletic, beautiful, sexy, angsty, a genius, undefeatable in a battle of wits and agility, and everyone who meets her is instantly lovestruck. In other words, a classic Mary Sue …

but also Batman with female pronouns.

I think one could argue that Batman is not always well-written, but the relevant point here is that Batman - and Mary Sue - might be 99.9% perfection in the shape of a human around whom the universe revolves, but if its their own canon and the universe doesn’t recognize their perfection the way the reader/writer does, it’s not really 'bad’. (And there’s something to be said about why giving this power fantasy male pronouns seems to render it so much more palatable than female pronouns, but for more on that I point you to the referenced essay.)

Your ask is worded to suggest that Mary Sue is synonymous with unprofessional writing. I … kind of agree? Mary Sue is frequently the main character of Baby’s First Fanfic, and let’s be real: Baby’s First Fanfic is often being written by somebody who might be as young (or younger than) 12-13 years old, with all the inexperience, grammar mistakes, and lack of training that suggests. and as far as characterization goes, I think that anyone who takes decent writing classes will be discouraged from writing a Mary Sue. But like Batman, Mary Sue can be a perfect princess and get away with it under certain circumstances.

I posit that Mary Sue characters (or Gary Stus) - whom I will call Flawless OCs from here - are not really a problem on their own. Further, Flawless OC is more agregious in fanfic than original works. Because what makes the Flawless OC so irritating isn’t their perfection, really: it’s what the character’s presence must do to the universe (which is, in the case of fanfic, the universe the reader came to experience in the first place) that’s the real problem.

To show what a good fighter Flawless OC is, they defeat the best canon fighter.

Flawless OC has a backstory more tragic and painful than the most tragic canon backstory, and they cope with the trauma of it better.

There’s no room for Flawless OC because canon wasn’t holding a spot open for a self-insert, so now there’s a 6th Lion or a 10th Fellowship member or a Second Child Who Survived Voldemort.

The entire universe bends to ensure Flawless OC has perfect luck; their enemies are helpless before them. Everything seems to go their way except in the chapter where the their love interest is supposed to rescue them from danger. (the rescue goes flawlessly, of course.)

Depending on the author wish that Flawless OC is meant to fulfill, Flawless OC will defeat any undefeatable enemy, solve the unsolveable problem, be the envy or lust object of any character, etc etc, often without regard for the original context of the enemy/problem or the canon personality of the character.

In short, Flawless OC usually have two major issues:

they render canon irrelevant to glorify Flawless OC, and

the universe constantly validates their choices to a degree that wrecks narrative suspense.

what makes each of these things 'bad writing’ is different.

The first problem I mentioned - warping of mythos, plot, and characters to accomodate the Flawless OC - is a fanfic problem. Canon-warping absolutely allowed, but what makes it fanfic - the canon source that acts as our shared experience and usually our main reason for being a potential audience to the fic - is almost always nigh-unrecognizable. That makes for bad fanfiction, but it doesn’t always make for bad fiction. Change all the parts of canon enough and you’ve arguably got an original work. It might even be a good original work if the author has writing skill.

The second problem - the validation of the universe - is what makes Flawless OC a dull read in any context. If Flawless OC wants something, you know they’ll get it. If Flawless OC hates someone, you know they’re going to catch hell. If Flawless OC needs to be vulnerable for their love interest, something just bad enough to make them vulnerable will befall them. The perfection of the OC is less of an issue than the lack of meaningful conflict. (A character can have no faults and still be interesting to follow if they must struggle against a universe that doesn’t care.)

to wit:

there’s a fantasy book by David and Leigh Eddings - The Redemption of Althalus - that I read long ago. it stuck with me to a peculiar degree because for a book with such a unique conceit, it was incredibly boring. This is published fiction: it had editors, a marketing team, and was written by professionals with lots of experience! But looking back, none of this saved the story from featuring Gary Stu in a universe that catered to his every need.

The main character, Althalus, is ostensibly a person in need of redemption for being such a bad person all his life and never punished for it, but he’s a loveable, quick-witted rogue almost from the start. To 'redeem’ himself, he’s tasked with saving the world from Enemies (we’re told they’re evil, but I don’t think we see them more than once or twice). Protected by the Goddess of Luck - literally - for the entire novel, there’s never a single moment where Althalus’ victory over the Enemy is in question. He never does anything really awful that would explain his need to be redeemed (in fact, it turns out the Luck Goddess is the one who protected him from punishment all his life). The enemy is weak, forgettable, and constantly outwitted, and the protagonists, supposedly people of gray morality, never did anything worse than be snarky.

The unique conceit that kept me reading was the House at the End of the World. Being the home of the Goddess, it had doors that opened to anywhere on the planet. but for an idea with such double-edged possibilities, it turned out to be an impregnable fortress of Good. The House and its owner were the forces that bent the whole book’s universe to the inevitable triumph of the main character and his companions.

A counter-example might be Miraculous Ladybug. I’ve often wondered if Mary Sue could be written well and be likeable, and Marinette - the titular Ladybug - is probably close. She’s good at almost everything and always outwits her enemies; even when she seems confident to the point of arrogance, it’s justified by her endless successes. (Her only real flaw is being clumsy when she’s distracted, and it only happens when it’s conveniently cute. this is a walking Mary Sue cliche.) Her power is to be lucky, after all.

However: even though everything ends up right for Marinette at the end of every episode, she’s not rewarded when she acts poorly towards others. She causes herself problems when she does. Her luck powers give her the ability to bend the universe a little, but the universe is otherwise unforgiving; she’s subjected to the same banalities as everyone else and learns to be a better person along the way.

OTOH if you put Ladybug in another canon with a makeover to recast her as Flawless OC, changing everything so she could occupy a central role like the one she has in her own series, she’d be insufferable: hence Ladybug is a solid example of how a Mary Sue can prosper provided she’s in a universe designed to both feature her and contain her powers for the sake of Good.

I apologize for how long a reply this is. Still: I hope it successfully illustrates for you that:

though original writing and fanfic writing use the same tool (words), and both can use them masterfully, what original writers like you do and what fic writers do are, in general, very different things.

And Mary Sue is what you make of her. In the right universe, she’s just a very lucky person. :)

#in defense of mary sue #in defense of fanfic #origific vs fanfic #fandom meta #miraculous ladybug #david eddings #i think i read that book because I liked some other book of his #but wow it was a dull read #I kept waiting for everything to fall apart #but it didn't #anywho #long post #y ik es #Anonymous

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kathleenseiber · 3 years

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Welcome to my world: the real right stuff

Test pilot Aaron How troubleshoots and simplifies planes, making them safer for all.

Any time a plane flies, silently assisting with the craft’s lift and trim is the huge group of people that made sure it was safe. Engineers, obviously, are essential, but there needs to be somebody directing proceedings at the intersection between the work of engineers and the pilots who’ll eventually be in control of the machine.

Enter Aaron How, Royal Australian Air Force test pilot.

Aaron How. Credit: RAAF.

“My role is quite specific,” he says. “I’m not a typical frontline pilot now that I’m into this area as a test pilot.”

Despite the apparent specificity – test the airplane – How’s role is incredibly diverse, because problem solving doesn’t happen only when the complete new aircraft is tested in flight. Instead, every change, update and part installation needs to go through rigorous examination. It follows that there is no ‘typical’ day.

“[My duties] can be from flying a brand-new aircraft for the first time, which is quite rare,” How says of his day-to-day tasks, “all the way down to a very small modification – like just changing the smallest thing, maybe a switch on [the] control sitting in a different place.”

So how does one get to the renowned, even exalted, role of test pilot?

How relates his background fairly matter-of-factly. He started flight training on PC-21 aircraft – a Swiss-built single-engine turboprop – at Sale, Victoria.

“I’m not a typical frontline pilot now that I’m into this area as a test pilot.”

“[To become] a useful pilot of the air force, doing operational missions, that takes about four years, four years of flying, plus or minus probably a year depending on what aircraft you go to,” he says. “And from there, I did a three year [duty] tour, which you have to do before you become a test pilot, because you have to have some operational background and know how the aircraft gets used in an operational sense, not just in the training sense.”

Then he spent a year at test pilot school. The RAAF sends candidate test pilots either to the Empire Test Pilots’ School, in England; or the US Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, in California; or the US Naval Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, in Maryland.

Now, How says, “I do sort of a conversion of how we can apply that test pilot knowledge we learned at school to the Australian situation”.

“There’s no university requirements for my job,” he says. “But it’s very helpful to have background knowledge in engineering, so I did a Bachelor of Technology at ADFA. That’s helped me a lot as a test pilot.”

Fast facts: RAAF aircraft

The RAAF has over 250 aircraft, which fall into four main categories: combat, mobility (including VIP transport, refuelling, search and survivor assistance, medical evacuations), intelligence and surveillance, and aviation training.

The air force is currently in the process of replacing their Hornet craft with 72 new F-35 Lightning planes, which are being built overseas by Lockheed Martin and shipped to Australia.

By the mid-2020s, the defence force plans to have unmanned aircraft stationed at Edinburgh, SA, which will be flown from a ground station and used for surveillance.

The test-pilot caper isn’t just about giving a green light when a new update is deemed safe; the hidden part is making sure that the update is user-friendly. If a high-tech device is incorporated into an aircraft but its meaning and use are too difficult to comprehend, the new device is essentially useless.

“All the techniques we use are supposed to be simple to understand,” says How. “If you make them so complex that only an engineer can understand them, then things can get dangerous.”

Ultimately, the philosophy behind making a plane flyable is that it should be simple enough to understand for somebody with only a high school education.

“It’s actually quite a hard process to make something that’s normally quite complex – which a fighter jet [and] any aircraft we use in the air force [is] – and make it simple to understand,” How says.

This means that How needs to use a combination of skills: understanding the engineering of the plane, knowing how the plane should fly, figuring out whether other people would find it intuitive, and then translating that knowledge to multiple people from different backgrounds.

“All the techniques we use are supposed to be simple to understand. If you make them so complex that only an engineer can understand them, then things can get dangerous.”

“You can be the smartest engineer or smartest pilot out there, but if you can’t communicate your ideas to people, and not just communicating but communicating [in a] clear and easy way, then all of the skills you have inside [are] essentially useless,” he says.

After all, “none of what we do is individual, everything of what we do is in a team environment.

“We’re never really alone. We kind of work as a team with an engineer and a pilot to problem-solve any situations we come up with.”

This means he must communicate with makers and users – either through talking to them during and after a flight test, or through a report – while also constantly keeping up with new research.

“We work hand in hand with a flight-test engineer,” he says. “Those flight-test engineers have done that same school that I did, the test pilot school, but instead of flying the plane, they’re flying next to us or behind us, or [they’re] even in the telemetry room on the ground.

“We’re never really alone. We kind of work as a team with an engineer and a pilot to problem solve any situations we come up with.”

“They’re reading all the same publications we’re reading, and they’re helping whilst I’m flying to problem solve that bit of kit, or how to fly the aircraft, or the problems I’m facing with the aircraft.”

All very well: but is the job really as cool as we all imagine it to be? How certainly doesn’t go nuts trying to paint it that way – but the answer (hell yes) leaks through.

“Once whatever they’re designing for the aircraft comes to me, I assume that all of that work has been done,” he explains. “I look into the documentation of how it’s going to deal with the situation that we’re going to fly that piece of equipment on, and then it’s up to me to check that. So I validate what the engineers tell me is true.

“What’s so difficult about designing a piece of equipment for an aircraft [is that] the conditions [it] has to go through is so extreme. You know, it has to go from temperature extremes of probably minus 50 or 60 degrees, up to maybe plus 70 or 80 degrees. And if you’re going supersonic on a fighter jet, potentially even higher than that – you know, over 100 degrees.

“You’re going from pressures of one atmosphere down at ground level, all the way up to almost a complete vacuum, depending on how high you are, at 60–70,000 feet. You get some different environmental conditions – rain, hail; you might have bird strikes. You have to make sure nothing tears apart from the plane.

Aaron How. Credit: RAAF

“And the g-forces as well for fighter jets. You’re up to eight, nine, g, and down to maybe minus three or minus four, g.”

Like most others, How’s work was affected by COVID-19. Usually, he would travel to various air force bases around Australia to do his job, but he was stuck in Brisbane in 2020.

But being confined in one place didn’t mean his work was stalled. His in-depth knowledge of flight and engineering help him troubleshoot an important problem on the ground.

Flight simulators allow new trainees to get a feel for flying while remaining safely on the ground, but How explains that sometimes new pilots get up into the air and anticipate that the plane will behave as it did in simulation.

In reality, there may be many other factors, such as changing conditions, that affect how the plane will handle in the air, so the simulations need to be more reflective of what true flight is actually like.

“My job was to try to align that simulator to the aircraft, because we found deficiencies where the simulator would act in one way, whereas the aircraft will do [something] different.

“And one of those situations, for example, is when you stall an aircraft, you start to get turbulent flow over the wings. In that case, you’ll get some outcomes of the aircraft that are very difficult to predict.

“By [just] using the equations that the program is using, they won’t get you the exact solutions that happen in the aircraft.”

“The equations that the program is using, they won’t get you the exact solutions that happen in the aircraft.”

This comes down to programming. The instructions that are fed into the simulation’s governing program are not going to account for the plethora of changes and randomness that would be experienced when a plane stalls. Those “imperfections” need to be written into the simulation code.

Of course, programmers are not engineers, so How had to tell them exactly how the simulation needed to behave in order to better reflect true flight. That requires a deep knowledge of the engineering, and the ability to then achieve an outcome without having to rely on explaining the engineering to the programmers.

“I just try to tell them the outcome of what their programming is going to do to the students, you know, and what effect we want to give to the students,” he says. “We’re trying to align the aircraft as closely as possible.

“Sometimes you have to go back to the fundamentals of what we’re trying to fix here – because I get very wrapped up in trying to fix all the very specific cases. Whereas, the outcome we want might be a generic outcome.”

“The best pilots fly more than the others; that’s why they’re the best,” wrote Tom Wolfe in The Right Stuff. Next time you step onto a plane, think about Aaron How and his dedicated band of flight-test collaborators. Your plane wasn’t passed “safe to fly” by accident.

Welcome to my world: the real right stuff published first on https://triviaqaweb.weebly.com/

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balarouge · 4 years

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He would like to leave his nation to function in Canada. Will a video help?|CTV News

TORONTO-- A Colombian tradesman figured out to give his little ones with a far better lifestyle has gone to distinct sizes to draw in the attention of Canadian employers amid on-going violence and group activity in his residence nation.

Wilman Antonio "Junior" Guerrero made a video highlighting his skills as a building worker in hopes of drawing in the attention of a Canadian company who could choose him under the Federal Skill Trades Plan.

"I have been actually desiring for immigrating to Canada for years; it's been actually a long, incredibly hard, road," Guerrero said to CTVNews.ca through phone from his neighborhood of Valledupar, Colombia, Sunday.

"The condition in my country isn't great ... it is actually a dangerous place and there are actually lots of groups right here who control the villages. I don't desire to see my little ones mature listed below."

Go in the small village where Guerrero as well as his partner are increasing their three kids, the popular music video clip and also following track function as a musical return to, detailing Guerrero's technical abilities as well as trades adventure.

But the tune additionally elucidates the problems Guerrero has actually withstood in Colombia, including being actually abducted by equipped resistance fighters as well as escaping a training school for youngster soldiers.

"It was actually the most tough adventure I have actually ever experienced in my lifestyle. While I was there I saw many horrible things," Guerrero claimed.

"I chose I possessed to leave. I began considering it coming from the first time I arrived ... we lost pair of pals that time."

Guerrero mentions he has actually spent considerably of his lifestyle "on the run," transferring to various towns in hopes of finding a better premium of lifestyle. He points out that although the government visits terrific spans to show Colombia as a safe nation making economic gains, the truth is really different for most Colombians.

In overdue November, dozens lots of anti-government militants required to the streets in metropolitan areas around Colombia asking for the resignation of Head of state Ivan Duque, showing temper over economical inequality and also the authorities's messing up of the historical 2016 calmness handle the Revolutionary Army of Colombia (FARC) rebel group.

The unity accord formally ended five years of public clash that eliminated 220,000 individuals, the country has seen a recent uptick in violence.

"I am actually always listening to concerning exactly how Canada needs to have proficient laborers in the construction industry," said Guerrero, who showed themself English if you want to fulfill entry requirements.

"I presumed it would certainly be much easier to discover a project, however it has actually been actually very tough."

In Colombia, Guerrero operates 55 hrs every week as well as brings in the substitute of CAD$ 400 a month.

Over the final four years, Guerrero estimates he has sent greater than 200 resumes to Canadian companies without any sort of action. He thinks his absolute best opportunity at migration will be actually by obtaining a work deal and also Labour Market Effect Analysis (LMIA) amount coming from a Canadian firm.

A LMIA is actually a paper that some companies in Canada may require to get before tapping the services of a foreign laborer, revealing that there is a demand for an international laborer to fill up the job. It is actually not a specific need of the Federal Competent Business Plan.

Ravi Jain, seat of the Canadian Law Practice Organization National Migration Law Section, points out that although the Federal Competent Professions Plan was actually launched to assist individuals like Guerrero arrive to Canada, the device creates several constraints for international employees.

"There is actually a large deficiency of these people, specifically in building and construction and trucking," Jain said to CTVNews.ca through phone Monday.

"There are actually a considerable amount of language requirements ... yet the other concern is actually that you need to have to possess a Canadian qualification or confirmation coming from our department of labour to work in Canada. It's sort of a paradox, because in order to acquire that certification, it demands instruction in Canada."

Jain is actually set to travel to Ottawa this week to lobby for adjustments to the Federal Proficient Fields System, consisting of lowering the English requirement, raising the swimming pool variety for proficient fields workers, and allotting additional selection factor aspects, made use of to examine qualification, to applicants.

"When the plan visited we assumed, 'exactly how is this practical,' which is actually why the numbers are therefore reduced," mentioned Jain.

"They are pounding the table mentioning we require folks. Employers listed below prefer them, but there is a detach at this moment."

Guerrero maintains chance that his music video recording, which has greater than 9,000 viewpoints on Facebook given that it was published in October, will certainly draw in some interest.

"This has actually been actually made complex, yet I never quit. I go to a factor where I can not lose hope, for me or even for my children," he mentioned.

This content was originally published here.

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fantasygameshop8-blog · 5 years

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Watch Out: How Magic: The Gathering Is Taking Over and What to Do About It

Free online RPG games are a terrific way to enjoy, if you have leisure. An lazy afternoon on a rainy day is the best setting for immersing yourself in a great tale that involves fantastic countries, crazy monsters and massive ogres , beautiful princesses and effective magicians, lethal plagues and incredible experiences. And some individuals don't even need the reason of a rainy day to disregard work and enter their personal fairyland!

There is a dedicated and stable fan base for totally free online RPG games. 'RPG', of course, stands for 'Role Playing Games'.

Lots of free online RPG games also allow you to pick one or more buddies for your adventures, so that your group has a good choice of diversely skilled people. When you play a totally free online RPG game, it is best to concentrate on constructing your character(s) on single ability lines.

This kind of celebration is significantly superior to a loose lot that includes jacks of all trades. There are individuals who have actually been playing totally free online RPG games for several years, and have actually developed their characters through numerous adv Free online RPG games are a fantastic method to enjoy, if you have leisure. An lazy afternoon on a rainy day is the ideal setting for immersing yourself in a great tale that involves fantastic nations, enormous trolls and insane beasts , stunning princesses and effective magicians, lethal plagues and incredible adventures. And some individuals do not even require the excuse of a rainy day to overlook work and enter their private fairyland!

There is a constant and dedicated fan base for complimentary online RPG games. 'RPG', of course, stands for ' Function Playing Games'.

Numerous free online RPG games likewise enable you to pick one or more companions for your experiences, so that your group has a great selection of diversely experienced people. When you play a totally free online RPG video game, it is best to focus on constructing your character(s) on single ability lines.

This type of party is greatly exceptional to a loose bunch that includes jacks of all trades. There are people who have actually been playing complimentary online RPG games for several years, and have developed up their characters through a number of levels and various experiences . Their playing characters are really formidable, the most powerful occupants of the imaginary worlds.

Among free online RPG games, there is a brand-new type of games that have ended up being extremely popular in current years. These are the MMORPG-s, which is a shortened form of ' Enormously Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games'. The MMORPG-s include truly enormous worlds, with huge continents of land and substantial oceans, snowy mountain peaks and sunny glades.

There is a dedicated and steady fan base for free online RPG games. 'RPG', of course, stands for ' Function Playing Games'. You play the function of an traveler in a fantasy world. You may pick your race so that you end up being a professional in combating with swords and clubs or weapons, or you end up being a magician.

Many complimentary online RPG games likewise permit you to pick one or more buddies for your experiences, so that your group has a excellent choice of diversely experienced people. It is best to focus on constructing your character(s) on single skill lines when you play a free online RPG game. Construct one character to be a knowledgeable mlee fighter, another as a fight magician, and so forth. A genuinely flexible celebration must consist of about three to 4 members, each highly established in a particular skill.

This type of celebration is vastly remarkable to a loose bunch that contains jacks of all trades. There are people who have been playing complimentary online RPG games for several years, and have developed their characters through numerous levels and various adventures . Their playing characters are genuinely formidable, the most powerful residents of the fictional worlds.

Among complimentary online RPG games, there is a brand-new type of games that have actually become extremely popular in recent years. These are the MMORPG-s, which is a shortened kind of ' Enormously Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games'. The Final Fantasy series is a superb set of games that have ended up being an crucial part of video game history.

Last Fantasy XI is an exceptional entry in a series that is almost twenty years old. The Last Fantasy series was produced by the Japanese business Square Co. in 1987. At the time Square remained in a challenging position, as they had actually focused on making games for the Nintendo Famicom Disk System and this format had become out of favor. The company were eager for success and saw great possible in the role-playing category. Last Fantasy was their attempt to make a new sort of role-playing title.

Final Fantasy came out in Japan at the end of 1987. It was outstanding, providing a fresh and original role-playing experience. Final Fantasys strength was that it had a strong narrative that ran throughout the game. This made it very engaging and helped it to record peoples interest. It was an huge success and launched what would end up being a extremely popular franchise. It would lead to Final Fantasy XI and beyond.

They looked at the role-playing genre and explored the possibilities of what it could do when Square made Last Fantasy. Last Fantasy was innovative, and this sense of invention would end up being a major aspect of the series, continuing all the way through to Last Fantasy XI. The very first sequel, Final Fantasy II, was similarly innovative, unexpected individuals by coming up with a entirely brand-new plot and characters.

Last Fantasy IV was a gripping, brilliant video game and became the second title in the series to be launched in North America. Last Fantasy X used voice acting and gorgeous three-dimensional visuals to create its own game world.

Final Fantasy XI has continued the sense of innovation that is anticipated of this series. A extremely ambitious fantasygameshop.com game, it saw the franchise move into the world of online gaming. Last Fantasy XI is a enormously multi-player online role-playing game. It is also unique as it is playable on both consoles and PCs, all of which link to the exact same game servers. This has made it the very first cross-platform title of its kind.

There was fantastic curiosity about Final Fantasy XI before its release in 2002. Images and sneak peeks of the game captured peoples attention. A special benefit disk was included with the release of Final Fantasy X, including a trailer for the game. Its creator Square Enix likewise held beta tests for the video game to collect players feedback and improve it. This allowed them to handle any issues that people had and fine-tune it. entures and numerous levels. Their playing characters are really powerful, the most powerful occupants of the imaginary worlds.

Among totally free online RPG games, there is a brand-new type of games that have actually become incredibly popular over the last few years. These are the MMORPG-s, which is a shortened type of ' Enormously Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games'. The MMORPG-s consist of truly gigantic worlds, with vast continents of land and big oceans, snowy mountain peaks and warm glades.

Among totally free online RPG games, there is a new type of games that have actually become very popular in recent years. There are individuals who have been playing totally free online RPG games for lots of years, and have actually developed up their characters through numerous levels and various adventures . Amongst complimentary online RPG games, there is a new type of games that have ended up being extremely popular in recent years. The Last Fantasy series is a outstanding set of games that have actually ended up being an essential part of video game history. Amongst complimentary online RPG games, there is a new type of games that have actually become very popular in recent years.

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howtohero · 5 years

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Coming Out of Retirement

Anyway, forget all that. Crime’s not over. You’re not done yet. After being retired for a bit you’ll no doubt start to feel like you’ve made the wrong choice. You used to spend your evenings grappling with triborgs (that’s when three cyborgs get welded together) on top of speeding tricycles (that’s when three unicycles get welded together) and now you’ve traded all that in to play parcheesi with June from down the block on the weekends. June is only one cyborg. That’s not nearly enough cyborg to keep your interest. Retirement was a mistake. More like retire-meh. Boring city. Let’s get you out of there.

The first thing you need to come out of retirement is a motivation to come out of retirement. Maybe you’re bored sure, but sometimes that’s not enough to convince an aging superhuman to put on some tights and knife fight a leprechaun. Sometimes a new threat arrives that really just piques your interest. Like let’s say you’re an avid stamp collector and the latest megalomaniac is building a death ray that’s powered by rare stamps. That’s exactly the kind of crime that you’d be interested in foiling. Probably you’d get lots of cool stamps from grateful civilians if you gave that bad guy a good licking. Or maybe a threat arises that you think only you can defeat. There’s a certain amount of arrogance that comes with this one no doubt, but it can be very effective in rousing yourself out of retirement. Like, your powers aren’t that unique, there are probably thirteen other heroes with your skills that could just as easily deal with the problem. But sure, pull yourself out of retirement to kick a tornado or whatever. Other times your supervillains didn’t take kindly to your retirement and they keep sending you texts asking about what you’re up to and when you’re going to show up to foil they’re latest scheme. Or they’ll kidnap one of your loved ones and force you to come after them. Those guys are so needy gosh.

Once you decide that it’s time to get back into butt-kicking, name-taking game, you need to actually, y’know, do that. Depending on where you retired to, this could be tricky. Most retirement homes don’t just let their residents leave while wearing a hastily sewn together mask and brass knuckles. You’re going to be tackled by an orderly. So you need to be suave. Suave and sneaky. Let this be a test for you. If you can’t figure out how to escape a retirement home, you probably aren’t going to be able to single-handedly defeat The Stamp. Try disguising yourself as a young person. If you look young enough, you’ll be kicked out of the retirement home for elder fraud. Put on some cool guy sunglasses. Dye your hair some ostentatious color like lime green or dark brown and spike it up. Get some skinny jeans and cut holes into the knees. If your hands are too shaky to hold scissors try either falling repeatedly on pavement until the jeans rip, or ask an orderly for help. Get yourself a pair of the wheelie shoes. No old person would ever be caught alive in wheeled shoes. Just try not to fall and crack your head open. If you’re worried about doing this, ask an orderly to support you and hold you up. If you pull all that off you’ll look way too young to be in that retirement center. Or you can just recruit the orderly that tackled you as your sidekick and just leave with him.

Some superheroes choose to flex their weird factor muscles when going into retirement and eschew the traditional retirement home. They cross over to peaceful retirement dimensions or travel back in time to before everything got weird and they had to keep fighting bank robbers with tentacles and plasma barf. For these heroes, coming out of retirement is going to be a bit more tricky. There are a lot of forces out there that aren’t fans of wonton time travel or dimension-hopping so getting to where you are was probably difficult enough as it was. In some cases you might need to literally invent time travel, which is a good deal more difficult than ripping your jeans and spiking your hair. The easiest solution no doubt is to just start fighting crime wherever you ended up. Sure it might not be the type of high-profile super-crimes you were used to but that’s probably for the best. You retired because you couldn’t keep up with the super-crimes anyway so just live out the rest of your days beating up regular criminals with your superpowers. Have fun!

Once you’ve come out of retirement you need to gather up all the resources and contacts that you gave away or cut loose when you retired. Which was awfully shortsighted of you by the way. This just goes to show that you should never give away your torpedo-slingshot or sell the massive cavern that’s shaped like your head. At most you should rent it out. Then you can always come back to it later. Put the head-shaped cavern up on Lair BnB. The best way to reassemble your crew is to approach each of them individually in places with poor lighting. At first it might seem more efficient to just call them all together at once and announce your return to crime fighting but think about it, you’re getting old, you’re not going to have so many more chances to pull off a dramatic reveal. You’re going to want to pull off as many as you can now. Accost your former super-colleagues in shadowy parking lots, alleyways, blind museums, in the middle of movies at the theater. There’s a fifty/fifty shot that these experienced crime fighters will flip you onto your back when you approach them in the dark. But for those of them that don’t... wow, that’s going to be a cool entrance that they’ll remember forever.

Once you’ve gotten your network and supplies back, it’s time to return to the world of superheroing. Once again, a dramatic entrance is key. Don’t hold a press conference. Don’t alert anybody outside of your circle that you’re getting back into the game until you’re already back in the game. By that I mean until you’re literally stopping a major super-crime after all hope seemed lost. Picture this, New Golem, the giant rock monster (Not to be confused with Golem, who is also a giant rock monster.) is absolutely wrecking a city. Hero Force has been incapacitated. As have many other superheroes. Hatman has been buried under a ton of rubble. Ultiman was just punched into the stratosphere. Boost: The man From Beyond is more preoccupied with handing out souvenir pens to his adoring fans. Professor Paleontologist was not invited to this fight. Cowboy Rockstar is off founding his own planet based on rock and roll and unlimited candy so he’s unavailable. It seems like the world’s heroes are no match for this threat and then... Boom! What’s this? It’s you! Swooping in from the sky, punching New Golem into the ocean. Everybody is shocked. What was that? Who was that? And then they see you, rising from the ocean, having just vanquished an unvanquishable villain. Once again you’ll be beloved by the whole world who will welcome you back to the superhero community with welcome arms. Probably you’ll even get another parade out of it. What were you ever thinking retiring? The people love you! Who cares if you’re incredibly old and frail. Being retired is for nerds. Go punch a monster. The world needs you! And who would you be to deny them your awesome superheroicness.

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racingtoaredlight · 5 years

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Opening Bell: February 1, 2019

One of the interesting features of the first two years of the Trump administration has been the complete devotion towards the 45th president from politicians who previously fashioned themselves as independent-minded contrarians. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has, in particular, been a devoted ally of Trump, conducting business in the upper chamber in such a way that it benefits the White House while seeking to frustrate Democrats. While a president is certainly entitled to have congressional allies, few presidents have experienced such uncritical support from a co-equal branch of government. But this support has its limits. When the president suddenly announced an abrupt withdrawal of American troops from Syria, where they supported Kurdish and Syrian rebel fighters as they sought to extirpate the remnants of ISIS, even some of his most devoted partners in congress, such as Mitch McConnell and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R- SC), were tepid in their response. Over time, as it has become increasingly clear that ISIS has not been defeated—the reality of which was punctuated by the death of four American soldiers in Syria—congressional ambivalence over the Syria withdrawal turned into outright hostility. This reversal was manifested yesterday when the Senate passed a bi-partisan bill, which was put forth by Mitch McConnell, by a vote of 68-23. The bill explicitly disapproved of any attempt to withdrawal American troops from Syria and Afghanistan, the latter of which the Trump administration has also recently floated. The subject is a complicated one though: some of the Democrats who voted against the bill, and against the chance to publicly rebuke the president, did so because a vote to maintain troops in two foreign countries muddies the waters for a separate attempt by congressional Democrats to bring forth a new Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). Virtually every single military intervention, hostile deployment, special forces raid, air strike, and drone attack for the last eighteen (18!) years has been couched in the authority Congress gave to President George W. Bush in its AUMF of September 13, 2001. That AUMF is only 60 words long, and yet those 60 words, are so broad that two successive presidential administrations have used them to justify, without congressional approval military action around the globe. A vote to maintain the American presence in two countries based on this AUMF, makes more complex any effort to effect a new one.

Greetings to our frozen brethren in the upper Midwest, which is currently emerging from one of the most severe winter storms in decades. The snow and ice are certainly remarkable, but it’s the record low temperatures—wind chill of -56° F in some communities—which are so striking. Local offices of the National Weather Service have issued warnings to residents in some areas to stay indoors as much as possible and, if forced to go outside, to avoid taking deep breaths or talking too much, lest the polar air damage the lungs. And as politics permeate every single subject that arises these days, even when neither the subject nor the underlying point are political, allow me to repeat the maxim of climate scientists: weather is not the climate, but climate can affect the weather, and sometimes in ways that seem counter-intuitive.

Meanwhile, on this country’s southern border, President Donald Trump has continually insisted that there is a crisis taking place. The nature of this crisis is not immediately clear, other than there is, in his estimation, a cadre of coyotes driving through remote points of the desert with woman bound with duct tape in the trunk of their cars. The real crisis, however, is in the way those migrants who do cross the border, and are apprehended by Border Patrol agents in the process, are held in confinement while waiting on hearings before immigration judges. This week, it was reported that detainees at an ICE facility in El Paso have entered the fourth week of a hunger strike which is meant to bring attention to conditions at the facility and the slow nature of legal proceedings. The detainees are largely from India and Cuba rather than Mexico or Central America. As a result, ICE, following an order from a federal judge, has force fed some detainees, using an intranasal feeding tube inserted against the will of the detainee. The true crisis at the border is in how detainees are treated, not in how many approach the border.

Stenographers are tasked with accurately recording the oral statements of individuals, usually in a legal context. Their failure, or inability, to property record what a person says, can have dire consequences. A disproportionate number of defendants in criminal cases are black. Black Americans have a unique pattern of speech, referred to in the article as “Black English,” which is a product of the African-American culture and all the history that goes with it. But when a recent study played recordings of Black English for 27 stenographers in Philadelphia, on average they mistakenly or inaccurately transcribed two out of every five sentences. That’s an astounding 40 percent of sentences. First, imagine speaking to a person who had difficulty in understanding 40 percent of what you said. Then imagine that what that person’s recording of the conversation is had a bearing on your personal freedom. That seems less than ideal in the context of the criminal justice system. And words, and commas, matter. In 2017, an opinion by a federal appeals court hinged on whether a suspect being questioned said “Just give me a lawyer, dog,” or “Just give me a lawyer dog.” In the former, the suspect has invoked his Sixth Amendment right has been invoked and the police cannot question him any further and any statements made after this point are inadmissible at trial. In the latter, the suspect has, as the court decided, asked for a non-existent thing, a canine attorney. While a great variety of individuals have been admitted to practice law around the country, none of them were of the canine variety, and thus the court judged that the suspect’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel had not been properly invoked. Black English is not the product of laziness or lack of education, rather it is a deliberate type of English spoken by individuals who, as evidence shows, have knowledge of “proper” English, and can communicate in both forms of the language. But, and here’s the rub, a stenographer of a particular background, might not have exposure to some other forms of English and this could, and has, cause citizens who have done nothing wrong to be convicted of a crime they did not commit.

Venezuela is in turmoil. In the weeks after the inauguration President Nicolas Maduro for another term, constitutionalists in Venezuela have argued that Maduro’s administration is illegitimate and that 35-year old Juan Guaidó, leader of the National Assembly, is now the acting, or interim, president. Maduro, and his predecessor and patron Hugo Chavez, saw challenges to their authority in the past; Chavez was evenly briefly “overthrown” in a coups in a brief coups in 2002, before returning to power days later. But in the past both Chavez and now Maduro have retained power by retaining the loyalty of the military and the national police. For the first time, there may be cracks in that loyalty as Guaidó has openly appealed to the military to assist him in a non-violent transition from Maduro. The United States, along with several South American countries, have withdrawn recognition from Maduro and pledged it to Guaidó. But, as the Brookings Institution notes, neither the United States nor any other South American nation can push Venezuela in a new direction.

Speaking of Venezuela, native son Gustavo Dudamel has been criticized as much for his apparently apolitical response to the turmoil in his home country as he has been praised for his abilities and accomplishments as the principal conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It is popular to criticize the conductor of an orchestra; he (or she, as female conductors become more common) stands before a body of highly-skilled musicians who have sheet music in front of them, and gesticulates wildly and dramatically, putting on as much a show as the music being produced. The conductor, however, plays a vital role: their personality comes through in the pace and tone with which a piece is played, such that a Beethoven pieced conducted by Dudamel may sound completely different conducted by someone else, like John Eliot Gardner. The conductor is responsible for the arrangement of musicians, the timing of when certain pieces come in and out, and Gustavo Dudamel is widely considered one of the most successful practitioners of this craft. Dudamel, who commands an annual $3 million salary from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and has an avowedly joyful approach to both music and society, has been criticized for doing so while his homeland burns, both metaphorically and literally.

Virtually everyone has experienced an airport delay in their lives, whether due to weather or to a mechanical defect. Airlines attempt to mitigate these delays by building cushioning into their schedules, which is why a flight scheduled to board at, say 9:20am, actually boards at closer to 9:35; is scheduled to depart at 9:50, but really goes wheels up at 10:05, and yet still lands 10 minutes earlier than the scheduled arrival times. But when the delay is caused by understaffing at the airport, a mechanical issue which cannot be fixed at the gate, or widespread weather event, the effect can reverberate throughout the incredibly complicated air travel network. Every minute of delay at one airport can mean 30 seconds of delay at the destination airport, multiplied onward and upward.

Finally, the Center for Politics analyzes how Democratic midterm gains in 2018 reflected a flip from previous decades; whereas in the 1970s and 80s, national electoral maps favored Democrats for a variety of reasons, these maps have in turn favored Republicans since the early 2000s. The national popular vote is an inarticulate way to measure congressional vote shares—not least of which because of factors like gerrymandering—but there is still a connection between the two. Guest columnist Theodore Arrington analyzes how the share of vote equates to representation in congress.

Welcome to the weekend.

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Fighter pilots are perhaps the deadliest yet most detached warriors to ever engage in battle. Those who possessed the best maneuvering traits, spatial awareness and marksmanship define history as the greatest aerial aces. We’ve taken into account not just kills, but also time in service, difficulty of flying conditions and the nature of their missions.

#1 Erich Hartmann Major Erich Hartman was a Luftwaffe fighter ace who is recognized for having shot down more enemy aircraft than any pilot in history. He became known as the “Blond Knight” or “Black Devil” by his enemies, shooting down 352 aircraft in his combat service between 1943 and 1945. His mother was one of the first women pilots in Germany, and taught him to fly as a child. He served as a gliding instructor by age 14, and received his pilot’s license in 1939 at age 17. His combat technique was to stalk an enemy fighter and wait until he was within around 66 yards before opening fire. This approach would nearly guarantee a hit. He was never shot down in his three years of air combat, but was forced to crash land several times after midair collisions. He served 10 years in a Soviet POW Camp, and died of natural causes in 1993 at age 71.

#2 Hans-Joachim Marseille Captain Hans-Joachim Marseille was a German fighter pilot of French ancestry with 158 confirmed kills. Marseille shot down more British and American fighters than any other pilot in the war in his sorties against the British Desert Air Force. He may have been more skilled than Hartmann, who usually shot down Russian aircraft piloted by less experienced airmen. But his extravagant nightlife often limited his participation in combat, which led to his transfer to North Africa. His unique combat technique was to infiltrate enemy formations and slow down while turning tightly. Once he was surrounded, he used the low speed of the aircraft and its ability to turn rapidly to spray multiple aircraft with bullets, “blowing up the formation from the inside” in Marseille’s words. Marseille’s WWII service began in 1940, and ended in 1942 when he was killed after attempting to bail out of his damaged aircraft.

#3 Gerhard Barkhorn Major Gerhard Barkhorn was the second highest scoring fighter ace in history, with 300 victories from 1941-45. He served in the eastern front, where he developed his target leading skills and became greatly feared. After shooting down Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolay Klepikov and later reaching 250 victories, he had a bounty placed on him. He experienced anxiety issues throughout the war, and had a history of being transferred to easier assignments. He was awarded the Swords of the Knight’s Cross in 1944, and had the distinction of serving as Erich Hartmann’s best man. He died in a car accident in 1983 at age 63.

#4 George Beurling Flight Lieutenant George “Buzz” Beurling was a fierce Canadian fighter pilot who shot down 31 aircraft in a range of European air battles. He was known as somewhat of a loner who avoided smoking or socializing and dedicated himself to perfecting his fighting technique. He took down many German and Italian fighters with his aggressive approach that was similar to Hartmann’s. Beurling’s outstanding vision and in-depth study of ballistics made him the equivalent of an aerial SWAT team member. He combined his incredible skill and marksmanship with ferocious maneuvering, making it nearly impossible to shake him off or shoot him down. He survived the war, but was killed in a transport crash.

#5 Ivan Kozhedub Russian-Ukrainian Aviation Marshall Ivan Kozhedub fought 120 air battles in WWII and shot down 62 German planes, making him the highest scoring Allied pilot. Kozhedub served throughout the entire war in the fearsome Lavochkin LA-7 fighter, which had a top speed of over 600 kph. Nicknamed “Ivan the Terrible,” Kozhedub was known for his nearly superhuman marksmanship over long distances. Coupled with the power of his aircraft, this ability allowed him to bring down one of the Luftwaffe’s new jet fighters as well as 61 prop fighters. Kozhedub remained in the Russian Air Force until 1985, where he was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union three times for his skill and bravery in combat. Kozhedub went on to fight in the Korean War, putting him at odds with his former allies.

#6 Richard Bong Major Richard “Ace of Aces” Bong was the highest scoring pilot in the US Air Force, with 40 kills recorded in battle against Japan. Bong scored all his kills in the twin engine Lockheed P 38 Lightning, making him the deadliest twin engine pilot in history. Lockheed Lightnings were able to quickly shred enemy aircraft with machine gun fire, and were used by the US Air Force over both Germany and the Pacific. Bong actually had mediocre gun skills, and compensated by flying extremely close to his targets, nearly colliding before shooting them out of the sky. These “fly by shootings” were extremely effective, but in one case he crashed right through an enemy fighter instead of shooting it down. Major Bong survived the war, but was tragically killed in a jet fighter crash in 1945.

#7 Hiroyoshi Nishizawa Japanese Zero pilot Hiroyoshi Nishizawa was possibly the top scoring Ace in the Imperial Japanese Navy in WWII. He claimed his 87 aerial victories over four years of combat. He shot down all kinds of planes, and had a provocative attitude that led him to perform aerobatics over an enemy airfield with two wingmen, resulting in a written invitation from the US Navy to return for “the rest of the party.” Nishizawa’s unique fighting style kept him from being shot down while decimating enemy fighter formations. He was noted for performing spectacular, high G force maneuvers in random patterns, which had “never been seen in Japanese air combat.” He avoided death as a fighter pilot, but in a somewhat anti-climactic ending was killed when a bomber transporting him was shot down.

#8 Kurt Welter Senior Lieutenant Kurt Welter was Germany’s top jet fighter pilot and the highest scoring jet ace in aviation history. Welter prowled the European skies in his lethal Messerschmitt ME262, in which he shot down a significant portion of his 63 confirmed kills. Welter was the first jet pilot to fly night missions where he made impressive kills, including heavy bombers. Traveling at over 700 kph in pitch black skies, Welter could destroy an enemy aircraft and attack the next target before the formation knew what hit them. Twin engine British Mosquitos modified for night fighting were among his most frequent victims. Welter survived the war, and was awarded the Iron Cross and German Gold Cross for his exploits.

#9 Johnnie Johnson Air Vice Marshal James “Johnnie” Johnson was the Royal Air Force’s top scoring pilot with 34 individual kills and several shared. Johnson’s great skill in aircraft handling, proactive fighting techniques and marksmanship gave him the highest scores against the Luftwaffe of any British ace, which he achieved in his Supermarine Spitfire. His favored technique was to shoot at enemy aircraft in an offensive manner to panic the enemy and gain the advantage by encouraging them to flee. Johnson would then single out targets and pick them off. He had an interest in engineering, and took the time to analyze situations for possible traps rather than blindly attacking. In his personal life he overcame personal injury to join the RAF. Johnson survived the war, dying peacefully in 2001 at the age of 85.

#10 Josef Frantisek During the Battle of Britain, foreign pilots volunteered to fight with the Royal Air Force. Czech Sergeant Josef Frantisek was one of these pilots, having reached Britain after escaping internment in Romania. After flying with the French, Frantisek signed up with the RAF, but was so independent in searching for the enemy that he was loaned an aircraft for his one man war. Flying his Hawker Hurricane, Frantisek went on to become the top scoring Allied Ace in the Battle of Britain, with 17 kills. He often targeted returning German fighters, knocking them out of the sky before they could cross the English channel. He claimed a total of 17 fighters, flying only one year in combat. He was not shot down, but crashed his Hurricane in 1940 while performing aerobatics, possibly to impress his girlfriend, possibly from sheer exhaustion.

Source: TopTenz

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