If he doesn’t get it by the end of the chapter, can you let Krix know that those branches Dinah sees are just from this universe and not any others?
Yeah, that became gradually clear after a bit.
Tag: asks
I always like to discuss the concept of sympathizing in writing. I’ve seen people who love it, I’ve seen even people who are scared of it, because they find it dangerous. Like it is somehow dangerous to humanize broken, damaged people. It is exactly what will help us reflect, as a race, I feel. Washing away social constructs requires you to understand them and, yes, even sometimes sympathize with terrible people. Its why I loathe tumblr’s constant hate parades against people sometimes.
Lets use a recent unnamed case for example. Lets say an artist is showing off his defensiveness towards pedophilia or being homophobic. You DO NOT solve this with indifference, but neither with pointing at their flaws or shoving hate and death threats, calling them names. You talk, you understand and you make them understand too. You take away the US vs. THEM mentality instead of fueling it.
Hell, its why pedophilia is such a problem anyways! Because we dont TALK about it, we shove it under a rug, we dont educate our children and we MEDICATE, arresting people who DO IT, instead of PREVENTING it, treating it like it is, a mental/psychological health issues, taking it out by the root. These people, all kinds, are outcasts and they know it. We bring them in instead of pushing them out, because we are oh-so-faulty on seeing the transition between person with problems to person causing problems. Taylor, and Worm, is itself a PERFECT character study for this.
Yeah, I agree with a lot of this.
This sort of thing is part of why I like shows like Steven Universe and MLP:FiM. They both make most of their villains sympathetic but misguided, broken people whose better sides can be brought out, and whose flaws can be mitigated, with a little help from people who care for them. It is a good thing to write your villains as people, in general, which was one thing I praised Interlude 11e for.
Yet, as you mention, it’s something I’ve heard of Steven Universe getting criticized for doing with the “big bads” of the show, even though it’d be straight up out of character for the show to not do it.
(Steven Universe is far better than MLP at executing this. The prevalence of the “evil switch” in major villains is one of MLP:FiM’s biggest flaws as far as I’m concerned, but the core idea is present and prominent.)
I do think it’s important to stay aware when you sympathize with these people, though. I can sympathize with Hookwolf, or Purity, or Coil, but I should keep in mind what sort of people they are while I do so.
Also, I personally think pedophiles are closer to the “person causing problems” end of the gradient, at least if they act on it in some way. Which does not require it going as far as actually having sex with a child. However, “bringing them in instead of pushing them out” might in some cases be a better solution. A lot of things should be treated on a case by case basis, and this might be one of them.
And that’s all the asks! I was going to try to go through the fanart I received today as well, but I got nearly eighty images. I think I’m better off splitting that up between the next few chapters and moving on to today’s liveblogging session for now.
Jormungandr is actually an alternate in-story name for Leviathan, like how the nurse in arc 8 said Hadhayosh instead of Behemoth.
Oh, really? I suppose that makes sense with how he’s a sea monster, and Jörmungandr is by all means an “end-bringer” in Norse mythology, alongside Fenrir. I wonder if Fenrir might similarly be used as a name for Behemoth?
Also, I suppose that means Kaiser can be Thor in the extended metaphor after all, except a less successful one considering Thor actually managed to slay Jörmungandr before keeling over himself.
…can you imagine if Arc 8 had ended with Kaiser killing Leviathan and then dying himself? That would be one hell of a base breaker, I think.
I wonder if there’s a Baldr somewhere in this. The closest I can think of is Purity, as Baldr was a god of light, but Purity isn’t invincible as far as I’ve gathered, and Baldr died long before Ragnarök.
Don’t know if someone else has already mentioned this, but I’m pretty sure Wildbow mentioned in a Reddit post that Rollo actually was either a wolf or a coyote puppy, so it makes sense that Rachel’s power would work better on undomesticated species of dog. That’s what it was originally meant for.
Someone did mention that, yeah. 🙂
It’s a pretty neat background detail.
“I wonder what happens if they both succeed. Do they duke it out over the open spot?” If they both succeed, there’s a possibility that they’ve opened up more spots.
I suppose that’s true.
If that were to happen, we’d have Bitch and Hookwolf trying to be on the same team. That ought to cause some sparks.
“A sword age, an axe age. A wind age, a wolf age.” Those exact words are taken from an english translation of the Prophecy of the Völva, specifically the part where she describes the state of humanity immediately before Ragnarok. In that poem they refer to the same age. Shatterbird is making a direct reference to the mythology Hookwolf named his group after.
“A sword age, an axe age. A wind age, a wolf age.“ These are in fact describing the same age – the run-up to Ragnarok – in a quote from passage 45 of the Voluspa or Poetic Edda. Wikisource has the Icelandic text, which I have the impression is closest to the original Old Norse: "skeggjöld, skálmöld / skildir ‘ru klofnir / vindöld, vargöld / áðr veröld steypisk”. (Yeah, Shatterbird swapped the positions of the axe and the sword.)
I think Shatterbird is referring the Fimbulwinter, the three years of uninterrupted winter preceding Ragnarok. I even think I saw it once separated in three winters, one of them being of wolves and the last one being of blades. If the other one is associated with wind her comment would make sense. Then again I last saw that years ago, so I might be completely wrong and remembering things incorrectly.
“Sword and axe make sense, but wind? Also, are these in order, or describing the same age? I can’t really tell.” I believe this is a famous quote from the Norse sagas, describing Ragnarok
Oh!
I know a fair bit of Norse mythology, but I haven’t actually read all that much of the source material. That’s not really a good excuse, though, considering I recently tried to fix that and ended up reading specifically Völuspá (which, for the record, is only the first poem in the Poetic Edda, not an equivalent name for it).
I do suppose it may have been a different translation… Actually, let me look up the passage in the translation I read:
46. Hard is it in the world, great whoredom, an axe age, a sword age, shields shall be cloven, a wind age, a wolf age, ere the world sinks.
Ah, yeah, there it is. Neat!
A glass cannon. She literally shoots glass. Wildbow loves playing with tropes.
Hehe, clearly 😛
In retrospect, maybe I should’ve seen this coming after the Girlfriend in Canada.
“a Roman AU in general sounds kinda neat” Have you read Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera? It’s what happened when someone challenged him to write a book that combines Ancient Rome and Pokemon.
I have not, but that sounds amazing. 😛
“You’re out of my league I’m out of my mind Thinking I was born In the wrong time” I was really hoping this was a Mr. Brightside parody.
Hehe, nope, sorry. Wrong song. :p
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