if being problematic fave is cringe then I don't wanna be based

playing isat has taken a toll on my mental state

WELCOME TO RODION PASS ON POSTING: THE SECOND ONE

So. Okay. This will probably be incomprehensible if you don't understand music but I'll try my best. This is also a huge simplification. Most of the Pass Ons stay within the boundaries of their specific set of notes. They are primarily in major keys, and when they end up in a minor key, it's the relative minor, so the first note of the scale moves but we still use the same set of notes.

For Rodion's, however, she frequently enters parallel minor, which means that the first note of the scale stays the same, but some of the pitches within it shift. So she's got more note variety.

I decided to transcribe the verse starting with "I have run all without rest" for Gregor's Pass on (since it's the blueprint for all the others) and Rodion's in order to compare the two. Here's Gregor's

And here's Rodion's (it should actually be in D Major/minor, which has 2 sharps in the key signature, but it's transposed to the same key as Gregor's for ease of comparison)

Aside from the beginning and end, the chord structures are completely different. There are some rhythmic differences too but that's not important so ignore them. The chords in Gregor's version are consistent with Sinclair, Yi Sang, and Ishmael; Heathcliff and Don Quixote make slight variations (Heathcliff's is actually more major than all the others! See how joyous he is after canto 6 <3) but not nearly as much as Rodion, who practically rebuilds the melody from the ground up.

It's really interesting how for "Those times gone by that got me choked up", Rodya moves down a step instead of repeating the same notes like the others do (except Don, the first time). For the others, it sets up the harmony to lead into the relative minor chord, but for Rodion, she goes the opposite direction, ending the line "Will I end up missing them too?" in Major.

See also, in the third-to-last measure, how Gregor (and everyone else) leaps up to a B and then a C, the tonic (first note) of the key. However, if Rodion did that, it would clash with the cadences she's working with, so she needs to land on the fifth note instead- notable for revealing nothing about whether a key is in major or minor.

Worth noting that the instrumental break immediately after this verse ends is in major in Gregor's version and minor in Rodion's. I didn't bother to check the others because I knew if I started I would be stuck in music theory hell forever. I wish I could better explain the relationships between all those roman numerals but that would be sending you to music theory hell too so just look at the ♭ symbols littering Rodion's version and trust me that her ass is NOT passing on!!!!

removed from any shipping its genuinely notable to me that rodya seemingly latches on to gregor from the start. of course shes doing her little facade (and if you go back to the earlier episodes now, its a lot more egregious and easier to notice) but its curious that out of any of the sinners, its him she actively chooses to interact with and drop a nickname on first

shes very very teasing especially initially and seems to target him for his arm, a lot of her comments being based on him being bugmoded. it honestly could look cruel especially with the full context we have now, though notably these do all take place pre-gregor revelations, but if you jump to this being a signifier of rodya bullying/wanting to get actual pain or upset out of gregor you'd have to skip over this scene

which is both silly but also i feel pretty significant for understanding something about the two of them and their relationship:

what's important to me in my read of rodya is that she does have a facade, deliberately to be charming and likable, but i dont think her buttonpushing/ragging on of gregor (and later the other sinners) is actually entirely part of that, i think its the opposite. showing real honest affection is something difficult to her, so she skips a few steps and jumps straight into poking fun like you would with someone youve known a long time.

I think her "true" personality isn't cold and calculative, from further story context i interpret it as more jaded and sarcastic. these moments to me read as a sort of fumble or early mask slip, she's not baring it all with these bits but she has singled out gregor in her mind and is particularly hovering (based on how the majority of both of their interactions throughout are from the very start with eachother) around him, trying to get closer in an awkward way.

I think people miss that theres a lot you can take and learn about rodya from their interactions, whether its because of a focus on shipping or trying to outright deny there is anything going on there at all

he is so... so needs to be put in a washing machine

grime and bloodless verion under the cut

i really liked the eventkjdfkjdfkj

400+ people were killed in gaza last night.

my friend tarek has been doing some amazing community organizing in palestine — he’s been teaching classes for children with my other friend farah AND distributing water and providing iftar meals during ramadan throughout rafah! his brother just had a major orthopedic surgery he had to wait about a year for and since food and water is incredibly scarce he can’t properly recover. please donate to their efforts!!!

donate to tarek’s family

donate to provide iftar meals

donate to the water initiative

donate to the challenge classes

quick reminder: tarek isn’t just a word on your screen, he is my friend.

he’s 21, the same age as me. before the war he was studying to be a translator and he dreamt of voice acting, just like so many of you reading this. (he’s pretty good too actually.) he would probably not call himself a poet but every few days he posts something so beautifully worded that he might as well be a poet laureate. he recently wrote: “gaza is sick of being praised by anyone. gaza is tired that its image is on satellite tv. gaza is sick of its name in the sad poems. gaza is tired of the repeated endings.” the message is clear — sentiments are not enough, his people need HELP.

every day i tell him im doing everything i can. and it’s true, i am, but its barely anything, as i’m disabled and bedridden. i’ve kept that fact from him out of shame because i see what he has to endure each day, but i feel SO POWERLESS. every time an announcement breaks that more bombs have dropped in the night or more innocent people were gunned down in broad daylight, my heart sinks with terror and i wonder if i’ve lost my friend. it really would mean so much — not just to him, to me — if you could donate anything you can spare to tarek and his family. he deserves the whole world and more.

yesterday tarek almost got on a water distribution truck that was targeted with bombs. the day before his neighbors had their house bombed (during Eid) and that whole family died. please help my friend

part 4 (part 3)

what do you mean canto 3 was almost a year ago-

Moving into haunted houses can be weird.

your favourite play

I’m watching Splash (1984) which is a romcom about a guy who falls in love with a mermaid, and when she chooses a human name she chooses Madison and guy says “that’s not a real name, but alright” which seems to imply that Madison was not a name until at least the 80’s and all girls named Madison are actually named after the mermaid. thought you should know

I think...you might be right

what the fuck

*Laughs in ISAT*

Update from the man himself

The Porn Guy aka The Nice Guy aka The Canadian side of Pornhub aka SFW Pornhub’s REAL NAME is Ryan Creamer. No joke, that is legit his real name.

Also this.

Which led him to this.

Bless this man.

I can appreciate him and the service he’s providing independently of the shitshow that is the platform he’s hosted on.

He remains just as funny and weird on other platforms dw

By the way, the topic he was presenting was

‘Can I get an Honorary Degree if I Just Ask Really Nicely’

i think about this line all the time. odile is smart, and part of being smart is that she doesn't forget things.

siffrin is forgetful, so they must be stupid. he underestimates his intelligence because of his memory issues.

they've internalised it to the point that whenever something bad happens, siffrin's first instinct is always to self-deprecate by calling himself stupid.

i was going to do a rant about this before seeing this tweet but imma just leave this here

#been saying for years#rainbow capitalism isn't a movement but it sure is a fucking canary (via @runawaymarbles)

This goes hand in hand with pushing for only queer people to play queer roles. Which in theory sounds like a good thing to push for authentic representation when so much of the past stuff was bad.

Except the actual real world outcome has become queer leftists abusively dog piling any actor they deem "inauthentic" leading to actors being forcefully outed against their will before they were ready in an attempt to make the abuse stop. Including children. People have been justifying psychologically tormenting literal children for not publicly disclosing (and being firm and set in) their gender and sexuality in order to work.

In many wants it's set back queer media and made people just as afraid of queer roles ruining their careers and their lives as they were when bigots were doing it. Which is not an improvement to the situation! It's really only giving cover to people who want none of this to exist.

We could have just praised the process we wanted to see. Personally I love seeing Jim Parsons take that big normative sitcom money and fucking off to make emotionally powerful queer films with it casting queer actors whenever he can. But praising that will always be more constructive than bullying Kit Connor. If Daniel Craig wants to spend the rest of his career making charming gay detective movies about helping marginalized woman get revenge on abusive rich assholes, then I don't care what his sexuality is because it's still pushing queer media far forward.

We could have positively addressed rainbow capitalism by supporting queer-owed business. We could have accepted that mainstreaming queer iconography at Target (much of it designed by queer people who got to pay their bills making it) would make space for people buying that small batch t-shirt at Pride. It's not like people only ever buy one t-shirt in their life.

A closeted-for-safety trans boy buying his first binder at Target could have created an opening for the next one to be from Shapeshifters. Instead he may never get the chance to know what it would feel feel like to take the first step because the wrong packaging could endanger him and the (fair) price mightbe unaffordable.

We can't built perils into doing better. We can't keep calling nigh-impossible next steps"the bare minimum" and tearing into them for every imperfection if we want people to do them at all. At minimum that's a burnout machine. At worst it gives bigots leverage to maker sure we have nothing. Kindness and enthuses support of what we want to see happen makes way more progress.

Unfortunately many leftists are still so stuck in the purity-sin-redemption mentality, even when they surface-level reject Christianity, that instead of growth and change everything keeps getting treated as blasphemy unless it's perfect. Even though perfection is impossible. So the whole well is primed to be poisoned by the people who genuinely hate us.

"Jeez Sif, were you spacing out or what??" "USE YOUR EARS, STUPID!!! If you even HAVE ears!!!" "I'm quite certain our friend has ears, Boniface." "I'm sorry if you were thinking about something really important..!"

"Nah. Nothing important. What do you need help with?"

*flirting badly* Haha yeah i could be the homura to uyoure madoka ;) *sees her reach for her phone* dont look that up. Pleas dont look thyt up. Pleas