Reblogged
freshman year adaine ๐ฎ
Reblogged ohnoitsadalek
So I'm halfway through Gideon the Ninth and how come nobody has told me about Dulcinea?? She's so good, you'd think people would go bonkers over her
Ah.
Ngl ive had Gideon the ninth in my to read pile on my kindle app for months and this post is what inspired me to finally open it now
Ah, I see.
......well now I'm curious.
Reblogged letsboldlygomotherfuckers
Astronomers are the funniest people on earth actually
Reblogged roseonabeach
What's the process if you're a superhero and you come out as trans
Do you tell your villains?
Do you keep it a secret so no one can connect Spider-Man with your secret identity for a while? Or do you pop a pronouns pin on your costume and the next time you web up Doctor Octopus and he goes "I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME SPIDER-MAN" you go "Spider-Girl actually! I've been figuring out some shit"
"Listen for Christ's sake we're a modern paper. Parker - Parker get in here - this is Madeline Parker, came out three months ago. Best photographer we've got. We're proud to have her on board. We at the Daily Bugle are proud to support the LGBTQ+ community bUT THIS SPIDER-GIRL IS A MENACE"
Overwhelming consensus on this post is that you should come out in your superhero identity first, and then a couple weeks down the line come out in your secret identity and when people ask just go โOh seeing Spider-Girl come out really gave me the confidence to come out myselfโ which is the best possible answer
Reblogged secretlyaperson
How English has changed in the past 1000 years.
denchgang
the big mans a lad i have fuck all, he lets me have a kip in a field he showed me a pondย
Reblogged letsboldlygomotherfuckers
Zelenogorsk is sand bathing
Zelenogorsk is sand bathing
Zelenogorsk is sand bathing
Zelenogorsk is sand bathing
Zelenogorsk is sand bathing
Reblogged gael-garcia
I saw and reblogged this one a while back, but itโs always worth repeating, and this time Iโm adding a bit of background info comparing common fantasy sword features to the Real Thing (with pictures, of course.)
Leaf-bladed swords are a very popular fantasy style and were real, though unlike modern hand-and-a-half longsword versions, the real things were mostly if not always shortswords.
Here are Celtic bronze swordsโฆ
โฆAncient Greek Xiphoiโฆ
โฆ and a Roman โMainz-patternโ gladiusโฆ
Saw or downright jagged edges, either full-length or as small sections (often where they serve no discernible purpose) are a frequent part of fantasy blades, especially at the more, er, imaginatively unrestrained end of the market.
Real swords also had saw edges, such as these two 19th century shortswords, but not to make them cool or interesting. Theyโre weapons if necessaryโฆ
โฆbut since they were carried by Pioneer Corps who needed them for cutting branches and other construction-type tasks, their principal use was as brush cutters and saws.
This dussack (cutlass) in the Wallace Collection is also a fighting weapon, like the one beside itโฆ
โฆbut may also have had the secondary function of being a saw.
A couple of internet captions say itโs for โcutting ropesโ which makes sense - heavy ropes and hawsers on board a ship were so soaked with tar that they were often more like lengths of wood, and a Hollywood-style slice from the Heroโs rapier (!!) wouldnโt be anything like enough to sever them. However swords like this are extremely rare, which suggests they didnโt work as well as intended for any purpose.
I photographed these in Basel, Switzerland, about 20 years ago. Look at the one on the bottom (I prefer the basket-hilt schiavona in the middle).
A lot of โflambergeโ (wavy-edge) swords actually started out with conventional blades which then had the edges ground to shape - the dussack, that Basel broadsword and this Zweihander were all made that way.
The giveaway is the centreline: if itโs straight, the entire blade probably started out straight.
Increased use of water power for bellows, hammers and of course grinders made shaping blades easier than when it had to be done by hand. This flamberge Zweihander, however, was forged that way.
Again, the clue is the centre-line.
Incidentally those Parierhaken (parrying hooks - a secondary crossguard) are among the only real-life examples of another common fantasy feature - hooks and spikes sticking out from the blade.
Here are some rapiers and a couple of daggers showing the same difference between forged to shape and ground to shape. The top and bottom rapiers in the first picture started as straights, and only the middle rapier came from the forge with a flamberge blade.
Thereโs no doubt about this one either.
The reason - though that was a part of it - wasnโt just to look cool and show off what the owner could afford (any and all extra or unusual work added to the price) but may actually have had a function: a parry would have been juddery and unsettling for someone not used to it, and any advantage is worth having.
However, like the saw-edged dussack, flamberge blades are unusual - which suggests the advantage wasnโt that much of an advantage after all.
Hereโs a Circassian kindjal, forged wigglyโฆ
โฆand an Italian parrying dagger forged straight then ground wigglyโฆ
There were also parrying daggers with another fantasy-blade feature, deep notches and serrations which in fantasy versions often resemble fangs or thorns.
These more practical historical versions are usually called โsword-breakersโ but I prefer โsword-catcherโ, since a steel blade isnโt that easy to break. Taking the opponentโs blade out of play for just long enough to nail him works fine.
NB - the curvature on the top one in this next image is AFAIK because of the book-page it was copied from, not the blade itself.
The missing tooth on that second dagger, and the crack halfway down this next oneโs blade, shows what happens when design features cause weak spots.
So there you go: a quick overview of fantasy sword features in real life.
Hereโs a real-life weapon that looks like it belongs in a fantasy story or film - and this doesnโt even have an odd-shaped bladeโฆ
Just a very flexible oneโฆ
If you want more odd blades, Moghul India is a good place to startโฆ
i could not ask for a better addition to my meme post than blade education thank you so much
Itโs not fantasy anatomy, but knowing stuff about the objects you put in your fantasy world is also very important
Reblogged lassieposting
Thematically speaking, the most important thing Terry Pratchett taught me was the concept of militant decency. The idea that you can look at the world and its flaws and its injustices and its cruelties and get deeply, intensely angry, and that you can turn that into energy for doing the right thing and making the world a better place. He taught me that the anger itself is not the part I should be fighting. Nobody in my life ever said that before.
More lessons from Pratchett:
- Good isnโt always nice (i.e. sometimes appearing nice is a luxury you canโt afford if you want to do the right thing) (this refers to setting bones and fighting evil, not to being pointlessly horrible)
- Evil can appear very nice indeed (watch out for people who smile while they deny your basic humanity)
- People can suck, be rude and actively work against their own best interests, but personkind is still something we must protect so they can keep being wonderful in between all the stupid
- โPersonโ is always a broader category than you think
- Itโs not about whoโs best for the job - itโs about who shows up and does it
- Be very aware of how you treat those in your power; you will be judged on it
- Respect women, which explicitly includes trans women (with or without beards and steel-toed boots)
- Kings: no. Hard-boiled eggs: yes
Reblogged librarianoftheclayr
tumblr users love reading. you literally stopped for this post just because it has words in it
this is one of my favorite bits about tumblr
the users seem to actually prefer text posts to anything else, and treat it as a chore to play a video especially with sound
letโs say it isnโt barry that survives, but /bill/.
to be quite frank i donโt think heโd stand for being separated from his daughter (ESPECIALLY not after klaus barry).
that would definitely be anย โagatha raised in mechanicsburgโ au. bill would probably not openly be back until he got the castle fixed and powered up though. if heโs worried that klaus working with the other heโd want a siege-proof town first.
(he also would probably have added some kind of anti-falling rocks defense before ringing the doom bell. in case there are some in reserve to drop. and generally prepared the town for attack.)
extrememailmen
yes absolutelyย
tbh, i have a feeling bill went into the mad place around the time klaus barry died and lucrezia wasย โkidnappedโ and didnโt leave it until the end of the first war with The Other, after heโd taken down lucrezia (the first time) andย utterly tore apart the geisters that had agatha. maybe he finally came back to himself when littleย agatha asked him (in an unusually articulate voice for a child her age) what was wrong.
until he reunites with punch and judy (im not sure if he knows theyโre alive) and becomes 100% sure klaus isnโt affiliated with lucrezia in any way, shape, or form, agathaโs the only person he really has left in the world. no one is touching her.ย
โฆ..heh. billโs always hated the castle and what it stood for, but when he gets back to mechanicsburg (agatha strapped to his back because he is not letting her out of his sight no matter where heโs going) he heads straight for the castle and doesnโt leave it until itโs not only repaired, but twice as strong as it ever was before. both the castle and bill are aware of the irony (the castle is delighted by this development once itโs coherent enough to be delighted, although its more then a little put out by bill deconstructing any torture/fun chambers he stumbles on during his repairs/upgrades). kbโs fate will not be repeated.ย
โฆโฆ.little!agatha is fond of the fun sized mobile death dispensers.ย
yeahhh iโm sure he settles back a little eventually (at least to the point where heโs willing to be away from agatha for more than .7 seconds at a time). but still.
โฆthe castle probably has somewhat fewer deathtraps by the time billโs done fixing it. every time one was a potential danger to agatha bill tore it apart. the castleโs not thrilled about it.
To be fair, the Castle wouldnโt be very happy about anything that endangered Agatha either.
Von Pinnโฆ would be complicated, though.ย If Bill gets there before Klaus does, then sheโs still there, and sheโs going to want to guard Agatha, but be very unhappy about it, and she was made by Lucrezia, andโฆ well hopefully she will be coherent enough and Bill will be calm enough that they can figure out a way for her to lead him to Lucreziaโs secret lab or at least give him hints (have Agatha ask her, maybe?) instead of him just taking her apart or sending her away.