EVERY fucking stupid liberals university in the star trek future their fucking student sketch comedy group OF COURSE has at least one Vulcan and it's like their thing where they're like "haha I bet you wouldn't expect a VULCAN in an IMPROV group!!!!!" as if this hasn't become such a fucking tired cliche like literally since 2063 every fucking comedy show has the token Vulcan to be the straight man. you're doing nothing. call me when you guys make an effort to actually include tellarites in the writing room instead of confining them to punch lines. and to be honest with you guys your Vulcan isn't even that good. his performance was highly derivative of T'min's work in the big bang theory 3 (the third big bang yheory. they make a lot of sitcom sequels in the future)
star trek is very demonstrably not a utopian future it's a broken society playing at paradise. we see hints of this earlier in the post when I mention university improv comedy groups
And speaking of pronouns, flat-out my favorite part of the LOTR Appendices is when it’s revealed that the Gondorian dialect of the Common Speech differentiates between formal and informal second-person pronouns but the distinction’s been lost in the Hobbit’s dialect, so Pippin’s blithely been using familiar terms of address with the Lord of the City, and thus helps to explain both why the Gondorians are so ready to assume he’s a prince and why Denethor finds him so amusing to have around.
not what i expected from a post that began with “speaking of pronouns,” but an a++ show of the versatility and surprise daily available on tumblr dot com
ooh, does anyone have any translations of LOTR in languages that do this? are Merry and Pippin going around calling everyone “du” in the German version?
Okay I pulled out my copy of the translated LotR, RotK and when they meet Denethor and Pippin is telling him how Boromir died, he does speak respectfully, and adresses older warriors like Beregon with ‘Vi’, the respectful adress, and that boy as ‘ti’.
But what I noticed is that Pippin is written as avoiding actually adressing Denethor directly, in a way that would actually force him use 'Vi’, but more around it. Something he notably doesn’t do with Theoden, he very outright adresses him respectfully. Even if he does day he’s 'dobri čićica’ (nice old gramps).
Interesting to see that C. S. Lewis was already thinking about this kind of thing in The Screwtape Letters (in which a senior devil gives his nephew hints and tips on how to frustrate the plans of the Enemy (i.e., God) and lead unwary mortals to get themselves sent to Hell.
About the guy the demon nephew is presently tempting, Screwtape says:
For a long time it will be quite impossible to remove spirituality from his life. Very well then; we must corrupt it. No doubt you have often practiced transforming yourself into an angel of light as a parade-ground exercise. Now is the time to do it in the face of the Enemy. The World and the Flesh have failed us; a third Power remains. And success of this third kind is the most glorious of all. A spoiled saint, a Pharisee, an inquisitor... makes better sport in Hell than a mere common tyrant or debauchee.
Looking round your patient’s new friends I find that the best point of attack would be the border-line between theology and politics. Several of his new friends are very much alive to the social implications of their religion. That, in itself, is a bad thing; but good can be made out of it…
About the general connection between Christianity and politics, our position is delicate. Certainly we do not want men to allow their Christianity to flow over into their political life, for the establishment of anything like a really just society would be a major disaster. On the other hand we do want, and want very much, to make men treat Christianity as a means; preferably, of course, as a means to their own advancement, but, failing that, as a means to anything — even to social justice.
The thing to do is to get a man at first to value social justice as a thing which the Enemy demands, and then work him on to the stage at which he values Christianity because it may produce social justice. For the Enemy will not be used as a convenience. Men or nations who think they can revive the Faith in order to make a good society might just as well think they can use the stairs of Heaven as a short cut to the nearest chemist’s shop.
Fortunately it is quite easy to coax humans round this little corner. Only today I have found a passage in a Christian writer where he recommends his own version of Christianity on the ground that ‘only such a faith can outlast the death of old cultures and the birth of new civilizations’. You see the little rift? ‘Believe this, not because it is true, but for some other reason.’ That’s the game…
As a society we have benefited so much from successful public health measures that we now have the privilege of declaring that we must not need them anymore
Bitch before enriched flour, neural tube defects like spina bifida were far more common. Even now, spina bifida clinicians and researchers are begging to have salt and maize fortified to reach groups that don’t use as much flour. Before iodized salt, the United States had a fucking GOITER BELT. Eleven years after the introduction of fluoridated water, a city in Michigan found the rate of dental caries among school children dropped a staggering 60%— in an era where tooth decay regularly fucking killed people
I’m literally not even going to start on vaccines, which are among the most successful and robustly studied public health measures in world history
You might say “oh well today we all have access to vitamins and toothpastes and dentists so we don’t need those things in our food supplies” and boy do white people on social media loooove to fucking say that. But here’s the thing: no, people don’t all have easy access to those things. That’s privilege talking yet again
How to create a character for an online or tabletop RPG (also a good guide on creating characters in general)
Royalty/nobility TV Tropes page
Basic character profile
OC masterpost
Random character generators - (1), (2), (3), (4)
D&D Character Building Tool
Character Design Ideas:
How clothing affects a character’s personality
Character Design Inspiration blog
Concept art, fan art, cool art to be inspired by
Character design references and inspiration
Sources for POC character design ideas and models
Create your own character model using HeroForge
For horned characters
Body and hair types guide
Random outfit generator
Naming Help:
Amazing site with an endless amount of naming resources
General advice on avoiding naming appropriation
Hispanic Surnames
Gothic Victorian names
Huge master list for character things in general
Masterlist of names of all types - including but not limited to ancient/old world names, Celtic, African, Northern European, Southern and Central American Native names, Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian, Polynesian, and more
Another name masterlist
How to pick a character name guide
Yet another names masterlist
Creating Background/backstory:
Character Sheet/Development Sheet
Another character development list
In-depth character personality, motivations and traits sheet
320 talents and passions for characters
On writing likes and dislikes that aren’t frivolous
Why you should write non-human characters non-conforming to the gender binary
Stereotypes, tropes, and archetypes
Random backstory generator
Assassin and thief character tropes to avoid
Character Interactions and putting your character into your world/story:
Comparing character height/height references
Characters who are scientists and writing about them doing science
Describing what different voices sound like
Describing skin tones
Writing friendship interactions that are platonic
Why having one character knock their friend unconscious to prevent them from doing something is a bad idea
Advice on shipping OCs with canon characters and what to avoid doing
Sweet Polly Oliver and Sweet on Polly Oliver situations (think of Disney’s Mulan for an example)
How to write multiple viewpoints/juggling a main cast of more than 4 to 6 characters
How to make readers care about your morally gray hero/anti-hero
On platonic OC and canon character relationships
How to avoid Godmodding in RPs
When it’s cheap to kill off a character
Writing dialogue
Things you shouldn’t do to canon characters
Avoiding purple prose in writing and RPs
Slang resources
Dialogue tips
Websites to chart your story/plot/character relationships
Hansry storytelling through nicknames in the Czech version
One of my most favorite things about Hansry is the way they call each other (in Czech because I'm biased sorry) evolves both overtime and depending on what emotion they're feeling at the moment.
The ways Henry calls Hans
In the first game, Henry calls Hans "pan Ptáček" (Lord Capon) most often, even when he's being sassy to him at the tavern.
Later, Henry evolves to "pan Jan" (pronounced [yan]) (Sir/Lord Hans). Or to just "Ptáček" (Capon). Never once does he call him just simply "Jan" in KCD1.
In the second game, Henry still calls Hans "Ptáček" (pronounced [p'taah-check]) most of the game, but it's veeery rarely lord/sir in front of that. The only few times I can remember is at the very beginning at the lake and then when talking to Hans in front of Brabant but not even that is consistent because he drops the lord/sir once.
But the best part about this word vomit is that Henry calls him very familiarly and fondly sometimes. The thing is that he calls him like that only when the situation is very intense and dangerous. The first time in the franchise (iirc) Henry calls Hans "Jan" without any "pan" (Sir/Lord) is when Henry is being hauled away from the cell in Trosky. He calls out for Hans with a "Jane! Jane!! Neboj! Já to nějak--!" ("Hans! Hans!! Don't be afraid! I'll somehow--!") And yes, Jan with an -e at the end because the Czech language uses vocative as one of their declension cases and as such, the endings of names look different when directly addressing someone.
Another case like this, is the ambush near Nebákov. There, in all that chaos, almost the second you lose sight of Hans in your gameplay or are too far away from him, Czech Henry calls out to him with a "Jendo! Sakra, [I have to go after him]!" where Jenda (yes with an -a in nominative) is a very cute nickname from Jan. That's the only time in the entire franchise he calls him like that. I would personally compare Jenda to calling someone Johnny instead of John or Jonathan.
Not long after, when Hans gets bonked, Henry tries to shake him awake and there is the absolutely legendary "Jane! Ptáčku! Podívej se na mně! Honzo!!" (imagine it as something like "Johannes! Capon! Look at me! Johnny!") because honestly the nicknames Honza/Jenda/Honzík aren't that alien to English. It's just that Hans is a bad name for having any nicknames. A good parallel would be William. You have Will or Billy there after all. Or Thomas and Tom and Tommy.
Here is a clip of the moment I just talked about:
The ways Hans calls Henry
Hans on the other hand, is very consistent throughout the two games with how he calls Henry.
Yes, he started their relationship by calling him shit shoveller and Jindřich in a very mocking voice but very quickly he settled into a tradition where he calls him Jindra almost all the time but calls him Jindřich when he's either angry at him or when he's being a sarcastic little shit. Jindra is a casual and friendly nickname, very common. Something like calling your friend Tom instead of Thomas.
He also once or twice sarcastically calls him Jindříšek which is a super baby boy way to say Jindřich.
But when he's being normal or friendly or tender, he always uses Jindra. Even during their romance scenes, Hans says that nickname but with how much of an amazing actor Czech Hans' VA is, the tone always varies throughout the game.
As I cannot post more than one video on a tumblr post, I cannot provide some Czech Hans clips but I do plan to make a video edit soon with all the ways Hans calls Henry in Czech!
Anyway, my conclusion is...
That I am absolutely feral from how much the evolution of their nicknames mean. The Czech version of this game takes awesome advantage of the nickname conventions in Czechia (and Slavic nations overall tbh) and in a very time and space efficient way uses them to show the players how far these two have become and how their fondness of each other surfaces!
you'd think falling in love with his page would be embarrassing for a lord, but no. in this particular situation, with this particular lord, it is without question 10000x more embarrassing for henry
It's not even about the vindication of calling a ship, okay. It's that the supposedly anti woke studio wrote about 3 million words of medieval fiction centering the relationship of the two main characters who are in most ways (or in all ways if you follow the obvious canon momentum of the story) meant for each other, as counterparts who help each other survive the great travails of their lives and who challenge/complete the other to become fuller, braver, kinder people. It's so clear these two people are soulmates, platonically or romantically, something observed consistently by the world around them and by themselves.
Except their society (feudalism, Catholicism) dictates that they are intended to be completely incompatible by nature and divine law. Not just for the obvious fact they are both men, but they are separated by what is arguably an even steeper chasm of social class. Their existence even as friends utterly spites, interrupts, and threatens feudal order right down to its theological and philosophical roots. They should not see each other as human and yet.
It's the fact that they do. The fact that the entire story has been about this--that these two protagonists fit together, undeniably, and grow to love each other fiercely (a love that deepens superbly from their knee-jerk playful puppy-friend-love in kcd1 to something selfless and mature by the end of kcd2). And they do so despite the immense opposition by their world, their social circles, their faith, and indeed their fandom.
And yes, it really does fucking matter that all of this culminates into a deep onscreen romantic love (if you get out of the way and allow it to) between two fandom-beloved male main characters (not just side characters rammed in for an optional gay romance but THE main characters of the duology; the "you" as in the player character and your erstwhile dick-jokes bro you have perhaps grudgingly at first been invited as the audience to love) in a historical fiction story that has been wrongly touted by the worst of our contemporaries as the holy grail of cultural conservatism.
Holy shit. Warhorse -- y'all. I'm sorry I doubted you. So few game writers understand how love works and indeed how people work, let alone translate it so well onto the screen.
Calling this an "optional romance" is not technically incorrect, I suppose, because it's true you can opt out and choose to remain platonic friends. But this language feels like a disservice, as if Henry & Hans's romance is a typical RPG wham-bam fanservice makeout with a minor fan fave character who never interacts meaningfully with the player again. Or as if it's a Bioware-style "give this NPC the right gift and do their side quest and you get to see a jankly ugly-bumpin' montage" situation.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is so very much not that. The "main, optional" romance scene in question is just one consummation event of two people who have been growing up and falling in love in front of us over the course of some 200-300 (or god knows how many) hours. The fact these protagonists openly love each other is very much not optional.
This is, sincerely, groundbreaking storytelling in this medium and this genre. How fucking cool that we all got to see it now.
I am still going insane over The Rings (tm). Like? Did Sam have it made for John? Did John give him something in return? Do they consider themselves married or just sort of "promised to each other"? DOES JEHUDA KNOW? (Sara definitely knows tbh)
Also obsessed at how John yells at Kubyenka when they're going back to Kuttenberg through the tunnels. Boy probably can't lift a sword without taking his own eye out, but he was so ready to throw hands at that moment.
Also also need to know what John got up to in Kolín and how his reunion with Sam went down when he get back from Suchdol.
I've been so in my feels about these two the last few days. Got the start of a fic going and everything (send help).
So I went back to check, and before the patch we had Sam wearing three (!) rings when he meets Henry before taking him to see John.
Which he then took off for some reason???:
And, as we know, John wasn't wearing any at that time either.
On the wagon ride, they also weren't wearing any rings at the time:
And since I did just... go out of my way to replay all of Into the Underworld again, I can now say that they are both wearing them in that scene:
And the same is true in the wagon:
All three rings match. So here's what I think happened from a dev team perspective. They realized that there had been an oversight and that there was a mismatch between the cinematic that plays right before you go and meet Liechtenstein and all other times that Sam is on screen. And so they decided, you know what, while we're here doing this anyway, we might as well canonize Jamuel and watch the fandom implode (fair tbh).
My initial thought had been that a naysayer could come in to argue that Sam had given him such a ring as protection so that he could freely traverse the Jewish quarter with impunity (even tho we know he is actively in hiding and unlikely to leave the tavern, if the basement at all). But this kind of disproves that in a big way. Because it's three matching rings. There's no way that wasn't deliberate.
Anyway, your question got me thinking about Sam asking a blacksmith to make a matching set of rings for this man he's besotted with (probably told him they were meant to be spares in case he lost the others... it's possible that he would have made the one that reads Samuel read John instead otherwise; as it is, it does just look like a sign of ownership... joke's on you, homophobia, I'm into that shit!), and that got me real emotional because holy shit. His father, the man who couldn't be with the person he loved, was a blacksmith. And here is Sam, seeking out a blacksmith to craft him these signs of love and promise for the person he loves but can't be with. It's like he's seeking out Martin's blessing to say "you couldn't have this, and I can't have this, but this is the closest thing, and at least I'll have that."
All of this is of course pure conjecture. Maybe they're promised to each other, maybe they're meant to act as wedding rings. I personally think it's a case of "we can't be wedded before the eyes of God, but this is as close as it gets, and that will have to be good enough for both of our Gods."
There's no way Sara doesn't know. She and Sam are so close and Sam is such a mama's boy. Sara knows. And given her own history with... love... she'd obviously understand. Love this particular comic a whole lot.
And tbh, I think this is one reason why Sam recognizes Hansry for what it is:
We can have this exchange with Sara about Jehuda trying to find her another husband. Alongside the existence of his own relationship, I think this contributes heavily. He sees Hans not wanting to get married, then sees him interact with Henry (and also with himself), and realizes that the emotions he's seeing in Hans echo those he's seen in his mother's own resistance. As she was already in love with someone else that she couldn't be with.
Does Jehuda know? That's a good question. I couldn't say for certain, but I'm going to err on the side of saying no. There's enough friction between those two that I don't think Sam would trust him with something that contentious. That said, one of my top two favorite pieces of fanart for Jamuel is this comic, and I'm kind of obsessed with the idea that Jehuda has started catching on that There's Something There and is trying to put a stop to it... not that it's very... effective... sorry, Jehuda, they're already gay married...
Anyway you activated a particular trap card with your mention of John yelling at Kubyenka because when I replayed Exodus yesterday that shit took the fuck OUT. Because he sounds SO ANGRY.
He legitimately gets so pissed on Sam's behalf, and that speaks volumes to me. That and the fact that Kubyenka can call him out even on the wagon ride to Kuttenberg already:
Incidentally, I think this is also part of the reason why he and Sam end up as close as they are by the time that Suchdol happens, so much so that they insist on only doing the raid if they can go together. Kubyenka might not know about Hansry, but I think he knows about Jamuel, and he respects it enough not to comment on it.
THAT SAID, when I replayed Exodus yesterday I did learn the delightful news that the game insists on you killing the murderers that killed Sam's friends. I tried knocking them out at first and was struggling (fam, this pacifist playthrough might be impossible if I don't turn on invincibility and even if I do it'll be hard lmfao) and then John joined Henry and started punching himself. I mean full fisticuffs. Like he's a trained pugilist!
Anyway, I think he can wield a sword just fine, I just think he vastly prefers not to!!
You mentioned their Kolin reunion, and godddddddddddd... can you even imagine? John going absolutely mad from lack of information, naturally he'd send out spies to figure out where Sam was and if he was all right, only to then learn that they were under siege. That, or no one ever returned alive. That would leave him panicked. Even if he did learn, all of his attempts at sending aid would also have failed bc they would have been led by individuals trying to sneak through. Maybe he learns about what happened after Henry sneaks out, but-- oh my god he'd have Sam with him!!!! Sam would be in a bad way, but he'd most likely send word to John at least, and the chances are that John would then meet him at Suchdol if he could. Most likely it wouldn't be safe, in which case he'd send word that he'd make it to Kolin as quickly as he could but that he was alive.
When I was a kid, I didn't know trans men existed. I thought that nobody actually likes being a girl, that's just something that unfortunately happens to you, and you just gotta suck it up and pretend to be happy about it. Something vaguely about how it'd be shameful to admit you'd rather be a man because that's not The Feminist Stance, you just gotta grit your teeth and endure that shit and insist that you prefer it that way.
When I first learned that female-to-male transitioning even exists at all, my first thought was to wonder "why hasn't every woman done this?" How has this been kept secret so well that all women haven't flocked to transitioning if that's a thing you can do?
It was only over years that it actually sunk in that yeah no, women really do just want to be women, like genuinely. For the first 12 or 13 years of my life I wasn't aware that trans men exist, but in a more vague and unaware sense, I did not believe that cis women exist.
I Aardvarks You @immunetogloom - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
jacobvanloon
