#just analysis

[0wliee]

One thing i find interesting about the dynamic between Alastor and Lu is that Alastor embodies the horrors of the free will Lu gave humanity he's a constant reminder of the biggest mistake Lu has ever made

[seleneisrising]

When Sabine shows up on Peridea and meets Ezra, she's without a ship, and she’s riding a saddled howler. She won’t answer Ezra's questions about how she got there, and she won’t talk about going home. There are new villains chasing them, who Ezra doesn’t know but Sabine does. Then Ahsoka shows up, and he learns that she and Sabine didn’t travel together in her ship because Sabine thought she was dead.

So Ezra must be wondering then...how did Sabine get to Peridea? Right?

Ahsoka leads Ezra and Sabine to the Chimaera and the new hyperspace ring in an effort to stop Thrawn from escaping Peridea. (This means that Ezra now knows that this ring arrived on Peridea in the last day or so, around the same time as Sabine. He's never seen it before! In ten years on this barren, desolate planet!)

They all storm the tower to try to either stop the ship, defeat Thrawn together, or infiltrate it for a ride home, so Ezra surely must know by then that the hyperspace ring can cross galaxies (and therefore that’s how it must have gotten there in the first place). Ezra then leaves aboard the Chimaera.

Do we really think Ezra is completely clueless as to what’s going on? How Sabine got there?! Is he really going to be all “shocked pikachu face” if or when the whole story about the map is revealed to him? He was already suspicious within minutes of reuniting with Sabine, so even though she hasn’t told him anything in particular yet, he has to assume it cost her something. If she had merely stowed away or been a prisoner, as they had done so many times in the old days, then she would have just told him how she’d gotten there with the bad guys and why going home was unlikely.

If Sabine (or Ahsoka) didn't tell Ezra about the map already (off-screen), then I don’t actually think Dave will spend the time to go back and reveal it to Ezra somehow. It would be kind of unnecessary, wouldn't it? What would be the point? Ezra must have already done the math.

The beef with the map was between Ahsoka and Sabine, and they cleared that up already. It no longer matters to Ezra what Sabine did to get to Peridea because she sent him home, and Ezra is already well-aware of the current threat of Thrawn to the galaxy.

[archetypal-archivist]

One thing that interests me on the QSMP is the level of multiculturalism (or lack thereof) involved and how that impacts player interaction, enjoyment, and sometimes even the plot.

There are four major languages on the QSMP: English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. Lore usually happens between the hours of 12 noon and 7 pm PST because that is when the Brazilians and Badboyhalo are on- they are the major driving force of the current "plot." Anyone who streams at other times is often "out of the loop" and thus their streams are focused almost entirely on the egg quests and being goofy/daily life on the server.

Of the French, Baghera is the one who streams the latest and is most caught up on the plot. Etoiles is a major grinder and also streams during that time so he gets caught up in plot too (sometimes a little against his will, lol). Aypierre does not prefer to stream at that time, but he will if there's major lore he's caught in.

Most of the Spanish streamers are in the wrong time zone or are disconnected from the bulk of the current lore, with maaayybe the exception of Maximus and Roier.

How does all of this impact multiculturalism?

The language.

Almost all major lore happens in English, love it or hate it. And not everyone speaks English well, nor does everyone want to stream in a language that their chat is disconnected from. You do get exceptions, such as when it's two players of another culture speaking to one another, or three people speaking their language with a fourth just following along with the subtitles and staying quiet. But the bulk of it? All English.

The reason for this is that, again- love it or hate it, English is a common lingua franca. When you have a collection of people with three different languages between them, you either need to put in the effort to learn all three, you try to make due with subtitles that may be inaccurate and slow, or you all agree to speak one thing. And the dominance of the English language through its past colonial impacts and its current hold on culture through Hollywood/media and industry make it an easy pick as a bridge.

What this means is that rather than have a server where everyone speaks their own language all the time, people will speak English if they want to be involved in major lore or stream with others (a staple of streaming, viewers love interaction) and will only speak their own language in private, with others of their culture, or with their eggs.

Multiculturalism is thusly limited in that regard.

This brings us to the eggs. The egg you are given is guaranteed to speak your language and acts as a person you can stream with for much needed interaction. A common thread for people in the wrong time zone who also don't have an egg- or even people who are disconnected from the current lore and are eggless- is that they don't know what to do with themselves.

As a streamer on the QSMP, your options are either to join in the lore and speak English, a language that may alienate your audience, or work with people who speak your language and do your own thing. Doing your own thing without an egg? Exponentially harder to make content out of.

This is why so many of the Spanish-speaking streamers aren't very active, there's no one for them to talk to.

Time zones also play a role in this. Instead of streaming at times that are reasonable, Baghera and many of the French stream at midnight, 1, 2, even 5 am their time. Not everyone can do this, or would want to, when it wouldn't be profitable. Vegeta and Luzu could theoretically stream within that 12 noon to 7 pm PST time slot for lore, but why would they when it wouldn't be in the language that their audience is guaranteed to know? Their viewership would drop and if it doesn't, it's being padded with people from other countries that speak in chat in languages that the moderators may not know and thus can't police.

In exchange for staying up late and speaking a lot of English, the French players get to be part of the most exciting stuff and aren't lost about what's happening. That's a risk vs reward that each player calculates every day and for each player, the answer Is different. For the French, this risk is lessened because Europe, by default, is a place where you travel three hours in any direction and you can find yourself in a place speaking something entirely different. Lingua Francas and code switching- the act of changing how you speak based on who you are speaking to- is more common. Their audience is also more likely to be used to it, so their numbers won't suffer beyond what streaming at 3 am does to them.

This is why you see the French online more than the Spanish speakers, even though collectively, the Spanish speakers have more eggs alive per parent.

This whole thing creates a feedback loop- multiple players want to be involved in lore so they speak English so no one is excluded from the conversation. However, not everyone wants to speak English for half a stream, so they don't get involved in lore. The time where the most lore is done, it is inconvenient for anyone not from Brazil, Mexico, or the USA, making it not worth it to stream because it's late/very early and their chat won't understand the primarily English lore. People who speak your language aren't on, so even if you have stuff to do outside of lore, it's either alone or with your egg.

And the plot is intent on killing eggs.

However, there are some mitigating forces at work here that increase the multiculturalism levels of the server and help to get people more involved. I'll be leaving that to another post though.

In the meantime, what are your thoughts on the matter? Do you agree or disagree? Why? Let's reblog this and make a discussion of it. :)

[dawnfinchh]

i always throw around 3-ish years as the average age a queen has their first litter in my head based kinda entirely on when like, bluestar and sandstorm had their litters, but i feel like that’s probably wrong? 

in the first arcs (i’m talking like, tnp and po3; tpb is a whole different ballgame), i remember the majority of queens being like, super young. ferncloud, nightcloud, and leafpool/squirrelfight were all about a year and a half? brightheart was two-ish. but you also got sorreltail, who was about four.

as the arcs go on, i feel like queens get older when they have their first litters? tawnypelt and cinderheart are about four. dovewing, ivypool, and heathertail are about five. but you also got queens like lilyheart, who was about one and half when she had her kits.

for backfilled/retconned queens and litters you get wildly different ages like ashheart who didn’t have her first litter until eight years old but also dawncloud who had her litter at less than a year. 

[gale-gentlepenguin]

So according to Prime queen, the (written out book on the episode) If Adrien wasn't around, Marinette would consider Chat noir.

This Makes Luka the bronze medal in this.

This of course changes after Chat blanc, because Marinette is now convinced being with Chat noir would cause the end of the world.

In Adrien’s case.

When Adrien tries to move on, he goes for Kagami. Which Marinette’s placing on the matter, which according to Stormy weather 2.0. He sees her as just a friend. But that is also debatable based on his actions in Frozer and how he thought about it the reasons why she was just a friend in Stormy weather 2.0. But it is at least believed by him that She only thinks of him as a friend. 

So I think he does like Marinette, BUT he thinks she only sees him as a friend. And as his first friend that he made, She is special to him, and as we saw in the flashback in Ladybug. He cares a LOT about her. 

I think the reasons he goes for Kagami  as opposed to Marinette are because of the following.

1. Kagami made it clear to him she was interested.

2. Adrien is convinced Marinette likes Luka.

3. Even if the first two weren't involved, Marinette has repeatedly referred to him as a good friend and doesn't want to mess up that relationship.

[broromini]

what's your thesis on?

In case anyone else is interested as well!!!

I've split into 2 parts, but basically the central question is examining what the Baroque style is. In my first part, I’m looking at historiography, which almost exclusively links the Baroque period to the Renaissance, like the Baroque developed directly from the Renaissance (and according to many old farts ruined everything). I”m arguing instead that the Baroque is an experimental style looking to create a new canon of beauty, since with the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic tradition was moving away from the Humanist train of thought, making pure Renaissance modes ineffective to what the papacy was trying to do. (I’m also arguing only about the Italian Baroque I’m not touching that weird French shit). I’m using Borromini as an example of artist’s experimenting with style and attempting to create a new canon of beauty, but that his poor reception is an example of how his experiments in architecture push too far and that basically my bae is a genius who was born too soon <3

I hope this makes sense I’m still working on my elevator speech