ViridisNoxVox

[qqqewpie]

The Full Anemoi Cycle

//based on The Oh Hellos anemoi album

[batwynn]

[thenightling]

“The Oldest Game”

   I was surprised to find someone in my Sandman Facebook group actually complaining about “The Oldest Game” in The Sandman Netflix series (episode 4).  They seemed disappointed that it wasn’t a “Real” battle but instead it was “like watching them play Dungeons and Dragons.”  Meanwhile the majority of us Sandman fans loved the scene.  When I first read that scene that was when I knew I was reading something truly different from the usual DC content.  I was reading something truly special.          To the person complaining about it, I am afraid The Sandman might not be to your taste.  There is very little physical combat and scenes like The Oldest Game / “I am Hope” are what hooked a lot of us.

       The Oldest Game is based on something TV Tropes (and The Sword in the Stone) calls a “Wizard’s Duel” or a Wizard Duel.  The concept turns up a lot in folklore and mythology.  It’s where two magical entities (sometimes sorcerers, sometimes Gods, sometimes shapeshifters) have a duel of wits and creativity using their powers and imagination.  

     In The Sandman this battle was for Morpheus’s helm.  If he won he got his helm back.  If Morpheus lost he would have been enslaved by Choronzon The Demon.

     Here’s how the game usually works. The challenged usually gets to make the first move. They pick a form or a spell and it is usually non-lethal.  You’re supposed to start small and build up to bigger / more imposing things.  The battle follows TBL (Turn based Logic) like in a tabletop or online text based role playing game. So the Dungeons and Dragons comparison isn’t actually wrong so much as it’s not quite the right role playing game.  (Yes, I AM a nerd. Thank you for noticing.)  

     After the first move is made the opponent may take the hit and then make an offensive move (attack) in return or instead of taking the hit, they can make a defensive counter move to avoid taking the hit but in doing so the person loses the opportunity to make a offensive move.  If you’re clever you can sometimes get away with a single move that does both but that is tricky.   So the choice is usually take damage and attack or protect from damage and not attack until the next turn.  The game is usually about “one upping” the opponent so you go for something slightly bigger and better than what they used.  

     In some versions of the game you are allowed to defend yourself and then make an attack move during the same turn so you don’t have to make the choice of defense or attack. In both variations, if you’re clever enough you can come up with a combo of attack and defense in one move but that’s rare.  

      Usually it’s like this.  If your opponent throws a magical dart, you can create a shield or shoot a similar projectile but in some variations you can do both if you can pull it off in a single concept (like creating an armored knight holding a sword and shield). If the rival turned into a rat, you can turn into a cat.  Hopefully you get the idea.  You can’t go too big too fast or the creativity and strategy the game is known for is lost.  It’s a game of wits and creativity after all, not really brute force.   

     Recently I have seen some people try to argue that during the Lucifer and Morpheus version of the duel that Despair can kill Hope and that Lucifer could have won if she was willing to say she is Despair.  No, that may have just caused an unhappy stalemate because pretty much everything that can destroy Hope can also be destroyed by Hope.  Hope kills Despair as surely as Despair kills Hope.  They are two sides of the same coin after all.  It would just be an infinite loop at that point.  However there is also the argument that Hope springs eternal while Despair is always only temporary, depending on your perspective.  

      I have provided three pop culture examples of The Wizard’s Duel.   The first is the version in Netflix’s The Sandman between Lucifer and Morpheus.

The second is from Disney’s Sword in the Stone between Mim and Merlin.  

The third is from the 1963 film The Raven starring Vincent Price and Boris Karloff.  I have a bias in favor of this one since I love this movie. It was written by the late Richard Matheson, directed by Roger Corman, and starred Vincent Price. It came out the same year as Disney’s The Sword in the Stone.    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZOwaeAEIw0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxqhjWcS8zQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2gBhMdJ23Q

[lamiasage]

I just had to draw this scene from The Sandman

[raggedy-spaceman]

THE SANDMAN Interview | Neil Gaiman, Tom Sturridge and Cast Talk Netflix Series AKA Tom Sturridge ready to fight everyone for The Sandman bless him.

[assmart]

new sport: one handed embroidery. because if i stop petting my dog we'll both die.

[assmart]

there's no one else to pet her. i'm the only one here to take on this burden

[assmart]

[variegated-fairywren]

how the fuck did you take THAT photo

[assmart]

you people are making this harder than it needs to be smh

[auraquartzsystem]

Why is there a camera on your CEILING

[assmart]

it's a phone.

[epic2222]

And why do you have 3 phones?

[assmart]

i'm an aspiring problem.

[existentialterror]

Sometimes I’m looking for something online - often “how to” articles - and I want to filter for - like - a website that was clearly built in 2010 at the latest, which may or may not have been updated since then, but contains a vast wealth of information on one topic, painstakingly organized by an unknown legend in the field with decades’ worth of experience. I don’t want a listicle with a nice stolen picture in a slideshow format written by a content aggregator that God forgot. I want hand-drawn diagrams by some genius professor who doesn’t understand SEO at all, but understands making stir-fries or raising stick insects better than anyone else on this earth. I don’t know what search settings to put into Google to get this.

[greenjudy]

thank you for articulating this cri de coeur for me

[jumpingjacktrash]

ngl these days i’m just happy when it’s not a video

[averixus]

search.marginalia.nu is the search engine you want!

The search engine calculates a score that aggressively favors text-heavy websites, and punishes those that have too many modern web design features.

This is in a sense the opposite of what most major search engines do, they favor modern websites over old-looking ones. Most links you find here will be nearly impossible to find on a regular search engine, as they aren’t sufficiently search engine optimized.

[ashby-santoso]

“It is a search engine, designed to help you find what you didn’t even know you were looking for. If you search for “Plato”, you might for example end up at the Canterbury Tales. Go looking for the Canterbury Tales, and you may stumble upon Neil Gaiman’s blog.

If you are looking for fact, this is almost certainly the wrong tool. If you are looking for serendipity, you’re on the right track. When was the last time you just stumbled onto something interesting, by the way?

I don’t expect this will be the next “big” search engine. This is and will remain a niche tool for a niche audience.“

[ms-demeanor]

i clicked around for a few minutes searching various things and I now have two fourteenth century pie crust recipes and an apple filling recipe i want to try, so thanks!

[ms-demeanor]

it has been twenty minutes and I am deeply in love with this search engine.

INCREDIBLE. I *do* want to know how to test Windows 95 for Y2K Compliance and I am glad that someone is still hosting step by step instructions for that.

[workfornow]

tl;dr: search.marginalia.nu for the old or old looking and just plain serendipitous stuff that google or Duck duck go are gonna not find/bury on the 20th page. For perfectly good reasons, but …

[existentialterror]

My absolute favorite part of having made this post - other than causing people to be introduced to this site - are the people in the tags/comments talking about their interests and stuff they found about their hobbies.

Good luck out there surfing the cyberweb, you crazy cats. I love the shoelace website too - Ian’s Shoelace Site [link], unless there’s another. My personal favorite old-school site is Alysion’s string figure collection [link].

[marzipanandminutiae]

because apparently this needs to be said AGAIN

in the most general aesthetic terms possible

1600s: most witch-hunts ended in this century. no witches were burned in North America; they were hanged or in one case pressed to death

1700s: the American Revolution. Marie Antoinette. the French Revolution. the crazy King George. most pirate movies

1800-1830: Jane Austen! Pride and Prejudice! those dresses where the waist is right under one’s boobs and men have a crapton of facial hair inside high collars

1830-1900: Victorian. Les Miserables is at the beginning, the Civil War is in the middle, and Dracula is at the end

1900-1920: Edwardian. Titanic, World War I, the Samantha books from American Girl, Art Nouveau

1920s: Great Gatsby. Jazz Age. Flappers and all that. most people get this right but IT IS NOT VICTORIAN. STUFF FROM THIS ERA IS NOT VICTORIAN. DO NOT CALL IT VICTORIAN OR LIST IT ON EBAY AS VICTORIAN. THAT HAPPENS SURPRISINGLY OFTEN GIVEN HOW STAGGERING THE VISUAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ERAS IS. also not 100 years ago yet, glamour.com “100 years of X” videos. you’re lazy, glamour.com. you’re lazy and I demand my late Edwardian styles

I just saw people referencing witch burning and Marie Antoinette on a post about something happening in 1878. 1878. when there were like trains and flush toilets and early plastic and stuff. if you guys learn nothing else about history, you should at least have vague mental images for each era

[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

“Les Miserables is at the beginning, the Civil War is in the middle, and Dracula is at the end” sounds like the longest weirdest worst movie I’d pay to see in theatres five times.

[onlycosmere]

[marzipanandminutiae]

because apparently this needs to be said AGAIN

in the most general aesthetic terms possible

1600s: most witch-hunts ended in this century. no witches were burned in North America; they were hanged or in one case pressed to death

1700s: the American Revolution. Marie Antoinette. the French Revolution. the crazy King George. most pirate movies

1800-1830: Jane Austen! Pride and Prejudice! those dresses where the waist is right under one’s boobs and men have a crapton of facial hair inside high collars

1830-1900: Victorian. Les Miserables is at the beginning, the Civil War is in the middle, and Dracula is at the end

1900-1920: Edwardian. Titanic, World War I, the Samantha books from American Girl, Art Nouveau

1920s: Great Gatsby. Jazz Age. Flappers and all that. most people get this right but IT IS NOT VICTORIAN. STUFF FROM THIS ERA IS NOT VICTORIAN. DO NOT CALL IT VICTORIAN OR LIST IT ON EBAY AS VICTORIAN. THAT HAPPENS SURPRISINGLY OFTEN GIVEN HOW STAGGERING THE VISUAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ERAS IS. also not 100 years ago yet, glamour.com “100 years of X” videos. you’re lazy, glamour.com. you’re lazy and I demand my late Edwardian styles

I just saw people referencing witch burning and Marie Antoinette on a post about something happening in 1878. 1878. when there were like trains and flush toilets and early plastic and stuff. if you guys learn nothing else about history, you should at least have vague mental images for each era

[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

“Les Miserables is at the beginning, the Civil War is in the middle, and Dracula is at the end” sounds like the longest weirdest worst movie I’d pay to see in theatres five times.

[shallanswit]

I was reading The Coppermind and I have a theory

Odium has beef with Hoid for some reason. People were looking for Hoid in the beginning of Way of Kings and the 17th Shard could want to take him to Odium for Hoid to stop intermeddling with the Cosmere business right.

Hoid is physically repulsed by harming people's bodies and he can't even beat himself up and is against killing people right?

Hoid said that the name "Hoid" is not even his but he stole it from "someone he should've loved"

It's known that Mraize is a worldhopper and his accent is not familiar to Shallan.

He calls the Parshendi "Listeners". So Mraize possibly either has a vast resource of information or just has lived through major historical events like Hoid did.

There were humans on Yolen too along with 2 other species. So Brandon confirming he's Thaylen wouldn't really matter with that point made right?

Shallan also thinks that Mraize resembles Hoid a little bit.

Hoid also did something he regretted once.

Hoid's sword that he carries around but is said isn't "used" has sentimental value to him. Adolin saying Hoid isn't good with swords I think is an emphasis on the fact that he's actually very good and that people are fools.

Mraize owns a WHITE TREE BRANCH FROM YOLEN and it's in his room. Shallan caught sight of something that was white in color and Hoid immediately panicked after that and covered it up.

Hoids ability of Fortune tells him where he needs to be but doesn't tell him what to do. He somehow always is interested in Shallan who is in direct communication with Mraize and bumps into her continuously.

Hoid has been giving out drawings of Taln and Ash to people under another name and Ash found her way to Mraize by destroying these.

Hoid says somewhere to Kaladin that he's on Roshar to "chase an old acquintance" but that "he spends most of his time hiding from him instead"

The ghostbloods don't work with the 17th Shard but they have a member from there and that's Iyatil who is kind of Mraize's master? And this organization is actively after Hoid?

That sentence he said to Kaladin really does look like he's referring to Odium but in typical Sanderson fashion I think this has a twist and that the person he's chasing is Mraize. I think their history goes beyond all this and to Adonalsium. I think there's a great chance that they've fallen out due to Hoid hurting Mraize somehow (hence the scars) and that's why he can't hurt people anymore, that the sword is of value to him and that he took the name of someone he should've loved. (we know that Mraize is not his name actually).

Another reason why I think the person he's talking about isn't Odium is that Hoid said to Dalinar that their goals weren't strictly similar and that he would watch the planet burn if he needed to. He isn't laser focused on Odium so there's something else that's of an issue for him.

Since Hoid was a human originally I think Mraize and him have a chance of being brothers? We know Sanderson and his tragic sibling dynamics?

In conclusion I have a theory that Mraize and Hoid were related or friends(somehow), they've fallen out and/because Hoid hurt Mraize. Now they're chasing each other for different reasons because I think they have different motivations. Mraize has no problem committing murder at all while Hoid is the exact opposite. There is something very fishy here and I would look like a fool if there's nothing because I wasted my precious minutes making up a crackpot theory.

[godzillabreath]

Make a wish! A great barn owl and dandelions, tattoo commission for Alex

[wodneswynn-deactivated-deactiva]

Man, when I was like 16 I got so sick of being made fun of for being the fat kid that I took an axe down inna woods, chopped down a tree, and started doing log-lifts all the time. I got strong as fuck, but I didn’t lose no weight. I actually got bigger.

Same thing happened when I got into fighting. I got even stronger, and I got *fast*, man, and nimble, like a cat. Still chubby.

Body-building culture is a bunch of crap, my dude. Functional muscle is not necessarily toned or lean. You can be swole as hell and still be heavy. And that’s cool.

Embrace your inner barbarian. And when fatphobic little gym twinks try to body shame you, you should DESTROY THEM with your MIGHTY AXE

[littlegreydove]

Can comfirm, i am Quite Fat ™ but i still hit my punching bag hard enough last week make it touch the ceiling and broke a finger in the process

[systlin]

You know, I train with (martial arts) a bunch of dudes, and a few bodybuilders have showed up over the years. 

And every damn one of those huge shredded motherfuckers has the endurance of a fucking newborn puppy. Fifteen minutes into warmups and they’re panting for air like like they’re about to die. I’ve sparred them and every one of them telegraphs their moves about two weeks in advance, and are slower than my dead grandpa because their huge useless muscles get in the damn way. 

Now. I also work with a couple of guys who are not weightlifters. They do, however, do very physical jobs and are Big Dudes. Picture this sort of build. 

No abs to speak of, a bit of a tummy, and those motherfuckers can pick up one of the weightlifters and throw them. 

And they’re fast. Like, unfair fast. 

Bodybuilding culture is bullshit. Embrace your status as a giant barbarian and if anyone gives you crap throw them off a mountain. 

[spark1eheartemoji]

i love and support all strong, fat people

[baggytrousers27]

[headspace-hotel]

As someone who also was in martial arts all of this is so real.

Strong, healthy bodies do not look like the dangerously dehydrated actors in marvel movies

[freakspotting]

[funnytwittertweets]

[lebedame-wegelagerin]

[zekedms]

Can’t believe you left this in the tags @thewitchywinnie

[seymour-butz-stuff]

[sharkangelic]

The Ring: If I had a quarter for every time a hobbit picked me up, I’d have two quarters.  The Ring: Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

[markwateneymemorialcrater]

Of all the bearers of Sauron’s ring, 4 of them were hobbits.

[markwateneymemorialcrater]

I was wrong. It’s 5. Not 4

The lineage of ring bearers is as follows.

Sauron.

Isildur

Deagol

Sméagol

Bilbo

Frodo

Samwise

[kaispeakshermind]

I love how Deagol counts as a ring bearer even though he had it in his possession for all of like five seconds

[uberguber89]

He held it for the rest of of his life!

[animanightmate]

[Image description: Tweet by @banalplay saying “but something happened then that the ring did not intend. it was picked up by the most unlikely creature imaginable: a hobbit, the same fuckin thing that just had it for like 500 years.” End Image Description.] Link to original here. Otherwise reblogging for the final rb there, which made me cackle.

[elidyce]

From the ring’s perspective:

1. Home, the finger of my creator and other self.

2. Well, I don’t like it but I can work with this. Cause some trouble, get some revenge, find my way home, this is fine.

3. What the fuck is you?

4. Right personality, wrong species, I don’t know what you are but I hate you and I don’t know why you’re so resistant to my powers.

5. NO NO NO there are goblins everywhere how did I find another one of THESE horrible things. This one’s even more resistant than the last one and also disgustingly nice. I suffer.

6. Listen, I’ll cooperate, just get me the fuck out of this hellhole full of small cheerful people my power doesn’t work on properly. No, not like that. I hate you. Please stop. 

7. FUCK

8. (Frodo again) I still hate you with every molecule of my mortal form but at least you’re not number seven. Think I’m starting to get through finally. 

9. (Smeagol again) YES it’s you I actually missed you now get me back to the Master and NO FUCK NO I HATE YOOOOUUUUU…. *fzt* 

[kiwivee]

[kelssiel]

you CHAIN The One Ring?! you chain it like the prisoner?! oh! OH! trauma! deep psychological trauma for hobbits for One Thousand Years!