Ok But Roma Is Such A Pretty Name. Roma. Roma Roma Roma. I Could Say It All Day

Forget the Myers-Briggs fucking personality assessment. I am dead tired of hearing if someone is an INFP or an ESLQ or whatever. I want to know if someone is melancholic or choleric. Bring back the four humors. I wanna see “Kaley, 16, phlegmatic” when I go to someone’s blog. Who is with me. Lets make this happen

I cordially invite you to find out how easily spooked I am with Phasmophobia. Come watch me be a baby and make fun of me for it.

Okay I need to talk about Dragon Age.

Specifically, I need to talk about Cailan and Loghain.

So Cailan is presented to us as, well, a glory-seeking dumbass who refuses to listen to the advice of those around him. And that's how he's seen and treated by fans. I'm going to say that's wrong, but I do think it's incomplete.

There's some crucial information that we're given at Ostagar that tends to be overlooked. Ostagar is the fourth battle against the darkspawn. So Cailan has already fought three battles against them by the time we meet him. And nothing in those battles suggested any actual intent or tactics from the darkspawn. No signs of organization. Nothing to suggest an archdemon.

So to me, it does make sense that Cailan isn't taking the idea of a Blight too seriously at this point. All he has to suggest a Blight is Duncan's word. And Grey Wardens have been shown repeatedly to be secretive almost to the point of self sabotage. No one outside of the Wardens knows how they are connected to the darkspawn and can literally hear the archdemon.

We also see that Cailan's other advisors are telling him that it isn't a Blight. There's also the fact that the Wardens were banished from Fereldan for years for revolting against the king. It's only relatively recently that they've been allowed back.

So, while yeah, Cailan's kind of a dumbass, it makes perfect sense that he isn't buying into the idea of a Blight. If you remember that he is operating without the information the audience likely has at this point, he doesn't really have a reason to think it's anything more than an unusually large hoard. And he is taking the perceived threat seriously. He has only seen evidence of a large hoard, and he is responding appropriately to the threat of a large hoard.

It was not his fault that the Wardens won't tell anyone anything.

Now, onto Loghain. First off, fuck this guy. I hate this character so much. He's so fucking boring and I couldn't stand it.

With that out of the way, he fully and intentionally betrayed Cailan at Ostagar.

I will agree that retreating was the most tactical choice and that sending in his troops would not have swung the battle. It would have just been even more slaughter.

But I don't think that's why he retreated. He retreated to ensure that Cailan would die, and that he would be the one who got to control the narrative of what happened. It also made sure that he would still have all of his troops, giving him the advantage in the civil war since the other nobles lost so many troops at Ostagar.

He was also pretty fucking stupid. I mean, the guy went and found the one noble that absolutely everyone else hated and fully allied himself with him. Dumb. Just fucking dumb. Literally everyone other than Cousland hates Howe, and Loghain chooses him to be his right hand man. Honestly, dude probably would have won over a lot more nobles if he hadn't done that.

I don't really know how to end this. But, yeah, Cailan isn't as stupid as he's treated, and Loghain sucked so hard.

Tiktok is obsessed with trying to create their own Goncharov. I've seen several attempts at it, and they all fall flat. It's one of those things where it's so pathetic it's funny.

Also, the inherent failure comes from the fact that it's always someone trying to make money off it.

Meanwhile, a bunch of people are making videos about fake discourse as though they're in the omegaverse, and that's amazing. I love that.

There's this book I read as a kid. I don't remember what it was called and I don't remember the author.

It was about this princess who had long, curly red hair. I don't remember her name. She had three older sisters, two of which were twins. She was being tutored by the eldest's love interest. I don't remember why, but her family got put under a curse, and her eldest sister turned into a weeping willow tree and the twins into swans. So she had to run away, and she cut her hair to pretend to be a boy. And there was a girl named Megan or Meghan with her (the only character whose name I remember), and Meg(h)an had blonde hair that was slowly turning black because she was infected with evil raven magic. I don't remember how it ends.

Anyway, it's not so much that I want to read it again but more that it bothers me immensely that I can't remember what book it was.

I tried to look up what book this could be. There are endless books about older brothers being turned into swans, but I couldn't find anything where it happens to older sisters. The tree one got me a lot of recommendations for parks and botanical gardens. And the hair search returned a bunch of articles about Megan Thee Stallion.

So I have no idea what book this could be.

But I did find a website that might be able to help you out

i’m suffering from divine madness so let me assign you a new identity metaphor/motif based on my own experiences with gender and being alive.

this quiz includes images of meat and viscera.

There's also Yhara Zayd! She discusses various films and TV shows. She's very intelligent, insightful, and has a really soothing voice.

Anyway if you all are sick of watching White Lady (and White Dude) Leftist content talking about popular fandoms and internet culture, check out some of these creators on Youtube. Not an exhaustive list, feel free to add your own. I tried to stick to a similar theme, but there is some variation.

Harriyanna Hook, who focuses on nostalgic properties through the lense of a black woman.

Jacob Geller, a Jewish man who does deep dives into various media. Mostly horror and sci-fi.

Kennie JD, a black woman that does this excellent series called bad movies and a beat every week on Saturday. A series where she reviews bad movies (often terrible romantic comedies and bad horror movies) while putting on her makeup.

D'Angello Wallace, a black man that focuses on internet culture, media, and people of interest. Sometimes shorter videos, sometimes deep dives. He used to be an art channel but now focuses more on culture than art.

Xiran Jay Zhao, a Chinese woman in who looks at media and focuses on the tokenism and appropriation of Asian culture.

T1J, who talks about culture, media, and social issues through the lens of a black man. He also has big Dad Energy.

Lady Knight The Brave, a Jewish woman who does deep dives into various media, often ones that have big fandoms attached.

Ada on Demand. A black woman that talks about social issues and culture, with a focus on pop culture.

Reignbot, a Filipino non-binary person that focuses their content on horror and ARGs and true crime.

Tee Noir, who focuses on various media, culture, and social platforms through the lens of a black queer woman.

Different oppressions don't cancel out it's not a math problem you don't get to be transmisogynistic because you're gay, you don't get to be antisemitic because you're poor, you don't get to be racist because you're a trans woman (disclaimer I am a white trans woman), etc etc etc. You shouldn't be trying to use your identity to shield yourself from accountability you should be trying to understand and support people who face oppression you don't face.

Can we all please acknowledge that Brittany Murphy was an extremely talented actor with an absolutely impressive range? And that she also had an amazingly kind and sweet personality?

I mean, can you imagine any of the films she was in with someone else in her roles? Clueless, Cherry Falls, 8 Mile, Girl Interrupted, Prophecy 2, Riding in Cars with Boys, Uptown Girls, etc.? Didn't think so. She made those roles. Those movies would have been made so much less by her absence. Even when she was given roles that had no depth or nuance, she gave it depth and nuance through her performance.

While we're at it, let's also acknowledge how horribly she was treated by the media. Like, tabloids just made up stories about her being an addict, having an eating disorder, being difficult on set. None of that was true. But she was constantly hounded about it and it was devastating for her mental and physical health. All of these lies became the common perception of her. People just accepted it all as truth.

She was an all-around wonderful person and artist. But she was destroyed by assholes deciding that she was an easy target. Even when she died, these vultures made up shit about how she OD'ed (she didn't) or died of an ED (she didn't). They couldn't even let her rest in peace.

I keep hoping that someday we'll stop letting media outlets do this to women, but I keep getting shown that there is no end to it. As long as people are getting "tea" they'll keep letting women, and even young girls, get victimized and traumatized.