The Fort, It Is Dorf

Some more new screenshots from Trails in the Sky the 1st! Can't wait to see my favorites in this new style.

History Lesson! So, for 3rd edition, in the 90s, when 40k was becoming What It Is Today, GW was trying very hard to market it's toys to teen boys. The biggest problem they had was that kids, as a rule, don't have jobs, and thus the deal was "you need to get the kids to persuade their parents to pay up." And this was, well, the 90s. There was still a back-swing going on away from the 70s, and the tail end of the Satanic Panic. Parents cared about what the kids were up to, in very specific ways. War was fine. But sexy? Harder sell. This is when Slaanesh became more vaguely about 'excess', notably, but it's also when the Sororitas arrived on the field, as warrior nuns. And GW took the decision to say nothing about sex. At all. They weren't "the brides of the Emperor" [nuns are often 'brides of Christ']. They were pure of faith. They were never 'pure of heart' or god forbid, 'chaste', lest some mother have to deal with little Timmy asking what it meant. The Sisters' lore was so de-sexualised the canon didn't even suggest they refrained. Just an absolute void of information. Treated as if it were their opinions on 17th century agricultural practices. Writers (canon and fan alike!) over the years later saw this not as a mistake to correct, but a chance to say "what if the nuns fucked".

Sisters Yuri is just gals being pals, being good squadmates. Kissing each other with tongue is in the Codex

[sagely nod] this is the truth. gal pals. gallant paladins, if you will. I read this doctrine in the Book of Sloppy Style, Volume III, Verse 27. improving morale is an imperative to the pious.

note* I will not reveal which side I am on until the poll is over to avoid bias

Next VatiCon's gonna be lit.

so you're telling me that the Catholics have a new mascot that's a cute anime-style blue-eyed teal-haired anime (girl(???) or boy, possibly???) and her name is Luce? As in latin for light, so they're a bearer of light? like... Lucifer? Okay.

it's always a good day to complain about English speakers

thinking about creatures.

This is the nicest thing anyone ever said about the prequels' Jedi Council. There's always a lot to be said about how the Council was clearly in a bad place, politically or ethically, and how the Emperor's rise was in no small amount the Jedi Order's failure to be of value, rather than totally forgotten in barely two decades. But this? This is nice. And true. The order was, at least in the temple, still raising good kids like Obiwan, and they were all doing the work there.

I’ll never quite get over just how integrated kids are into daily Jedi life and the implications of that.

Dooku’s Temple "job" for years seems to have been “teaching lightsaber preschool.” Sifo-Dyas, the guy with the scary doom visions? Oh yeah, they have him working with infants, bringing babies to the Temple as a Seeker. Jocasta Nu is constantly depicted interacting with the younger generation of Jedi, teaching, helping, or mentoring. In TCW, she knows all the Padawans on sight. 

There’s just something really ordinary and charming to me about this. Sure, Dooku is a terrifying 2m of spider limbs in a robe, but he’s still going down on one sinister knee to check out the little crying kid who got a finger crunched by one of those wooden training swords. How many of the TCW-era Jedi were once babies who played with Sifo-Dyas’s hair loopies or cuddled on his chest as he pointed his T-6 back toward the Temple after another successful Seeking mission? (Space is, after all, cold. 🥺) You just know Jocasta is in very reluctant possession of knowledge of every single teen Padawan drama, crush, or breakup. She tries to stay out of it, but she’s broken up fights and pulled particulars into her office for tea and a gentle lecture on the inherent self-destructiveness of gossip. 

And these are not “just some” Jedi - they are all combat trained, politically important, at the top of their rank and even each sit on the Council at some point in their lives. The Jedi Order really went “super powerful space wizards with laser swords, yeah, but they should also all definitely know how to change a diaper." 

*slaps roof of dragon* This baby can fit so much pure annihilating light in the trunk.

now that's what I call BWEEM

I remain a massive fan of the incredibly gutsy decision to have the big finale fight of season 1 not be a big flashy aerial sword-duel, but an old man with a box-cutter vs a kid who had to relearn how to walk a few months ago. (that said Asuna-Yuuki is a masterclass in combat-characterisation. Not just Asuna and Yuuki's personalities shining though how they fight, but the reactions of their friends being reminded that Asuna is That Damn Good, and Kirito's smile because... Kirito always knew she could fight like that)

do you guys think there’s a fight that’s universally loved and hyped up by the sao fandom