loaExMachina

Do they ever look at the sky for any reason, other than maybe watching out for the Albatroses ?

First off, I'll define both tropes to make sure we're all on the same page. The "Exiled Prince" trope involves an exiled prince growing up away from his kingdoms, having some adventures gaining support from people on the margins of said kingdom, then coming back to conquer it, vanquishing the present king (often either his father or his father's usurpator). Very common in mythologies (Zeus vs Chronos, Oedipus, Beowulf...), present in more recent works like Hamlet, or even more recently, The Lion King , the Legend of Prince Arslan or The Northman. Of course, Aragorn's backstory in The Lord of The Rings takes elements from this, being very inspired by Beowulf, and so does Star Wars, altho without ticking all the boxes. Interestingly, tales of legendary kings who may or may not have existed, or at least were claimed by existing rulers as their ancestors, also had stories of this kind : Soudjata Keita, King Arthur... There's also a fragmentary legend saying Sargon of Akkad's father wanted to kill him because of a prophecy, was stopped by Ishtar and then sent to another guy who was supposed to kill him... then the tablet is broken, but seems like the starting point of many exiled prince stories. This stories indeed seem useful for legitimizing a dynesty: Claiming ancestry from glorified past dynasty, while explaning the dynastic gap, shunning the latest ruler as a villain and justifying his murder, and giving a good role to surround peoples who tale part in this legend as supporters of the hero, justifying their integration in the kindgom.

Now, the "dancing with the smurf" tropes, I'm calling it that in reference to the South Park episode that jokes on the similarities between the plot of Avatar and that of "Dancing with the Wolves". Both movies feature a " white saviour", who comes to a new land/world as a colonizer but "goes native" ends up a leader of the native's resistence. It's also the plot of Pocahontas, Atlantis, the Road to El Dorado...

There's an interesting parallel between these two clichés: They involve a man (or more rarely a woman) away from home finding new allies, fighting the power in place and ending in a position of power, justified by their diplomatic skills and their righteous and victorious struggle against the evil ones in power. There are even some intermediate case that can fit both cathegories, like Dune, or the major part of Daenerys's arc in Game of Thrones. [edit: Not sure why I didn't think of it first, but this applies to John Snow's arc as well... And also Bran's arc (the Children of the Forest are the smurfs he dances with). They did it thrice in the same show !]

Now, if the exiled prince trope was so useful for its ability to legitimize a dynasty's rule over a set of people, does the "Dancing With The Smurf" trope owe its own to the way it reassures people living on settler colonies that they deserve their place there, as lkng as they don't support the most evil parts of colonialism?

So, I work in the agro industry and my boss said she had to make an unscheduled trip to the "land down under", to go to her brother in law's wake. She gave me a bunch of weirdly specific instructions. I had to go inform other company executives (who were also her relatives), and she hinted that she wouldn't be safe there and might need their help to return. Maybe something about the immigration customs? But she made a huge deal out of it, like I had to beg them to rescue her.

The three first I asked laughed at my face saying

Nah, what the hell she doin over there? Bitch had all she wanted above and she also wanted what was below?
We already warned her, I aint rescuing that greedy hoe."

Which, honestly, was perfectly reasonable and sounded like they knew her well. Word came up that she tried to usurp her sister's place as soon as she arrived and had gotten killed (?), but I didn't really believe it and just kept going. The fourth guy was like "Oh no, babygirl's in danger? I'll send two goons to take her back". And he did. And they came back with my boss, unfortunately unscathed. And a goon of the Australian branch. Apparently, someone else had to go to the land down under and take my bosse's place if they were gonna let her back (how did she make herself so essential? She was there three days!). Aussie goon asked if he could take me (excuse me?) but boss said no, because I followed all her instructions (thank you!). So they kept looking among the branch managers. All of them had bought into the stories of her death and made small memorials, minutes of silence, wore mourning clothes... All of that pleased her so none of them were taken away.

Then she found out her husband hadn't been mourning, so she got mad and got the aussie goon to take him away. I would've found it funny if be wasn't the head of the cereal department, the most important one; and he was kinda very important.

Producticity plummeted. The boss eventually let her husband come back, but his sister had to go replace him in the southern branch. Productivity climbed up again, but then she sent him back six month later so his sister could return. Then the reverse six month later, they just kept switching them every six month, and basically, we're only producing grain when the original department leader is here.

This fucking sucks, never work for the goddess of fertility.

/s

Latin "Burgus" (fortress) -> Frankish "burgz" (fortress, watchtower) -> Old High German "Burg" (castle, fortress) -> Hamburg (a city's name) -> hamburger (someone from Hamburg, a type or meat patty from there, a type of sandwich made with said patty.)-> English "burger"( A variant of said sandwich)

Latin "Burgus" (fortress) -> French "Bourg" (small town, historically the fortified part of a town, often more expensive because safer and better situated) -> French "bourgeois" (A person living in the Bourg, a wealthy person, a capitalist)

"Burger and "Bourgeois" are cognates. Eat the rich.

Found it in my images while looking for something. I'd made that one a while ago and was rather proud of it.

Nabla: As warriors of the Tetrahedron, is our job not to bring peace?

Babibo: There you go again with this foolish concept. This peace of which you humans talk so much, yet so meaninglessly. We are warriors, as you said, and our job is war.

N: Not war for war's sake. Do we not serve the Tetrahedron? Is it not a good god, who wants only the good of all its creatures? And is not peace the greatest good for the leaving?

B: A god of Beauty would grant its gifts to sculptors. A god of plenty would grant them to those who go fishing. But the Tetrahedron grants the power of Tetrahedrokinesis only to the warriors that fight in its name. What kind of God does that make it?

N: But... The Tetrahedron is all good! The reason why we must fight is that the Cube is corrupting the world! Once good prevails, there will be peace!

B: You know nothing of peace. Follow me.

*They leave Hypermeridiopolis

N: How far will we walk?

B: Until you can no longer see anything in any direction that isn't ice, sky, or me.

*They walk longer.

B: Now look around. This is what you asked. This is peace. What do you think of it.

N: It is beautiful.

B: Is it all you want for the world?

N: Well, no. Not for the whole world. It's too... Lifeless.

B: Is peace then not the greatest good?

N: It is, but life must exist to enjoy peace. This is peaceful, but dead.

B: But the very act of living contradicts peace. We beat the ground with our feet to walk. We fight the wind to advance. We pierce the water to swim.   We slaughter fish to eat. And nothing in the world submits without fighting us back with the same might.

Even now, we are striking at the tranquility of this place, biting its silence, pecking its idleness. And the cold we feel is it fighting back We do not do war, Nabla, we are war. War is life, and the Tetrahedron blesses the living. 

N: I think I understand.

B: Good. What do you wish now?

N: [thinks] I want to fight you.

B: Good.

(Context: Babibo is a penguin)

I'm about to leave shitjustworks because they have an AI header. I've had an account here on hexbear for three years, but I've also made an account there right before Hexbear started federating, and I've been using that one more. I largely stayed out of the drama between the two instances when that happened, so you may say I'm late to pick a side... But now I've definetly had enough of AI crap, so I'm falling back on this account.

Now, I just wanted to check how the logo was made. I don't think it's AI, it doesn't look that much like it and I remember it's been the same since before AI got that mainstream... But to check I wanted to see if the artist was credited on the banner, or the sidebar, or the lines below... But nothing. So, who's the artist and why do I not see them credited?:

https://www.theonion.com/americans-react-to-the-death-of-henry-kissinger-1851063004

Image description:

title: "Answer to people asking how you know so much bout your special interest alignment chart"

below is a 3 times 3 array with the following texts: Lawful good: "I've been really into this subject for a while, I can recommend some reads if you want !"

Neutral good: "The last fact was from "The Space Book: From the Beginning to the End of Time", 250 Milestones n the History of Astronomy" by Jim Bell,2013,page 226."

Chaotic good: Excellent question ! So first start with these: drops a pile of books in their hands, then these drops a bigger pile of books. Oh, you prefer videos? No problem! spends next few months spamming them with related links."

Lawful neutral: "I read it somewhere."

True neutral: "Don't change the subject, I wasn't done explaining."

Chaotic neutral: "Trust me bro"

Lawful evil: "How do you not know this, isn't it common knowledge?"

Neutral evil: "I invented it."

Chaotic evil: "I watched a documentary with your mom last night."