The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

I think Larf is that one .gif of a waffle falling over.
Thoth: Homer Simpson yelling "Neeeeeerd" out a car window.
Also Geema is probably "WHO WAS PHONE"

Maybe I'm that 'hold my flower' meme?

I'm a terrible person.

Larf: *slaps roof of car*

GMA: Worst. Thing. Ever. (Alternative: Doom: Repercussions of Evil (It's the only badfic copypasta meme I know of))

Tomash: Compiling!(Does that count as a meme?)

Ypsi: Mirrors aren't real

Granz: Gay Powers.

Maslab: OwO, maybe?

Mikel: *Maniacal Laugh*

Cal: I'll take this potato chip...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

As hS and Nesh remember, I used to make a lot of PPC memes using Walfas. Then I stopped because (among other things) Walfas's create.swf no longer opens in a new tab on my computer, and instead my laptop downloads the file, which I don't know if I want. Since I can't do that, I decided to do something PPC and memey another way, by trying to figure out what memes and/or specific iterations of a meme best represent some Boarders I know. I've only got two, myself included, because I don't have that many ideas, but that's what replying with your own is for! Enjoy!

P.S. If you were affected by my little... whatever it was I did in the Plort thread, do note that I have replied with an apology. You may read it as you wish.

Huinesoron: They're Taking The Hobbits To Isengard
Reasoning: Do I have to explain this one? He's a LotR fan. He's a goofball, if you manage to get him in a silly mood. This song encapsulates both.
See it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE-1RPDqJAY
Another possible candidate: Look At This Graph (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIlNIVXpIns)

twistedwindowpane: Rush E
Reasoning: Any of Sheet Music Boss's Russian songs reflect me pretty well, purely because they get faster and crazier over time, showing a prime example of the various speeds at which my mind functions (and malfunctions). Rush E would have to be my favorite because it also throws in the Markiplier "E" meme.
See it here (warning, contains a couple near-jumpscares via a sudden loud "E"): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qskm9MTz2V4
Other Candidates: Running in the 90s except it speeds up from 0% to 400% (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEOuVGjHP-4), Darude Sandstorm on accordions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uizNcQcpK-8)

Have fun making your own suggestions! (Key words are "have fun." I am not going to go ruining anyone's days any further if I can help it. :D)

-Twistey

The Swedish dwarves and the Japanese Gollum definitely reflect traditional art styles from those areas. A lot of the Russian stuff does too.

-Twistey

It's not quite in the same tone as the Foundation trilogy (the only other Asimov I've read), but it was still a good read.

For myself, I found the science to be pretty reasonable, although I'm not particularly versed in either molecular physics or microbiology. (Is that microbiology?) But the body detail aspects at least jived with what I recall on the subjects from school/Magic School Bus. And the shrinking . . . there was an explanation, though I forget what it was, and can't remind myself because I'm at my parents' house at the moment. I vaguely recall a discussion along the lines of density remaining constant through the volume change which, unlike in Ant-Man, makes the shrunken matter much more fragile, to the point where Brownian motion in the bloodstream becomes physically threatening. It all felt internally consistent, which is probably most important in a novel like this anyway.

The medical team did indeed need to shrink a supply of air to bring along, as the members' lungs became too small to process full-size air molecules.

—doctorlit, without a reference

Hieronymus the hermit did already explore "a maze of twisty little passages, all alike". Alas, it appears to be in the wrong place; he was in the Kar’eer Forest when he fell into that dubious dungeon, if it wasn’t just a dream or an AU.

But shouldn’t the "circular process" actually be more like a spiral, where things mostly change to the better after each pass of beta reading and editing, thus being "mazes of twisting little passages, all different"?

Thank you for contributing to the flavor of Plort geography.

HG

And I haven't much to contribute, but mayhaps I could nab a heraldry request? I hesitate to request one for my Inglish coat of arms, as it's rather complicated and in its ccurrent form somewhat eschews proper blazonry rules.

My Alvish one, though, should work fine, in large part thanks to only relying on a single symbol, which I have you to thank for. You recall the brass snowflake from the political compass thread? Well, I turned it into my Alvish symbol. If I understood the Alvish system correctly, it should be ner blue, rena silver; canta nastar alta tera, a brass snowflake; canta nastar nica tera, the snowflake's shorter arms.

Or, if I messed that up horribly, a brass snowflake with four long arms and four shorter ones on a navy blue field with a silver border.
I know snowflakes don't come in fourfold symmetry, but I couldn't make the six pointed version work with the Alvish rank encoding.
I also wanted to do some silver arrows meeting the shorter points, but I couldn't work that with the ranking either. Plus, it was getting a bit busy.
Also not sure about what shade of blue to go for. I'm leaning towards navy, but I dunno how well that works with the brass.

I've got a whole backstory for my Plort self waiting in the wings about my journey from the great Red Wall (too obvious a name for Redwall?) across the sea to Konti-Nyuum, but considering I haven't even been able to name my Plort self, I don't think I'll have that ready any time soon. Ah well, next Plort thread, I suppose.

My favourite of these might be the Jansson ones but they're all real cool in their own ways. All the unique versions of Gollum are especially interesting and I like all of them (but especially the Jansson one who is real proper ominous). They should all team up.

I remember, a while back, finding a bunch of artwork on Tolkien's stuff by a guy called Tim Kirk - I plugged a bit of it on the Discord. His stuff can be found in here.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/425793119511117824/453016377419104286/moria_well.png

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/425793119511117824/453016595141230612/road.png

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/425793119511117824/453016481748353034/riddle.png

Those are some of my favourites. They're so dreamy and colourful. Proper whimsical fairy tale stuff right there.

Which was, to my recollection, great.

It'd recommend The Gods Themselves and The Bicentennial Man, while we're on Asimov.

An, uncertain, shadowy fight, with countless lives hanging the balance. In a world of grey morals, an idealist faces against both reality and hardened cynicism from those that surround him, joining his heroic ally in a battle that may well decise the fate of the world while the story asks us to ponder what it really means to be a hero.

I am, of course, talking about DC Comics' classic series, Watchmen.

...What's that you say, that summary also neatly describes Fate Stay/Night: Unlimited Blade Works, a third of the well-known visual novel (adapted into an excellent anime by ufotable) which I recently finished reading and is also in the title of this post? Well shpx. Guess I better talk about that, too.

Yes, it's a double header. These series have some similarities, and I want to talk about it. Starting with Unlimited Blade Works, the brighter and happier of the two series. Which tells you a lot about Watchmen.

Unlimited Blade Works is one of the approximate one million and five installations in the popular Fate franchise and also one path through the visual novel that started it all. They're both the same story, don't worry.

For those of you unfamiliar with Fate, it's about 7-way Battle Royale between mages for the Holy Grail, a magical item that can grant one wish. Each mage is assisted by one "servant," a legendary hero from the past. Except it's actually way more complicated than that, but eh, close enough.

We follow Shirou Emiya, a shiny-eyed idealist who one day dreams of becoming a hero as he accidentally winds up a member of the fight with a servant of his own. He has basic combat skills, so little magical talent that I legally can't call him a mage, and his only major ability for the majority of the story is a stubborn refusal to die, no matter how much he really should have. Did I mention he's also registering 0.9 Chagnys on the Hero Stupidity Scale?

So yeah. Aside from the unique, interesting world and decently developed characters, one of Fate's main tricks is throwing a shiny-eyed Shonen protagonist into a shadowy world of grey morality and beating the crap out of him. Shirou has a childlike perspective on heroism, and his dream is to save everyone, no matter how impossible that might be. He also has a cripplingly low self-worth as a result of childhood trauma and is thus entirely willing to throw aside his life to save another. The arc of Unlimited Blade Works is all about throwing those childish ideals into question, and forcing Shirou to really examine himself, and ask if his ideals are really the right ones.

...Which brings us to Watchmen.

Watchmen's Shirou analogue in terms of idealism is a half-mad (if not full-mad) hyper-reactionary who goes by the name of Rorschach. He thinks of sex as inherently filthy and amoral and has absolutely no qualms about killing people to deliver justice. He also serves double-duty as a mockery of Steve Ditko's philosophically objectivist heroes, and while some of his suspicions are right and he serves as a viewpoint character for much of the comic, he's never shown as something to aspire to.

Dang. Well that's a different tone.

As a sidenote, it's worth noting that despite being a very negative portrayal of the far right, Rorschach is Ted Cruz's favorite superhero. Because art is dead, the world is a bleak comedy, and Ted Cruz is somehow always the punchline.

But I digress. The point of this is that Watchmen goes to some dark places. Like, off the bat. The first superhero in this world is a gay BDSM klansman or something. Sadly, that's not a joke. Although it feels a lot more tastful and less for the shock value in the actual comic.

I mean, if I had to guess how this cast came to be, I'd say that Alan Moore asked himself what kind of people would dress themselves up in brightly colored spandex and beat up and/or shoot up criminals, and the answer he came up with was "really twisted ones." So it seems like almost every single character in Watchmen is at least somewhat disturbed. At least a little.

But if nothing else, Watchmen definitely had a lot to say. And... dangit, I can't TALK about how it questions the concepts of superheroes or looks at the same sort of idealism Fate does, or how much just interesting stuff there is because I don't want to spoil it.

I don't want to spoil either of these. They're definitely worth reading. Or in the case of Blade Works, watching. Don't watch Watchmen, though. It's not as good.

I...

Well, I dunno if I like it. {= ( I enjoyed the characters and their interactions, so I certainly don't dislike it... If it were an interlude about Kaitlyn finding out about POVs and being completely distracted by dorbs while Selene was trying to get her to focus on something more important, I reckon I'd have nothing to complain about. But as a mission, it felt a bit POV-heavy to me. This is at least 50% a personal taste thing, since I'm not interested in collecting critters and never have been, but I think it could use more commentary on the badfic, even if it isn't the usual so-bad-it's-funny mess. And that doesn't have to mean more fic-quotes. It's hard when the problem is blandness (which is one reason to avoid mediocre-fic in general), but you could play up that sort of thing by making the world extremely washed out, or sepia-toned, or fuzzy with deadened sound... or some other interpretation to show what dull writing does to a Word World and the unlucky agents forced to put up with it. It would make the agents feel more fully present, too.

Kaitlyn was so excited about who she was going to call in to help that I was, too, so I was sad it turned out to be a set-up to nothing. I was also sorta hoping "Kelly" would turn out to be Kelly the Roman Warrior somehow. Of course, she's dead, so it wouldn't make much sense, but when has that ever stopped a really determined Suvian? {= )

So, kinda unsatisfying as a mission. But, as More Fun with Kaitlyn and Selene, there are some great lines that made me laugh. "That was yesterday," for one. The bit about the A-word and continuing into the not-a-Python-sketch, for another. And Kaitlyn's made-up story about what happened does sound like lots of fun. Very "I reject your reality and substitute my own." Oh, also "It's like kissing, only there's a winner," even if it is stolen. I don't know where it's from.

Is Kaitlyn's throne just a black office chair? My money's on standard high-back office chair. {= )

(You may be excused from reviewing anything of mine. Reckon it's more likely I owe you for something or other.)

~Neshomeh

Part of this got linked in chat, and I thought it was worth pointing out to everyone.

So, a fellow named Austin McConnell made a video complaining about the storytelling issues he found in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (spoilers for Cursed Child).

Then, he made a followup video explaining how he'd rewrite the story while sticking to the existing costuming, sets, etc.. Said video has spoilers for the original play, and probably also spoils Nineteen Years Later, an actual, you can buy tickets to it stage play based on the rewrite. How this came to be is documented in this video, which also has interviews with the writer and actors, as well as giving you a sense of what a performance was like.

Anyhow, I thought this was interesting and didn't want to start a new thread.

- Tomash

The novel, I mean. I just read the review, having finally realized it was of something I've heard of. {= D

Anyway, I've enjoyed Asimov's writing in the Foundation series and assorted other stories with and without robots, so I reckon I'd enjoy this, too, datedness notwithstanding. I'm also curious about how well the biology stuff holds up. That sort of thing always interests me.

Also how they explain and/or decline to explain the shrinking, which should really not work, especially if we're talking a "scale down all your atoms" thing, but also the Ant-Man "remove the space between your atoms" thing. Unless you take along a supply of similarly shrunken air, I guess?

~Neshomeh, getting around to things in a very delayed fashion.

Still the strangest.

I very much like the Japanese illustrations. They most closely match the Dwarves in my head—though unsurprisingly, the Swedish artist comes in a respectable second place.

I wonder, were these mostly done before the retcons to make The Hobbit fit better with LotR? Is that why Gollum appears so un-hobbit-like—he wasn't a corrupted hobbit originally?

I am very disappointed we don't have a Maurice Sendak-illustrated Hobbit. {= (

A friend of mine was telling me there's an annotated edition of The Hobbit that points out all the changes that were made. I'd love to get my hands on that. Has anyone else seen it?

~Neshomeh

I understand what was going on, I understand what I did wrong, I understand where the real boundary was (e.g. not where I thought it was as of last time), I understand what all in my in-the-works ideas could probe problematic in this manner, and I understand how to fix that. And not to the detriment of the planned narrative, either. To Huinesoron, I now understand that the simple fact that I understand all of this makes it such that everything will be okay, and the consequences will never reach such a dire point as they did for zdimensia, even if she did (from what I pick up) start a similar controversy. And I'm glad about that, because honestly, I don't want to have to leave.

To Huinesoron, and to Zingenmir, and to Hieronymus Graubart, and to Calliope, and to Neshomeh, I'm sorry I made you uncomfortable. Again, I know where the line is now, and I shall not cross it. I've also given word of caution to my friend who plans to join the Board, knowing that he and I share a rather crass sense of humor. If there's anything else I'm capable of doing that would help heal the shock, I'll do my best to attempt it.

-Twistey

Thought some people might like this.

Here are a selection of bad fanfic premises taken from the website aiweirdness.com:

The Secrets We Get
What if Harry Potter was born? What if Harry Potter had been raised by the Dursleys and had a few friends and a few friends? What if he hadn’t been a Death Eater? What if he had been raised by his godfather? What if he was raised by the Dursleys? What if he had been raised as a Half-blood Prince? What if he didn’t know that he’d been pregnant? What if he was raised in the dark and he became a Death Eater? What if he wanted his parents to be in Gryffindor? What if he was a hero? What if he had found out? What if Harry Potter was not a father? What if he had a twin sister, a very different boyfriend.

A Hero’s Tale
Harry Potter is a wizard, and he is a wizard. He is a wizard. He is a wizard, a wizard, a wizard, and a son. He is also a Slytherin, and he is a wizard. He is a wizard, and he is a wizard. He is also a wizard, and he has not been the one to be a father.

A Game of Happy - Heart
Harry Potter is a sixth year student at Hogwarts. And he has a plan. When a strange new teacher shows up with his cousin he finds out that he is not an orphan, but he is not always a werewolf .

Happy Birthday, Neville
Harry gets a little more than he bargained for.