Alianora-of-toure-on-marsh - Sometimes Nonsense

A Bit of Arthurian Amusement

So, I seem to recall someone was saying they wanted to do some King Arthur fantasy, but were having problems finding all the sources they wanted. Here’s a new vid I ran across, that suggests we shouldn’t just look at Western Europe when we’re trying to piece together Arthur’s ‘verse. 

Was an Arthurian Knight Inspired by a Hungarian King? Medieval DOCUMENTARY

From one of the video’s comments, about Lazlo: “He was not a hard man to find on a battle field. According to chronicles he was two heads taller than the average man and had a two-handed axe as his favored weapon of choice.”

...Yeah, that kind of guy would stand out.

So. If the theory in the vid is accurate, the Lancelot tales of the saga are royally commissioned RPF insert fics. Who says you’ll get nowhere writing fanfic, hmm?

I also find it so, so relatable that Chretien finally said, “Nope, I’m out; someone else can pick up this abandoned work,” after he was commissioned for the canon-breaking cheating relationship. There are some things no sane writer can do.

And in case you haven’t run across them, Red at Overly Sarcastic Productions also has some good stuff on King Arthur and his loyal knights!

Legends Summarized: King Arthur

Legends Summarized: Arthur's Knights

I’d never heard of Feirefiz in particular before, and his bit in the story is Really Cool.

And for general use,

How to Do Research As for books to recommend... I remember reading a collection of King Arthur stories as a kid, but I don’t remember the title! You might look into Roman and post-Roman British history if you want sources for what we think the historical origin of the legendary king must have been. Osprey Publishing books are generally very well researched, I think they've got at least two you can check out!

1-9 notes: your post was seen 10-99 notes: your friends found your post good, possibly some of their friends too 100-999 notes: strangers in your broader circle find your post good, many people whose names you’ve never seen 1000-9999 notes: your post is popular and widely circulated in your subculture; it has circulated to people with wildly different worldviews who are still basically united by some interests 10000-99999 notes: people’s commentary on your post has started to become repetitive; people melt together into a samey mess; every possible misinterpretation of your post has happened a couple times 100000-999999 notes: your post is less and less seen as something written by you and more and more seen as “one of those things from the internet”. people openly talk about you in the notes as if your identity is a mystery, despite there being a link right there 1000000+ notes: people start to make pilgrimages to your blog to ask you if you are the source of the post; possibly someone writes an article on a news website about your post and how many notes it has

i walk into starbucks and order a pumpkin spice latte with 13 shots of espresso. i tell the barista that i intend to transcend humanity and become a god. i ask for no whip cream

so i’ve seen this around a lot and i always felt like the version i listened to just. didn’t have everything? sO! i edited together my three favourite versions of the tik tok sea shanty! enjoy!!

(listen with headphones if possible!)

(yes i know the ending is bad oKaY-)

So IDK if people will understand this concept but I made "corner pins"

Basically they are tiny pins with TWO posts on them, and you use them to hold up mementos like instax/photos/tickets etc without having to puncture them, and without having to pinch them with the metal or the push pin edge etc. You can simply rest the corner of the item between the posts gently!

These are the cute ribbon/bow ones, I also made some others that i think would be really cool on your mementos ToT

Let me know what you think about this concept?? I don't know how to market it but i really thought it was a nice idea T_T. You can find them in my store here

They may look like an Impressionist masterpiece, but these rare nacreous clouds have been spotted ‘painting’ skies above the UK in a rainbow of colours. Photographers across the north of England and Scotland have captured the stunning ‘mother of pearl’ formations which sit in the lower stratosphere. (Source)

one thing i think is interesting, as someone who basically grew up playing video games non-stop, is how some types of video game just don’t gel with people 

like, it’s easy to forget that, even though i’m pretty bad at most games, that my skill at handling video games is definitely “above average.” as much as i hate to put it like this, i’d say my experience level is at “expert” solely because I can pick up any game controller and understand how to use it with no additional training. 

a friend of mine on twitter posted a video of him stuck on a part of samus returns. the tutorial area where it teaches you how to ledge-grab. the video is of him jumping against the wall, doing everything but grabbing the ledge, and him getting frustrated 

i’ve been playing games all my life, so i’d naturally intuit that i should jump towards the ledge to see what happens 

but he doesn’t do that.

it’s kinda making me realize that as games are becoming more complex and controllers are getting more buttons, games are being designed more and more for people who already know how to play them and not people with little to no base understanding of the types of games they’re playing 

so that’s got me thinking: should video games assume that you have zero base knowledge of video games and try to teach you from there? should Metroid: Samus Returns assume that you already know how to play a Metroid game and base its tutorial around that, or should it assume that you’ve never even played Mario before? 

it’s got me thinking about that Cuphead video again. you know the one. to anyone with a lot of experience with video games, especially 2D ones, we would naturally intuit that one part of the tutorial to require a jump and a dash at the same time.

but most people lack that experience and that learned intuition and might struggle with that, and that’s something a lot of people forget to consider. 

it reminds me a bit of the “land of Punt” that I read about in this Tumblr post. Egypt had this big trading partner back in the day called Punt and they wrote down everything about it except where it was, because who doesn’t know where Punt is? and now, we have no idea where it was, because everyone in Egypt assumed everyone else knew.

take that same line of thinking with games: “who doesn’t know how to play a 2D platform game?” nobody takes in to consideration the fact that somebody might not know how to play a 2D game on a base level, because that style of gameplay is thoroughly ingrained in to the minds of the majority of gamers. and then the Cuphead situation happens.

the point of this post isn’t to make fun of anybody, but to ask everyone to step back for a second and consider that things that they might not normally consider. as weird as it is to think about for people that grew up playing video games, anyone who can pick up a controller with thirty buttons on it and not get intimidated is actually operating at an expert level. if you pick up a playstation or an Xbox controller and your thumbs naturally land on the face buttons and the analog stick and your index fingers naturally land on the trigger buttons, that is because you are an expert at operating a complex piece of machinery. you have a lifetime of experience using this piece of equipment, and assuming that your skill level is the base line is a problem.

that assumption is rapidly becoming a problem as games become more complex. it’s something that should be considered when talking about games going forward. games should be accessible, but it’s reaching a point where even Nintendo games are assuming certain levels of skill without teaching the player the absolute basics. basics like “what is an analog stick” and “where should my fingers even be on this controller right now.” 

basically what i’m saying is that games are becoming too complex for new players to reasonably get in to and are starting to assume skill levels higher than what should be considered the base line. it’s becoming a legitimate problem that shouldn’t be laughed at and disregarded. it’s very easy to forget that thing things YOU know aren’t known by everyone and that idea should be taken in to consideration when talking about video games. 

There’s no such thing as “pepperoni” in Italy, even though it is a corruption of the Italian word “peperoni” (sweet peppers). The most similar Italian food is “salame piccante” (spicy salami).

This is how the golden age of piracy ended.