I Know This Is More Of A Joke Post But The Dwarves Have A Union With Three Chapters, It’s The Discord

Watching all these social media platforms spiraling into disgust, I really think we need to consider alternatives. And I’m not really talking about finding different social media platforms, either, but rather changing the way we engage with and reach the content we want to see online.

As things stand now, we’re really just being corralled into ad-revenue pens at our own expense (i.e. being forced to see toxic content that’s terrible for our mental health but great for their engagement). It’s not for our benefit. It’s for theirs. In fact, we often get punished by their algorithms because we don’t post at their pace or share the kind of content they want.

But we’re stuck because we don’t feel like we have any other options, right? Because that’s the only way we can reach people and share our creations, right? To be honest, I’d rather subscribe to newsletters and visit personal blogs or websites. I’d rather pay modest, reasonable amounts to access a creator’s work than force them to rely on ad revenue from the more ravenous. But I don’t think we’re ready for that as a whole…

Reasons I have seen webcomic authors publicly cite for cancelling their comic mid-storyline:

Too busy  

Lost interest  

Increasing age gap between characters and author made it difficult to relate  

Did the math and figured out that completing the planned arc with their current update schedule would take 150 years  

Ostensible author actually a fictional persona that’s now being retired, and they didn’t want the comic linked to their real identity  

Realised that the way they’d written the central relationship wasn’t emotionally genuine (note: this was a hobbit porn comic)  

The comic’s readership contained too many lesbians  

Converted to a religion that regards all representational art as a form of idolatry  

Broke up with the person the protagonist was based on  

Outed as not actually Japanese  

Imprisoned for manslaughter  

Aliens

Look, if someone wants to buy me a suit of armour, I’ll test the hell out of it. But until then, here’s some theory!

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On a scale of Dark Souls to Devil May Cry, how fast are two-handed swords?

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What’s the deal with tiny shields?

(Yes, I know my ‘big’ shield is stil pretty small)

Patreon - everything else

In battle, that is!

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I hate the “Ragnarök is a Post-Christian Myth” theory.

First off, it feels like most people see that Snorri Sturluson was Christian and immediately assume he did what the Irish monks did to Irish mythology. This completely ignores why he wrote the myths down, which was to establish a cultural connection between Iceland and Norway, in order to try and get Iceland to join the Kingdom of Norway (which failed). It also ignores that fact that he WASN’T A MONK. Outside of a part about the Aesir being Trojans and living in Asia (which makes no sense when looking at the rest of the Edda and the myths within), and some stuff about some great god who is more powerful than all of the Aesir and is never actually named, there isn’t much evidence to there being large post-Christian changes.

The second problem is that the theory focuses too much on Loki. He doesn’t do much during Ragnarök. He captains a ship (whatever that meant to the Norse) and he kills/dies to Heimdallr. Each of his kids from Angrboda does more. Fenrir eats Odin, and in some versions also the sun, moon, and stars. Jormungandr floods Midgard and poisons the sky, along with killing the strongest of the Aesir, Thor. Hel(a) brings an army of Draugr from her realm to fight Odin and Freya’s einherjar (Freya got half of those who died in battle). I agree that Ragnarök is a story of revenge, but its not Loki’s. ITS THE JOTNAR’S REVENGE. Revenge for a long list of insults and grievances that started with the killing of Ymir during the Voluspa by Odin and his brothers. Also, both Fenrir and Jormungandr are getting revenge against the gods they hate most, whom they are stated to kill. In the end Surtr, king of Muspelheim, kills Freyr, destroys Asgard, and burns all of the worlds (which since they are made of Ymir’s corpse, make this technically Ymir’s funeral pyre). Also the Jotnar on Loki’s ship aren’t his troops, they are led by a different Jotun, and it isn’t even his ship.

I could do an entire other post on the problems with how Loki gets viewed through modern lenses, and I’m tempted to.

Hey in middle earth is there any ecological consequences for those big fuckin eagles

(Sound on.) We’re all doomed.

@bovineblogger

animal studies