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⚠️ WARNING: Maasverse Spoilers—Proceed with Caution ⚠️

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Part 1: Characters and Courts (sorry for those who already saw this post and now it's gone. I realized after publishing that Reddit formatting deleted a solid CHUNK of detail after the fact. Gimme a few days and I'll get it back up and published)
Part 2: World Map, Items, Terms & Other - YOU ARE HERE
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If this is the first post you've landed on, see Part 1 above for an introductory explanation to this two part post.

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UK + IRELAND

PRYTHIAN

A combination of Prydain, the old Welsh name for Britain, and Brython, which translates to “Ancient Britons” from Welsh.

HYBERN

A riff of Hibernia, the Classical Latin name for Ireland.

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Artist of Prythian map: P-dulcis on redbubble

ADDITIONAL EUROPEAN-PARALLEL LOCATIONS

ILLYRIA

The Ancient Greeks used the term Illyria to define a region in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula. The numerous peoples who populated those areas were known collectively as the Illyrians. The region itself is quite mountainous.

THE MIDDLE

May refer to the Midlands, the central part of England, though geographically the Prythian map places the Middle central to Prythian, not central to England; with the Prythian inclusion of Scotland, the Middle on Prythian maps is located further north than the actual Midlands of England.

UNDER THE MOUNTAIN

A potential nod to the Schiehallion, a cone-shaped mountain often referred to as the center of Scotland. It's name comes from the Gaelic Sìth Chailleann, meaning "fairy hill of the Caledonians." On the southwestern side of the mountain is said to lie the well-concealed Uamh Tom a' Mhòr-fhir, a cave serving as an entrance to the underworld.
As the Schiehallion lies in the middle of Scotland (the Night Court) and not the middle of mainland UK (Prythian), the Sciehallion could instead be representative of Ramiel.

THE WESTERN ISLES

May refer to the Outer Hebrides, also known as the Western Isles, which is an island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. They are also sometimes known as Innse Gall, a Gaelic term meaning "islands of the foreigners/strangers" which was originally used by mainland Highlanders when the islands were ruled by the Norse.
ACOTAR role: The Prison is located in the Western Isles.

THE PRISON

Though located in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland rather than the Outer, the Prison may be a nod to Beinn Shiantaidh, which is Scottish Gaelic for "holy mountain." It is located on the western side of the Island of Jura and is the second highest peak of the Paps of Jura.
Fun fact: Pap is of Old Norse origin and means breast.

VALLAHAN

Valhalla is the hall of slain warriors in Norse mythology, located in Asgard, where those who die in combat live in peace under the leadership of the god, Odin. They are said to dwell in Valhalla until the events of Ragnarök, where they will then march out to fight in aid of Odin against the jötnar, a type of being in Germanic mythology.
ACOTAR role: Vallahan is a faerie territory located in the northwest portion of the Continent.

ADRIATA

The Adriatic Sea is located in Southern Europe and separates the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. It contains more than 1,300 islands.

BOG OF OORID

The Oorid Lough is a freshwater lake in the west of Ireland.

CRETEA

Crete is the largest and southernmost island in Greece.
ACOTAR role: Cretea is where Miryam and Drakon's people lived following the War.

LAPPLUND

Lapland is a geographic region in Northern Fennoscandia which covers much of the Nordic countries. It is also a province of Sweden and the largest region of Finland.
ACOTAR role: Lapplund is where the Cauldron was hidden.

ITICA

Ithaca is an island featured in the Odyssey and was the island home of Odysseus. It is also a real island in Greece. The Kathara Monastery is located in Ithaca.
ACOTAR role: Itica is one of three temples where the feet of the Cauldron were hidden.

MONTESERE

Montserrat is a mountain range near Barcelona.
ACOTAR role: Montesere is a fae territory located in the Continent's NW and is considered generally wealthy. They allied with the loyalists in the War.

RAVENNIA

Ravenna is located in Northern Italy and was the capital of the Western Roman Empire.
ACOTAR role: Ravenna is a fae territory on the Continent and allied with the Loyalists during the War.

DUNMERE

Dunmere is a hamlet in Cornwall, England.
ACOTAR role: Dunmere is a town located within the Night Court, between Velaris and the sea.

NEVA

The Neva is the fourth-largest river in Europe and is located in northwestern Russia.
ACOTAR role: Neva is one of the largest human cities on the Continent and is where the Archeron sisters' father travels to trade.

SCYTHIA

The Scythians were an ancient Eastern Iranic equestrian nomadic people who migrated from Central Asia to the steppes of modern-day Ukraine and Southern Russia.
ACOTAR role: Scythia is one of the territories of the human lands on the Continent, ruled by Queen Vassa. They are said to be a horse loving people.

ROSEHALL

Rosehall is the name of a remote hamlet in the Scottish Highlands.
Fun fact: The 2nd Duke of Westminster acquired the Rosehall estate and his mistress at the time, Coco Chanel, redecorated the interior to her own liking. Winston Churchill, a close friend of the Duke, also visited the estate.
ACOTAR role: Rosehall is mentioned in ACOFAS and is theorized to be the place where Azriel's mother resides.

AFRICA-PARALLEL LOCATIONS

THE BLACK LAND

Black Land translates from Kemet, a popular ancient name for Egypt, which is derived from the color of the fertile black soil along the cultivated area of the Nile valley.
ACOTAR role: The Black Land is a region of the continent where human slaves were ruled over by a High Fae queen. Miryam and Drakon joined the mortals in the War and freed Miryam's people by crossing the desert and eventually the sea.

THE ERYTHRIAN SEA

The Erythraean Sea, originally an Ancient Greek geographical designation, has been used as a name for the Red Sea which lies between Africa and Asia.
ACOTAR role: Drakon used his magic to split the Erythian Sea.

ASIA-PARALLEL LOCATIONS

XIAN

Xi'an is the the most populous city in Northwest China snd the second most popular tourist destination in China.
ACOTAR role: Xian is a Fae territory on the Continent and allied with the Loyalists during the War. A large majority of the Dawn Court is made of Fae from Xian, including Thesan's mother. Feyre remarks that Amren may have molded her mortal body after their peoples.

BHARAT

Bhārat is one of the two principal official short names for the Republic of India.
ACOTAR role: The Archerons lost their fortune when their father's ships sank on the way to Bharat.

RASK

May refer to Rask, a city in Iran, that serves as both capital of its county and district.
ACOTAR role: Rask is a Fae territory on the Continent and allied with the Loyalists during the War.

ADDITIONAL LOCATIONS

VELARIS

Possibly derived from the Latin vēlo*,* meaning "to veil, cover, wrap" along with "to hide, conceal" and "to clothe in." Could also derive from the Latin vēlum, meaning "to veil, curtain" and also indicates a tarpaulin acting as cover for outdoor spaces.

THE WALL

No singular reference, but the presence of a wall separating one race from another, often humans from mythical beings, is rife throughout history, mythology, and fantasy.
One from each category that has loose ties to ACOTAR: (1) Hadrian's Wall, ie the Roman Wall, a defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia. It spanned from coast to coast, cutting across the entire width of Northern England. (2) In Norse mythology, the Master Builder asking for the hand of the goddess Freyja as payment for constructing a wall around Asgard to defend the gods. (3) The English village of Wall in Neil Gaiman's Stardust, named after the wall separating the land of Faerie from the mortal realm, highly guarded and cautioned against for mortals seeking to pass through.

THE MOONSTONE PALACE

Romans linked moonstone to the moon goddess Diana (goddess of wild animals and the hunt) and Ancient Greeks linked it to their lunar deities Artemis, Hecate, and Selene.

SIDRA RIVER

Sidra is a name of Latin origin and means "Goddess of the stars" or "like a star."

RAMIEL

Ramiel is a fallen Watcher, a type of Biblical angel, one of the 20 Watchers that rebelled against God by mating with mortal women, therefore creating the Nephilim (Shadowhunters, anyone?). Ramiel means "God has thundered." Ramiel is sometimes conflated with Remiel, also known as Jeremiel, meaning "God shall have mercy," as is listed as one of the seven Holy Angels. He is the archangel of hope and is responsible for divine visions and guiding the souls of the faithful into Heaven.

POOL OF STARLIGHT

No plausible connection found, though there is a famous pool in Greek mythology—a pool Mnemosyne presided over in Hades, counterpart to the river Lethe. Dead souls would drink from Lethe to wipe their past lives from remembrance when reincarnated. Those who drank from Mnemosyne's pool remembered and halted their transmigration of the soul.

ATHELWOOD

Ethel (also aethel) is an Old English word meaning "noble." Athelwood can mean "noblewood."
ACOTAR role: Athelwood is Morrigan's estate located in the Night Court.

GOLLIAN MOUNTAINS

Göll is one of the named Valkyries from Norse mythology. Her name means "tumult," or "noise, battle."
ACOTAR role: The Gollian Mountains are where the Valkyries were slain during the War.

MYRMIDONS

In Ancient Greek mythology, the Myrmidons were an Ancient Greek tribe. In the Iliad, they are the soldiers commanded by Achilles. Myrmidon has also come to mean "a follower or subordinate of a powerful person, typically one who is unscrupulous or carries out orders unquestioningly."
ACOTAR role: The Myrmidons are a set of mountains serving as the border between the Day Court and the Night Court from which the Illyrians migrated.

CESERA

No direct reference found, but may allude to Caesarea, the name of numerous cities and locations throughout the Roman Empire.
ACOTAR role: Cesera is one of three temples where the feet of the Cauldron were hidden.

SANGRAVAH

No direct reference found (and I lost my mind searching for one). Closest I came to was the similarly sounding Angharad, a feminine Welsh name, long associated with Welsh royalty, history, and myth, including Arthurian legend.
ACOTAR role: Sangravah is one of three temples where the feet of the Cauldron were hidden.

GREENFIELD VILLAGE

No direct connection found, though Greenfield is the name of several villages of England.
ACOTAR role: Greenfield village is a neighboring village to where Feyre grew up and where Isaac Hale's wife is from.

WINDHAVEN CAMP

No connection found, though a separate Windhaven also appears in Tower of Dawn in the TOG series. Altun—Windhaven being the rough translation—is located in a three-peaked mountain range and is the home of Sartaq's hearth-mother and family.
Fun fact: Windhaven is the name of a science-fiction novel by George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle following a group of humans who crash-landed on a foreign planet and learned to craft their own wings out of the spaceship wreckage.

THE WOLF'S DEN

No connection found, BUT fun fact: there is a named Wolf's Den castle in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series (aka Game of Thrones) that now serves as a prison. "All the days were much the same inside the Wolf's Den, and any change was usually for the worse." A Dance with Dragons, Ch 29
ACOTAR role: The Wolf's Den is the name of the worst tavern in Velaris that Nesta is known to frequent.

SILVERSPRING CREEK

No plausible connection found, BUT fun fact: "Silver Springs" is a song written by Stevie Nicks, performed by Fleetwood Mac, and is so strongly ACOTAR-coded even my non-loving playlist-to-book self can't deny it. If you want more bread crumbles that SJM is a Stevie Nicks fan, "Rhiannon" and it's lyric origins have potential ties to the Rhiannon of TOG.
You could be my silver springBlue-green colors flashin'I would be your only dreamYour shinin' autumn ocean crashin'
Time cas t a spell on you*, but you won't forget me*I know I could have loved youBut you would not let me
ACOTAR role: Silverspring Creek is a stream running through Feyre's human village, near where she hunted rabbits.

STRYGA'S CASTLE

No direct reference found, but due to Stryga/the Weaver resembling a female demon akin to a vampire in Slavic mythology (see the Monster section above), it is possible Stryga's former home, before she was confined to her cottage, is reminiscent of Bram Stoker's 1897 Dracula and the Transylvanian Castle complete with three vampiric sister brides who entice men with their beauty and charm before proceeding to feed upon them.

The Night Sky

ARKTOS

Arktos, also written Arctus, means "bear" in Ancient Greek. Arktos was a centaur who fought against the Lapith spearmen. The Arktos Megale (aka Ursa Major, the Great Bear) is one of the original 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy who drew on earlier works by Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Assyrian astronomers.
ACOTAR role: Arktos is one of the three regarded holy stars (the furthest left star) of the Illyrians and serves as part of the symbol for the Night Court. The echelon of Arktosian is reserved for Illyrians who survive the Blood Right but fail to reach Ramiel.

CARYNTH

May refer to Corinth, an ancient city that was one of the largest and most important of Greece, or Carinthia, the southernmost Austrian state in the Eastern Alps, noted for its mountains and lakes.
ACOTAR role: Carynth is one of the three regarded holy stars (the middle star) of the Illyrians and serves as part of the symbol for the Night Court. The echelon of Carynthian is reserved for Illyrians who scale the summit of Ramiel during the Blood Rite and are considered elite warriors.

ORISTES

Orestes (also spelled Orestes) means "stands on a mountain" and he is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and myths concerning his madness and purification.
ACOTAR role: Orestes is one of the three regarded holy stars (the furthest right star) of the Illyrians and serves as part of the symbol for the Night Court. The echelon of Oristian is reserved for Illyrians who make it to the Ramiel during the Blood Rite but don't reach the top.

Locations not listed: A slew of various more minor locations have not been listed, including the Four Market Squares of Velaris, certain cottages and houses, and even the Ironcrest Illyrian war-camp.
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THE CAULDRON

There are many magical cauldrons present in various mythologies, one being the Pair Dadeni in Welsh mythology, a magical cauldron able to resurrect the dead, and the coire ansic of Irish mythology, the cauldron of the chief god of the Tuatha Dé Danann, which never ran empty.

TRUTH-TELLER

Possibly inspired by Fragarach, an Irish mythological sword known as "The Whisperer" or "The Answerer." It was the sword of Nuada, the first high king; it was said that no one could tell a lie with Fragarach at their throat and that the sword inflicting wounds from which no one could recover.

THE HARP

May refer to the uaithne, the magical harp of the Dagda, the chief god of the Tuatha Dé Danann in Irish mythology. It could control men's emotions and change the seasons.

THE MASK

In Egyptian culture, death masks were designed to guide the spirits of those mummified into the next world.

THE UNKNOWN 4th TROVE ITEM

Seen in a vision by Nesta via Lathys, which we now know to be the Horn, and may refer to the Gjallarhorn of Norse mythology, the sound of which is said to herald the beginning of Ragnarok.

ATARAXIA

Ataraxia, in Ancient Greek philosophy, was a state of calmness untroubled by mental or emotional disquiet, ie tranquility of the mind. It was considered the ideal mental state for soldiers entering battle.
ACOTAR Role: Nesta's Made sword.

GWYDION

Gwydion is a name meaning "born of the trees" and is the given name of Gwydion fab Dôn, a magician, hero, and trickster of Welsh mythology. Caer Wydion, the castle of Gwydion, was the traditional Welsh name for the Milky Way.
ACOTAR role: The Starsword and twin to Truth-Teller.

NARBEN

No direct reference found, though narben in German means "scar."
ACOTAR role: Narben is a lost sword from the Dread Trove.

OUROBOROS MIRROR

The ouroboros is an ancient symbol of a serpent or a dragon eating its own tale, first present in ancient Egyptian iconography and the Greek magical tradition, the term itself deriving from Ancient Greek. It has been used frequently and extensively throughout fantasy literature. It often symbolizes the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

BOOK OF BREATHINGS

The Books of Breathing are a set of ancient Egyptian funerary texts that are intended to enable those deceased to continue their existence in the afterlife. It is a simplified form of the Book of the Dead.

VERITAS ORB

Veritas is of Latin origin meaning "truth." It is the name for the Roman virtue of truthfulness and in Roman mythology, Veritas is the Goddess of Truth. Universities and colleges such as Harvard use the term veritas as their motto.

SYMPHONIA

Symphonia is Greek in origin and was used to denote a variety of musical instruments.

AMARANTHA'S NECKLACE AND RING (JURIAN'S FINGER AND EYE)

Jurian's finger bone and eye, kept by Amarantha, are reminiscent of relics and reliquaries, often religious in nature. Relics typically consist of the physical remains or personal affects of a saint and the reliquary is the container that holds them.

FAEBANE

Possibly inspired by wolfsbane (aka aconite or monkshood), a poisonous flower ancient Greeks would poison arrows and bait with to hunt wolves. It is lethal and often fatal and is an oft-used plant and poison within the fantasy genre.
Fun fact: In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet himself was killed with an aconite-laced blade.

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DAEMATI

Potentially a combination of the Greek word dae (to give) and the concept of mati, labeled as "the evil eye" in Greek classical antiquity. Daemati may effectively mean "to give the evil eye."

THE WEAVER'S SONG

The Weaver's song, sung when Feyre was stealing Rhysand's ring from her cottage, is similar to "The Twa Sisters," a traditional murder ballad dating back to mid 17th century England. It tells of two sisters who travel down to a body of water where the older one pushes the younger one in. A harp or a fiddle is then made out of the murdered sister's body, which plays itself and sings about her murder.

Just got accepted into Ottawa (yippee!), but I put my deposit in at Alberta (a frankly ridiculous 1k) back in early April and really only seriously considered UBC as an alternative (alas, got my R the other day). I've completely mentally committed myself to UofA, and kind of expected my Ontario apps to fizzle out, seeing as I've still got two unanswered (with one being Osgoode), but now that it's real, I'm torn. There's a TDLR if you want to skip ahead :)
Some personal context: I'm from BC, and currently intend on practicing in Vancouver, but don't want to box myself in this early in case I decide to go to Ontario instead. I'm not sure what area I want to practice in, but I'm leaning toward family or MAYBE government/politics (hence, interest in parliament), though I really don't want to put my eggs in any baskets until I've done my first year and gotten some more relevant experience. The distance is a bit daunting for both (did undergrad at UBC, within 1.5hrs of home), but my mom works with an airline so plane tickets aren't much of an obstacle--distance is distance. I only slightly lean toward Alberta because it's closer to home and I would miss my little sister a lot. Edmonton housing is also pretty cheap, but seeing as I'm coming from UBC... both places are much more comfortably priced. I don't mind the tuition difference. Really, my only qualms with UofA to begin with were the snow and small-city feel (compared to Vancouver), so seeing as Ottawa, to my understanding, is more or less the same, I'm not being tipped in either direction. I think my gut is saying Alberta, but that might just be because I've been spending the last month mentally imagining living there. I'm hoping to make a trip out to Ottawa in the next few weeks to see if I even like the campus/area.
To my understanding, UofA and UOttawa are pretty much tied in terms of academics. I'm really only considering UOttawa seeing as Ottawa houses parliament, in case I want to go into poltics/government. I feel pretty confident that I'll get a job in Van if I go to UofA, as I know a handful of people who have taken that route. I also imagine transitioning from a Van firm to an Ontario one wouldn't be super difficult if I have enough experience/capability. I guess I'm just wondering if UOttawa has any practical advantage over UofA. From what I've seen, UofA has a more holistic curriculum, while Ottawa focusses in on current sociopolitical concerns, like environmental, Indigenous, etc law.
Additionally, if by some bizarre stroke of luck Osgoode likes my PS and accepts me, would it be wisest to pick them over UofA and UOttawa? I'm also waiting on Queen's, but it doesn't have the same pull Ottawa has for me (i.e., parliament), but if you think it would be better than UofA, I'd love to hear about it. Also, I'm waiting for USask, so if you have a compelling reason for why they're better than everyone else and I should hope for the A, fire away, haha.
Sorry for being long-winded! Just want to give as much context as possible. It's so annoying that making this choice now pretty much shapes your careelife. But I would really appreciate some advice if you've got it, thank you :)
TL;DR - From BC, trying to pick between UofA and UOttawa, with slight lean to UofA. Hoping to practice in Vancouver as of right now. No hard preference for specialization, but an inclination toward family law. Does UOttawa have any practical/specific advantage over UofA? Additionally, if I somehow get into Oz, should I choose that overall? Feel free to sing any praises for USask or Queen's as well.

My fellow gamers, for too long has our community suffered the indignation of an intolerable culture that has denigrated, besmirched, exploited, and has outright demonized our culture of unique individuals with a genuine love of a hobby that they see as profitable and progressive. They have taken beloved IP’s (Intellectual Properties) and twisted them into their own personal ideological crusade of undermining and humiliating the core aspects of characters they deemed as “Toxic” or “White Supremacy”. Through the guise and protection of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity) & ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) they have used our influence in the entertainment industry to push their narratives and agendas that have stigmatized our culture with numerous anti-consumer practices that they call “being progressive”. But the truth of the matter is they were never really looking to be a part of our community, they simply wanted to use our community as a tool of activism and propaganda in the entertainment industry as it was extremely profitable, and they wanted inclusion in that division. Ever since GamerGate & Female Frequency, we have had to endure the incursion of forced ideologies, xenophobic behaviors and inferior overpriced products that have never been in our best interest and have been flat out disgraceful towards foreign media.
Before Gaming had become a major source of entertainment, we were often categorized as anti-social or societies rejects where because we found more enjoyment in playing fictional characters and not spending as much time out and about, we never fully assimilated in society (which is a good thing if you ask me). From 1998 to 2007, at the height of innovation, creativity and production, Gaming had reached a golden age in which it had revolutionized society. Hollywood Execs who had ruined the movie industry turned their attention to video games as a source of income since video games had outperformed movies in terms of profit. No one was concerned about gaming, much less diversity or inclusivity until it became profitable. This makes people like SBI look extremely disingenuous as they were not interested in gamers as a community with its own culture. They simply wanted to use it as another weapon in identity politics.
Microtransactions; the hidden enemy to gamer progress and inducer to mental laziness of our community. Microtransactions have been around for a long time; however, it has never been more potent and apparent than in recent years. It has aided in the dismantling and segregation of players on the ideology of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and has created another sub-culture of gamers who have no real drive to be better outside of how much money they put into the game. This has degraded our culture as well as we have become “fat” off transactional gaming but at the same time we have been “starved” of purposeful gaming where our achievements were our sustenance. I am not saying that microtransactions are bad, but when they are exploitative and predatorial like they have been and don’t give gamers room to grow, we become lethargic and unwilling to improve ourselves as gamers. Oversaturated microtransactional games are one of the many reasons why we have become complacent and unwilling to fight against the exploitative tactics used by big brand game companies such EA, Ubisoft, ActivisionBlizzard, NaughtyDog and so many other western business model companies. Western style games were not like this in the past, they had much more depth and actual effort put into them with the gamer in mind. This has not been the case for over a decade and our connection to western developers has been whittled down to just being transactional. That is one of the reasons why you see so many remasters and remakes in today’s gamer community. They have lost their willingness to improve as developers of games and simply accept corporate/share holder rules.
Game journalists also do not have any real integrity or purpose outside of being funded for their involvement in promoting IPG (Identity Political Games) in a positive light to the public whether it’s positively received or not. They are not interested in what we have to say, they all support the same agenda and that is why they are a dying breed. Within the next couple of years, they will be out of the job and more than likely they will not be able to stay in the industry giving how they have responded to past articles that have clearly been scripted on the premise of diversity and racism. Not only that, but most of them are also extremely hostile to the community as they stereotype and defame the individuals that are a part of the community they are supposed to serve. We have been mentally liberated from their lies and coercive tactics as we tend to laugh at their obvious attempt at virtue signaling while hiding their misdoings so that they can play the victim.
My gamer brothers & sisters, I would not suggest the following action that we must take now without good cause. I have weighed our options and the best option for us now is this…...CULTURAL SECESSION. Naturally this is a form of segregation where they would more than likely claim they are being segregated by the dominant culture of the gaming community but that is incorrect. For years now we have been the ones who are often marginalized and ostracized for the smaller portion of our community. And when we aren’t, we’re exploited for more funds so that these companies can stay in business only to subject us to low quality products that coincide with the “WOKE Agenda” that are often huge expenses to these big brands i.e. AAA/AAAA games that will eventually flop for its obvious forced diversity and bug infested product which will undoubtedly piss off the consumer to the point of wanting a refund. Losing copious amounts of capital and stock in the process, not to mention their reputation is permanently marred.
We must separate on every cultural level in terms of entertainment and ideology. We must reject everything from the west that promotes toxic western beliefs, practices, and exclusion from other cultures (i.e. Southeastern Countries such as Japan and Korea). Japan & Korea have been the targets of unjust discrimination from Western Developers, Western Journalists, Western Localizers (The Wokelizers) and Western Society Prejudice regarding their sense of aesthetics as Westerners hate the aesthetic sense of these countries. The reason why they resort to such base tactics isn’t just because it weaponizes the ideal female form but it’s also because they have deep-seated insecurities about their own looks so when they see attractive female characters, they use terms such as “unrealistic” or “hypersexualized” to establish the moral high ground. But the truth is, they want to feel superior to that which is ideal, so they insult and dehumanize this figure that portrays natural female beauty because they see it as an insult to their own social superiority in what they believe is a hierarchy of them being at the top of all other women. Because of this and so many contributing factors, their movies flop harder than the Fat Chocobo landing on a group of enemies and their games seismically fail just as much if not more. We must sever our connection to Western Developers, Publishers, and ALL Western-Centric Entertainment for they seek to mentally enslave us to their Xenophobic ideology.
Let’s define Western Culture and its traits. Western Culture/Society is composed of more than several different ideologies that work in unison with one another to facilitate dominance over multiple aspects of society. Business, Social, Political, Technological, and sometimes even Global Affairs are affected by these ideologies that portray a specific mindset of Western beliefs. What are those ideologies you ask?

• Perpetual Victimhood: By weaponizing the fact that they are marginalized and of a small portion of western society, they can push their agenda to absurd standards that ultimately ostracize the main demographic. And when companies don’t capitulate, they are labeled as anti-progressive/misogynist’s or cohorts of White Supremacy. They use this to cancel their targets and silence them through societal defamation to keep the public on their side. They also use this mindset to justify their own lack of self-agency as they tend to throw companies who do adhere to their demands but miserably fail to turn a profit under the bus so that they can maintain face in front of the public while denying their actual involvement. They will never accept “Sense of Agency” when it’s negative but will gladly accept it when a positive outcome shines on them as if they are entitled to it.

Official Wiki GamerGate Page)
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• Societal Terrorism: This is another form of ideology weaponization that they use in order to make companies “toe-the-line” with their agenda. By weaponizing cancel culture, they exert dominance over these companies but in exchange they also reimburse those companies with DEI & ESG funds that raise their credit score as well as having social status with the marginalized demographic. However; cancel culture has not succeeded in years and developers and publishers probably only want the money and the DEI ESG rating. But they have to maintain the image of having social economic power so that they can continue to strong-arm other developers into compliance and promoting financial benefits of DEI & ESG. In other words, if you are not for sale, they discredit and stigmatize you in the industry.

Asmongold Clips.
https://youtu.be/Iq86DnmX2xY
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• “Its not us, its you who’s wrong” Mentality: This mentality is especially annoying as they tend to use it to hide their incompetence. They often look down upon gamers who are not in the industry to hide their obvious lack of knowledge on game development thinking that their job title grants them special status that they believe gives them the right to be condescending. But the truth they never wanted revealed has already strangled their careers of all credibility. They were never GAMERS, they were INVADERS. Community Colonists that seek to indoctrinate next generational gamers into their hive-mind and brand previous generations of gamers as villains.

@GeeksandGamers
https://youtu.be/1HbrTkqQFuM
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• Double-standard Enforcement: By labeling something as “unrealistic” or “hypersexualized”, they can claim this is morally wrong if it promotes traditional dynamics between men and women. Heterosexual relationships are condemned while at the same time Same-sex relationships are praised. Additionally, heterosexual relationships with main white male characters turn antagonistic and spotlight stealing. This is deliberate as to promote the “Girl Boss” ideology to indoctrinate women into the Feminazi state of mind. While at the same time, should a male character also adopt the “I don’t need male/female” ideology its seen as Toxic Masculinity which isn’t even a real thing. The idea of a strong male character is taboo while enforcing strong female characters is the ideal.

@MugenLord
https://youtu.be/to5Uciy_yeg
@EndymionTv
https://youtu.be/7TPTR8-qmbk
​

• Dehumanization/Demonization: This is something that most military branches use in order to remove conscious inhibitions such as mass slaughter is wrong or categorization. By enforcing ideologies to denounce humanity in certain targets, it deactivates your conscience by saying this is not human therefore its ethically okay to treat this target without compassion and deny the fact it has sentience. We gamers fall under this category for journalists, developers, companies and society at large. This is a tactic we are familiar with to an extent as it implies that we are not normal when we do not do what everybody else is doing. “Geeks are the worse” or “Nerds need to fall into a pit of lava” are verbal dehumanization forms that most people in society say and we as Gamers tend to be relegated to those categories. This is their way of imposing the social hierarchy on us by establishing superiority. We know this as Gamers as we see it very often in the games that we play and some times experience it in real life.

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Gamergate#The_end_of_their_relevance
​

• Deflection/Projection: This is basic psychology 101. By redirecting the conversation away from their mistakes and back on to the opposing view to avert blame and justify their innocence they can avoid criticism. However; deflection is a CONSCIOUS decision, meaning they have no real argument to justify their incompetence. If you can consciously process the situation, you have self-agency which means you don’t have a legitimate excuse. Projection is something else entirely. Most times, Projection doesn’t work on conscious decisions rather it is automatically deployed when feeling threatened, anxious or both. Instead of accepting accountability for feelings or actions that are deemed socially unacceptable they accuse others of committing that unacceptable behavior thereby exonerating themselves and proving that those feelings and/or actions are not their own.

@TheTrentReport
https://youtu.be/bPIPSKruYRo
These traits are so nefarious and unconscionable that I have a hard time believing that anyone could harbor them. However, given the social, political, and economic climate that we are in, those in power who use their influence on controlling society most definitely possess these insidious traits. Everything that they do is all about control and since video games are the biggest market in the world, they want control over it and the communities built around it to accrue more wealth and to use that wealth to subjugate other cultures. Mainstream media is a tool as well as mainstream organizations and sites to help accomplish this goal.
The government recently announced its intentions towards what they believe is “GamerGate 2.0” and now even the ADL has made an official appearance, referring to gamers as “extremist’s”. We know EXACTLY what they are doing, and they aren’t even trying to hide it anymore because they don’t think we are aware of their motives. This is just a pretext for them to exert even more control and we know why, it’s because they want the influence we as a community have to must serve them. So here is what we do my fellow gamers-
“In light of recent events and years of mainstream stigma, we the members of the Global Gaming Community [GGC] must officially renounce ALL TIES to the corporate western video game market. We have been financially exploited through predatorial monetization schemes, pelted with numerous articles of disdain and intentional misrepresentation from game journalists, news outlets regarding us as dangerous individuals and, even subjected to inferior products not only riddled with bugs but also products meant to push political agendas. For the preservation of our community and its unique culture, apart from a few select game development studios we officially sever all connections to western owned video game companies & their mainstream affiliates. From this point onward, we will no longer support western corporate developers, journalists and publishers that do not coincide with the goals of our community.”
Naturally this is completely optional. If you are okay with the state of the gaming community as it is, feel free to ignore this. But if you wish for real change and a break away from oversaturated monetization in the games you play and the push for radical ideological reform, then you are in the right place. Lets sever these rotted miasmic ties once and for all so that our community can be preserved and made better for future gamers. If you agree with this, share it with whoever you think might be interested. The more gamers who get involved, the easier it will be for us to finally break free from mainstream game companies and their associates.

My sister who is 30 has recently been having issues with her housing situation alongside her husband and her 2 kids. As unfortunate as that sounds, it is their fault due to their terrible money management. Grocery deliveries, matching clothes for the kids, new toy every time she gets something from the store, and eating out at least once sometimes twice a day. You get the point. Her husband is an avid drinker and even though he works and brings home around 80k before taxes, they have gone around 7 months without a home. Around February, my sister had enough of staying at it his parents and decided to move her and her two children in with my mom and I. I am a 22 year old college student with a full time job, and my mom is 60 years old, grieving the loss of my dad/her husband. My brother in law who is 35 was not allowed in our home due to him stealing from us and also understanding that he does not need to be enabled. When she first moved in, she broke a couple things, which we were not appreciative of. We were also not appreciative of her running up utilities by leaving the everything on all day. However, she needed a safe place to stay with her and her children so my mom accommodated her. After a month or so, we noticed that she had no plans on improving much of anything continuing to waste money and sleeping til noon (she is unemployed) her husband would give her money for the kids, but I am pretty sure she was cut out of a bit of money because I noticed she hasn’t been spending as much in the last month or so. Her only responsibility was taking her older kid to school, which she overslept multiple times. She completely trashed both of our guest bedrooms which we had recently redone by spilling things, leaving open bowls with food in there. What bothered us the most however was her two year old that would continue to scream through the night. My sister enabled the two year old too much by always giving her what she wants. Both kids cannot even sit at dinner without an iPad. Combined with my sisters sleep schedule at going to bed late and sleeping through noon, the baby would be awake at night keeping us up and sleep deprived for our next work day. This continues for months in which she doesn’t pay rent, and contributes nothing towards the household except for taking up space. I watched this go on as it wasn’t my house or place to say anything. Last weekend was the final straw. My mom asked nicely if she could try to keep her kid quiet and she blew up on her. She was cussing my mom out, and that offended me so badly, that I said calmly, “maybe if you could control your kid, she wouldn’t have to say a thing to you.” Now that I look back at it, I shouldn’t have said that. She storms out of the house and comes back later. My mom says that it would be best if she stays somewhere else. After she left, she texted us stuff we wouldn’t even imagine. She calls me an autistic slob, someone with no ambition in life, told me I was an accident, and told me how terrible my mom was. As someone who is tidy, works full time, and goes to school, I found that quite amusing. It was far more detailed than I described. She even went as far as saying that our deceased dad didn’t even care about me. Also, she said that I cared more about my dad’s items more than him dying. She said similar things to my mom. Ironically, we analyzed the things she said to both of us, and a lot of them are actually more about herself. On top of that, she blocked both of us after she sent that message. I believe if you’re gonna send a message like that be prepared to have it dished back. I decided she is no longer my sister and I will never have anything to do with her again. I realized that she is in a terrible position in life and bringing her kids down with her. They are currently now living in a camper with no air conditioning or running water that is only lended out to them by her husbands boss. She uprooted her kids from a safe place to live because she got mad at my mom for setting boundaries basically. I feel the worst for the kids in this situation as they don’t deserve to have terrible parents like them. They are apparently getting a house soon, but they get evicted from their rentals after a few months because they don’t save their money to pay rent. There is so much more to them two, but I am going into work as typing out this last part. I might go into it more later.

Yesterday my wife and I (both have left the church) were at my in-laws having a Mother's Day dinner. After dinner, we were having a side conversation with my sister in law and her husband about how we want to be buried when we die (long story involving my wife working for a cleaning company and cleaning a mortuary on a regular basis).
My sister in law made a sarcastic comment on Jehovah's Witnesses' belief that blood is the soul so they don't drain the blood from the deceased before burial and rolled her eyes as if that was the most unbelievable thing in the world.
I wanted to scream "YOU LITERALLY BELIEVE THAT GOD DOESN'T WANT YOU TO DRINK A BEVERAGE FROM A BEAN THAT GROWS NATURALLY ON THE EARTH THAT HE ALLEGEDLY CREATED".
Honestly, It's so annoying to listen to the arrogance that mormons have because they believe they are part of the one true church on earth. They don't realize that the things they believe are just as, if not more ridiculous as the things they criticize about other people's beliefs.
We spent a good portion of the drive home talking about all the insane things that mormons believe that are way crazier than "blood is the soul". Coffee and tea, the origins of the book of mormon, a living prophet that talks face to face with Jesus and yet fucks literally everything up all the time, etc. The list goes on and on...
The JWs believe some wacky things too, it was just so ironically funny to me that a mormon would roll their eyes at a pretty vanilla belief from a very similar religion.

I have two older sisters L & T. L is the GC, T is the scapegoat and I'm the forgotten one. Of course NM has always favoured L but it seems lately it's so much more blatant and I have to hear so much more of the praise and defense. L is just as much of a poison as my NM is (sometimes worse), but in NM's eyes, L can do no wrong. I have to keep hearing "that's my first born! My first baby!" flying out of my NM's mouth the second anyone has an issue with L (who is incredibly messy, petty and loves to start drama). NM constantly goes on about how unfair we are to L because that's her "first baby" and she needs to "protect her". It used to sting to hear my NM care so much about L and run to be by her side but not give a shit if I was sick or needed her. Now it just pisses me off. I'm tired of hearing how little she cares about me and T. How everyone else needs to cut L some slack but L is justified whenever she's a bitch, even unprompted. T and I have suffered too. We've been sick too. They don't care. I really wish I could tell NM to STFU already. Unfortunately I have to keep the peace until I can finally move out 7 months from now and go NC. There isn't an insult strong enough for those two.

Out there - Patreon (for all those curious or wanting to support :))
At the Beginning
Adventure Arc - Arc 2
Wilderness Arc - Arc 3
Academy Arc - Arc 4
Nobility Arc - Arc 5
Previously on Leveling up the World...
DOMAIN INVASION
​
DOMAIN INVASION
​
DOMAIN INVASION
​
Rectangles kept on flashing in front of Dallion’s eyes. The emperor’s attempts to kick him out of his domain were increasing. The first wave had been merely a test to probe the defenses. Since no immediate response had followed, Jeremy had pushed on with more settlements, wedging them within Dallion’s territory.
Both attacks were performed in perfect coordination. It was obvious that the emperor was leading Archduchess Priscord, who in turn had decided that the risk was worth the potential reward.
As Dallion flew from his domain in the north in the direction of the Academy, he concentrated on a top-down view of his domain. It wasn’t so much looking as a general feeling of the dimensions changing. Moving settlements about had trained him to have a full sense of his territory.
Circles of nothing kept on eating into his domain as settlements with reasonably large populations invaded. Dallion could tell that they were soldier forts full of Priscord’s troops. The moment they got anywhere close to a settlement of his, they would rush out and attack outright. So far, they had captured three minor towns with minimal resistance.
​
DOMAIN INVASION
You have increased your domain
​
The TOWN of GRIFFIN FORT has become part of your domain
​
Another pair of rectangles popped up. Euryale had sprung into action, taking on one of the invading forts.
For a moment Dallion hesitated whether to get involved as well. If he made a push in the same area, he could well strand several of the invading forts, potentially commencing a counterattack.
No, the wiser part within him said. There would be time for that later. For the moment, all his focus had to be on the Academy.
Summoning three clay cylinders, Dallion cast three aether echoes and sent them to scout the general area he where remembered the Academy being. Adzorg had done a good job suggesting that as a target. In theory, the emperor could move its location like any other settlement. However, that wasn’t entirely true for the Academy buildings. Having them remain so long at their original location had caused the magic lines of the area to thicken like roots taking hold. Moving the buildings would rip a large part of them out, severely limiting a lot of the spells that the mages took for granted. In a worst-case scenario, a series of wild vortexes could appear, turning the Academy into the vortex fields. The archbishop was probably aware of that, which was why he hadn’t attempted to glass them with his magic rockets until now. That left the morsel ripe for the taking.
Veil, any trouble? Dallion asked through his domain.
You bet. Nothing we can’t handle, the overseer replied. She’s using hunting troops.
Actual hunters?
Nah, just the common riff-raff that we were volunteered to way back. Level twenty, all of them.
That was somewhat strange. Provided that the emperor was still in possession of the skill altar, one would have assumed that he’d boost the skill level of all his troops. Or maybe that was on purpose. After all, Priscord’s troops remained loyal to her, not the emperor himself.
“Be ready, Gleam.” Dallion summoned the shardfly near him.
You know they must have added a few extra illusions since our last visit, the creature said.
I see them, Aquilequia said in a smug manner. Being a great dragon, even when reduced to level one, had more advantages than the achievement had let on.
Dallion could feel the anger and bloodlust erupt from Gleam. It was the shardfly’s nature to face something strong, especially a dragon. Thankfully, she was loyal enough to keep herself from doing anything rash. After all, Dallion had promised her a go at the emperor’s great dragon in the near future.
It’s right over—
Before Aquilequia could finish, a purple beam of light erupted from below. Shattering the area illusion hiding it, it struck one of Dallion’s aether echoes, evaporating it on the spot.
Instinctively, Dallion thrust his harpsisword in the direction, sending a spark infused spiral attack. Dozens of aether barriers emerged in an attempt to block the attack. All they did was shatter one after the other, barely diminishing its power.
Careful, dear boy! Adzorg warned. There are buildings you don’t want to destroy.
“I know.” Dallion split into fifty instances.
In sync, Dallion’s remaining two aether echoes performed a series of line attacks, scarring the ground below them. Chasms, several feel wide and hundreds of feet deep, covered the terrain, breaking any illusions along their path. In the cases when buildings were destroyed, Dallion would ignore the instance, choosing one more appropriate.
“Aqui, can you consume threads?” Dallion asked.
Not directly. The dragon glided closer. Why?
“No reason to waste a good opportunity.”
​
COMBAT INITIATED
​
A purple rectangle flashed, then disappeared. It was immediately followed by a cluster of purple rays. Over half of Dallion’s instances were instantly vaporized, along with another one of his aether echoes. Alien was clearly not pulling any punches, making full use of the imperial rune golems entrusted to him. Curiously enough, there didn’t seem to be any bladerers or battle mages.
“Stop!” Dallion shouted, mixing his music skill with magic.
There seemed to be a momentary pause. The new set of rays quickly made it clear that his attack wasn’t as effective as he thought.
They’re not letting any mages take part? Dallion wondered.
There might be a whole range of reasons, Adzorg explained. My guess would be that Alien is keeping them close at hand.
Even the skilled ones?
Choosing to push the archmage into action, Dallion landed on the ground on a cluster of magic concentration. Based on the intensity, there could be no doubt that a building of moderate importance had stood there in the near past.
“Aqui!” he shouted. “Better learn this fast!”
He reached into the ground and grabbed the threads of magic flowing through it. With measured strength and perfect precision, he pulled them out as if he were taking out a weed, careful not to have any threads snap. Once he had pulled enough of them, he tore them out with one brisk action. Losing their contact with the rest of the mesh, the magic threads merged together, forming a ball of pure magic.
“Eat this,” Dallion offered, bursting into another set of instances. It was a good thing too, for one ray vaporized that particular instance of him.
Damn it, Dallion thought. The golems were adapting to his actions.
The dragon sniffed the ball of magic like a cat. Her indecision might have been described as adorable if it didn’t occur at the worst possible time. There was an option to have Gem assist, but that might prove rather risky. Aquilauia’s nature tended to be on the vicious side, same as Gleam.
“Aqui.” Dallion gently pushed her using his music skill.
Able to see the strands of music, the dragon still felt compelled to hurry up, gobbling the ball of magic in one bite.
​
AQUILEQUIA has assimilated the MAGIC cluster.
​
A purple rectangle flashed. Sadly, there was no mention of level increase. Even for a level one, the dragon required a lot more to advance. That wasn’t the point, though.
Shards of hardened aether rained all over the ground, as Dallion’s last aether copy cast a myriad of spells, providing him and the dragon with cover.
“Did you understand the principle?” Dallion asked as he pulled out another cluster of magic threads from the ground.
Yes. The dragon attempted a pout as she devoured the next ball of magic offered. I got it.
And just to prove it, she then sunk her teeth into the ground, draining an even larger amount.
​
AQUILEQUIA has assimilated the MAGIC cluster.
​
“You know what to do,” Dallion said, splitting into instances again. “Gleam, watch over her.”
Do I have to? The shardfly sighed like an older sister being denied a night out to look over her infant sibling. Even so, she did flutter close to the dragonlet, as did Dallion’s aether echo.
Dallion performed another spiral attack. He’d already discovered a number of buildings, yet not the one he needed. Fortunately, the Learning Hall also wasn’t among the revealed areas. As far as he could tell, he’d stumbled on one of the academy’s libraries and the senior mage cluster. The latter had been transformed into a battle mage training area, with most of the previous occupants having gone rogue or finding refuge among influential provincial nobles.
It’s always the rats that run first, Dallion thought as he summoned his new armadil shield.
“Gem,” he said. “Guard my back. Lux, help him.” A dartbow wrapped in blue flames emerged as well.
Alright, boss. The aetherfish said, floating the shield to cover Dallion’s back.
Lux followed, chirping instructions in his typically cheerful fashion.
I’d almost forgotten what this was like, Dallion said to himself. Sadly, there wasn’t much time to reminisce. While the human mages were focusing all their effort on casting defensive spells, the golems were attacking in full force. At any single point several cast days of destruction indiscriminately in Dallion’s direction, while dozens more were charging straight at him, as if that would make any difference. Done was the time when he would be intimidated by a twenty-foot entity made of stone with speed and reaction in the high eighties.
Music spark attack, Dallion thought as he slashed the air with his harpsisword. Strands of music shot out, drilling through anything they came in contact with. Just for good measure, Dallion followed up by a line strike with his aura sword, casting twenty spells as he did.
Use a bit more instances, Adzorg suggested. Even when observing near perfection, the old man had something to criticize about. You still could be a target for rockets.
​
AQUILEQUIA has assimilated the MAGIC cluster, increasing her level to 2.
​
“Good work girl,” Dallion praised as rune golems disintegrated by the dozens.
​
MULTI KILL
(+2 Body, +2 Perception)
Killing twenty in one strike isn’t anything special. Killing twenty entities with an awakened level of eighty, is.
​
A kill achievement? For some reason that made Dallion think of his grandfather. He, too, had killed off dozens of similar levels. Did that mean he had earned that achievement as well during the Order of the Twelve Suns massacre?
Careful, boss! Lux chirped.
A wave of destruction came out from beneath the ground, vaporizing all but five of Dallion’s instances.
Instantly, Dallion split again, and just in time as more waves followed from beneath the ground.
​
MAJOR WOUND
Your health has been reduced by 50%
​
Even with all his effort, Dallion had still suffered a partial hit. A ray of purple had effectively severed both his feet. The pain was tremendous, though severely dulled by his high body level, as if he was having a tooth pulled with partial anesthetic.
An immediate soothing sensation followed, as the firebird moved the dartblade to where his legs were, transforming it into a pair of metal bowls.
“Is everyone alright?” Dallion looked about with his instances.
There was no trace of his echo, though Aquilequia and Gleam seemed unharmed, located on the only patch of land that remained unaffected.
Nymphs aren’t the only ones who can play tricks, the shardfly said. Looks like you lost a few inches.
Smiling at her humor, Dallion performed a series of spiral attacks directly below.
The ground tore, revealing hundreds of partial golems buried there. The designs seemed ancient—something that must have been constructed during the first days of the Academy.
“You really were planning things out forward, weren’t you?” Dallion said out loud. Even back before Jeremy had openly rebelled he had set things up so nothing he had created would fall in enemy hands. The capital, the Academy, and Moons know what else were nothing but expendable pawns that had served their purpose.
The realization sent chills throughout Dallion’s body. If the emperor was willing to use them here, he’d be willing to destroy every structure of the Academy, people included.
“Damn it!” A hundred instances of Dallion darted straight down. Unsummoning both his blades, he reached forward in an attempt to come in contact with the ground as fast as possible.
​
AREA AWAKENING

I labeled this petty revenge but it also falls under Wedding Drama and MIL from hell. It's a threefer! A terrible threefer!
This story is about my MIL. We do not get along. At all. To be honest, she's a pretty awful person and had been NC with most of my partners family since before I met her. I believe two of her sisters are all she has contact with and I know one of the two is LC as of two years ago. Anywho...
When my partner and I met MIL lived in the same city. A few years into our relationship she moved out of state. We got engaged and married during this time. She and her husband (Not my partners dad.) Flew in for the wedding. A month before the wedding. To help with the wedding. They stayed with the aunt shes now LC with... Im still a bit sour about all of this because she made that month miserable. So much unnecessary stress.
We did not ask for nor need her help in any way. We paid for everything ourselves and my side of the family catered the food. My favorite aunt made the MOH dress and I paid for the dresses for bridesmaids. My youngest sister did our hair and makeup. Everything was paid for via our savings. We'd set aside funds specifically for our wedding. MIL had something to say about everything. Always about how she did it for her two failed marriages. What she would have wanted. It was a constant barrage of insults. I had gotten very good at avoiding her or pawning her off on literally anyone else.
Come the day of the wedding she did everything in her power to take over. She walked my partner to the alter and stayed there. When I made it to the alter she tried to stay standing next to me. Not with the rest of the wedding party but next to me, in front of my partner.
The officiant had to tell her to sit her ass down. Her husband had to drag her to her seat. My partner looked rightly horrified. The wedding continued with a wave of murmurs.
When it came time for pictures she inserted herself in every one. I was pretty pissed off by this time but was doing my best to just keep smiling until the end. I was determined not to let her ruin our day. My partner was trying to manage their grandma. She's a whole super villian on her own. They were trying to keep her away from their dad. She had a personal vendetta against the man because he divorced MIL and shacked up with his "guy friend". Yes the man was gay, no they never admitted they were a couple to the family because his side of the family is extremely religious.
Toward the end of the night I wanted pictures with my sisters and MOH. Only my sisters and MOH. They were my bridesmaids as well after all. MIL insisted on being in these pictures too. She would not accept a no.
I'm on the verge of tears while were posing in front of a beautiful gazebo with dozens of candles lit among floral arrangents on a table in the background. Im exhausted and quietly losing my cool. Im told my face was telling all sorts of stories by this point though. MIL decided to stand right next to me, trying to push out my MOH, who, like the badass that she is, wasnt having it. It was a very childish match of moving in front of each other. Several snaps in and MIL starts screaming. A rancid smell absolutely fills the air.
The whole scene devolves into chaos. We are trying to figure out whats wrong.
Dear reader... this is the moment I knew my soul was bound for hell because when that women whipped around and her flaming locks came around to smack her in the face, I swear I saw it in slow motion. Turns out one of the candles was far closer to the edge of the table than the rest. No one has any idea how it happened. (I dont buy that story but Im letting the oversight go lmao.) MILs wig caught fire. Yes. Her cheap wig went right up in flames. I actually did cry at this. I cried because I was trying so desperately not to laugh at the scene of my MIL being beaten with a table sash and flowers. I honestly did not know how to react and was overwhelmed by it all. They get her put out, refusing to let me help because they dont want ME to go up in flames or ruin my dress.
With a tear stained face I ask her if shes okay, shes freaking out, rightfully. My MOH steps in to help and I excuse myself. MIL is tended to and I barely make my escape to the bathroom where I proceed to lose my shit laughing. I text the photographer who informs me that he did in fact get a picture of my MILs wig on fire. He tells me that when Im ready we can continue without MILs interference as shes been escorted to urgent care. She was fine. Cheap wig was all that caught fire. She suffered a minor burn on her cheek but thats it. I adore telling the story of my MILs brush with death (her words) at our wedding.
The cherry on top of this karma sundae? Oh yes, it gets better. Thanks in whole to my partner.
Our photographer included the flaming hair picture in our digital package. We laugh about it whenever she's a pill. One day, years later, MIL came over for dinner and complained that we had pictures of family on display but none of her. Deceased relatives and the kids... She made a stink about how she felt hurt that we dont have any of her despite knowing so many of them exist. My awesome partner, having had enough of their mothers shit, printed the flaming hair picture, framed it and stuck it on the wall above the entry table. It greets you the moment you enter our home. Partner invites her back over for dinner, says nothing. She knocks, is let in, dropped her purse on the entry table, paused when she saw it, dawned the "sucked on a lemon" pucker but never said a word about it. Its been there for 13 years now. Every now and then my partner gets a new tacky, god awful frame for it and surprises me.
I love my partner so much. 😂

I’m a 23 year old girl who’s only 5”1 to 5”2 at max. I’ve been bullied by my mother and cousins constantly for being this short. Especially my mother, who always pinpoints my short stature and tells me I would’ve been a bit more taller than I am had I exercised or played some sports when I was younger. There’s not a single week that went by in the past 13 years where she didn’t insult my height and made me feel insecure about it. Recently, she once again expressed her regret of me not being at least two inches more taller than my current height and for the first time ever, I felt like taking away my own life because of this. She never understood how much depression this issue has filled in my life. I started thinking about numerous ways to kill my self that night before sleeping, be it with overdose of my daily vitamins or taking a kitchen knife or just never returning home from college. She used to insult me in front of my snake cousins 12 years ago about my height, and her sister and everyone used to laugh at me. These are also the same cousins who would hide jumping ropes from me when I was a kid so that I don’t get to exercise and grow tall like them as a result. So, when they would hear my own mother insulting me for not growing tall like them, they’d secretly feel happy and show themselves as superior to me. My mother’s aunt also made fun of my height when I was 15 and called me midget. I cried a lot about my height that night when I finally felt suicidal, and threatened my father with my suicidal messages as my serious warnings, before I actually take any drastic step in the future. For the past 13 years, he didn’t do anything to stop the bullying from my mother except for just telling me how my height is “okay and I shouldn’t worry”. That’s all. To be honest, it is indeed a lot of my fault for failing to be taller. I indeed was never active in sports or exercises when I was reaching my puberty. I had a lot of shifts in my life 13 years ago, from moving to a different country and starting a new life to struggling to make new friends and staying active with them playing outside. But I did do a lot of things to grow taller even if I wasn’t so active playing with kids my age. I used to religiously look up foods to consume for growing tall, buy teenager multivitamins from gnc, research and obsess over celebrities’ heights, learn about weird third eye rituals to grow tall, join a dance class to not only help with growing tall but to learn a new skill, and follow some small body exercises day to day that would help me grow tall. Nothing helped me, and I’ve been helpless since then. But the berating of my stature never ended. I had no time to actually accept my height and love it. I would feel insecure about being around people and my classmates because everyone seems tall. I fail to make eye contact with anyone because I’m conditioned to feel degraded looking up at anyone that’s taller than me. 5”4 is the standard for most girls, and I don’t even belong in that category. I’m writing here today as a last resort to find out if there’s anything I could still do at this age to add at least 2-3 inches to my stature. Anything. I’m aware there’s no hope because I’m already too old to grow anymore, but I just thought to ask Reddit in case there’s a miracle that I never found out about in my adolescence that only the Reddit community would know of. This, especially since my “how to grow taller research” back then when I was a teen was only limited to google articles, YouTube videos as I wasn’t part of Reddit community back then. Anything would help. Thank you for reading my vent if you’ve made it thus far.
Edit: More context on why exactly I felt suicidal for the first time that night, even though I’ve practically been depressed over my mother’s bullying for over a decade now and it should’ve been a habit already to get bullied by her. Why be suicidal now? That night, I was watching a movie where the male character was of short stature. I praised the male character in front of her, and she said “but he is short. I HATE short people. Thank god you grew tall”. She was sarcastically making fun of my height again after years of insult to my height. Add to that, I, for the first time, heard her say that she hates short people (even though she’s shorter than me herself) and thus hit me harder that the decade of berating she did to me for my height, because I started understanding her real reason for always berating me. That is, she hates me. She hates me because I turned out to be shorter than she dreamed I would be. After two hours, I was still watching a movie in living room and she comes and sits next to me, and then AGAIN, starts saying her usual “if only you exercised when you were young, you could’ve been taller than you are now”. Hence, proving her earlier remark about thanking god that I turned out tall was indeed a sarcastic joke made on me. Because nothing changed. She’s still making me feel guilty for not growing tall and will continue to insult me in future for my short stature. This is what led me to, finally, hit the suicidal stage that night. I was at the depression stage all throughout my adolescent years because of my height, recently felt suicidal because of it. I used to beg my dad to let me have limb lengthening surgery for years and he would never understand the depth of my situation and always talk me out of it because it’s dangerous, and as he should because that’s what a good father should do. Limb lengthening surgery actually is dangerous and I’ve never heard of good results from anyone that’s done it. The good results come after years and years and after all the pain. It also sounds like a waste of time. But I was hell bent on getting it done and somewhere in the corner of my heart, I still want to do it to this day. But I just wish he understood the real reason why I’m so insecure about my height and spoke up for me against the person who’s made me so desperate and insecure enough to get that surgery done. He was always blind about my depression and still is. What aches my heart is the fact that whenever I talked to my father to get limb lengthening surgery, my mother used to be right next to him listening to me begging him and him talking me out of it, yet she never talked me out of it herself. I expected her to talk me out of it and say that my height, indeed, is normal and that I shouldn’t be thinking of any surgery. But instead, she would just listen to me begging him and either say nothing (as if I’m correct for thinking about surgery and somehow should convince dad to let me have it done), or she would just say “if only you were active/played sports when you had “time” you would’ve been taller today and not think of this surgery. So it’s your fault that now you’re thinking of this surgery because you failed to grow tall”. Basically, making me feel even more insecure and uncomfortable about my height.

Every year on Mother's day I make a big post and call my Dad saying I love him and I'm so grateful for him. Today someone made a HUGE stink about it on my post about how it's not his day. My father single handedly raised me and my two sisters (one who isn't bio) after my mother left him and us for drugs when I was 8. He has been my father AND my mother my whole life. He deserves praise every day of the year imo.

https://www.7consumerdatavictimcompensation.com/
I got a letter in the mail about this settlement, and I am curious if anyone else out here is aware of this, or knows if this is legit.
Additionally, I'm being asked to complete an heirship form for a family member who isn't deceased. The KSA thinks my family member is dead. Lastly, my sister received the same information in the mail in a different state.

I (20f) harbor extreme disdain towards my older cousin’s(23m) girlfriend (21f). I already disliked her because of her general fake and ass kissing behavior, but this weekend I found out that she has been openly talking trash about me to my cousins and aunt. Basically, My older cousin(23m) who we can call “Bill” in this story and his younger sister(19f) who we can call “Emma” are planning to move into a 3 bedroom house that is rented out by a family friend for a reduced price and are searching for someone to split the rent. I offered in passing to “Emma” that I could potentially be the third roommate living in the house as we are family and know each other well. It is relevant to mention that “Emma” has been open about not wanting “Bill’s” girlfriend to be the third roommate, as it would make for an extremely awkward living situation. When my aunt mentioned that I was being considered by my cousins as the third roommate rather than her, she decided that it would be a great idea to say to a room of people that “if she moves here she will kill herself” (speaking about me.) For the record I have never attempted, nor do I have any kind of suicidal tendencies. However, she also treats me coldly, like when there is an open seat next to me she will refuse it and stand instead, and she makes a huge effort to kiss up to everyone else in the family, including my parents and younger sister. She also decided to bring her entire extended family to our family party for the college graduation of both “Bill” and my other cousin (22f), and I’m not talking about just her parents, she brought her grandparents, her sister, and 3 aunts and uncles, which I find extremely strange and unusual, as she is not engaged to “Bill”, and they do not live together. However when I brought up the way that she was acting towards me, my mom decided that I was in the wrong and had nothing to say other than praise for her. It is quite obvious to me that she is looking to marry him as she tries to worm her way into every family function, and also is pushing to live with him and push for a ring after only about 1 1/2 years of dating him. Anyways, AITAH for expressing to my family that I dislike he loathe her when she is outwardly hostile to me? I think it may be that she sees me as the black sheep of the family because I am openly lesbian, and thinks that it is acceptable to treat me this way? I have also heard her say racist things openly on several occasions, and it makes me extremely uncomfortable, as “Bill’s” youngest sister (4f) is mixed race...

I am not The OOP, OOP is u/ThrowRA66636
My fiancé (27F) settled for me (29M) and I don’t know if I should go through with the wedding
Original Post Apr 29, 2024
My fiancé is way out of my league. She’s a legit 10 from looks to personality, just beyond what I ever thought I was capable of convincing to date me never mind marry me.
The ready why has always been in the back of my mind and unfortunately last week I got the answer. I overheard a conversation she had with her sister about me, I had just come home and I guess she didn’t hear me come in.
The conversation was long but she basically confirmed that she is marrying me because I’m your typical nice guy you settle down with. She said I adore her and it’s best to be with someone that puts you on a pedestal. She also basically confirmed that she had much more wild sex with the other guys she’s dated. But she’d had her fun and I was just “fine” in that area.
So, later that night I tell her that I overheard her and I said that I was concerned that she was settling for me. And she didn’t totally dismiss it. She said she loved me of course and knew she wanted to marry me early on because I was the type of guy you marry.
Now, I didn’t take this well. I don’t want to be someone that you settle for. I want to marry someone that is as crazy about me as I am about her. So I tell her that and also that she is too good to settle. She should have a person that she is crazy about and that puts her on a pedestal.
So I tell her to take some time to think about if I am really what she wants and she breaks down in tears. She apologizes for saying that to her sister that she didn’t mean it and she went on for a while.
I eventually caved and apologized. We hugged and eventually had sex which was actually the best sex we’ve ever had. And for the past week she has basically been all over me.
I love this girl but how is she going to feel about me in 10 years if she is not head over heels for me now. Am I making too much out of this? How should I handle this going forward?
TLDR: My fiancé settled for me and I don’t know if it will work long term.
EDIT: I do want add that she never said she settled for me. That’s something I inferred. She used settle down which is different. Shes only 27 and like I said she is a 10 and could get someone else at any time.
Update May 3, 2024
Thanks for all the comments on my original post. There were way more than I expected to get so I figured I would give an update.
My fiancé got out her old phone last night, which is the one she had when we first started dating and showed me the texts she sent to her sister and her friends about me.
They made me feel a lot better. After our first date she texted her sister “I’m going to marry this one.” There were a lot more including some NSFW ones to her friend after the first time we had sex. Those were more relief that the sex was good. There was no over the top praise but she was complimentary. So I guess I will take it.
There were alot more texts on the phone. She had it for a few years before she met me and there were plenty of texts about other guys as well. I read those too and didn’t see much gushing about any of them. Most of her wild times happened in college I guess.
I know she loves me and has from the start so for me I think that is enough.
THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT THE OOP
DO NOT CONTACT THE OOP's OR COMMENT ON LINKED POSTS, REMEMBER - RULE 7

There it was, on the table in Nicola Coughlan’s apartment — a microscopic undergarment that loomed large in the actor’s mind.
The “Bridgerton” costume department had sent Coughlan home with a piece of intimacy wear that was essentially a strapless thong that would cover the bare essentials of her body during an upcoming love scene.
It would be her first time ever acting in such a scene, in a series known globally for its sexy yet empowering bedroom romps, and it would require her to be almost totally naked in front of people she’d worked with for years. Coughlan was understandably terrified. One night, she poured herself a margarita and summoned the liquid courage to try on the tiny sliver of fabric.
“I went to the bathroom and looked in the full-length mirror. I was like, ‘Absolutely not.’ I hid it down the bottom of the laundry basket,” Coughlan recalled on a cold morning in January at Netflix’s offices in Manhattan. “I was like, ‘How am I going to do this?’”
Coughlan eventually got over her nerves. Much to her surprise, she found the process of filming the scenes with her co-star Luke Newton creatively satisfying — liberating, even. “By the end of the day, we were both lying under a blanket, not clothed, just chillin’. We were like, ‘This is why nudists do it,’” said Coughlan, who speaks in a rapid, melodious accent that only adds to her natural exuberance.
While discussing the arc of her career, she goes on joyful digressions, praising everything from Mrs. Renfro’s salsa to Ryan Gosling’s performance in the forgotten teen series “Breaker High” to “Saturday Night Live,” which she’s just attended for the third time and hopes to host one day (are you listening, Lorne Michaels?).
She is nothing if not enthusiastic, and she brings this level of passion to Season 3 of “Bridgerton,” the first half of which will return to Netflix on Thursday. Until now, her character, Penelope Featherington, has been content to be a wallflower in the ballrooms of Regency London, allowing her to observe and secretly write a society scandal sheet under the pseudonym Lady Whistledown.
But this season will focus on Penelope as she — spoiler alert — consummates her long-simmering crush on Colin Bridgerton (Newton) in a friends-to-lovers storyline with distinct rom-com overtones. Penelope’s move into the center of the narrative also meant that Coughlan faced new pressures as the lead in one of the most watched and dissected shows on Netflix.
“With Penelope this season, it felt like there were so many things that were reflected in real life. The whole theme of her stepping out of the shadows and into the light, and not feeling quite ready — I felt like I had to do that,” said Coughlan.
“It was really challenging. It was terrifying. It was cathartic. It was a million and one things,” she added. “I loved it.”
She juggled “Bridgerton” with an edgy turn in “Big Mood,” a “Fleabag”-esque dark comedy released last month on Tubi. On top of that, she also had a small role in the biggest box office hit of 2023, “Barbie” — she wanted to do more but, alas, her schedule was too packed — and filmed a guest appearance in the “Doctor Who” Christmas special to be released later this year.
It amounts to a long-simmering breakout moment for Coughlan, who is 37 but thanks to a preternaturally dewy complexion often plays characters who are much younger than she is, like a Catholic high school student in the Troubles-themed sitcom “Derry Girls.”
“It was very exciting to play grown women. But I was like, ‘Can I do that?’ Even in drama school, they would always cast me as the random kid, like, there was an Ibsen play called ‘Little Eyolf,’ and I had to play Eyolf. I was like, ‘This is gonna be me forever.’”
Raised in County Galway on the western coast of Ireland, she grew up liking whatever her older siblings were into — whether it was Nirvana or “Wayne’s World.” When her sister starred in the school play, Coughlan showed up in a sequined vest, looking like a little Liza Minnelli — as if she knew she also wanted to be onstage. (She still has a taste for eccentric glamour: Despite the wintry gloom, she’s decked out in a gold spangled dress and a cloud-like ruffled bolero.)
At age 9, she scored her first professional gig, a movie called “My Brother’s War” starring James Brolin. She got the day off from school, but she wanted more. “I used to look at the Olsen twins. I was like, ‘God, look, look at where they are,’” she joked. As a teenager, she did regular voice work in cartoons. Her father, who was in the Irish army (as a teenage cadet, he took part in U.S. President Kennedy’s funeral in 1963), and mother, a stay-at-home parent, were supportive but also baffled by their youngest child’s dramatic streak. “It’s really not in my family at all,” Coughlan said.
After graduating from the National University of Ireland Galway, Coughlan enrolled in a foundational course at the Oxford School of Drama in England, where she quickly bonded with fellow student Camilla Whitehill.
“We were the only people there that really cared about things being funny,” said Whitehill, a playwright who would go on to create “Big Mood” as a vehicle for her old drama school friend. “Everyone else just wanted to do plays where their family had died, or whatever.”
There it was, on the table in Nicola Coughlan’s apartment — a microscopic undergarment that loomed large in the actor’s mind.
The “Bridgerton” costume department had sent Coughlan home with a piece of intimacy wear that was essentially a strapless thong that would cover the bare essentials of her body during an upcoming love scene.
It would be her first time ever acting in such a scene, in a series known globally for its sexy yet empowering bedroom romps, and it would require her to be almost totally naked in front of people she’d worked with for years. Coughlan was understandably terrified. One night, she poured herself a margarita and summoned the liquid courage to try on the tiny sliver of fabric.
“I went to the bathroom and looked in the full-length mirror. I was like, ‘Absolutely not.’ I hid it down the bottom of the laundry basket,” Coughlan recalled on a cold morning in January at Netflix’s offices in Manhattan. “I was like, ‘How am I going to do this?’”
Coughlan eventually got over her nerves. Much to her surprise, she found the process of filming the scenes with her co-star Luke Newton creatively satisfying — liberating, even. “By the end of the day, we were both lying under a blanket, not clothed, just chillin’. We were like, ‘This is why nudists do it,’” said Coughlan, who speaks in a rapid, melodious accent that only adds to her natural exuberance.
While discussing the arc of her career, she goes on joyful digressions, praising everything from Mrs. Renfro’s salsa to Ryan Gosling’s performance in the forgotten teen series “Breaker High” to “Saturday Night Live,” which she’s just attended for the third time and hopes to host one day (are you listening, Lorne Michaels?).
Luke Newton and Nicola Coughlan hold champagne glasses on "Bridgerton."
Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) go from friends to lovers in Season 3 of “Bridgerton.” (Liam Daniel / Netflix)
She is nothing if not enthusiastic, and she brings this level of passion to Season 3 of “Bridgerton,” the first half of which will return to Netflix on Thursday. Until now, her character, Penelope Featherington, has been content to be a wallflower in the ballrooms of Regency London, allowing her to observe and secretly write a society scandal sheet under the pseudonym Lady Whistledown.
But this season will focus on Penelope as she — spoiler alert — consummates her long-simmering crush on Colin Bridgerton (Newton) in a friends-to-lovers storyline with distinct rom-com overtones. Penelope’s move into the center of the narrative also meant that Coughlan faced new pressures as the lead in one of the most watched and dissected shows on Netflix.
“With Penelope this season, it felt like there were so many things that were reflected in real life. The whole theme of her stepping out of the shadows and into the light, and not feeling quite ready — I felt like I had to do that,” said Coughlan.
“It was really challenging. It was terrifying. It was cathartic. It was a million and one things,” she added. “I loved it.”
She juggled “Bridgerton” with an edgy turn in “Big Mood,” a “Fleabag”-esque dark comedy released last month on Tubi. On top of that, she also had a small role in the biggest box office hit of 2023, “Barbie” — she wanted to do more but, alas, her schedule was too packed — and filmed a guest appearance in the “Doctor Who” Christmas special to be released later this year.
It amounts to a long-simmering breakout moment for Coughlan, who is 37 but thanks to a preternaturally dewy complexion often plays characters who are much younger than she is, like a Catholic high school student in the Troubles-themed sitcom “Derry Girls.”
“It was very exciting to play grown women. But I was like, ‘Can I do that?’ Even in drama school, they would always cast me as the random kid, like, there was an Ibsen play called ‘Little Eyolf,’ and I had to play Eyolf. I was like, ‘This is gonna be me forever.’”
Raised in County Galway on the western coast of Ireland, she grew up liking whatever her older siblings were into — whether it was Nirvana or “Wayne’s World.” When her sister starred in the school play, Coughlan showed up in a sequined vest, looking like a little Liza Minnelli — as if she knew she also wanted to be onstage. (She still has a taste for eccentric glamour: Despite the wintry gloom, she’s decked out in a gold spangled dress and a cloud-like ruffled bolero.)
At age 9, she scored her first professional gig, a movie called “My Brother’s War” starring James Brolin. She got the day off from school, but she wanted more. “I used to look at the Olsen twins. I was like, ‘God, look, look at where they are,’” she joked. As a teenager, she did regular voice work in cartoons. Her father, who was in the Irish army (as a teenage cadet, he took part in U.S. President Kennedy’s funeral in 1963), and mother, a stay-at-home parent, were supportive but also baffled by their youngest child’s dramatic streak. “It’s really not in my family at all,” Coughlan said.
After graduating from the National University of Ireland Galway, Coughlan enrolled in a foundational course at the Oxford School of Drama in England, where she quickly bonded with fellow student Camilla Whitehill.
“We were the only people there that really cared about things being funny,” said Whitehill, a playwright who would go on to create “Big Mood” as a vehicle for her old drama school friend. “Everyone else just wanted to do plays where their family had died, or whatever.”
Nicola Coughlan holds her fingers against her cheek. Yellow orbs float behind her.
Nicola Coughlan on playing Penelope this season: “The whole theme of her stepping out of the shadows and into the light, and not feeling quite ready — I felt like I had to do that.” (Evelyn Freja / For The Times)
Coughlan, ever the pop culture connoisseur, introduced Whitehill to the sitcom “Arrested Development.”
“She’s one of those people who, if she thinks you will like something, she will make you watch it. And she is — annoyingly — usually right,” added Whitehill. (More recently, Coughlan urged her friend to catch up on “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.” “It’s such an easy one to sell to people. I’m like, ‘One of them is a cult leader who’s married to her granddad; are you in or are you out?’” Coughlan said.)
They both eventually landed in London, where “neither of us was successful at all for our whole 20s,” said Whitehill, who would often cast Coughlan in “my bad unpaid short plays at pubs,” including one where Coughlan played a cat.
“You leave drama school, which is a lovely, cozy bosom where you get to do the thing you love every day. Then you go, ‘Hang on. Thousands of people leave drama school every year, and they want to do the exact job I do.’ It seems so improbable that you’ll make a living doing it,” said Coughlan. “I felt like a loser at so many points.”
One such nadir came when she was working at a frozen yogurt shop at a mall in West London and the cheap jeans she wore as part of her uniform tore “right up the butt crack.” It was sobering, she said. “I was like, ‘This is not the life I wanted.’”
By the time she was in her late 20s, she’d moved back home and was working for an optician in Galway. Then she saw a listing for an open casting call for a festival of plays being put on by the Old Vic Theatre. Even though she was broke, she flew back to London for the audition and landed a part in a play called “Jess and Joe Forever.”
It marked a turning point for Coughlan, who was soon cast as studious teen Clare Devlin in Channel 4’s “Derry Girls,” a project she was drawn to because of its vividly drawn female characters.
“They were all really distinct — young women who were ballsy and foul-mouthed,” she said. She convinced herself that the show would flop because “people hate women trying to be funny.” Instead, the show was a massive hit in the U.K. and earned a devoted following in the U.S. when it was picked up by Netflix.
Then, Shonda Rhimes came calling about “Bridgerton.” After a single audition, Coughlan was cast as Penelope, a thoughtful, sharp-witted young woman with an overbearing mother and tacky, dim-witted sisters. Season 1 was released in late 2020, when much of the world was staying home because of the COVID-19 pandemic-related closures, and it became a sensation.
Whitehill recalls going out with her friend once restrictions had lifted in the U.K. and sensing how much had shifted. “It’s such a weird, un-put-into-words-able experience to watch someone you know for such a long time become globally famous,” she said. The fact that Coughlan didn’t find success straight out of school “has grounded her significantly, which means that she doesn’t let it go to her head.”
Success has not come without complications, however, like the relentless media scrutiny around Coughlan’s physical appearance. “It’s really hard and feels [like] s—,” she said.
In 2018, she wrote an essay for the Guardian responding to a theater critic who described her character in a London production of “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” as “an overweight little girl.” Coughlan is determined to push back against this kind of casual body-shaming because, she said, “I grew up at a time where it was so overt. There was the circle of shame for cellulite [in magazines] — just horrific, horrific messaging.”
It’s also why this season of “Bridgerton,” which celebrates the allure of a character often overlooked as a wallflower, is so meaningful to Coughlan — and why she suspects it will resonate with so many viewers. Rhimes and showrunner Jess Brownell decided Season 3 should deviate from the timeline in Julia Quinn’s novels and focus on Penelope and Colin — a couple known to fans as “Polin.”
“We’ve watched Colin not quite understand that Penelope has a crush on him for two seasons. You can only play that dynamic out for so long before it gets frustrating,” said Brownell.
Stepping into the lead meant Coughlan would need to be on set nearly every day for eight months straight. But if she was overwhelmed at first, she didn’t let on. “She just seemed so game and ready for anything on set,” said Brownell. “If anything, I just noticed how seriously she was taking her preparation.”
Coughlan was insightful and collaborative, said Brownell, sharing an endless stream of ideas about her character in a WhatsApp group chat with Newton and Brownell. She had suggestions for specific music cues and for Penelope’s makeover, which sees her ditching her tight red poodle curls and garish citrus-hued gowns for loose waves and cool blues and greens. Coughlan is also very plugged into the fandom, and she advocated for including a scene, important to novel readers, in which Penelope calls Colin “Mr. Bridgerton.”
As if that weren’t enough, she even found time to bake fresh Irish soda bread and bring it to set.
This season is “a lot lighter and more playful than we’ve been able to be in the past,” Brownell added. The writing leans into Coughlan’s strengths as a comedic performer, particularly her knack for awkward banter, a skill she deploys as Penelope throws herself into the London social season in a bid to find a husband.
Coughlan, who enjoyed being, as she put it, “the weirdo in the background” for the first two seasons of “Bridgerton” and who idolizes women like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Kristen Wiig, said it was a thrill “to play Penelope as goofy and terrible with men.”
Like Coughlan, Newton was nervous about filming the love scenes but found the anxiety quickly dissipated after the first take. “We both had a similar outlook — it’s like doing comedy because you’re having to put yourself out there and feel exposed and risk something,” said Newton (who watched “Hamilton” at Coughlan’s recommendation and loved it, just as she predicted.) Because of how these moments focus on consent and emotional intimacy, “It was essential that we were friends,” he said.
The co-stars were especially heartened to hear from a burly security guard named Dave who has worked on “Bridgerton” since Season 1 and was moved by the romance he watched them act out on set.
“He came to Luke and I and said, ‘I don’t normally watch shows like this. Something about this season is very special, and I’m very proud of you,’” Coughlan recalled.
For several weeks, Coughlan was filming “Bridgerton” and “Big Mood” at the same time. She coped with the stress by watching “Vanderpump Rules” from the beginning.
“It’s a testament to how nosy I am that I heard people talking about Scandoval, had no frame of reference and was like, ‘Well, I need to know,’” said Coughlan, now a superfan who recently threw a “Vanderpump”-themed housewarming party and made a beeline to take a selfie with Ariana Madix when she was at “SNL.” It’s not just escapism: She also finds creative inspiration in reality TV personalities, channeling some of Lala Kent’s mannerisms into her character in “Big Mood.” “You forget how f— weird people are, how bizarre they can be,” she said.
In January, Coughlan had not yet seen the new season of “Bridgerton.” But by phone in early May, she said she’d finally watched the episode in which Colin and Penelope sleep together, nervously, by herself in a hotel room. Once again, the anticipation was worse than the thing itself.
“I laughed and cried and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s amazing,’” she said. “They’re not titillating just to be titillating, even though we hope they are sexy. There’s so much about female pleasure and positive sexual experiences, and we don’t get enough of that onscreen.”
Coughlan has reached a bittersweet crossroads on “Bridgerton,” now that her character’s big season has wrapped and she will soon return to being “the weirdo in the background.” But she has no regrets.
“We left it all on the pitch. There’s nothing I wanted to do this season that I didn’t get to do,” she said. “And that’s a rare thing.”
Source: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2024-05-12/nicola-coughlan-bridgerton-season-3
It seems some people are having trouble accessing it. There's no paywall for me, and I'm in the USA.

This is the weekly recap of the 102 monetized posts from Kylea and Joseph "Joe" Gomez of Kylea G Weight loss Journey from 05/05/24-05/11/24.
They have made 609+ monetized posts in 5 weeks.
Disclaimers: I am not a physician, influencer, or paid content creator. I am not affiliated with WW. I am semi-retired from the healthcare field with multiple college degrees. These opinions are my own based on social media content. I wish no harm to Kylea or Joe Gomez.
☎️ If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, please call or text 988 for assistance.
📢 To the perfectionists, Kylea has a habit of heavily editing posts 3+ times and archiving/hiding and deleting posts. I do not have a burner account for Facebook and have not viewed every comment made. She does not post receipts and is secretive about her purchases.
The tagline of Kylea G Weight loss Journey is, "I changed my life with prayer and a playlist of songs. No surgery, no meds. Just Jesus."
Of the 102 monetized posts last week on the topic of faith:
0/102 discussed which version of the Bible she prefers
0/102 revealed her church home, a service she attended online/in person, or how she worships when traveling
0/102 discussed a personal/group Bible study she completes/attends
0/102 were a favorite scripture or Bible verse
Of the 102 monetized posts last week on the topic of music:
2/102 referenced music Kylea prefers= an unnamed Taylor Swift song as a clapback to a comment about pizza crust and a drinking buddy anthem duet with Morgan Wallen + Post Malone
Of the 102 monetized posts last week on the topic of health:
0/102 were about intentional exercise
0/102 shared a food, water, or exercise log
0/102 discussed meditation, deep breathing, attending grief group, or therapy for her mental health. (There were references to a mental health care provider that gave her a letter recommending an emotional support animal.)
0/102 shared reputable medical sources for nutrition or weight loss content. (She mentions WW points but does not list a website or how to access their app.)
0/102 shared a recommendation for another weight loss influencer to follow
1/102 shared a source for her recipe (Joe's deceased mother)
13/102 shared a recipe. Shared recipes below.

1. Frozen Pancake Breakfast Sandwiches;
2. Banana Puddin' Protein Overnight Oats,
3. Smothered Crockpot Pork Chops;
4. Trader Joe's Protein Pancakes;
5. Snapple Zero Sugar Peach Tea & Splenda Brown Sugar Marinated Chicken;
6. Dirty Dr. Pepper Protein Ice Cream,
7. Joseph's Lavash Bread Pizza;
8. Lemon Blueberry "Muffin" Cupcakes;
9. Blueberry Sugar-free Oatmeal Waffles;
10. KFC Inspired Bowl;
11. Sara Lee 45 cal French Toast;
12. G Hughes Smoky Mesquite Raspberry Jam Chicken;
13. Lemon Blueberry Greek Baked Yogurt;

⚠️ Disordered Eating- Daily WW Points Consumed (based on monetized content):
Sun 05/05: 10 WW points; Mon 05/06: 11 WW points; Tue 05/07: 7 WW points; Wed 05/08: 7-9 WW points; Thu 05/09: 10-11 WW points; Fri 05/10: 1 WW point; Sat 05/11: 8 WW points;
📢 To our friends at Meta, Kylea can consume up to 30 WW points per day, roll over 4 unused daily points, and consume 28 weekly points. She is clearly underutilizing her daily points and used zero weekly points. This is dangerous and potentially deadly messaging for those on a weight loss journey. 🚨
So what was Kylea's "weight loss content" about? Let's dive into her purchases to find out.
Her subtotal from 05/05/24-05/11/24= $2489.80 est + all applicable taxes, tips, and fees
Her 5-week subtotal from 04/07/24-05/11/24 was $17,133.54 est + all applicable taxes, tips, and fees
🚨 Per Missouri public court records, Kylea Gomez has not satisfied her current medical judgment and is only able to pay $25 per month.
This next section is long due to the volume of purchases. You've been warned...
Weekly Takeout Purchases= $71.73 est + tips;
Sunday 05/05/24 Mexican Takeout Salad with chips/salsa= $15 est + tip (no proof she went with friends);
Monday 05/06/24 Iced/Blended coffee: $8 est + tip (no proof she went with a friend);
Tuesday 05/07/24 Carafe of coffee at unknown restaurant= $5 est + tip (no food shown or proof sister was present); Blended Coffee= $8 est + tip;
Wednesday 05/08/24 Htea0 Happy Hour Drink for 2 + fruit upcharge for 1= $3.25 est;
Thursday 05/09/24 Pineapple Bliss for 2= $6.98 est + tip;
Friday 05/10/24 Blended coffee= $8 est + tip; Wendy's Large Sprite Zero= $2.50 est,
Saturday 05/11/24 Unknown breakfast for Joe= $15 est + tip;
🚨 These additional shopping/travel expenses do NOT reflect her rent, utilities, phone, 2 car payments, etc.
Additional shopping/travel expenses= $2418.07 + all applicable taxes, tips, and fees
⚠️ CBD aka Shopping Addiction: Most of the purchases were for a future puppy.
Monday 05/06/24 Breeder fee for female Cavapoo puppy= $1000 est + fees (breeder unknown); Outward Hound Multi-color Squeaker Ballz Fetch Toy 4-pack= $4.99 est; Outward Hound Blue Whale Big Mouthz Interactive Plush Toy with Treat Ball= $9.99 est, Outward Hound Chicken Roperz Plush Squeak Dog Toy= $11.81 est; Silicone Collapsible Food & Water Bowl= $8.99 est; Plush Oyster Shell with Pearl Dog Toy= $6.99 est; Peppa Pig Squeak & Crinkle Plush Dog Toy= $19.99 est; Pally Paws Butterfly Squeaker & Crinkle Dog Toy= $14.99 est; Woven Dog Bone-shaped mat= $9.99 est; Woven beach bag with pawprints= $19.99 est; Grey fleece blanket= $19.99 est;
Tuesday 05/07/24 *Possible Target Women's Cowgirl Boot Grid Graphic T-shirt= $12.99; Chaco ZX/2 Women's Cloud Sandal in Candy Sorbet= $105 est; Vibrant Life Playful Buddy Emoticon XS 5 count Dog toys= $5.12; Nylabone Puppy Starter Pack-up to 25lbs= $7.57; Nylabone Power Chew Textured Dental Chew Toy Chicken Medium/Wolf-up to 35lbs= $4.97; Vibrant Life Tug Buddy Rope Multi-color= $1.98; Custom Dog Tag for Birdie= $5.99 est; Two Jessica Simpson Pet Dresses= $30 est; Personalized baby blanket for Birdie (Amazon)= $19.99 est;
Wednesday 05/08/24 Roundtrip Gas Joplin, MO to Tulsa, OK= (224mi/33mpg) x $3.85 est = $26.13 est; Costco Skinny Dipped PB Cups= $25.94 est; Costco Deebee's Freezie Pops= $22.75 est; Trader Joe's Frozen Roasted Corn x 8 bags= $40 est; Additional Costco & Trader Joe's purchases= unknown; *Pawdre T-shirt for Joe= $10.99 est; Dog Treat container= $25 est; Patchwork Pet Snuggler White Claw themed plush dog toys= $9.99 est; Smoochy Pet Pals Cheeseburger & French Fry themed plush dog toys= $15 est; Armor All Hammock Style Back Seat Cover= $10 est; Black Dog Bone Mat= $5.99 est; 3 Dog bath towels= $14 est;
Thursday 05/09/24 Alani Nu 12oz Energy Drink Pink Slush for 2= $4.96 est;
Friday 05/10/24 Approx. 72 cupcakes= $41.91 est (Walmart online price used); Mani/Pedi= $75 est + tip;
Saturday 05/11/24 Coleman SaluSpa Air Jet Inflatable Hot Tub in Grey= $609.00 (Amazon price); iCrate 2-door folding black crate= $36.79 est; Kong Blue Puppy Binkie Pacifier Dog Toy= $8.99 est; Kong Pink Puppy Natural Teething Rubber Toy= $7.49 est; Lamb Chop Puppy Plush Regular 10"= $15.90 est; Remy+Roo Small Spring Dog Bandana 4-pack Kathrine Set= $23.95 est; Hubulk Pink Pet Dog Bowl Set with food scoop and Non-Skid Silicone Mat= $9.99 est; MidWest Homes for Pets Deluxe Dog Bed in Grey= $16.99 est; Beirui Cute Little Girl Dog Collar, Harness, and Leash Set= $27.99 est; 3 pack of Blankets Super Soft Fluffy Premium Fleece= $11.99
🤔 Final Thoughts 🤔
Kylea showed her narcissistic greed posting triggering content all week without disclaimers or warnings in clear violation of Meta policy on explicit content and tragedy & conflict. If that is not enough to demonetize and deplatform her, her obvious signs of disordered eating should. Her messaging is dangerous, potentially deadly, and I, for one, ask our friends at Meta to review her content and take action.
All info from Reddit. ✌️

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/WingsOfFire/s/cEBdWfjUbB
My last post criticized Tui’s shallow writing and lack of notable improvement throughout the series. This post is meant to be the constructive half of my criticism by posing 39 queries and ideas that would help make the world of Wings of Fire feel more substanced, varied, distinct, and nuanced.
Since I received comments on my previous post about fanfiction and its capacity to add depth to a franchise, feel free to steal any of these ideas and write about them. Or, if you’ve got any good ideas that you’re willing to share, comment them below. Let’s craft some stories worth telling.

1. SeaWings hunt sharks solo as a part of their coming-of-age rite.
   
2. RainWing names are chosen by the grandmother.
   
3. RainWings value music. All dragonets are taught musical instruments as a necessary part of their curriculum.
   
4. The IceWing kingdom is divided into territories each ruled by a lady. Dragons who have done an exceptional service to the crown may be awarded a territory.
   
5. The IceWing Assembly is composed of the aforementioned territorial rulers. Membership is hereditary. The Assembly runs some of the day-to-day business of the kingdom by reviewing legislature, managing affairs of public interest, and advising the queen. However, they can also check the power of the queen by forming coalition against her and blocking or passing laws.
   
6. An IceWing princess needs to do more than just kill her mother to gain the throne, or she may not keep it for long: she must also make allies and supporters within the Assembly. An unpopular queen may find it difficult to exercise her power with a reticent Assembly.
   
7. NightWings like composing riddles and poems; it is a favored pastime. They would gather in groups and make games out of guessing riddles, constructing verse, and engaging in friendly competition.
   
8. There are few to no trees on the island, a scarcity of animals, and the NightWings don’t trade; thus they have taken to molding clay tablets, carving into them with a stylus, and firing them in a kiln to harden. parchment is as rare and coveted as gold.
   
9. NightWings were known historically for their metallurgy, so advanced that it seemed mystical to other tribes. Legends speak of their immunity to and mastery over fire, their ability to mold metals with their talons, and the magic associated with metalcraft.
   
10. The NightWings invented Damascus steel, which allowed them to forge weapons of exceptional quality. Knowledge of its craft was kept a tribe secret, and the NightWings kept their monopoly on it for thousands of years until Darkstalker forced the NightWings to flee their homeland, and the art was forgotten.
    
11. Why is the royal challenge so prevalent across tribes? Why can only females challenge? How did it begin in the first place?
    
12. The MudWing royal family employs seniority succession, in which the throne is passed to the monarch’s younger sibling and not their children. Both male and female royalty can rule.
    
13. SandWing inheritance is a type of matrilineal system in which a male’s possessions are handed to his sister’s sons.
    
14. What is the currency of the dragon world? Is it based on a gold standard? Does each tribe employ its own currency, is there a universal currency, or is there both an international and local currency for each tribe?
    
15. A NightWing is not given a name at birth; it is earned through their extended family and friends.
    
16. MudWings forge coins with a hole in the center, allowing them to string ropes of coins along their necks.
    
17. The HiveWing takeover of the LeafWings was subtle and gradual: the LeafWing queen remained in power as a puppet and the tribe did not formally integrate with the HiveWings, instead existing as a vassal state. Over time, they lost theirs rights and power.
    
18. Firebreathing tribes consider the ability a divine gift and a powerful kind of magic. It allowed dragonkind to ascend their animal states, purge the scavengers, and become civilized peoples who cook their food, build advanced infrastructure, and produce all kinds of advanced technologies. Firebreathing dragons consider themselves inherently superior to non-firebreathers, blessed with a divine right. Fire is associated with truth, clarity, and expansion of the mind.
    
19. When a LeafWing hatches, he is given a protective necklace made of silver, meant to ward evil spirits. He grows up within a cohort of same-sex dragonets who work and learn together. Adulthood is not marked by age, but by initiation, which can only occur when the right signs are read in the natural world. A dragon 100 years of age would still be considered a dragonet, and unable to choose a mate, if he has not been initiated.
    
20. When a HiveWing hatches, he is presented to the family matriarch, who formally decides whether to accept him into the family.
    
21. Tribeless dragons reject the kingdoms. Lone wolves or pack hunters, they roam the continent in small bands, sometimes coexisting with the tribes, sometimes coming into conflict, and often selling their services as messengers or mercenaries.
    
22. Why are all the tribes so isolated? Why do they not engage in international trade?
    
23. Trade guilds are made up of tribeless dragons who have found a lucrative business in trade. Since the tribes are largely xenophobic and like to avoid each other, these guilds act as an intermediary: they roam the continent, acquiring goods from one tribe and trading them with another. From this great influx of wealth emerged two or three trade empires, geographically insignificant but titans in money-making. They’ve become so powerful that they’re forcing the kingdoms to compete economically in new ways.
    
24. Do dragons have access to banking institutions? Do they take out credit or write checks? Does an international banking service exist?
    
25. How about a postage system? Domestic, international, or both? How would it work?
    
26. SeaWings believe in reincarnation, and that deceased family members will hatch into the same family over and over. When a dragonet hatches, he is examined for any resemblance to a deceased family member, and may be named after said dragon.
    
27. The RainWings’ most lucrative trade is in spices and herbs.
    
28. Do dragons pay taxes?
    
29. Why is there no form of gender or class stratification in any tribe besides HiveWings and SilkWings? If only females can become monarchs, does this matriarchal mindset extend anywhere else in society? Are families matrilineal? Do females have rights or privileges over males?
    
30. On that note, why are there no gender roles either?
    
31. What sorts of jobs exist with a kingdom? How would a carnivorous diet affect livelihood, economy, and society?
    
32. Brittlescale is a condition which may arise due to undernourishment or malnutrition. Signs of the ailment include dull, malformed scales, scales that crack easily, and loose scales.
    
33. Dueling is a common method of defending and proclaiming one’s strength and honor. Just as princesses challenge queens, common dragons will duel to prove their worth.
    
34. How do dragons understand medicine and the body?
    
35. SilkWing traditional garments are made of silk. Silk is one of the most precious and coveted products in the kingdom.
    
36. Spiders feature heavily in SilkWings culture and mythology as craftsmen and weavers.
    
37. SandWing venom is a neurotoxin. It can be drawn from the tail, distilled to increase its potency, applied to weapons, or made into a powder. Alternatively, it can be diluted into a drug used in anxiety medication and to treat insomnia.
    
38. Do dragons modify their bodies? Do they wear piercings, tattoos, or body paint?
    
39. How have dragons evolved over 2000 years? What biological, social, cultural, religious, political, economic, and technological advancements or regressions have taken place?
    

Edit: to the replies commenting that many of these have already been mentioned in the books and that I should’ve finished them: I should clarify that I was trying to prompt the sort of thinking that would lead to deeper worldbuilding. Instead, I have committed the same failure which I accused of Tui, that being to sketch and to prod but never to define or populate. I realize now that I should’ve selected fewer entries and expanded on them thoroughly to prove my point. I apologize.

Dani competes in the May Queen challenge, where one of the girls tells her it’s a “test of stamina.” Obviously, this is my favorite scene in the movie for multiple reasons.
1.) On a basic level, this scene works from an emotional standpoint because it is Dani reconnecting with life again, facing a challenge, and overcoming it to warm cheers and celebration, something her life has been void of. When she wins the challenge, it moves the viewer to see her win at SOMETHING, and it’s exhilarating. 2.) As she is competing, and after she wins, she looks to Christian, her partner, for approval, and per usual he is distracted, disconnected, and uninterested in her progression. While this visibly stings her, she makes the choice to celebrate herself anyways, beginning her departure from a toxic relationship, and the entrance in to a new (toxic) relationship… with the cult. 3.) As she is lifted onto the plank and carried towards the feast, you can see an apparition of her deceased sister, Terri, in the trees, watching her ascend to her thrown. This represents to me yet another toxic relationship ending for Dani, as she moves past the trauma of being a victim of her older sister’s mental health issues and living life for herself once and for all.
While all of this SEEMS so empowering and exhilarating in the moment, it is ultimately just another tragedy: Dani is a deeply sad, troubled person who finds herself in damaging, controlling relationships where she is neglected, gaslit and/or manipulated by other people who deem her weak or not formidable. In this case it’s the cult, using all of this to entice Dani to join them, which she ultimately does.
At the end of the day, this “stamina test” isn’t for Dani, it’s for the cult to determine if she’s strong enough to endure the physical demands of the advancing the cult through multiple childbirths and other horrors the women must perform.
This is a film about many things but mainly about perception. People enter issues based in how they perceive things, what they have endured, and how they react to conflict. Dani is a sad character and a deeply tragic person, someone who yearns to belong, but is always abused, chewed up and spit out by people who see her for what she is, people who see her more clearly than she sees herself, and uses that to their advantage.
This movie made me feel so many strong emotions, which is why I love it. But the people who subscribe to the “good for her” trope are missing the point. Her transition into the May Queen is just her entering into another level of despair.

Ever since my parents divorced 5 years ago, I’ve felt like I’ve always been forced into the middle of their crap. They go through cycles of getting along and then fighting over and over. It often revolves around money (child support and alimony) because my mom was never able to work due to my sister being terminally ill her entire 20 years on this earth. Aside from her, I also have a younger brother. They both cut my dad off because he has a tendency to lash out at us any time he and my mom get into a fight. He also didn’t put in a ton of effort into seeing them and felt like it was unfair that my sister didn’t want to spend much time at his new wife’s house because she didn’t have her own room or space over there. He’s lashed out at me before and I tell him when he’s wrong then our relationship seemingly goes back to normal. He doesn’t put in a ton of effort to come visit me and my kids, but I live 3 hours away so I don’t really hold it against him, except he often goes on trips with his wife and her kids and grandkids but whatever, that’s beside the point. He makes time to FaceTime and call so that’s cool.
I’ve always made an attempt to stay neutral. They’d each vent to me about the other and try to ask questions about the other parent but I would just brush it off. But now my mom has been pressuring me to block my dad’s wife, which I feel will result in me losing my relationship with my dad. She’s not straight up telling me that I need to cut her off, but she tells me that it hurts her feelings that I’m still in contact with her and that if someone disrespected her mom that way, she would have no problem cutting her off. Really the only contact I have with her is if my sons are spending time with my dad and she’s updating me on anything with them.
They’ve always hated each other, but my sister passed away two months ago and it was in the middle of them fighting over child support so it was a whole disaster, to the point where I didn’t get to grieve properly at all. My dad and his wife had a trip planned before her death, and went anyways. They left the day after she died, and my dad said it was because my mom didn’t call him to tell him she died until after the funeral home picked her up, so he wasn’t able to see her. Which was what my sister wanted, she didn’t want my dad to be with her when she died.
Before they left, my dad’s wife was calling the funeral home, rushing them to prep my sister so she could be seen as soon as possible, as they were hoping to see her before they left. This resulted in us having a viewing unexpectedly the same day we went in to make the arrangements, in which she didn’t even have clothes on because they thought we just wanted to see her asap. They didn’t contribute at all to the funeral, nor asked if they could help at all. The wife also proceeded to add pictures (that she got from my moms estranged evil witch of an aunt) of my sister and deceased grandma and great grandpa (both from my moms side) to the slideshow folder. The wife also arranged their own “celebration of life” service since my dad “wasn’t included” in any of the planning. When she invited me, I blew up and said maybe if they hadn’t left they would’ve been included.
Anyways, ever since the funeral I’ve felt like I have to explain to my mom every encounter I have with my dad’s wife and I feel guilty for interacting with her at all. But I feel like if I block her, my relationship with my dad will be nonexistent and I don’t any that. I think counseling will be helpful for me to learn how to navigate this and put up boundaries but just wanted to vent here while I wait for an appointment because this has been eating me up.
TLDR: my mom wants me to cut off contact with my dad’s wife but I’m worried that if I do, I’ll lose my dad.

How can you guys praise/celebrate the development of Eritrea when we are in the same state as we were during Badme? It doesn't make sense. For 30+ years, you guys are just still stuck parton being proud of being eritrean. Don't forget that the people who support the regime are the same people who left because they wanted to "seek refuge". So everyone in here who is apart of the younger generation who became brainwashed into thinking that Eritrea is a stable country, your parents lied to you and it really isn't your fault. It's disrespectful when freedom fighters of the ELF like my father are disrespected because him and his dead blood brothers and sisters tried to make a change. the reason why EPLF split (Isaias) was because of religion, and in the present day, freedom of religion is limited, which says a lot. It's also disrespectful when you call the freedom fighters or anyone who opposes the government "woyane" (TPLF) because the ELF was the first front of Eritrea, and actually the EPLF AND woyane fought side by side to push the ELF to Sudan. We don't talk badly about EPLF martyrs so we'd respect it if you did the same. (This doesn't apply to everyone, just the diaspora who are uneducated and ignorant.)
ALSO- without the ELF, there would be no push for a war that would lead to independence. Which is another reason why you shouldn't disrespect the fallen soldiers of the ELF.
ALSO- don't mix up the meley flag (blue eritrean flag) as a brigdenhamedu flag. It was the first flag and the ELF/Jebha Flag of Eritrea.
TO BE MORE EDUCATED ON THIS TOPIC, I recommend you watch this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-eTieeclco&t=504s
& for those who may be lost
ELF/Jebha - Eritrean Liberation Front.
woyane/TPLF- Tigray
EPLF- eritrean people's liberation front (current) Isaias

Hi All,
\Background**:* my mom is in her late 60s and comes from a very abusive home with both parents being bad alcoholics (her parents have long been dead.) I have an older brother that is 5 years older than me and just recently got married to a woman that he dated for 2 years. My mother idolizes both of them and showers them with love and gifts and never said a bad word about either of them even though they aren't there for her or when she visits them, the wife even makes it clear that my parents are unwelcomed/bothering her after 3 hours of spending time together. When I was born, my mother developed a bad alcohol issue, and she was very abusive towards me (physical (multiple black eyes before the age of 8), mental & emotional) from age 1-18 years old. After I turned 18, my mother stopped drinking and being physically abusive, but she would still say her occasional remarks about me. *
\Situation\** This week my mother is recovering from a cosmetic surgery. I was the only one in my family to wake up at 3:00am and drive her to the hospital which was over an hour, stay with her as long as I could to comfort her as she was very scared in the hospital, took off 3 days from work to make sure i was at her bedside and got her what she needed and i went to the gift shop and bought her a teddy bear, flowers, balloons and a card. Yesterday, my aunt (her sister who she hates because they are always one upping each other) called her to check up on her and then starts bragging to my mother about how her 1 kid bought her a new house and she redesigned her bathroom with gorgeous mosaic (this caused my mom to be mad and jealous because she wanted to get her bathroom done but couldn't.) As I was waiting for her to end her conversation to provide her medicine, I was messaging a vendor for a business event that could really boost my business. During that time, my mother shoved the phone in my face and said talk to your aunt. I said the generic hey how are you doing? as I was talking to my aunt, my mother shoved the phone closer in my face about 1 inch away. i said politely, mom I am a little busy here with an event vendor please back your phone off my face and i can still continue to talk to my aunt on speaker phone. She hangs up the phone and says to me: "why do you hate your aunt??" i said how do i hate my aunt? she replied because you said hi in an attitude. i said no attitude i am very tired from work, i ran right over to assist you and i was messaging an event vendor. She then explodes and goes crazy yelling at me. By this time, I am losing my cool and i said what you want me to be fake and talk high pitched and sound thrilled like my brother's wife is to you on the phone? which she replied you are jealous of your brothers wife. I said im not jealous but im heartbroken and mad that some woman can come into your life and treat you like garbage can get your praise and love but your own daughter who is by your side and does everything for you cant get that. She then says get out and dont visit me for mothers day while hitting me 5xs with her walker. i hate you and don't want to see you. I said I'll leave when you answer me this: why do you treat others that treat you bad get love and praise from you but even when i was a child you would give me black eyes? she said because you deserved it for being a difficult kid (i never did anything wrong as a kid - good grades, very shy.) after that remark i left and i don't want to speak/ see her for a long time but deep in my heart i keep conflicting that it is Mother's Day and i should still wish her a happy Mother's Day. My step-dad said that i shouldn't be so difficult by being so emotional about this situation.
Am I the AH?

Hello reddit. Just wanted to vent a little bit here. I am 33 old female and in the last few month I realized how my past is directly destroying my life. Also please mind english is not my first language but I will try my best.
Let me start from the begining.
Father - a polish guy who was abused mentally and physically by his father who still thinks that my grandpa methods are the best for raising children. Everything that my father said or done was stupid and my grandpa even told him to not pick his dream career (aviation in military) but to travell to Russia and learn about nuclear physics because goverment said there will be a nuclear reactor in Poland. Still there is not a single one in our country.
Mother - russian woman who already had a child with russian mafia member when she meet my father while he was a student. She saw an oportunity to leave her country with him so she basically manipulate him to love her. She also only thinks about herself and just want to use others to gain comfort and money.
Now me.
I have no idea where I was born. My father claims in Poland and he has a birth certificate to prove it. My mother says in Russia and she also have a birth certificate.
From the moment I was born noone trully cherished me besides my grandma (my fathers mother) and her father - my greatgranpa who fought in WW2. I have some reordings when people walk with me, carry me but only when I was just a baby. After that nothing. For most of the people I was this tainted little piece of nothing. Why tainted you ask? Because I was mixed. My mother was always saying that I was filthy because of my polish blood. Polish side of my family said it was because of my russian blood. I was a freak in everyones eyes. Something that did not deserve to be treaten well from certain age. My first memory I have is when I was crying in my crib and noone came untill finally my grandmother came back from work to hug me and feed me. I was not eating for several hours that day. My mother did not work and never breastfeed me. She was "busy" with my sister who was a pureblood and she was the only one who deserved her attentioned. Mind I was never changed aswell for several hours. My father worked low payed jobs at first because at that time with his russian dyploma he was an outcast. Later with my grandma help he was able to get into IT because he had some skills and she was able to convince her director to give him a chance and invest in his training. He never achieved anything my his own.
At this point I must admit I was abused mentally and physically by my father because my mother demanded. She also did. I was punched, beated, throwed, cursed, everything you can imagine. She even tried to kill me by throwing a knife that left a scar on my head that I can hide with my thin hair.
When I was 5 years old I attemted my first suicide. I was told by my mother that I am nothing and I do not deserve to live so I wanted to make her happy and just die. My plan was to jump off the balcony. We lived in a very tall building so I would die for sure. When my mother saw what I was doing she grabbed me by my hair and pulled me hard into the ground. She said nothing, she did not even look at me. My back was bruised after that. Later on she beat me just to make the bruising more painful. My grandmother asked what happend when she saw me but my father just said "she felt", nothing more. He did not even question my mother.
Later on my parents split because of my mothers infidelity. She never loved my father. She just wanted to escape her country and get more money. She realized she will get more from other people so she just left him and seek more attention elsewhere. This is the time when I felt the horror and terror for the first time. I was sure that my grandma would take me in but I was hugely mistaken. My fathers father had a brother who was a professor. His field was education - pedagogics. He did not wanted me to end up with my father. He called me a filthy bastard many times amd was saying that keeping me will be a disgrace. Also my mother promised him that she will be able to sell me in Russia for good amount of cash. He did everything to make my father look like a person who would not be able to raise a child. I was put in my mothers "care".
It was only for one year but let me summarise what happend: I was not able to go to school as a 7 yo which almost made me go to first class again (thank god I managed to learn fast later), me and my sister 3 years older were constantly left alone in house with no food and water. We ate cat food that my mother left plenty for our 3 cats. Me and my sister were exposed to "adult content" such as drugs, sexual assault, alcohol, gambling, prostitution and much more. We always tried to hide under our beds and I really do not remember if anything happend to us or not. My therapist said I have amnesia that might explain why I do remember those things happen but cannot put them on a timeline. Me and my sister also almost died when we were there. She because of meningitis and I because of kidney failure. We both managed to be cured.
After that one year my father convinced my mother to "sell" me to him. He would pay her more that only child support just to get me out of there. She was more than happy to agree.
In that time my father meet his now wife. My stepmother is 10 years younger than him and she feed me lies like "I will replace your mom, I will love you and cherish you". Me, a child, believed her back then.
When she was officially my fathers wife she went ballistic. My idiot of a father still contacted my mother and gave her even more money, helped her alot with everything and my stepmother wanted him to pay for this "treason" so she verbally abused me and let her whole family do the same. It did not worked coz my father could not care less.
I was with them for almost 5 years years. I was called a whore, prostitute, a bolshevik (who I had no idea who it was in that time). I was starved, forced to eat off the ground or put in a dark basement because my stepmothers younger brother saw it as hillarious. I was told I am nothing, that I do not deserve anything or that noone loves me because I am a bastard. I was a good student, I had really good grades and I won some awards while in school but I was always told that only thing I can do in life is to clean floors somewhere, nothing more. When my school pointed that I would be great at programming because it was natural for me my father said I am an idiot and I do not have a brain that can function and be able to do programming. Everything I was good at and praised in school was quickly turned into "they are saying it so you wont be sad that you are an idiot".
One day I was very hungry and I decided to eat some ham that was in the fridge. I was punished for that because that ham was for guests and I was a filthy trash and should not eat that.
You may ask if school ever noticed anything? They did, I even told them but my father came, said to them that I am a filthy liar and a bad child and they just dropped because he forced me to admit I was lying.
When I was there I was also writing a diary where I wrote how much I hate all of those people. My stepmother found it and read it loud in front of all those people which made the abuse grow even more.
Many times I cried to my grandma why she wont take me and she always said she cant until I was 12. From what I know at that age child can decide with which parent they want to stay and she did not wanted to risk me being taken to my mother again so she waited. She did try to protect me as much as she could but she could not be with me all the time at my fathers place. Thing went a bit better at the end of my stay because my grandma told my father she will kick him out of his flat (she was the owner) if he will not contain his wife and her family. My grandma was clueless for years what was happening to me because I was afraid she will hate me as my stepmother was convincing me.
When I ended up at my grandma place it was a bit better. My mental stability was non existing. I did not received any help because my patents basically had no desire to do anything involving me other than abuse so no papers were sign. My grandma also did not believed in mental health at that time.
I was a troubled teenager and young adult because of my mental health. I did not have any problems at school. I was a genius in a broken body as my friend said once. I smoked, drank alcohol and sometimes do weed but I was to afraid of beeing like those people at my mothers place that I never gave up to any addiction. I was used by other people when it comes to help or physical contact which I am still ashamed of but I survived.
I was told by my family that I will never achieve anything but I indeed achieved alot. I have my masters degree in mechatronics, I am a programmer and now... my life is going worse and worse.
My trauma kicked in lately in much more force. I was diagnosed in CPTSD which is Complex PTSD. I lately lost my job because my grandmother started to act like my father. I was working from home and she did everything in her power to make me lose it. She marched to every important meeting and just... humiliate me. She wanted me to be vulnerable again so she is doing everything so I will lose any stability. Woman who helped me made me hate her.
I tried to have a relationship with my stepmother and father but they claimed they did nothing wrong and that what I remember never happend. My grandmother instead of defending me and be on my said said she wants to not be involved. I decided to cut all contact with my father and his wife after that.
Now Im jobless as a programmer which is just pathetic. My boyfriend of 7 years is not supportive at all. He thinks that I should just get together and smile because other people have much worse. I am losing my mind over this... he is saying he understands I am in a bad place but in the end he will scream at me that I am always gloomy and that I cry alot. I am once again suicidal. I am really trying to survive but I just cant. At this point only my two cats are keeping me alive.
Sorry for this mess of a post but in the middle of writing I just started to cry and could not contain myself.