I was asking the friends over at the german pc build sub about the choice of components for my upcoming build. 14900k, 4070ti super etc. Now I've discussed it with some of them and changed my build to this.
https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/tQfqn6
Is that a sensible build?
It's gonna get used in gaming, some video editing/rendering and just general multimedia stuff.
1tb nvme is for OS and most important programs. General Storage will be expanded/scrapped from my old computer or bought but not accounted for in here right now.
Honestly surprised that it comes this "cheap", I was and am ready to spend 4000€+500€ AOC 240hz screen.
However not buying a 4090, that gpu with its price doesn't make any sense to me. There are countless monsters builds in this sub that were cheaper than a 4090 go for. Also I doubt I will fully use the potential of the 4090, coming from a background playing counter strike, dota, battlefield and low graphics settings-1080p. Initially had a 4070ti super in the build, might go back to that vs the 4080.
Constructive Feedback please, thanks

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I was looking at Nextorch.de and saw 2 alternate tail caps for the TA30C, which I did not see anywhere else. Both seem appealing. I'll stick to objective reporting and then include my opinion separately at the end. Now, let's talk about the original tail cap's function:

Original Tail Cap:

• Rotary goes: TAC <-> I <-> II <-> III <-> Strobe
  • "TAC" is basically "OFF" but the tail switch remains active.
    • Note that this is different to "LOCK" on the TA20 - "TAC" does not disable tail control.
• Tail Button has:
  • Wall 1 (overriding momentary high)
  • Wall 2 (overriding momentary strobe)

1. Basically, rotary for constant on, tail button for momentary and overrides whatever mode you previously set it to.
2. Example 1: You set it to off, you hit Wall 1, you get momentary high (this overrode the previous "off" status). Upon release, it goes back to off.
3. Example 2: You set it to strobe, you hit Wall 1, you get momentary high (this overrode the previous "strobe" status). Upon release, it goes back to strobe.

Now, let's look at the alternate tail caps Nextorch offers (for the TA30C) on their German website: OS-TA30C "Operator" and KS-TA30C "K.I.S.S".

OS-TA30C "Operator":

• Rotary goes: TAC <-> I <-> II <-> III <-> IN
  • Low, Medium and High aren't exactly the same compared to the original tail cap.
    • Low: 15lm (changed from 20lm)
    • Medium: 160lm (changed from 330lm)
    • High: 1600lm (unchanged)
  • "IN" (short for "INDOOR") has now replaced "Strobe" when comparing to the default tail cap. In this new mode, the functions are as follows:
    • Wall 1 is now Momentary 300lm, not 1600lm
    • Wall 2 is still Momentary strobe of 1600lm

1. In short, this means that, if you need momentary-only in tactical applications, you now have the option of: (A) 1600lm momentary on + 1600lm momentary strobe, or (B) 300lm momentary on + 1600lm momentary strobe. And you lose the option for toggle-on strobe - strobe will always be at full brightness nonetheless, except that it is now only available in momentary and is only accessible via tail switch (Wall 2).
2. They've provided an explanation as to why they included the new mode: multiple reports/complaints from EMS users. They've found the momentary 1600lm counterproductive at times when used indoors at shorter ranges (e.g., behind a door) and especially so when the walls are white or have mirrors installed. With the OS-TA30C, the user can now opt for a lower momentary high whilst still be able to access strobe in full brightness (1600lm).

KS-TA30C "K.I.S.S.":

• Rotary only goes: Lock <-> I
  • At "Lock", the tail switch is deactivated. When you depress the tail switch, nothing happens.
  • At "I" (meaning Position 1), the tail button will become responsive. You can now depress the tail button for momentary high (1600lm).
    • Note: it is unlike the original rotary ring whereby rotating the ring toggles constant-on. Think lock/unlock for activation of the tail switch, not on/off activation of the LED.
    • There won't be any constant on. There also won't be strobe.
• I'm assuming this, by extension, could mean there is only 1 level for the tail button, no "Wall 1 and Wall 2".
• K.I.S.S. stands for "Keep It Simple Stupid".

Personal opinion:

About the OS-TA30C "Operator". It seems well executed. Not just for the purpose of not being blinding to the user, but also for an extended runtime. Hopefully, that also means it's 100% stable too, the original TA30C's medium of similar brightness does dim a bit over time as battery voltage drops even though it does not get hot. The new medium mode of 160lm is still enough for outdoors usage if there's not much light pollution. However, this also means that if you need just a bit more light, the next mode up is basically what other brands call turbo. It's entirely dependent on your usage whether this is an upgrade or downgrade. New runtimes are not provided as of now, I think it will greatly benefit the user if it becomes available.
On that note, runtime based on 3500mAh is likely more useful than for USB-C 2600mAh - I'm pretty sure if you bought spare batteries for the light and it doesn't have a port on it, you most likely would go for the 3500mAh ones since the TA30C does not require the high discharge ones that cap out at 3000mAh unlike some of the much brighter Weltools. Providing data for both may seem redundant but it'll definitely be the best of both worlds if USB-C 2600mAh continues to sell TA30C's with the older stock when Nextorch is now selling USB-C 3400mAh 18650s. The user won't have to guesstimate that way. Almost forgot about runtime for 2xCR123A in the process.
Regarding the KS-TA30C "K.I.S.S": I'm not sure if having a rotary control just for locking was necessary when it serves the same function as half twisting the actual cap itself. Maybe the threads are unanodised this time unlike the original to ensure a more reliable connection? That's my most logical assumption. Either way, I'm sure they've considered that and ended up keeping the rotary function. It's not listed whether they made the same two-stage switch and made both walls momentary high, or if they made a new switch entirely with only a stage for the sole function of momentary high. The latter would clearly be more intuitive, not making the user feel oh seems like a mode is missing (1 mode so 1 wall).
Either way, great thanks to Nextorch for offering solutions via selling of alternate parts so users don't have to buy a highly identical light just to change the UI. I sure hope they have plans to inform users on other platforms about these two products and make them available for websites targeting other regions and/or in different languages (or if they already did that and I'm just not aware of it). I think it's worth looking at and then decide for yourself whether it has features you wish the TA30C did differently. After all, it's a simple tail cap change. Does not involve retiring a perfectly functioning light to "the drawer".
Personally, I think a hybrid between the original tail cap and the KS-TA30C would be extra appealing to EDC users (maybe SST-40 changed to the 4000K CRI≥95 SFT-40). Single-level tail button (only momentary high, no momentary strobe). Better yet if there's stepless in between the notches and 100% stabilised output, even if that means getting capped at a much lower max lumen, e.g., momentary high/strobe can be 1600lm but constant high is dimmer yet stable.
Edit: They also have "RS-TA30C" (tape switch) for WML conversion, with a cable running 20~45cm. However, that is beyond my level of expertise to comment on. They also now sell 3400mAh USB-C 18650. Not sure if the newer TA30C purchases allow the option to upgrade to 3400mAh battery (from the previous/default 2600mAh).

I noticed that quite a few international tournaments that I quite enjoyed in the past have just been taken off the calendar in recent years without much explanation.
Most notably, I first noticed it with the Six-Red World Championship. It was last held in the 22/23 season and I didn't know if there was a reason it wasn't held last season. After looking it up, I found this on the WST website : "The Six Red World Championship 2024 has been postponed at the request of the promoter" for the 23/24 season but nothing since and it's not (yet) on the calendar for the upcoming 24/25 season.
Then there's the Turkish Masters which was a new addition in the 21/22 season and I know they had some organisational issues there in 22/23 which is why the WST Classic was hastily added to replace it. But there doesn't seem to have been any effort to bring that one back since. Similar thing with the Indian and Gibraltar Opens, the former of which has been abandoned since 2019 for no reason that I could find other than the pandemic making it impossible for a while. These last three the WST now lists as "previous events".
Now looking at the European Masters, I don't see it listed yet in the calendar for the upcoming season either. And they haven't gone to anywhere other than Germany for the last two years after the pandemic for that tournament which is kinda pointless since Germany already has the German Masters.
I like having more international tournaments on because it makes snooker more international, more global. But the impression that I get is that the pandemic provided a good excuse for the WST to quietly drop a lot of these tournaments which were probably quite laborious to organize with unknown, local organizations on the ground and were probably not really financially worth the hassle. I like the tournaments in China but do we really need 5 of them?
But fine, keep the 5 Chinese tournaments, they are keeping the interest in snooker alive these days after all, but then drop the Home Nations series that nobody seems to care about except for the Welsh Open because that one at least has some history, go to the Republic of Ireland instead of Northern Ireland (because why has the Tour never been to the Republic yet?) and make the other two actual European events for their ridiculously named "European series" that last season only involved the UK and Germany. And maybe you could go someplace else in the world outside of Europe for the Players series, there's really no big reason for them to have to stay in the UK.
But it seems that now that they have their Saudi and Chinese sugar daddies, the organizers of the WST don't see the worth behind actually expanding snooker more globally. They talk big about that but really they only mean Saudi and China (and maybe some other Middle East oil states in the future).
EDIT: added links for information from the WST

Hi to all,
My partner and I are expats in London, we are Swiss German and Swiss Italian, and we are expecting twins, they will be our firsts... It's too early for the doctor to be sure about the genders, but he is confident at least one is a girl, so it will be either two girls or a girl and a boy.
We have been discussing names and we recalled a conversation we had with some British colleagues a few years back. The subject of names came up, and everyone contributed with names they like, and when we listed a few, one person said "Of course you like posh names!" and another added something about chavvy names not working for us. Then, the subject changed, it never came up again, and since we weren't looking to name anyone, we did not think about it until now.
I need your help navigating this posh names and chavvy names situation, because I don't think such a notion exists in Switzerland. Names are just names to me. I do know what a chav is, but I don't know anything about chavvy names. What are chavvy names? And what are posh names? Could you please give examples? And is it a bad thing to have a posh name?
We are not at all creative when it comes to naming, we don't feel the need to honour anyone, and we are not trying to give our children cute or cool names. The names we like have been in use since forever, are serious, formal, and mean business.

I am kinda lost an not sure if this is even the right spot to ask for this.
My school (in Germany) will be holding a project week before summer vacation for the very first time in like ever. I would look to have a crochet workshop for beginners and experienced crocheters. I don't worry about the experienced ones as they just bring their stuff and work with it.
I am a bit troubled with the beginners. As I never was a total beginner when I started (I have 15 years of experience knitting before I started with crochet) I struggle a bit as to what I would like to provide the children with. The children might be between the ages of 10-18.
My thoughts so far:

• compile a list of beginner friendly videos (in german) where the basic stitches are taught
  
• have them start with bigger yarn (4 or 4.5)
  
• I would give them a variety of easy things to work with at first like an easy granny square or an easy amigurumi (the first one imo should be without a magic ring) but it would be important to me to have them pic their project for themselves
  
• I would lend the absolute beginners hooks and stitchmarkers and other things they might need I already have at home
  
• Yarn would also be provided by me with a fee
  
• I would be there to assist if they are totally stuck (as well as other students obv)
  

If I am missing anything or if u have any special ideas I coulde make with them please share ur thoughts. Also if u have special amiguruminu think would be perfect for young beginners, pls let me know as well since I am predicting that they will want to make lots of them.
Thanks in advance!

Recently I just came to be aware of an interesting feature of Vietnamese. And to be honest I'm quite baffled as a native speaker because I've never thought of it before. I hope I'm not being silly here for stating something obvious to everyone, but it seems that in Vietnamese, every adjective has its own very specific set of intensifying adverbs (or intensifiers?).
Let me explain what I mean by that. In languages like English, we also have intensifiers but they are usually generic. When you say that something has a high degree of "yellowness", you would say it is "very yellow", or "too yellow". These words, "very" or "too" are intensifiers. There are a bunch of them, but they are generic, in the sense that when you say that something has a high degree of "redness", you can use the exact same intensifiers and say "very red", or "too red".
But it's not like that in Vietnamese. Let me give an example: Yellow is "vàng". To itensify it, you could say "rất vàng" (very yellow) or "vàng quá" (too yellow) but in some contexts that really makes you sound like you've learnt Vietnamese from a textbook. Native speakers would say something like "vàng khè". "Khè" is an intensifier, and a very specific one; because you can only used it for yellow and nothing else!
Another example: white is "trắng". You could not use the same intensifier "khè" here: no one would say "trắng khè". Instead, you could say "trắng bóc", "trắng phau", "trắng xoá", "trắng muốt", etc. Each of these intensifiers comes with its own subtle difference in meaning, and some are used in very specific contexts, for example "trắng xoá" could be used to describe the snow).
Other examples:

• "Xanh" (blue / green): "xanh lè", "xanh lét"
• "Đen" (black): "đen thui", "đen mun"
• "Đỏ" (red): "đỏ chét"
• "Chậm" (slow): "chậm rì"
• "Mập" (fat): "mập ú", "mập ù"
• "Ốm" (thin): "ốm nhách", "ốm tong"
• "Cao" (tall): "cao nhồng"
• "Lùn" (short): "lùn xịt", "lùn tè"
• "Ngọt" (sweet): "ngọt lịm", "ngọt ngay"
• "Giàu" (rich): "giàu sụ"
• "Trong" (transparent): "trong suốt", "trong veo"
• "Đục" (opaque): "đục ngầu"
• "Chua" (sour): "chua lè", "chua lét" ("lè" and "lét" are also used for blue / green - sometimes the itensifiers could be shared but more than often they are not)

So on, I could go on for hours but you get the idea. As I go through the long list of all the adjectives I know I feel fascinated that there is an equally, if not longer, list of intensifiers that we native speakers know instinctively. I can imagine this makes it very challenging for someone who is learning Vietnamese.
As a learner of Vietnamese, do you notice this and does it cause you any difficulties?
I wonder do other languages have this phenomenon too (either exactly the same, or similar, I'm interested to know both) - or is it that Vietnamese is quite unique in this aspect?

TL;DR: Tried to adopt a puppy through several agencies, had a bad experience with Sahara Adoption Agency. Despite completing paperwork for a 7-month-old mixed-breed German Shepherd, the representative stopped responding and gave inconsistent updates. Looking for a reliable agency to adopt a puppy. Any recommendations or advice?
Hi everyone,
Last month, we contacted several adoption agencies in hopes of adopting a dog. Our goal was to start the paperwork and get on the approval list to foster a puppy. Unfortunately, our experience has been less than ideal.
We’ve met several puppies and interacted with people from various rescue and kennel agencies, but the process has been frustrating. One particularly disappointing experience was with the Sahara Adoption Agency. We fell in love with a 7-month-old puppy who is currently in a kennel. We completed all the necessary paperwork with a representative from the agency.
However, when we asked her to start the paperwork, she stopped responding to our messages and ignored our calls. After 4 days, she finally responded, saying that our application is in the approval process. This was confusing since she had initially told us it was already approved. Since then, she has not responded to any of our WhatsApp calls or messages. We haven’t paid any money.
We are now looking to foster a new puppy and are very frustrated with the situation. Can anyone recommend a reliable agency where we can adopt a puppy, or offer any advice on how to handle this situation?

Hi Reddit Cisco Kidd was one of the first dogs I ever posted when I started networking I thought he was euthanized because after that first week I could not see him in the system. At that time he was also very sick. He recovered and was assessed by the shelter and he is now on the Euth list . I was so happy to see that he was still alive! And I hope we can find him an experienced long term foster. He will probably need training ( that the rescue he ends up with will provide ) . " Cisco Kidd A5610439 7yr neutered German Shepherd 89 lbs. Owner Surrender 02/27/24 Adoptable to adults only home No other dogs required Low energy Known history of aggression disclosure form Cisco Kidd was anxiously barking at the front when the runner approached. His body was relaxed, his eyes were neutral, his ears were up, his mouth was open with a heavy pant, and his tail was neutral with a loose wag. He was easy to leash and remove. He pulled strongly on leash, and was easy to collar. In the catch pen, he barked, growled, and snapped at the other dogs through the fence. He was muzzled prior to entering the yard. He continued barking and growling at the other dogs for a few minutes before he sat down and panted heavily. He entered the yard, he was easy to steer, but approached each dog in turn and tried to fight with them. The other dogs did not engage in an altercation with him, and he eventually went to lie down in the pool. However, anytime the dogs moved closer to him, he would jump out and try to fight with them again. The handlers were able to steer him away from the dogs, but he never became comfortable with their presence. He allowed the handler to pet him all over with no issues, but yelped and pulled his right front foot away when the handler squeezed the toes. However, he remained easy to handle. The muzzle was removed, and the handler repeated the assessment. He leaned against the handler and allowed her to pet his whole body again. He seemed to really enjoy having his ears scratched. After a few minutes, he began to anxiously nip at the handler's hand and fingers. Otherwise, he remained easy to handle."SHELTER ADDRESS Downey Animal Care Center 11258 Garfield Avenue Downey, CA 90242 (562) 940-6898 Monday-Saturday 11am-5pm RESCUE EMAIL DACCDowneyRescue@animalcare.lacounty.gov" picture from dogsdowney on Instagram and notes from @share.for.love on Instagram. If anyone is able to long term foster Cisco Kidd please Direct message @californiashelterpets on Instagram or Reddit Email @isabeldesiree8@gmail.com
Thank you

[I play Elden Ring in Japanese (as it is my native language), due to From Soft being a Japanese developer, so is Miyazaki himself.]
The most striking difference is within how they address the main protagonist (you as the player), as in Japanese he or she is referred to as 褪せ人 (lit: "verblasste Person") from the NPC dialog and cutscenes, however in the official German localization, it's: "Befleckten". In regards to the Japanese original, the kanji used is 褪 + 人 but 褪せ is from the ichidan verb:

褪せる

lit. trad: verblassen / entfärben Example sentence: 日光で看板の文字が褪せた。 (Die Buchstaben auf dem Schild sind von der Sonne verblasst.)

人 (Person)

Combine from 褪せる which is now merged as 褪せ人 [あせびと]

I have a rough list of the stuff that is named in Elden Ring, between the Japanese (original) and official German localizations of the game (Though I won't list everything, as it'll be too much).
Legendary Armaments:

日本語	Übersetzung aus dem Japanischen	Offizielle deutsche Lokalisierung
マレイー家の執行剣 \1)	Das Henkersschwert des Hauses Marais	Henkerschwert der Marais
黄金律の大剣	-	Großschwert der Goldenen Ordnung
世界喰らいの王笏 \2)	Königliche Zepter des Weltenfressers	Verschlingerzepter
剣接ぎの大剣 \3)	Schwertgelenktes Großschwert	Großschwert der Verpflanzung
夜と炎の剣	-	Schwert der Nacht und der Flamme
グランサクスの雷	-	Blitz von Gransax
蝕のショーテル	-	Shotel der Eklipse
暗月の大剣	-	Dunkelmondgroßschwert
遺跡の大剣 \4)	Das Großschwert der Ruinen	Trümmergroßschwert

*1 In Japanese: マレー家 ("Haus / Familie Marais" already states that it comes from a family of executioners who resided in the shaded castle.)
*2. The presence of Japanese 世界 ("welt") + 喰らう ("essen") then with a portemanteau of the Kanji 王 ("König / königlich") + 笏 ("zepter") forming the word 王笏 [おうしゃく].
*3. From Japanese: 大剣 literally means "großschwert" followed by the noun 接ぎ (lit: "Veredelung") with the word 剣 ("schwert"), as you can see the literal translation from the Japanese name insinuates that the boss used it during battle, as you already fought him, you obtain it after defeating him.
*4. From Japanese: 遺跡 means "Ruinen" (as in abandoned or in ruins) insinuating that the sword is created from ruined stone.
Bosses:

日本語	Übersetzung aus dem Japanischen	Offizielle deutsche Lokalisierung
満月の女王レナラ	-	Rennala, Königin des Vollmonds
最初の王、ゴッドフレイ \1)	Der erste König, Godfrey	Godfrey, Erster Eldenfürst
ラダゴンの赤狼	-	Roter Wolf von Radagon
忌み鬼、マルギット \2)	Eine Abscheulichkeit Male, Margit	Margit, das Grausame Mal
忌み王、モーゴッド \2)	König der Abscheulichkeiten, Morgott	Morgott, König des Mals
ゴドリックの軍兵 \3)	Soldaten von Godricks Armee	Soldat Godricks
火の巨人	-	Feuerriese
死竜フォルサクス \4)	Fortissax der Todesdrache	Lichdrache Fortissax
獣の司祭 （黒き剣のマリケス）\5)	Priester der Bestie (Maliketh des Schwarzen Schwertes)	Bestienkleriker (Maliketh, die Schwarze Klinge)
黄金律、ラダゴン	-	Radagon von der Goldenen Ordnung
神肌のふたり	-	Duo der Götterskalpe
神喰らいの大蛇（冒涜の君主、ライカード）\6)	Götterfressende Schlange (Blasphemischer Monarch, Rykard)	Götterverschlingende Schlange (Rykard, Fürst der Blasphemie)
ミケラの刃マレニア （腐敗の女神、マレニア）	Miquella, Klinge Malenia (Malenia, Göttin der Verderbnis)	Malenia, Miquellas Klinge (Malenia, Göttin der Fäulnis)
還樹の番犬 \7)	Wachhund des zurückgekehrten Baumes	Wachhund des Erdenbaumbegräbnisses
鉄茨のエレメール \8)	Elemer von Eisendornen	Elemer von den Dornen
百智卿ギデオン \9)	Herr Gideon der Weise	Gideon Ofnir, der Allwissende
写し身の雫 \10)	Schatten einer Person	Imitator-Träne
暗黒の落とし子、アステール \11)	Astel, Bastard der Finsternis	Astel, Stern der Finsternis
星砕きのラダーン \12)	Radahn, der Sternzerstörer	Sternengeißel Radahn
爛れた樹霊 \13)	Wunden Baum Geist	Baumgeist mit Geschwüren
接ぎ木のゴドリック \14)	Gepfropfter Godrick	Godrick, der Verpflanzte
亜人の女王マギ \15)	Untermenschliche Königin Maggie	Halbmenschliche Königin Maggie
人さらいの乙女人形 \16)	Entführte Jungfrauenpuppen	Entführerjungfer
宿将ニアール \17)	General Niall	Kommandant Niall
腐敗した墓守闘士 \18)	Korrupte Grabwächter-Kämpfer	Stinkender Grabhüterduellant
大土竜テオドリックス	-	Großer Lindwurm Theodorix
黒き剣の眷属 \19)	Der Verwandtschaft des Schwarzen Schwertes	Verehrer der Schwartzen Klinge

*1. The Japanese title for Godfrey uses the kanji 王 ("König") since he is the elden lord, as opposed to German: they replaced that with "Eldenfürst" [エルデ王子] but the overall expression from the original Japanese is not connotated in German.
*2. The meaning of 忌み isn't conveyed correctly (in both Margit & Morgott) as it literally means "Trauernde" alone, but in the context of the game, it is connotated as "Abscheulichkeit" (from Japanese), which in no way it means "Grausame" So it is obvious that German just got it from English. Also, the presence of both Kanji 鬼 ("Oger / Geist") and 王 ("König") indicates their differences in hierarchical status too. Morgott bares the kanji 王 while Margit has 鬼 within his title, but in German (& English) the one with Margit is lost in translation.
*3. The word 軍兵 is a portemanteau comprising 2 kanji from ゴドリックの軍兵 implying that he was a soldier serving under Godrick at one point, as 軍 ("Armee") including 兵 ("soldat") forms 軍兵 (lit: "Kampftruppen") but this nuance from Japanese gets lost in translation.
*4. Fortissax's title in Japanese is a portemanteau of 2 kanji that have seperate meanings: 死 ("Tod") + 竜 ("Drache") forming the word 死竜 as he has the ability to inflict death blight towards the player, hence the presence of the kanji 死.
*5. In Japanese, Maliketh's title from his first phase has the word 司祭 ("Priester") instead of him being addressed as a cleric.
*6. The Japanese version of Rykard's title bares the kanji 君主 ("monarch / souverän") while in German it has been adapted to "Fürst" instead, but the intended meaning is lost from Japanese.
*7. The word 番犬 - literally means "Wachhund" while a portemanteau of 還 ("zurück") + 樹 ("Baum") are 2 kanji used together coining the term 還樹 - literally means amongst the lines of "Rückführung eines Baumes an seinen ursprünglichen Standort" and の is just a word particle present in Japanese.
*8. Elemer's Japanese title has 2 kanji: 鉄 ("Eisen") + 茨 ("Dornen") forming the word 鉄茨 (lit: "Dornen aus Eisen") saying that Elemer has thorns encompassing his iron armor. (Which is not conveyed directly in German.)
*9. The word 百智卿 beside Gideon's name is comprised of 3 kanji: 百 ("hundert") + 智 ("Weisheit") & 卿 ("Herr") - but 卿 is keigo as it is a very formal word (you only encounter this word with mainly Feudal Japan or medieval subjects.), the word 百智 literally means: "alles wissen" when combined, as the kanji 百 is used in a personified manner (as it is metaphorical) in conjunction with 智 ending with 卿.
*10. The word 写し means "duplizieren" followed by the kanji 身 ("der Körper (eine Person)") + 雫 ("Tropfen (Wasser)") as it spawns with the animation akin to a tear drop, and の is just a word particle present in Japanese, forming the word 写し身の雫.
*11. Astel's title in Japanese states 暗黒の落とし子 ("Der finstere Bastard") while the German localization went for Stern der Finsternis.
*12. 星砕き means "Sternenzerstörer" comprising from the godan verb: 砕く (lit: "zu zerschlagen / zerstören") and the kanji 星 ("Sterne") - coining the word from 2 kanji: 星砕き. From German, why did they change it to "Sternengeißel"?
*13. From Japanese, the ichidan verb 爛れる (lit: "Wunde / entzündet sein") is present in the tree spirit's title, while 樹霊 ("Baumgeist") is a portemanteau of the Kanji used 樹 ("Baum") - it's a fancier kanji since 木 is commonly used, but 霊 ("Geist") is also used in conjunction.
*14. Godrick's name in Japanese has the word 接ぎ (lit: "Veredelung") present, followed by 木 ("Baum") which is used here, as opposed to 樹 - found in for instance 黄金樹 ("Erdbaum").
*15. Maggie's Japanese boss title bares the kanji 亜人 (lit: "untermenschliche") to insinuate that she has human qualities but not considered a true human, due to her appearance.
*16. The presence of Japanese 乙女 ("Mädchen") mentions that its a female, followed by 人形 ("Puppe") but starts off with 人さらい (lit: "Entführer").
*17. In Niall's Japanese title, he is referred to as 宿将 (lit: "Generalveteran") states that he an experienced commander who has already endured battle, you even get the veterans prosthesis as a talisman after defeating him.
*18. Putrid Grave Warden Duelist's title in Japanese consist of the following words: 闘士 ("Kämpfer") + 墓守 ("Grabwächter") along with 腐敗 ("Fäulnis / Korruption") since he can inflict scarlet rot towards the player, as well as being in the catacombs, due to 墓守 being in his title.
*19. In Japanese, the word 眷属 (lit: "Unterhaltsberechtigte") implies that he's aa dependant (you can see him at the sanctum in upper Caelid), as he just remains idle until the player hits them which initates the battle.
Locations:

日本語	Übersetzung aus dem Japanischen	Offizielle deutsche Lokalisierung
漂着墓地 \1)	Angeschwemmter Friedhof	Höhle des Wissens
崩れゆくファルムアズラ	-	Zerfallenes Farum Azula
深き根の底 \2)	Tiefgründige Wurzeln	Tiefen von Tiefwurz
リムグレイブ	-	Limgrave
湖のリエーニエ	-	Liurnia, dem Seenland
啜り泣きの半島 \3)	Halbinsel der Verschmutzungshalbinsel	Halbinsel der Tränen
ミケラの聖樹	-	Miquella's Haligbaum
聖樹の支えエブレフェール	-	Elphael, Stütze des Haligbaums
モーグウィン王朝 \4)	Mohgwyn-Dynastie	Mohgwyn-Palast
魔術学院レアルカリア	Raya Lucaria Akademie für Magie und Zauberei	Akademie von Raya Lucaria
腐れ湖	-	Fäulnissee
ケイリッド	-	Caelid
忌み捨ての地下 \5)	Abscheu Untergrund	Unterirdisches Reservat der Scham
ストームヴィル城 \6)	Schloss Stormveil	Schloss Sturmschleier
ゲルミア火山 \7)	Gelmir-Vulkan	Gelmir
赤獅子城 \8)	Schloss des Roten Löwen	Schloss Rotmähne
月光の祭壇	-	Mondlichtaltar
禁域	Unantastbares Gebiet	Verbotene Lände
聖別雪原	-	Geweihtes Schneefeld
巨人たちの山嶺	Bergrücken der Giganten	Berggipfel der Riesen
アルター高原	-	Altus Plateau
聖樹への秘路	-	Geheimpfad zum Haligbaum
ソールの城砦 \9)	Sol Festung	Schloss Sol

*1. From Japanese: 漂着 (lit: "treibend an der Küste") as you can enter via the beach behind, followed by 基地 ("Basis / Friedhof") implies that you are in a graveyard (metaphorically as Limgrave is not far from it, baring a dark undertone.)
*2. 深き根の底 literally translates to "Tiefgründige Wurzeln" but in German, they renamed it as "Tiefen von Tiefwurz" which is different. From the Japanese adverb: 深き > 深く ("tief") + 根 ("Wurzeln (einer Pflanze / eines Baumes)") due to the presence of large tree branches and roots within the area you tread on, followed by 底 ("Boden (einer Grube / eines Brunnens)") as you're underground.)
*3. The word 啜り泣き is derivatve of the godan verb 啜り泣く ("zum Schluchzen"), followed by the word 半島 ("Halbinsel")
*4. The word 王朝 ("dynastie") is present as it is passed down from family, the Japanese name refers to the fact that the area where you fight Mohg contains Miquella's egg, saying that Mohg is Miquella's half brother.
*5. 忌み捨て literally translates to ("Buße (gegen die Trauer)") implying that Mohg is down there, perhaps he was condmened to be underground where you can find him as a boss, as hinted by the word in Japanese: 地下 ("untergrund").
*6. The Japanese name is closer to the English release as indicated by katakana, but in German they renamed it as "Sturmschleier".
*7. The Japanese 火山 ("vulkan") clearly states that you're not far from the volcano, the manor is even close to it. In German, they could've used "Berg" beside its name to make it clear, but it was omitted.
*8. Japanese used 赤い ("Rot") + 獅子 ("Löwe") to form 赤獅子 ("Roten Löwen") ending with the kanji 城 ("schloss") as opposed to German, they just copied it from English.
*9. In Japanese, the kanji 砦 ("festung") is present along with 城, indicating that it is still a castle but at the same time functions as a fortress.
Note: It's difficult to convey directly from Japanese > German while keeping the original nuance in-tact, due to how different Japanese is to Indo-European languages.
The annotations within the original Japanese names are marked with * [numbered] there for further explaination, based on my own understanding to convey it from Japanese.
Since most translations into European languages are obviously from the English release of the game, therefore already loosing the intended meaning.
In hindsight:

• From the literal translations between JP to DE (in italic) found on second column of the table, and the official translation in German, which one actually stays faithful to the source language?
• Have you played the game in German? If so, how accurate is the translation? (I mean, did they localize it from the source language or English, still resulting in mistranslations?

I have recently started picking up cooking as a hobby. For a life event, someone wants to get me a gift 100-200$+ gift and I thought a chef knife would be a great choice, but I do not know anything about good chef knives. I thought I should come here looking for advice, as its probably better than any 'top 10 list' I can find.
Currently I have a set of Henkle knives ( Amazon.com: HENCKELS Premium Quality 15-Piece Knife Set with Block, Razor-Sharp, German Engineered Knife Informed by over 100 Years of Masterful Knife Making, Lightweight and Strong, Dishwasher Safe: Block Knife Sets: Home & Kitchen ) that I use as my primary knifes. I also have a Chef Sac knife that I use for vegan cooking(Amazon.comAmazon.com: Chef Sac 8 Inch Chef Knife Professional Chef Knife Chefs Knife Sharp Kitchen Knife Chef Knife 8 Inch Best Chef Knife Chefs Knives Chef Knife Professional: Home & Kitchen ), like soup stocks (Long story about why I need both).
I am pescatarian so I will not be using the knife cutting meats/chicken. Mostly it would be a work knife used for dicing vegetables among other things. What knife would people recommend I request this person to get me? Thank you!
​

I recently bought a Rockwell 6C razor and love it. I trashed my $15 Viking razor from Amazon because it gave me numerous nicks. I also bought a sample pack from Amazon and realized that not all blades are the same. I had been using Dorco Platinum blades for a long time, thinking they were all the same, but I recently decided to get a new DE razor because my old one was cutting me too much.
My Top 5 from my sample pack on amazon: Favorite from 1-5, but I like all of them.

1. Persona Platinum - Perfect balance between sharp and smooth. I'm going to try the Persona Blues (comfort-coated) next because I hear they are slightly better.
2. Astra Superior Platinum(India) - Sharp but smooth. (I've heard that Astra moved their production facility to India and that the Russian-made Astra blades were better. If this is true, it's a bummer because I like the ones made in India.) Update: According to Geofatboy's Youtube Channel they are same blade.
3. Nacets - The sharpest I tested so far and smooth, but they give the most sting when using an alum block. (No bleeding though)
4. Kai - Almost as sharp as Nacets but smoother.
5. Iridium Super - Very mild and the smoothest blade I've tried so far.

There were like like 5 other brands I never heard of, and I didn't like them so they didn't make my top 5.
It's hard to pick a favorite among my top five because they are all unique in their own way.
What are your favorite DE razor blades so far? Please share your recommendations as I'm looking to buy a sample pack of 12 different brands based on everyone's suggestions from Razor Blades Club.
Your help is much appreciated!
Here are the top blades according to you guys: I will put the number of people who have each blade as their #1 favorite with a number next to it.

• Gillette Russian Permasharps (4)
• Persona Platinum (2)
• Persona Blues (2)
• Wilkinson Sword (India) (2)
• Nacets (2)
• Bic Chrome Platinum (2)
• Astra Superior Platinum (1)
• Derby Premium (1)
• Wizamet Iridium Supers (1)
• Feather (1)
• Gillette Platinum (1)
• Treet Platinum (1)
• Gillette 7 o'clock Super Yellow (1)
• RK Stainless (1)
• Voskhods (Because of YouTube suggestions)
• Bolzanos (Because of YouTube suggestions)
• Gillette 7 o'clock Super Platinum
• German Wilkinson Sword
• Mühle Stainless
• Astra Stainless Blue
• Kai
• Gillette Silver Blues
• Blue Astras
• Rapira Platinum

The list seems to match up to other peoples favorites accrros the the internet.
I'll keep this here for anyone looking to find the best of the best, like me.
This way, you don't have to waste your time looking around. I'm not looking to add ones that anyone kind of likes; only everyone's favorites.

I wasn't planning on watching Thrice Upon A Time. I had not liked the previous films and they seemed like a very inferior product compared to the original anime. However, the good reviews and opinions I saw about it encouraged me to do so. I did it with as open and tolerant a mind as possible, knowing that there was a good chance I wouldn't like the film. "What's the worst that could happen? That I don't like it and continue to prefer the original series? At least I'll be entertained for two and a half hours," I thought. What I did not expect at all is the deep feeling of disgust and repulsion that this film provoked in me, in a way that no other film has provoked in years.
I hated the movie from start to finish. I could spend hours talking about the boring action sequences, about its ugly, excessive CGI that ruins the already ugly mecha, about its disgusting hypersexualization of fucking 14-year-old girls, about how Misato's plans don't make sense, about how Last Kiss almost made me tear my ears off, or its plot full of Deus Ex Machinas with concepts conveniently taken by Hideaki Anno from the place that his last name suggests; but the real reason I'm writing this is because I feel like these movies spit on everything the excellent original work represents.
Not only because as adaptations they fail miserably, but also because they retroactively damage the original work (we'll talk about that later).
Before I begin to explain why the rebuilds are bad adaptations, I want to warn that I am going to do a relatively exhaustive review of the 4 films, so this rant is going to be very long, like staying up late on a winter night with chronic insomnia. That said, let's start to see the reasons:
WHAT IS NEON GENESIS EVANGELION?:
To understand why rebuilds fail as remakes, I must first ask you, dear reader: What does Neon Genesis Evangelion mean to you? (it should at least be familiar to you, unless you've spent your life under a bridge) What do you think about when you read that title, apart from Shinji fucking in front of a comatose Asuka? What comes to mind when you hear the most famous opening in anime history, apart from Shinji strangling the otter against Happy Thursday's throat? (in more ways than one). If your answer is: "It's a mecha anime for emos with a coomer protagonist", that's fine, I respect that; but please press the red "X" in the top right corner of your screen, you can now leave.
Now, I'm going to get serious and explain my definition: Evangelion is a work about the hedgehog's dilemma and the difficulties of forming emotional bonds that human beings have, as well as the consequences of trying to separate from them for fear of rejection. It is not a story about heroes. It's not a story about saving the world. In Evangelion there are neither heroes nor villains, but rather a group of emotionally broken characters trying to be happy in a world just as broken as them. The real enemy of Evangelion is not the angels. It is the lack of communication and empathy.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilema_del_erizo
It is that same lack of communication and empathy that progressively causes everything to go to hell to conclude with a cathartic and bleak ending, but consistent with the themes of the work. It is therefore an existentialist work about human relationships disguised as a mecha anime. This, added to a unique visual style, daring direction, and mechas like never before seen on television, made Evangelion one of the most influential anime in all of history, as well as a true commercial success for Gainax Studio. Success that encouraged other studios to carry out projects such as Cowboy Bebop or Serial Experiment Lain, taking anime towards a new golden age.
Even today you can hear the echoes of that Third Impact of End of Evangelion in 1997. The list of works influenced by Evangelion both inside and outside of Japan is endless. Of course, it is not a perfect work, nor extensive in errors: its target audience is ambiguous, many of the biblical references are more for decoration than anything else, and several aspects of the ending(s) could have been explained better. However, many of these errors can be attributed to a lack of time and budget during the production of the original anime (which was quite chaotic and improvised); therefore, they are understandable and forgivable.
In summary, we can conclude that Evangelion is a dark, introspective, provocative and unique work (at least at its time). This is also combined with a unique visual identity and complex characters whose relationships intertwine and interconnect throughout the work. The sum of all these factors is what led Evangelion to be such a critically acclaimed work that it transcended its own genre and became an icon of popular culture. And this in turn constitutes the biggest mistake of rebuilds; because they commit the biggest sin that an adaptation can commit: denying everything that made the original work great.
ADAPTING WITHOUT A CLEAR PURPOSE:
One of the biggest problems with these remakes (as well as a clear example of what I'm saying) is their total narrative inconsistency. Let me explain: the first rebuilds movie (1.11) is a literal copy-paste of the first 6 chapters of the original anime, with practically the same scenes, dialogues and even music. This makes the film completely redundant and unnecessary (and makes one wonder why it exists); But in any case, the message is being conveyed that the purpose of these remakes is to adapt the original series as faithfully as possible to the cinema with a current animation style.
However, the second movie (2.22) is a... something. A pastiche of new and old things where the plot broadly follows that of the original anime, but with many things changed (of course, for the worse) and a different ending. All this compressing no less than 14 chapters of the original anime into two and a half hours. Here the message that one can infer is that it seeks to adapt the original story (very briefly) by changing and rearranging certain elements, now more in line with what an adaptation is.
However, then we get to 3.33 and... well, after a 14-year because reasons timeskip, we're now in a post-post-apocalyptic world (repetition intended) where ex-Nerv members fight against Nerv itself. Nerv in giant spaceships, there are mechas everywhere, Misato is a sociopath, and Shinji and Asuka still look exactly the same because "DAMN JEBA." Here we can infer that what is sought is to create a totally new story and take it in different directions than the original. The following movie (3.0+1.01) is the only one that is consistent with this purpose.
Whether all these narrative pirouettes were planned in advance or not (clearly not), we can see that there is a clear incongruity between what is intended to be done and what is finally done. All of this generates a strong narrative chaos where the elements and themes of the original anime are mixed with the new ones, creating a total inconsistency. Since also in 3.0+1.01 it is revealed (unfortunately to me) that everything is part of the same universe and this is not really a remake, the excuse of "they are different universes, they don't have to be the same" doesn't work either.
In fact, one thing that you will see me comment a lot throughout this article is the lack of narrative consistency of these remakes, especially in comparison to the original work.
A HEDGEHOG WITHOUT TICKS:
No character in Evangelion better embodies the central theme of the work than Shinji Ikari, its own protagonist. Shinji is not a hero: he is not brave. He is not a genius. He is not charismatic. He is not selfless. He doesn't want to save the world. His reason for piloting the Eva is to gain recognition and appreciation from others; especially from his father, whom he hates, but at the same time admires; He feels that she despises him, but he also wants (and needs) that she loves him. Shinji spends the entire series in the dilemma between escaping from what hurts him (classic avoidance behavior) or accepting it and moving on, even at the risk of being hurt again.
This theme is rock solid throughout the entire original series: from the first to the last chapter of the anime, and from minute one to the very end of End of Evangelion. Even the opening itself makes several visual references to Shinji's hedgehog dilemma. This can make Shinji an infuriating character for audiences accustomed to typical anime protagonists; but it's those same things that make Shinji such a unique and special character. He deconstructs and subverts the hero's journey. And it's not as if this hinders the plot: Shinji is not proactive, but he also does not spend the series crying, as many often claim.
https://files.catbox.moe/eolho0.mp4
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomito
And as you may already be imagining, the Shinji of the rebuilds does not have a hedgehog's dilemma. Or rather, he has it, but only during the first movie (copy-paste of the original anime) and part of the second. This is a problem, because it creates a strong narrative inconsistency (again) where it seems that two Shinjis exist at the same time or that this one is bipolar. As of 3.33, Shinji's entire character arc is based on trying to redeem himself for his past mistakes first by unleashing "Almost Third Impact" (what a stupid name) and subsequently preventing Kaworu's death while trying to right said mistake.
Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. The problem is that I have already seen the arc of the hero who fails to eventually rise up and succeed in 100 trillion works, while the hedgehog's dilemma in none more than in Evangelion (at least in my case). Which makes Shinji a much less interesting character. Some might argue that in 3.0 + 1.01 Shinji does have such a dilemma because he spends half the movie crawling on the ground; but there is not a hedgehog's dilemma, but rather depression for having seen Kaworu's head go KAWOOM (I know, the joke was very bad, but if he didn't do it, I would explode too).
End of Evangelion's Shinji did have such a dilemma because the reason for his depression was having been manipulated and used by someone he had previously opened up to and then forced to kill him, not for failing in his mission (in fact, he was very efficient in her mission to separate Kaworu's head from her body), which in turn brings sexual (and later, deadly) results for Asuka. I insist: narrative consistency. But this is not the worst: the worst thing is that at certain moments in these films, Shinji becomes the typical shonen savior hero, betraying the central point of his character in the original series.
https://youtu.be/E-x-f2OrWeA
A perfect example of this is the ending of 2.22, where the fight in chapter 19 (COINCENTLY from where the original anime starts to get more introspective) is transformed into a ridiculous shipping attempt, with Rei turned into a damsel in distress and Shinji into a savior hero while spouting all the typical cliché lines, topped off with a disgustingly cheesy ending. But of course, how could it end otherwise? With Shinji's Eva practicing cannibalism on Zeruel's corpse (the original scene)? Too disturbing for current times. Shinji and Rei fighting as a team to defeat him? Yes of course. Rei has enough not being in the kitchen. Besides, Asuka already takes care of that, hoping to receive her alpha male's cock as a reward.
https://youtu.be/TPS0Uk0TkP0
Because, like any good modern anime protagonist, Shinji now has a harem.
FETISHING WITHOUT CONTROL:
Of all the characters who are now part of Shinji's harem, the one who is most harmed by this is Rei (Asuka's case is different, and the other character is an infernal creation from Anno's sick mind). Not only because acting like a bitch in heat goes totally against her personality and because of the murky situation, considering that she is a clone of Shinji's mother, but also because her character is reduced to a mere fetish object that does things cute to produce tenderness in the viewer and make coomers buy their figurines.
Rei is an interesting character because he raises numerous existential questions based on the ship of Theseus paradox: the concept of identity, to what extent we can consider ourselves still ourselves, the construction and definition of a "self", etc. But here, her screen time piloting her Unit 00 is minimal (COINCENTLY most of it in 1.11) and her exploits are practically irrelevant or non-existent, also being reduced to a mere damsel in distress at the end of 2.22, as I said before.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradoja_de_Teseo
In 3.0+1.01 he doesn't even get to pilot an Eva. Her role in the film is to cause pity and produce tenderness with her total ignorance (I see that the idiot Anno forgot that all the Reis are born with basic knowledge) while she is seen with different hairstyles, different outfits, working as a farmer, taking care of a baby, etc. In short, a fetish object where she wants the public to value her for how "moe" she is instead of for her abilities or as a character. In Anno's mind, feminism advances in reverse. Ironic, considering that it was precisely Rei who unintentionally started the moe culture.
Of course, it goes without saying that Rei is not the only one who suffers from this extreme fetishization of her character in these films. Under the excuse of paying homage to End of Evangelion, Asuka now always wears an eye patch (needless to say it has nothing to do with having been injured there), a cap with cat ears, in addition to having a very convenient trend for the coomer public of walking naked and semi-naked through other people's houses. She sometimes puts on the plugsuit, but near the end of the movie, it is conveniently torn off, lest we forget that this is made by the Japanese.
One of the best examples of how this hareminication has destroyed the main female characters is in the elevator scene. In the original anime, Rei tries to advise Asuka in a time of particular vulnerability and depression. Rei's limited social skills, coupled with Asuka being Asuka, cause her to misinterpret the attempt to help as mockery and an act of condescension, triggering a slap from her towards Rei and a worsening of her already strained relationship and Asuka's mental state. Rei doesn't fight back because she knows that doing so would only make things even worse.
It is an excellent dramatic scene because it once again brings to the foreground the hedgehog's dilemma and the difficulties between human relationships, very much in line with what Evangelion is. In 2.22, this scene is gratuitously introduced and turned into two horny bitches fighting over which of the two will let their alpha male penetrate first, with a highly OC Rei stopping the assault attempt in a 100% gangsta way to make her see more "cool." The scene doesn't even make plot sense, because Asuka at that moment is not even depressed, and in the original anime this occurs at a much later time under a very different context.
and speaking of asuka...
SOMEONE CALLED ASUKA:
When I started watching these movies, I was afraid that Asuka's character had undergone modifications to make her more "palatable" to new audiences. What took me completely by surprise was how radically different this Asuka is from the original. So different that they can't even be considered the same character. To show it very clearly, we are going to review the personality of both:
Asuka from the original anime: An energetic and outgoing half-German, half-Japanese girl (actually it's 1/4, but who cares) who loves to be the center of attention and have everyone praise her due to the lack of parental love received during her childhood having been abandoned by her father and supplanted by her mother, who suffered from severe mental disorders. She is extremely proud and competitive because she feels that being Eva's pilot is the only thing that gives her an identity and purpose, which makes her tend to become quickly frustrated when things don't go her way and become defensive when she feels like she is being outmaneuvered. . He loves to make fun of others (especially Shinji), to the point of being cruel at times, but he does not do it out of malice, but rather to compensate for his enormous inferiority complex due to the rejection suffered by his mother and having witnessed her. committed suicide (and possibly even tried to kill her) the day she was chosen as Eva's pilot and came running to wish her a Happy Thursday. She admires Kaji and wants to fuck him because she hates her own adolescence, she needs to feel adult and independent due to suffering from a certain Electra complex for having lacked a true father figure during her childhood. She has a sweet and vulnerable nature, but she rarely expresses it to anyone except her best friend Hikari and I better stop this now because too much text.
Rebuild Asuka (hereinafter "Asuka"): A girl soldier created by Nerv as part of a series of clones who has always been alone and thinks she doesn't need anyone, although she secretly wishes to have a family. She hits and insults others for no reason, she yells a lot, never smiles or makes jokes, and hates socializing with others, which doesn't stop her from looking for Shinji's dick within 2 days of meeting him. She always plays video games while someone is talking to her and at night she talks to herself with a doll like an autistic person.
As we can see, these two characters not only look nothing alike: several of their traits directly contradict each other. Because they look alike, they are not even alike in aesthetics: the original Asuka had red hair and dressed in the traditional feminine way, while "Asuka" is light brown and dresses in a tomboy style (which I'm not saying is wrong, I'm just commenting to show the radical difference). It's not that they have changed Asuka: it's that they have directly murdered her to supplant her by someone with whom she only shares her first name (not even her last name). And needless to say, the change has been VERY for the worse.
To describe the first character, I had to spend 15 damn lines, and even then I had to leave out many important facets of his personality, his development in the original series and his entire character arc in EoE, because if I didn't have one endless bible For the second, 6 lines were enough for me, and I could have had more left over if I had been more concise. The first character is a complex and three-dimensional character, with multiple facets, edges and layers. She feels like a real person. The second character is a generic tsundere that you can find in any mecha anime of the week. She is not even comparable to the first; She's not even a good character.
We cannot speak of Flanderization because not even the most basic traits of the character have been respected. Nor can we speak of a deconstruction because that same absence of basic traits means that there is no character construction on which to stand in the first place. Obviously, this change greatly resents the interactions between characters: the original Asuka was a charismatic and fun character with the ability to drive the plot on her own (as soon as she appears in chapter 8 of the original anime she is already changing the entire dynamic between characters) , while "Asuka" is mostly only in the background or to fight; He doesn't even have a character arc as such. In fact, in 2.22 he has even less screen time than several supporting characters.
His chemistry with Shinji is also non-existent (and I'm not just referring to the romantic level) and they barely have any development together. They like each other here because... ehhhh... she likes how he cooks and he thinks she's hot? It's not that the AsuShinji (or ShinSuka, or whatever the hell it's called) here is forced: it's just that it doesn't even make sense. The only reason people still ship them together is because they did it in the 90s. Yūko Miyamura's performance also feels very lackadaisical and lacks passion, which is quite unlike her. Although perhaps this is intentional, since her character always talks as if she has the spear of Longinus permanently stuck up her rectum. In fact, the few times she says her iconic "Anta baka?" This one feels very forced, in addition to not having her characteristic high-pitched tone.
In short, the character has suffered the same fetishization as Rei (gamer girl, tomboy, one-eyed, etc.), but also with the aggravating factor that not even her basic characteristics have been respected here. This is especially disconcerting when we take into account that the rest of the characters have their original personalities more or less intact (albeit simplified). Even more disconcerting if we take into account that Asuka is possibly the most popular character in all of Evangelion, and even more so if we consider that she is Anno's favorite character (in fact, the initial idea was for Asuka to be the protagonist).
https://evaresources.wordpress.com/der-mond/
Given this, the inevitable question arises: "Why?" What was the point of turning Asuka into an inferior and tsundere copy of Rei, even more so when there are already three clones? It has always been rumored that Asuka is not popular in Japan, but that is completely false. The only semi-rational explanation I can think of is that they did it to please the haters. It's no secret that a portion within the Evangelion fandom (and outside of it) hates Asuka with a passion. They see her as someone toxic and cruel who dedicates herself to screwing others for no reason, without understanding that you don't have to like a well-written character.
https://imgur.com/a/KznXE1x
What these people fail to understand is that Asuka's verbal abuse is a defense mechanism to avoid opening up to others, since Asuka constantly says things that do not fit with what she really feels or thinks (clear proof is chapter 16 from the original series). It's not like it matters much, considering they were never more than an extremely vocal minority. That the character is so popular is proof of this. The great irony of all this is that the new "Asuka" is a much more unpleasant and detestable character than the original, since she lacks the redeemable qualities of the original and her moments of comic relief.
And if until now I have been more or less benevolent with this remake, this is something I cannot forgive: because changing a character just because a group of people doesn't like it is one of the most cowardly and pathetic acts in the world. that a writer can fall. The fact that this was also at the expense of one of the best female characters in the history of anime and with a wonderful story arc makes it even more bloody. Any other halfway competent writer would have responded with this.
https://youtu.be/5Js0ea6yPKM
...although if we go by Ockham's razor, the most likely explanation is simply that Hideaki Anno is mentally retarded.
A CHARACTER TO DESTROY A FRANCHISE AND BIND IT TO DARKNESS:
Mari Makinami Illustrious A.K.A María Iskariote (what an appropriate last name) is one of the worst creations ever made by humans. Not since the atomic bombs has humanity created something so horrible. Worse than the holocaust. Worse than fascism. Worse than Facebook memes. Worse than stepping on a lego. I would even dare to say that it is worse than pizza with pineapple. No character better reflects Anno's mental decline or better embodies all the problems of the current anime industry than this trash.
This character contributes absolutely nothing to the plot, he does not contribute at any time to its advancement, he lacks his own development or story, he does absolutely nothing relevant in the 3 films in which he appears, and he does not even have a defined personality. So much so, that all of her scenes could be eliminated or replaced by any other character and she would barely affect the plot, or not affect it at all.
The character is so frighteningly one-dimensional that she doesn't even show different emotions or moods during the three films in which she appears, always being perpetually happy and carefree even in tense situations for literally no reason. This leads to moments as surreal as her starting to sing and hum in scenes that are intended to be serious or dramatic (or so I think; perhaps what they wanted was to turn this into an unintentional comedy), again generating a gigantic narrative dissonance. The last third of 3.33 is the best example of this.
But that's not the worst: this character is clearly made for otaku coomers to masturbate to. She has almost every fetish possible: glasses/lenses (whatever they call it in your country), pigtails, miniskirt, schoolgirl, saying "nya", big tits, obsession with smell and tight outfits, etc. To make matters worse in 3.0 + 1.01 we discover that she is 48 years old, so we can also add the milf fetish. Evidently, her tits always bounce in her plugsuit (she would swear that never happened in the original series) and there are many close-ups of her ass. In addition to constantly making sexual advances towards Shinji, which also turns this piece of shit into a potential pedophile.
If the thing simply ended there, we could say that this character remains a mere annoying and unnecessary secondary character. Unfortunately, the character is also disruptive to the plot, occupying long filler scenes that do nothing more than waste time that is already scarce in a film, and that could have been used on something else more interesting; like Pen Pen watching TV, Pen Pen eating a sardine, etc. Without going any further, both 2.22, 3.33 and 3.0+1.01 begin with a long filler scene of her hitting on her. Well, to be honest, the 3.33 one is more Asuka, but this abortion is still out there fucking and singing.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that discussing why this character exists is much more interesting than any other debate that can be created about these films. I still think about it. However, the ending of 3.0+1.01 gives a good clue: the character was created solely and exclusively to stay with Shinji. I can only imagine that Anno made this tired of the fandom shipping and the arguments over who Shinji should stay with, so he decided to end the matter by creating his own ideal waifu with all the fetishes he likes in a woman to end it. with this. It's disgusting, but considering we're talking about a Japanese, totally possible.
It's surreal coming from the man who harshly criticized the use of anime as escapism and the excessive female objectification and sexualization in it, but it's the only semi-decent explanation I can think of. Basically, he is what is called a mascot character in literature. That would explain why this character never shows doubts, nor any kind of internal conflict, or why he is a better Eva pilot than Asuka and Rei themselves. It is also very revealing about the quality of the Rebuilds: creating a self-insert OC just to be the partner of the protagonist or another main character is the quintessential trait of all bad fanfiction.
However, among all this tsunami of disqualifications, I also have to say something positive: spending three movies giving hope to the shippers only to have Shinji be cuckolded simultaneously by Rei and Asuka in the last one and end up with a character with which had zero development (before 3.0+1.01 I didn't even know its name) is a true trolling masterclass, worthy of the best of ball pumpers. Only a true emperor of evil would have come up with such a twisted and at the same time perfect way to screw over a large part of the fandom. I give you my tens, Anno.
THE ANTI-UNIVERSE OF ANTI-NARRATIVE:
Of all the new concepts that Anno brings up at the last minute from the place named after his last name, none stands out more than the "anti-universe." Or, as I like to call it, the "anti-good writing." Basically because it perfectly represents all the problems of the rebuilds and their script. In the final stretch of 3.0+1.01 we have the last-minute revelation of a quantum plane of existence capable of turning imagined worlds into reality and changing this through Lilith, which cannot be understood by the human mind (wow, WHAT CONVENIENT!) and whose existence has never been mentioned or even hinted at in the entire franchise until CONCIDENTLY the aforementioned last third of the film.
In other words, a gigantic Deus Ex Machina created in an improvised way to avoid repeating End of Evangelion and forcing a happy ending where Shinji creates an ideal universe for each character (although that is questionable, as we will see later). And it is far from being the only one: the spear of Cassius, the Eva of Infinity, the key of Nebuchadnezzar, the Book of Life, and so on. None of these concepts are integrated into the plot in an organic and natural way, but rather they arise spontaneously at its convenience when it needs it. Except for the new "Super Berserker Mode" of the Evas, which is simply a power-up to sell figurines.
As I said before, if at least this were an alternate universe separate from the original anime, all this bombardment of concepts pulled out of the ass would be a little better justified. But the revelation that everything is a cycle and we are in the same universe as the original work only makes it even worse, generating countless inconsistencies about why they never mentioned this or never used that (what's the point of the seeds of life If you can create universes simply by imagining them?). Although without a doubt, the worst of all these new concepts is "the curse of Eve."
Here we have a new concept with very strong repercussions completely launched, which is not even an explanation in itself, it does not answer anything and to make matters worse, the same films contradict each other several times. Needless to say, this is a cheap excuse for the three main characters not to grow up and continue sexualizing 14-year-old girls after the most gratuitous timeskip ever seen. And speaking of timeskip, putting such a long one in the middle of the story is a first-time writing error. If you are writers, never do that: the bigger the time jump, the more things you will be forced to explain, since the less you do it, the more plot holes will form as a result.
And of course, here it explains little to nothing of what happened these 14 years. Like where Nerv got such a tremendous base from, if in 3.33 it seemed that together with Rei and Kaworu it was made up of four people. Or how they have gotten such an army of pseudo-Evas, especially when these are supposed to be extremely expensive (wow, and SEELE with all her unlimited resources was barely 9 in EoE). Or worse yet, how Kaji managed to stop Almost Third Impact (seriously, the name couldn't be stupider). None of these questions are answered at any time. Obviously because they can't do it.
Evangelion has always been characterized by leaving things up to the public's interpretation, but here I feel that they are vilely taking advantage of it so as not to have to give any kind of explanations. And in the case at hand, do not even pay attention to contradictions. Like Touji and Kensuke got on Unit 01 and that doesn't stop them from being 28 after the timeskip. Or that Mari appears to be 14 despite looking like an adult in Gendo's photos and flashbacks, plus the fact that Evas, by simple logic, could not exist back then.
The height of absurdity is when near the end of 3.0+1.01 the "unexpected" revelation occurs (actually we all saw it coming) that everything is a cycle and we are facing a reboot of the original timeline, of which only Kaworu seems to be conscious. He let them guess without giving them any clues how many times Kaworu mentioned or even hinted at such a thing in the original series. Needless to say, nothing is ever explained about it: Who created that cycle? (Adam? Lilith? The First Ancestral Race? Hideaki Anno's last name?) For what purpose? How does it work? How long does it last? Why is Kaworu the only one who remembers him? Do these remakes make sense?
THE DEATH OF A STYLE:
Fortress-cities folding in on themselves. Designs and constructions oscillating between the nineties, the utopian and the cyberpunk. Meshes of flesh and blood animated with the souls of the dead fighting with classical music in the background. A mysterious and ambiguous lore where aliens, technology and conspiracies mix with gnostic, cabalistic elements and the most esoteric aspects of Christianity (did the History Channel predict Evangelion?). Minimalist posters moving quickly between frames. Monochrome backgrounds flashing aggressively (bad luck if you were epileptic). So consistent with its themes that the A.T. fields themselves. They were an allegory of the hedgehog's dilemma (I'm not making this up, Kaworu himself says it in chapter 23).
https://imgur.com/a/2M0eDVK
The sum of all these factors is what allowed Evangelion to build an absolutely unique identity, the one that allowed people to say "hey, that's an Eva!". Starting in 3.33, all that is lost to disappear in 3.0+1.01 in favor of giant spaceships, mechanical mechas made of pure CGI, battles full of colored lights, multiverses and time loops. I'm not saying these elements are bad in and of themselves, but I've already seen a thousand mecha stories with these. For that, I start watching any of the versions of Gundam or Macross. I could also complain about the boring shots without audiovisual language and always using the same color palette, but to be fair, that is an endemic evil of current anime.
And like any bad remake, 3.0+1.01 can't help but pay homage to several scenes from the original work, completely failing to understand the point of said scenes. As an example, we have Ritsuko shooting Gendo for no reason other than to pay homage to End of Evangelion, ignoring that the context between both scenes is very different. Furthermore, here they never explain the relationship that exists between the two, so the scene makes no sense; especially for those who never saw the original series, who will also find mentions of facts that these films have never shown or bothered to explain.
Even worse is when they try to pay homage to the iconic battle between Asuka and the Eva Series. Not only because of the total absence of the graphic violence and choreography of the original, but because what makes that fight so remembered is its emotional component, since it is preceded by a narrative catharsis in which Asuka discovers that the Her mother's soul was always in Unit 02, in addition to being marked by the constant tension of knowing if she will be able to finish the fight before the Eva's energy supply runs out. Here the Evas never run out of energy (why do they need the power supply, then?), so there is no such tension.
In the original fight Asuka may not be shooting 1387945 Evas with a super cannon larger than her as she falls through an... interdimensional hole?; But there you feel every blow, you can appreciate every movement in detail, and the dramatic tension in crescendo only improves the result. If this were a shonen, the logical thing is that Asuka would win. After all, her character arc has been wrapped up in a climactic way. Unfortunately, this is Evangelion. When the Evas Series manage to cause a mortal wound with the pseudo-spear of Longinus and the energy counter reads zero, the outcome is already decided. What happens next is horrific (Asuka's enemies are cruel to her even after she is dead), and just as horrifying are Yūko Miyamura's screams and Miki Nagasawa's performance as Maya announcing that Asuka is dead. In the Rebuilds there are no performances anywhere near that level.
End of Evangelion will be as dark and uncomfortable to watch as you want, but it is a film where all those responsible put their souls into achieving the best possible result, both on a technical and artistic level.
and well, I think that for today I have already downloaded too much, an apology for the large amount of text, I will make a second part at another time because I have so many things to comment on... anyway, I hope you have a good day/afternoon/night or when you read this .

Part 1: A sincere question about hierarchical tags.

What exactly is the point of these???
The only use I see for them is simply to restrict a group of tags to a specific deck or deck set. For example, putting all of your tags for your German cards into a tag like German::Chapter1 and German::Chapter2. Or putting all of your Math tags into a main Math tag like Math::Trigonometry and Math::Integrals.
Context: Anyways, I've recently been enlightened (I finally read the Anki manual) and discovered the versatility of tags (I did not know you could choose to study a specific set of tags). I'm studying German and decided to restructure my deck to remove any redundant cards as some word lists have reoccurring words.
I have a bunch of Kapitels (chapters) and each Kapitel has multiple word lists, depending on the CEFR proficiency level of the word (for example an A1 word or a B1 word). See this pic of the tag sidebar:
https://preview.redd.it/ub4yrznznn0d1.png?width=107&format=png&auto=webp&s=82d497718c365d0eeeecf4f32bfe38505a6d18b8
I was using dots to sort the tags into a hierarchy. Then I found out about hierarchical tags. I tried them out because it's basically native support for something I was already doing in a janky way and it should be way more useful right?
The Gripe
Then I looked to see how Anki dealt with hierarchical tags, and boy was I disappointed. It just lists them all with their full path! You can't even collapse them! And worst of all: the tags are automatically localized to its parent tag instead of staying a universal tag, which is in my opinion... bad!
Example:
If I want to study say, all A1 CEFR proficiency level words from all Kapitels (chapters), I can't just click the A1 tag. I have to click all KapitelX::A1 tags. To me, this seems counterproductive and basically makes hierarchical tags useless (except for the use case discussed earlier, to declutter the gigantic list of tags you might have if you have more than half a dozen different decks on your profile.)
So my question is: are there any more use cases for hierarchical tags? Perhaps I just don't understand them well enough. I couldn't find many useful resources that talked about them in detail with use cases.
Another Gripe In addition, as I was using my fake hierarchical tags (my dots method) I noticed an abominable parity issue. On the sidebar of the card browser, tags are sorted just like the first picture. But... you know those sorting columns at the top of the actual card browser? Tags are sorted differently there. See pic:
https://preview.redd.it/vfzqdjofgn0d1.png?width=855&format=png&auto=webp&s=9a762919a215edcadff849997d870a1e112a8407
The bar to the complete right is the tag list. The tags should be sorted the following way (as they are sorted in the sidebar):
-DE->NL -German -Lernliste ..Kapitel1 .A1
Instead we get:
.A1 -De->NL -German ..Kapitel1 -Lernliste
The sorting algorithm for the Tags column in the card browser, seems to neglect special characters like the dot (.) or the dash (-), if you ignore those you can see it's alphabetically sorted, A, D, G, K, L.

Part 2: The potential of hierarchical tags, feature requests.

Ultimately, I humbly ask someone with an account on the user forum to create a feature request. I know it's lazy of me but I also know there are a lot of you out there who wish to see Anki grow and become even more useful. Furthermore, I am not fully familiar with Anki and I feel someone more experienced would be better at expressing or creating the feature request in a more feasible/logical way.
So, if someone has any time on their hands I'd love to see the following 3 features implemented:
1. A parity change to the sorting of the Tags column in the card browser.
Currently, the Tags column does not sort tags the same way as the sidebar Tags list. I personally like the sidebar version more.
If this is unintended the change is a no-brainer.
If this is intended, I'd like there to be an option for people who prefer either sorting algorithm.
2. When using hierarchical tags: the ability to collapse them.
The same way you can collapse decks with sub-decks, or hierarchical tags in the sidebar of the card browser. This just makes sense and is probably already a feature request or maybe even in the works (please inform me if the latter is true!).
3. When selecting hierarchical tags in the custom study window: the ability to choose (perhaps with a ctrl+click) to only select a sub-tag, WITHOUT automatically requiring the parent tag.
This would mean the tag would include ANY cards of tags with the same name, whether it's under the parent tag of the selected tag, or under a different parent tag.
This could be implemented in a way that hierarchical tags are only visually hierarchical, in the sidebar of the card browser and the custom study window.
Talking about the custom study window: If the user clicks normally, it would select cards based on the currently implemented behaviour of hierarchical cards. The selected tag would simply be searched together with all parent tags of the selected tag. This is basically just the AND operation that's automatically done when ctrl+clicking multiple tags in the sidebar.
But, if the user uses a certain keybind and click, they can instead search exclusively for the sub-tag. Any cards, regardless of if they're in a different hierarchical tag, will be included in the search as long as they have the same name of the selected sub-tag.
Additionally, under the tag hierarchy would be a new list. Here, all tags are listed once, without any hierarchy. This way you can still easily find all tags that are available in the selected deck.
If implemented and once adopted, the tag sidebar would be less cluttered as you can close tags that aren't of concern, they're all separated instead of being in a gigantic list, just like decks are currently.
Example of this feature if my explanation wasn't adequate:
Say you have the following tag hierarchy:

German -Chapter1 -A1CEFR -A2CEFR -Chapter2 -A1CEFR -A2CEFR 

When doing a custom study:
Say you want to learn Chapter 1's A1 words. Then you just click on A1CEFR under Chapter1. The behaviour hasn't changed for indifferent users.
Now say you want to learn all cards that are A1 level, from both chapters at the same time. You just {keybind} click on one of the A1CEFR tags. If the tag is visible in multiple hierarchical tags, we can light up every instance of the tag to provide feedback that you are learning all A1 level cards.
If you don't know which sub-tag has a specific tag you're looking for, just scroll down and all available tags are listed in alphabetical order.
Final note
Lastly I would like to profusely apologize if I just don't understand hierarchical tags and made you waste your time by allowing you to read this post. It could definitely be shorter, I decided to make it fairly concrete because I am now quite invested in my feature suggestions. I might even make my own forum account to post them there myself.
Anyhow, if I'm just plain wrong about something, please tell me. Thanks for reading all this!

So I am having a strange issue with my A500 running 1.3 with ACA500+ and an 1221. Some programs are spitting out german! I checked the setmap in startup-sequence. Its pretty random. LIST seems to be one affected. I can list in my boot drive and I get no German. I list in the cfaux: drive and I get german. I have civilization installed and most of it is English except when diplomacy happens, then the selections are in German. I scanned the drive from my 3.1 install using the latest VirusZ III and came up with nothing.
Is this familiar to anyone? Could it be as simple as some setting somewhere I'm forgetting? A persnickety bug perhaps? Thanks!

I've been keeping a little list of German words that native English speakers find tricky to articulate. Have you any you'd like to add to my list?
I'm not talking about absurdly long or fabricated words, nor tongue-twisting sentences - just apparently easy, fairly short words that can be a bit of a struggle. And I know - you might not agree with my choice, but let's hear your suggestions in that case!
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• Autolackiererei (an auto body shop)
• Erzgießereistraße (a street in Munich)
• Hofpfisterei (a popular German bakery chain)
• Homöopath (homeopath)
• Nigerianerinnen (Nigerian women)
• Oachatzlschwoaf (Bavarian for 'squirrel')
• Psychologische (psychological)
• Steichholzschächtelchen (match boxes)
• Zwetchsgendatschi (a Bavarian 'plum cake')

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