Long post and not a meme, but I see a lot of soft wagers thrown around here and I want to bet something more substantial. I'm willing to wager all of the following things only if I find fans of other teams who will match my wagers. Mods if anyone accepts these bets with me and the loser does not follow through with it (myself included ofc) please ban us for life from this sub. I fully intend to follow through with the results of all bets that are accepted and I will update this post with the names of everyone who accepts my bets. For each team in the NFCN I've provided a high, medium, and low stakes wager for people to accept. I will post a follow up within a week after the 2024-25 season ends detailing the results and providing my schedule to fulfill my losses since some of these wagers will take a little planning/time. Any that can be done right away will be done asap. I'm open to suggestions to change any wagers as well if people have better ideas.
Lions: High stakes: -Lions make the superbowl: I will conduct and post a lewd photoshoot of myself with body paint "Lion Food" or something to that effect. -Packers make the superbowl: you will conduct and post a lewd photoshoot of yourself with body paint: "Cheese Guzzler"
EDIT: u/SamLaPorta has accepted the high stakes Lions wager
Medium stakes: -Lions win the division: change my flair to "Lions Kings of the North" for off-season + 2025 season -Packers win the division: change your flair to "Packers Kings of the North" for off-season + 2025 season
Low stakes: -Lions sweep the series: will write and post a 750 word essay to nfcnorthmemewar detailing all of the reasons Detroit/Michigan are better than Green Bay/Wisconsin. -Packers sweep the series: you will write and post a 750 word essay to nfcnorthmemewar detailing all of the reasons Green Bay/Wisconsin are better than Detroit/Michigan.
EDIT: u/BlueTyler has accepted the low stakes Lions wager
Vikings: High stakes: -Vikings sweep the series: I will source a Randy Moss jersey (if anyone has one I can borrow lmk) and a Viking helmet (complete with cum sock horns), travel to Green Bay, and record myself mooning Lambeau field and post it to nfcnorthmemewar. -Packers sweep the series: You will source a Jaire Alexander jersey and a cheese head, travel to U.S. Bank stadium and record yourself griddying and post it to nfcnorthmemewar.
Medium stakes: -Aaron Jones ends the season with more rushing+receiving yards than Josh Jacobs: I will record and post a video of myself to nfcnorthmemewar wearing an Aaron Jones Packer jersey belting out a SKOL chant as loud as I can. -Josh Jacobs ends the season with more rushing+receiving yards than Aaron Jones: you will record and post a video of yourself to nfcnorthmemewar wearing a Brett Favre Viking jersey belting out a full go pack go chant as loud as you can.
Low stakes: -Packers finish in any place other than first in NFCN: I will add an FTP Viking flair to my flairs for the entire off-season -Vikings finish in any place other than last in NFCN: You will add a Packers Lombardi trophy flair to your flairs for the entire off-season
Bears: High stakes: -Caleb Williams ends the season with more passing yards and touchdowns than Jordan Love: I will travel to Chicago and photograph myself in front of the bean wearing a cheese head, clown makeup, and a t-shirt that says "Property of Caleb Williams" -Jordan Love ends the season with more passing yards and touchdowns than Caleb Williams: you will travel to Green Bay and photograph yourself in front of Lambeau wearing a Bear head/something similar, clown makeup, and a t-shirt that says "Property of Jordan Love"
Medium stakes: -Bears finish higher in the NFCN than the Packers: I will record and post a video of myself to nfcnorthmemewar singing/dancing the Superbowl shuffle while wearing Packer gear -Packers finish higher than the bears in the NFCN: you will record and post a video of yourself to nfcnorthmemewar singing/dancing to "the bears still suck" while wearing Bear gear
EDIT: u/fawfulsgalaxy has accepted the bears medium stakes wager
Low stakes: -Bears either split or sweep the series against the Packers: I will paint my finger nails Bear colors, photograph and post it to nfcnorthmemewar, and leave it on as long as it naturally lasts. -Packers sweep the series against the Bears: you will paint your fingernails Packer colors, photograph and post it to nfcnorthmemewar, and leave it on as long as it naturally lasts.
EDIT: u/commonconman has accepted the low stakes bears wager
I hope there are some takers for these! Would definitely make next season more interesting. I'm true to my word, unlike a certain Vikings fan we all know. I don't think there is any scenario where I don't lose at least a few of these, so hopefully this doesn't bite me too hard lol.

PLAYBOY Interview With Conan O'Brien Interview by Kevin Cook For Playboy Magazine February 1998 Part 3
Playboy: Now that you're doing so well do you worry about losing your edge? O'Brien: I fear being a victim of success. It's seductive. You have new choices. "Conan, Sylvester Stallone wants to be on, but we're already booked." My feeling is that I must say no to Stallone. "Sorry, Sly. Bob Denver's on that night.
Playboy: How's your relationship with NBC executives now that the show is a success? O'Brien: Better. But I have not forgotten the bad old days. Let me tell you about one executive. He's no longer with the company. I had him killed. But in our darker days he came to the set one night after we did a great show. I come off after the show and this guy says, "Wow, that was terrible." He thought the show should look like MTV. "Run into the audience and tell jokes. Run up to a guy, have him shout his name, get everybody cheering."
Playboy: You didn't agree apparently. O'Brien: Too much of television is energy with no purpose. People going "Whoo!" But that's just empty energy. That's American Gladiators. I often try to lower the energy, especially when school is out and college kids are here. They're huge fans, they're psyched, but we're a quirky comedy show, not MTV Spring Break.
Playboy: Were you thrilled when the Marv Albert sex case hit the news? O'Brien: Oh man, was I into Marv. I would love to trick you into thinking I'm high-minded, but that story made me think, My God, yes, I'll use this, and this... But it bothered me the way he was publicly vilified. People were getting off on the kinky stuff; they condemned Marv for wearing women's clothing, which isn't a crime.
Playboy: Yet tonight you did a Marv Albert joke. You said Marv had a new job as a mannequin at Victoria's Secret. O'Brien: You can be uncomfortable with it and still use it. Isn't that what guilt is all about?
Playboy: What comedy bits do you regret doing? O'Brien: We did one with a character called Randy the Pyloric Sphincter. Now, the point of the joke is that this is not the sphincter that excrement passes through. The pyloric sphincter is at the top of the digestive tract. It basically keeps acid from going up into the oesophagus.
We had a guy in a sphincter costume and a cowboy hat. He says, "Hi kids, I'm Randy the Pyloric Sphincter. No, not that bad sphincter! When food passes through me, it isn't digested yet." He then proceeds to squeeze foods that look like shit whether they're digested or not. Chocolate. Picture a sphincter exuding a huge chocolate bar. We were grossing people out.
Playboy: So why put Randy on the air? O'Brien: I just loved the fact that he wore a cowboy hat.
Playboy: What sorts of bits do you refuse to do? O'Brien: Arbitrary humor. "Here's the sketch: Conan jumps into a barrel of wheat germ." I'll ask him what the joke is. "It's crazy, that's all."
Look, I was a comedy writer. I've been through this before. If the joke is that there is no joke, the writer gets no paycheck.
Playboy: Jumping into wheat germ sounds like Letterman. O'Brien: My show began with me and everyone involved with the show doing all we could to avoid being anything like Letterman. Which is difficult. He invented a lot of the form. He carved out a big territory. He's the Viking who discovered America, and now I have my little piece of northwestern Canada that I'm trying to claim as my own.
Playboy: So how do you avoid being Dave-like? O'Brien: We have always scrupulously avoided found comedy. You never see me going up and talking to normal Joe on the street. The real word of people, dogs, cabbies -- Letterman is great at that. His genius, I think, is playing with the real world around him. Which is not my forte at all. My idea is more about creating a fake, cartoony world and playing with that.
Playboy: Are you goofy in real life? O'Brien: My private life is boring. I've been with the same woman, Lynn Kaplan, for four years, and there ain't nothing crazy going on. Lynn is a talent booker on our show. We go to my house in Connecticut on weekends. I sit around playing guitar.
Playboy: Gossip columnists have placed you in Manhattan with other women. O'Brien: One of them had me with Courteney Cox. Lisa Kudrow and I did improv together years ago and we went out for a while. Maybe that's why I can now be romantically linked to the entire cast of Friends. I may be thrilled with that, but my girlfriend is one of those people who believes everything they read in the tabloids. She's sitting at the table in Connecticut when she opens a tabloid and says, "What the hell?" There's a big photo of me with Courteney Cox. The story says, "Courteney's moving in with Conan."
Playboy: Did Lynn believe it? O'Brien: No, because the story went on to say, "Conan and Courteney were seen at the Fashion Cafe munching veggie burgers." That sentence ended her faith in tabloids. Lynn knows that I would never (a) go to the Fashion Cafe and (b) eat a veggie burger. I'm an Irish-Catholic kid from Boston; I'll eat red meat until my heart explodes out of my chest.
Playboy: Do you still drive an old Ford Taurus? O'Brien: When I got my five-year contract I moved up. Bought a Range Rover. Now I drive the Range Rover to Connecticut for the weekend, park it and tool around in the Taurus all weekend. I can't let go of that Taurus. It's an extension of my penis.
Playboy: Can you forget about the show on weekends? O'Brien: I drive around playing Jerry Reed tapes, fantasizing that I'm some backwoods character. But even then -- you know, it's probably not an accident that people who do these shows tend to be depressive. You want so badly for it to be right every night, but mounting an hour-long show four times a week -- the pace will kill you. One night I put my fist through a tile wall. Another night, I walked off the stage, pulled an air-conditioning unit out of the wall and kicked it. This stuff I can't explain. Nor can I excuse it. But there may be something maddening about these shows. The pace is... I forget shows we did last week. That's why I can't imagine doing this for 30 years. I bet you could show Johnny Carson footage of how he shrieked as his body was lowered into acid and he's say, "Hmm, don't remember that one."
I saw Jerry Seinfeld at the Emmy Awards. He said he liked the show, then he paused and said, "How do you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Do what you do every night for an hour?"
That shocked me. This is Jerry Seinfeld, the master. A man everyone can agree is funny. And I really have no answer.
Playboy: Praise from Seinfeld must cheer you up. O'Brien: (Shaking his head) I worry that we have hit our stride and must be headed for a fall. Because every show has an arc. The Honeymooners had an arc. People forget, but The Honeymooners was mean and depressing. Art Carney wasn't fun and cuddly yet. Even successful shows take time to find their rhythm. Then they get self-indulgent and fuck it up. Look at late Happy Days episodes. They quit shooting on location, Mork keeps visiting, and it's an excuse to spin off new shows.
Playboy: Will you fuck it up, too? O'Brien: Eventually my only consolation may be that I get paid a lot. I'll say, "I know it sucks, but I'm getting $65 million a year!"
Playboy: Letterman said almost exactly that not long ago. When a joke died he admitted it sucked. "But I'm making a fortune!" he said. Do you really worry about losing your edge? O'Brien: I want a living will for my career. I want the people around me to pull the plug when I become a self-parody, an old blowhard like Alan Brady. Remember him, the television star Rob Petrie worked for on the Dick Van Dyke Show? Pompous, over-the-top, over-the-hill. I don't want to be Alan Brady.
Playboy: Letterman paid you an odd compliment. "When I see that show it withers me with exhaustion," he said. O'Brien: That's our new slogan. "Watch Late Night -- We'll wither you." But I think Dave was saying that he knows how hard it is to make a show like this every night.
Playboy: Suppose Leno left The Tonight Show. Would you like to duel Dave at 11:30? O'Brien: Our best slot would be eight A.M.. We have puppets, cartoons, lots of childishness. I think I'm doing an OK late-night show but it's a great kids' show.
Playboy: This from Mr. Hip? O'Brien: No. When someone says this or that sort of comedy is hip and alternative -- "Yes, these are cool people" -- I hate that. Because at the end of the day, funny is funny. People get fooled about me because I went to Harvard. "He's cerebral." But I love Green Acres. I love how Green Acres bends reality.
Playboy: Sounds cerebral. O'Brien: It isn't. In one episode Oliver Douglas has to go to Washington, D.C. His wife says, "Darling, take a picture of the Eiffel Tower." He says, "Lisa, the Eiffel Tower ---" Then Eb comes in. "Mr. Douglas, git me an Eiffel Tower postcard!" Now Oliver is terribly frustrated. He keeps sputtering about Washington, D.C., but nobody listens. At the end, he goes to Washington, looks up, and there's the Eiffel Tower. That is the kind of thing that made me love T.V.
Playboy: As a TV-mad college kid you cooked up scams to meet celebs. O'Brien: I wanted to meet Bill Cosby, so my friends and I offered him some fake award. We took a bowling trophy and called it the Harvard Comedy Award, something like that, and Cosby, thinking it was the Hasty Pudding Award, accepted. So I drive out to meet his private plane. "Over here, Mr. Cosby!" And I chauffeur him in my dad's second hand station wagon. Cosby sits in the backseat, picking old McDonald's wrappers off the floor, and says, "This is about the Hasty Pudding Award?"
"Oh no, nothing like that."
Playboy: You tricked Bill Cosby into letting you drive him around? O'Brien: I didn't realize that one does not pick up a famous person in a 1976 station wagon. They like to fly first-class, to be picked up in a Town Car and put up in a nice hotel. Fortunately I am not directly involved in celebrity care anymore.
Playboy: Did you bring other comics to Harvard? O'Brien: Yes. John Candy's people warned me that John was on the Pritikin diet. They gave me strict dietary instructions. John immediately ran into a bakery on Harvard Square to get pastries. He said they were Pritikin eclairs.
Playboy: You once stole a famous television costume. O'Brien: When Burt Ward visited Harvard there were fliers all over the campus: Burt Ward to Appear With Original Robin Costume (Insured by Lloyd's of London for $500,000). In fact, Burt Ward was said to keep a bunch of them in his car; he'd pass them out to impress girls. Naturally, I wanted to screw with him. A few friends and I attended his speech at the science center. We went dressed as security guards. I said, "Mr. Ward, I've been sent by the dean to safe guard the costume." As if it were the Shroud of Turin. But the guy is humorless. "Yes, very good. That costume is very valuable," he says.
That's when we hit the lights. Which works great in the movies. In the movies the lights go out and suddenly the jewel is gone. In real life, though, what you get is some dimming. You hit the lights and people can see a little less well.
Playboy: Did you grab the costume? O'Brien: We grabbed it and the chase was on. Some Burt Ward admirers -- young Republicans, I guess -- took off after us yelling, "Stop them!" But we escaped in a waiting car. We proceeded to torment Burt Ward for hours on the phone, saying, "This is the Joker, hee-hee-hee. I've got your costume."
Playboy: How did Burt react? O'Brien: Robinlike. He said, "Return it or you will feel my wrath!" Playboy: Burt Ward used to tell reporters he had an IQ of 200. O'Brien: He may be delusional.
Playboy: Were you always starstruck? O'Brien: Stars are fascinating. When I was a writer for Saturday Night Live, Robert Wagner did the show. One day he was sitting offstage, talking on the phone. He had on a camel-hair jacket, silk scarf, and of course his perfectly arranged Robert Wagner hair. "Very good, goodbye," he says, and hangs up. Suddenly his hand shoots up and touches the right side of his head, where the phone receiver may have disturbed a few hairs. At that point you know he has done this smooth move every day since 1948.
Playboy: You seem to prefer goofy celebs -- Jack Lord, William Shatner, Robert Stack. There are photos of Stack and Adam West, TV's Batman, here in your office. Do those guys know you are making fun of them? O'Brien: I'm not. I have a real affection for those men. To me, meeting Andy Griffith is just as interesting as interviewing Allen Ginsberg. I'm interested in Martin Scorsese and Gore Vidal as well as Jaleel White, TV's Urkel.
Playboy: How do Gore Vidal and Urkel compare? O'Brien: I'd say Jaleel White's prose style is not taken as seriously. But the same is true of Vidal's nerd character.
Playboy: As one of the writers on The Simpsons you helped create some memorable characters. O'Brien: What I loved about The Simpsons was that it wasn't a cartoon for kids. A cartoon might look like the friendliest thing in the world, but we were subversive. I loved it when we had Lisa write a patriotic essay in school: "Our country has the strongest, best educational system in the world after Canada, Germany, France, Great Britain..." It was this great sugarcoated cutting remark. I loved her for it.
Playboy: Tell us a Simpsons sercret. O'Brien: When Dan Castellaneta started doing Homer's voice, he was doing Walter Matthau. Like I said, it takes time to find your rhythm.
Playboy: So are you satisfied with your work? O'Brien: Intellectually, yes. The show works. Advertisers like to buy time on it. Young people really like it. But I was a moody, driven, self-critical person before I got this show, and that hasn't changed. It's just that I now have something even more frightening than a Saturday Night Live sketch or a Bart Simpson joke to worry about. I have an hour of comedy broadcast every night. My anxiety has finally met its match.
Playboy: Will you and Lynn get married? O'Brien: The core idea of being a comic, particularly a comic with a talk show, is control. Marriage is a leap of faith, a giving up of control. I'm not sure if I can make that leap.
Playboy: What about kids? O'Brien: What sort of dad would I make? Maybe this job and a normal family life are diametrically opposed. Dave, Jay, Bill Maher, Arsenio -- where are your kids? Jack Paar seemed to have a normal life with a wife and child, but you don't see much of that. And I believe that your kid should be the most important thing in your life. I may not have room, at least not now. I have Pimpbot to think about.
Playboy: Another foul mouthed Late Night character. O'Brien: Half-robot, half-Seventies street pimp. He's got a feathered hat and a metallic voice: "Gotta run my bitches. Run my ho's. I'll cut you." Right now my life revolves around Pimpbot.
Playboy: You need to settle a fashion question. You, Leno and Letterman seldom wear suits off stage. Leno likes flannel shirts, Letterman prefers jeans and sweatshirts. You wear T-shirts. Why wear a suit and tie on the air? O'Brien: There are two schools of thought on that. The Steve Martin approach says that you're putting on a show, so dress up for the people. The George Carlin approach says all that old showbiz stuff is over, this is the new way, so wear a T-shirt. I choose a jacket and tie because that's the uniform people expect talk show hosts to wear. If I came out in a mesh T-shirt and chains it might distract people from the comedy.
Playboy: How would you describe your show? O'Brien: It's a hybrid. If Carson defined the talk show and Letterman was the anti-talk show, where do you go next? That was the question we faced. What we did was make a show that has the visual trappings of the classic Tonight Show -- the desk, the band, the sidekick -- but with everything else perverted. When it works well I'd say my show is one part Carson, one part Charlie Rose and one part Pee-Wee's Playhouse.
Playboy: Do you have any advice for future talk show hosts? O'Brien: You had better love the job. Some hosts don't. You can see it in their eyes. Chevy Chase's talk show -- he did not want to be there. And if that's in your eyes you're finished, because there's another show tomorrow and next week and the week after that. You can't conquer it. You can do two or three or ten good shows in a row and still want to punch a wall when you slip up.
Playboy: Can you ever conquer your repressed childhood? O'Brien: It's always there. I still believe in moral absolutes. Murder, for instance, is wrong, unless it helps the show.
Playboy: Still, talk show hosts have perks most guys can only dream of. O'Brien: It's great to be played over to the desk. You finish your monologue, then the band kicks in as you cross the set. Fortunately, we have a great band. Even when people didn't like anything about the show, they loved the Max Weinberg Seven. The music heightens everything. Now you are more than just a guy in a suit, you're Co-nan O'Bri-en! I think every guy should have that -- if a band played you over to your rental car at the airport, you'd have a cooler day.
Playboy: Is Andy Richter your Ed McMahon? O'Brien: He's Andy. When we were getting started and the network wasn't sure of me, they kept asking, "Who's that Andy guy?" I think we've answered the question. Part of the show's rhythm is my energy played against the quiet steadiness of Andy.
Playboy: Is that rhythm genuine? O'Brien: Yes. Our mentalities mesh. I'm always dissatisfied. He's the guy saying, "Hey, relax. It's good enough." My girlfriend would be happy if I had a bit more of that in me.
Playboy: Who is the guest you can't get? O'Brien: Werner Klemperer. He refuses to revive Colonel Klink, the commandant he played on Hogan's Heroes. Which confuses me. Is he going to come up with another character at this late date -- Werner Klemperer as the aging black man or kung fu fighter? No, he's Colonel Klink.
Playboy: You once said that as a boy you wanted to be like Bob Crane in Hogan's Heroes, the cool guy who "wore a bomber jacket and wised off to Nazis." O'Brien: I asked Werner Klemperer to do some bits as Colonel Klink. He refused. Then a strange thing happened. We're shooting abit on the West Side when Werner Klemperer comes around the corner. Pulling his parka up to his chin, just like Colonel Klink, he walks past our film crew and says, "Hello, Conan. I must say the show is very good lately. Give my best to Andy. Farewell!" It was a cameo appearance in reality. He was there, he was gone. I wanted to shout, "Hey, Werner Klemperer just did a walk-on in my life."
Playboy: Are you losing the boundaries between your life and your job? O'Brien: There are no boundaries. At any minute Werner Klemperer may step in here and give me 30 days in the cooler. It's getting surreal. Just this morning I am going through the lobby downstairs when two girls see me. One girl nudges the other, "Look, it's the guy from Conan O'Brien!" I guess she couldn't quite place me, but she knew which show I was on.
Copyright Playboy Magazine 1998

Eivor is a bit of a strange protagonist.
She’s basically flawless and without blame. She’s brash and bold, proud and unashamed — brave and wise far beyond her years, yet able to be soft and compassionate when not brandishing spears. She’s got a knack for leadership, a strong moral compass and an even stronger muscular system with which to enact justice.
And she’s got bars?
As someone not deeply versed in medieval European histories, imagine my shock and confusion upon discovering that Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla included rap battling.
My first experience with Flyting had me asking so many questions about what I just witnessed that I couldn’t wait to begin Googling. I figured flyting probably was historically accurate, but if that’s the case, then what else can it tells us about the medieval warrior and about Eivor’s characterization?
I set off to find out.
--
Wikipedia and howstuffworks combined gave me a robust definition of flyting.
A ritual, poetic exchange of insults practiced mainly between the 5th and 16th centuries. Examples of flyting are found throughout Scots, Ancient, Medieval and Modern Celtic, Old English, Middle English and Norse literature involving both historical and mythological figures. The exchanges would become extremely provocative, often involving accusations of cowardice or sexual perversion.
The idea behind flyting was to influence public opinion of the participants and raise both of their profiles. And each participant wanted to make himself look better than the other, even if they were friendly.
Not only that, but flyting’s also the first recorded use of shit as an insult. That right there is worth this whole essay and then some.
--
I came away from those definitions with some small Euphoria, as they reinforce what I already expected from Ubisoft — historically accurate and (arguably) immersive side activities grounded in realism.
Unfortunately, none of the flyting foes that Eivor faces in this fantasy are founded in any real-world flyters. I was particularly frustrated when I realized Fergal the Faceless and Borghild the Alewife’s Bane were fictional features, not real historical fiends of rhythm and rhyme.
Two of Eivor’s syntax competitors are “real” in some sense, however.
In Norse mythos, Odin, Thor, Loki, Freyja and more would handle their Family Matters over a flyte from time to time, dueling wits and words as competition and entertainment.
In fact, one flyte we do see in game — Odin as he flytes over the river with Thor in the Asgard Arc — is likely a reference to a real medieval Norse poem; The Hárbarðsljóð.
In it, Thor jaunts back to Asgard after a journey in Jötunheim. He comes to a junction in which he must jump a large river, and thus hunts down a ferryman to shepherd him across. The ferryman, Hárbarðr, is Odin in disguise. He then begins to diss guys.
Ahem. ‘Guys’ being Thor, obviously.
First, Odin drops a yo-mama joke:

Of thy morning feats art thou proud, but the future thou knowest not wholly; Doleful thine home-coming is: thy mother, me thinks, is dead.

He keeps going, taking more shots than a First Person Shooter, this time saying Thor dresses like a girl:

Three good dwellings methinks, thou hast not; Barefoot thou standest and wearest a beggar’s dress; Not even hose dost thou have.

Thor says watch your mouth before I clap back:

Ill for thee comes thy keenness of tongue, if the water I choose to wade; Louder, I ween, than a wolf thou cryest, if a blow of my hammer thou hast.

Odin replies by saying Thor’s wife is fucking another dude:

Sif has a lover at home, and him shouldst thou meet; More fitting it were on him to put forth thy strength.

The version we play out in game isn’t identical to the real-world poem, but carries some similarities; Thor’s threatening to cross the river to fight Odin as well as his boasting of slaying giants are present in each.
Ratatosk is the only other ‘real’ flyting enemy in Valhalla. While Odin doesn’t flyte with Ratatosk in Norse myth to my knowledge, the flyting against the squirrel is thematically accurate, at least.
Ratatosk’s purpose is to scramble up and down Yggdrasil, scurrying spoken messages from the eagle that sits at its peaks to the snake that slithers at its base. The nature of Ratatosk’s messages is in line with the act of flyting — the mischievous rodent carries falsehoods and aggressive statements to stir up drama and distrust between bird and serpent.
Flyting took place not only in poems and folklore, but in town squares and royal court. It was a facet of medieval life and social interaction. This weaving of prose then, in this time period, seemingly was just about as much of an admired skill as the swinging of a sword. It’s no wonder our unbreakable warrior Eivor is so proficient with word.
--
Like, really proficient with word.
I mean, I know it’s me choosing the dialogue options, but sheesh, is there anything she can’t do?
Actually, Eivor’s expertise in flyting is strange to me. It feels random and unearned — out of character, even. It comes more unexpectedly than Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us.
It probably only feels out of character, however, due to our modern understanding of proficiency with words versus proficiency with might. Our current interpretation of verbal ability compared to physical ability would perceive verbal ability as the ‘softer’ of the two skillsets. Physical strength is typically interpreted as tough and more dominant. You don’t expect to see an MMA fighter composing poetry, do you? The qualities that modern thought attributes to writing and physicality don’t mesh.
But in reality — and historically accurately in Valhalla — medieval warriors weren’t just blind berserkers. They were actually artists, poets and writers.
We’ve already demonstrated how Odin and Thor — Norse myth’s most famous warriors — carried out flyting. There are plenty more examples of the burly and the brawn, the Viking and the warrior breaking out poetry and song. Other poems and sagas include the same thing, among the most famous of which is Egil’s Saga — Egil, a tough Viking warrior, would frequently break out into prose throughout the saga’s telling.
Beyond Vikings though lie other other examples from around the world. The Illiad contains instances of public, ritualized abuse. Taunting songs are present in Inuit culture while Arabic poetry contains a form of flyting called naqa’id. Further, Japanese Samurai were known to be frequent composers of haiku, while Japanese culture also gave birth to Haikai, poetry in which vulgar satire and puns were wielded.
This historical accuracy ends up eliminating the randomness of Eivor’s flyting ability. Despite her verbal finesse feeling unearned, we can surmise historically that Eivor has practiced the wielding of words plenty in her life before we take over as the player. She’s dedicated time to this.
Now that we know why she has it, we can take a closer look at what it does for her.
--
So, Eivor can rap. She can match you with her axe or she can match you with her words. She’s just about unbeatable.
Her mastery of words demonstrates on some level that she’s not all Push Ups and might is right. She’s not all bruiser and bluster, burn and berserk. She’s an appreciator of the finer things — the more abstract, mental skills that require brain power, deftness and finesse.
This duality of strength and genius rounds out Eivor into a deeper, richer, more admirable character. More than just raw muscle in pursuit of glory, Eivor’s mastery of verse demonstrates her prioritizing not just her body, but her mind.
And it goes a long way for her.
Eivor can use her prowess with prose to progress past pointless plot points throughout Valhalla’s plethora of arcs and missions. It’s just a stat check in the end, but with enough practice flyting and enough charisma gained, Eivor unlocks new dialogue options that bend the world around her to her will.
Witch hunters in Eurvicscire on the brink of terrorizing Moira can be dispersed verbally rather than brawled or killed. There’s an entire riddle-solving fetch quest in Wincestre that can be skipped completely by telling King Aelfred’s abbot fuck off (figuratively). Eivor’s sharpening of her mind protects her body, saves her time, and allows her to frictionlessly fell her endeavors.
Her articulate advances don’t just alter her into admirability, they allow her to influence people and progression. With semantics from her mouth and twists from her tongue, Eivor can have her way whenever she wishes. In a game this large, I’m only left longing that the opportunity to make use of this charisma wasn’t relegated to niches.
Regardless, if medieval England is butter, Eivor’s tongue is the hot knife that behooves her move through her subduing more smoothly.
It all just goes to show that ̶m̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ flyte is right.

Eivor is a bit of a strange protagonist.
She’s basically flawless and without blame. She’s brash and bold, proud and unashamed — brave and wise far beyond her years, yet able to be soft and compassionate when not brandishing spears. She’s got a knack for leadership, a strong moral compass and an even stronger muscular system with which to enact justice.
And she’s got bars?
As someone not deeply versed in medieval European histories, imagine my shock and confusion upon discovering that Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla included rap battling.
My first experience with Flyting had me asking so many questions about what I just witnessed that I couldn’t wait to begin Googling. I figured flyting probably was historically accurate, but if that’s the case, then what else can it tells us about the medieval warrior and about Eivor’s characterization?
I set off to find out.
--
Wikipedia and howstuffworks combined gave me a robust definition of flyting.
A ritual, poetic exchange of insults practiced mainly between the 5th and 16th centuries. Examples of flyting are found throughout Scots, Ancient, Medieval and Modern Celtic, Old English, Middle English and Norse literature involving both historical and mythological figures. The exchanges would become extremely provocative, often involving accusations of cowardice or sexual perversion.
The idea behind flyting was to influence public opinion of the participants and raise both of their profiles. And each participant wanted to make himself look better than the other, even if they were friendly.
Not only that, but flyting’s also the first recorded use of shit as an insult. That right there is worth this whole essay and then some.
--
I came away from those definitions with some small Euphoria, as they reinforce what I already expected from Ubisoft — historically accurate and (arguably) immersive side activities grounded in realism.
Unfortunately, none of the flyting foes that Eivor faces in this fantasy are founded in any real-world flyters. I was particularly frustrated when I realized Fergal the Faceless and Borghild the Alewife’s Bane were fictional features, not real historical fiends of rhythm and rhyme.
Two of Eivor’s syntax competitors are “real” in some sense, however.
In Norse mythos, Odin, Thor, Loki, Freyja and more would handle their Family Matters over a flyte from time to time, dueling wits and words as competition and entertainment.
In fact, one flyte we do see in game — Odin as he flytes over the river with Thor in the Asgard Arc — is likely a reference to a real medieval Norse poem; The Hárbarðsljóð.
In it, Thor jaunts back to Asgard after a journey in Jötunheim. He comes to a junction in which he must jump a large river, and thus hunts down a ferryman to shepherd him across. The ferryman, Hárbarðr, is Odin in disguise. He then begins to diss guys.
Ahem. ‘Guys’ being Thor, obviously.
First, Odin drops a yo-mama joke:

Of thy morning feats art thou proud, but the future thou knowest not wholly; Doleful thine home-coming is: thy mother, me thinks, is dead.

He keeps going, taking more shots than a First Person Shooter, this time saying Thor dresses like a girl:

Three good dwellings methinks, thou hast not; Barefoot thou standest and wearest a beggar’s dress; Not even hose dost thou have.

Thor says watch your mouth before I clap back:

Ill for thee comes thy keenness of tongue, if the water I choose to wade; Louder, I ween, than a wolf thou cryest, if a blow of my hammer thou hast.

Odin replies by saying Thor’s wife is fucking another dude:

Sif has a lover at home, and him shouldst thou meet; More fitting it were on him to put forth thy strength.

The version we play out in game isn’t identical to the real-world poem, but carries some similarities; Thor’s threatening to cross the river to fight Odin as well as his boasting of slaying giants are present in each.
Ratatosk is the only other ‘real’ flyting enemy in Valhalla. While Odin doesn’t flyte with Ratatosk in Norse myth to my knowledge, the flyting against the squirrel is thematically accurate, at least.
Ratatosk’s purpose is to scramble up and down Yggdrasil, scurrying spoken messages from the eagle that sits at its peaks to the snake that slithers at its base. The nature of Ratatosk’s messages is in line with the act of flyting — the mischievous rodent carries falsehoods and aggressive statements to stir up drama and distrust between bird and serpent.
Flyting took place not only in poems and folklore, but in town squares and royal court. It was a facet of medieval life and social interaction. This weaving of prose then, in this time period, seemingly was just about as much of an admired skill as the swinging of a sword. It’s no wonder our unbreakable warrior Eivor is so proficient with word.
--
Like, really proficient with word.
I mean, I know it’s me choosing the dialogue options, but sheesh, is there anything she can’t do?
Actually, Eivor’s expertise in flyting is strange to me. It feels random and unearned — out of character, even. It comes more unexpectedly than Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us.
It probably only feels out of character, however, due to our modern understanding of proficiency with words versus proficiency with might. Our current interpretation of verbal ability compared to physical ability would perceive verbal ability as the ‘softer’ of the two skillsets. Physical strength is typically interpreted as tough and more dominant. You don’t expect to see an MMA fighter composing poetry, do you? The qualities that modern thought attributes to writing and physicality don’t mesh.
But in reality — and historically accurately in Valhalla — medieval warriors weren’t just blind berserkers. They were actually artists, poets and writers.
We’ve already demonstrated how Odin and Thor — Norse myth’s most famous warriors — carried out flyting. Thus, medieval Vikings would’ve surely done the same. Beyond Vikings though, the Illiad contains instances of public, ritualized abuse. Taunting songs are present in Inuit culture while Arabic poetry contains a form of flyting called naqa’id. Further, Japanese Samurai were known to be frequent composers of haiku, while Japanese culture also gave birth to Haikai, poetry in which vulgar satire and puns were wielded.
This historical accuracy ends up eliminating the randomness of Eivor’s flyting ability. Despite her verbal finesse feeling unearned, we can surmise historically that Eivor has practiced the wielding of words plenty in her life before we take over as the player. She’s dedicated time to this.
Now that we know why she has it, we can take a closer look at what it does for her.
--
So, Eivor can rap. She can match you with her axe or she can match you with her words. She’s just about unbeatable.
Her mastery of words demonstrates on some level that she’s not all Push Ups and might is right. She’s not all bruiser and bluster, burn and berserk. She’s an appreciator of the finer things — the more abstract, mental skills that require brain power, deftness and finesse.
This duality of strength and genius rounds out Eivor into a deeper, richer, more admirable character. More than just raw muscle in pursuit of glory, Eivor’s mastery of verse demonstrates her prioritizing not just her body, but her mind.
And it goes a long way for her.
Eivor can use her prowess with prose to progress past pointless plot points throughout Valhalla’s plethora of arcs and missions. It’s just a stat check in the end, but with enough practice flyting and enough charisma gained, Eivor unlocks new dialogue options that bend the world around her to her will.
Witch hunters in Eurvicscire on the brink of terrorizing Moira can be dispersed verbally rather than brawled or killed. There’s an entire riddle-solving fetch quest in Wincestre that can be skipped completely by telling King Aelfred’s abbot fuck off (figuratively). Eivor’s sharpening of her mind protects her body, saves her time, and allows her to frictionlessly fell her endeavors.
Her articulate advances don’t just alter her into admirability, they allow her to influence people and progression. With semantics from her mouth and twists from her tongue, Eivor can have her way whenever she wishes. In a game this large, I’m only left longing that the opportunity to make use of this charisma wasn’t relegated to niches.
Regardless, if medieval England is butter, Eivor’s tongue is the hot knife that behooves her move through her subduing more smoothly.
It all just goes to show that ̶m̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ flyte is right.

Centuries from now, in the year 2364 CE, 57 years after the Choice of Empire—The elected Emperor of the Solar System and his family are massacred by the Sargons, a rival family who seized the throne and created chaos across the Empire. Caleb, the youngest son of the slain Emperor, was saved by the Altas, who were once friends of his family until they mysteriously exiled themselves from the imperium many years ago and remained hidden in an unknown location ever since.
Caleb is now in that faraway place, beyond the reach of the Sargons, where he will live in refuge and prepare for the day when he can have vengeance, justice, and redemption—and possibly salvation.
Burrowed deep within an asteroid in the Belt of the Solar System is a secret community of scientists, artists, thinkers, and engineers led by the Altas. A large hole is tunneled through the face of the asteroid, the entrance to the hidden world within. It was made to look like a human eye.
Its name is the Iris.
[Interlude]
Caleb woke from a deep sleep. The salt of his tears had dried on his face and sweat covered his body. He looked around the room and saw a man who was like an uncle to him asleep on a chair next to his bed: Han Moret, the leader of the Altas.
Caleb thought that Han Moret looked younger and radiant. His hair, once thin, was now full. His body, once frail, was now strong. His skin, once wrinkled, was now smooth and shining.
Caleb got up from the bed and put a hand on Han Moret’s shoulder.
“Han,” he whispered.
Han Moret woke with a start, “Christ!” then smiled when he saw Caleb, “Oh, hello my dear boy.”
Caleb was quiet for a while. “Why couldn’t you save them?”
Han Moret sighed and looked to the ground, “We didn’t have time. We learned of the Sargons’ plans too late. You were in your bedroom and everyone else was in the throne room. Saving you was the only way, all we could do. The best we could do.” He raised his head, “I’m sorry Caleb. I’ll never forgive myself for not being there, for not being able to do more. But you’re here now. We’ll help you. We’ll fight back and win. I can promise you that. I can give you that.”
“How?”
Han Moret grinned, “Come. Let me show you what we’ve been working on all these years. Why I left all those years ago.” He walked to the door and opened it, “Welcome to the Iris.”
Within the asteroid was a colossal garden paradise: waving golden fields and rolling green hills, thick forests and snow-capped mountains, gleaming towers and sprawling villas, vast lakes and flowing streams, smaller suns and lesser moons orbiting each other in the center—worlds within a world.
They walked through a field and stopped beneath a large oak tree.
“Han, this is incredible. How did you do it?” Caleb asked.
“Trillions of builders. Quattuordecillion, actually.” Han Moret raised his hand and an apple fell into it. He took a bite, “Probably more.”
“But there’s only…How many people are here?”
“A couple hundred. 964, I think. No, Arina was born this morning, 965.” He furrowed his brow, “Why do you ask?”
“Trillions of builders, hundreds here?”
“Oh! Right, yes. I see. Come, come. You’ll see too.”
While they were walking, Caleb learned that Han Moret was still fond of long and rambling monologues:
“Isn’t it obvious? Look around us. Well, beyond the asteroid. We seem to be alone in the Universe, but the probability that other life exists says otherwise. So what’s the explanation? It’s simple. We are the first intelligent life in the Universe. It makes sense when you think about it. Our homeworld, the planet Earth, was among the first habitable planets that formed in the Universe after it began, earlier than around 90% of the other habitable planets which now exist! And most of the habitable planets that will ever be formed in the Universe haven’t even formed yet. So, the planet Earth was one of the first habitable planets in the Universe that could support the rise of life and its long evolutionary development into intelligent life, to beings like us. Therefore, assuming that life out there will fundamentally be the same as it is here, and assuming that it only arises in an Earth-like environment, it shouldn’t be surprising that humans developed before others. You see, someone has to be first. There must be a first form of intelligent life in the Universe, before the rest. But it seems like no one has considered that maybe we’re alone in the Universe right now because we are the first and others will come after us, and maybe the others are already in the process of doing so, so we won’t be alone for long. And when those future life-forms ask the same questions as us, “Is anyone out there? Are we alone in the Universe?” we will be there to answer them, to be their aliens, to give them the comfort we never had and accelerate their development like we never could. And this is all the better too, because we’re going to need all the help we can get to do the ultimate thing, since the only reason we exist is to…”
“Han, thank you, that was…enlightening. But what does it have to do with what you were going to show me?”
“What? Oh, nothing. Sorry. What were we talking about? Ah yes, how we built the Iris. Fear not, the answer lies ahead.”
They walked further through the field towards a clearing. And there, out in the open, was a scientific laboratory and engineering workshop, tables and equipment and all with nothing but the sky above and a beautiful world surrounding them.
Han Moret led Caleb to an empty table, “So, here is it boyo. What do you see?”
“Uh, nothing.”
“Ha! Yes, but in nothing there is everything. For from nothing…” Han Moret glanced at the table and appeared to concentrate, then the table grew into a tree “…something.”
Han Moret tapped a finger to his head, “Mind-controlled nano-bots. That’s how we built this place. A one-to-one control of atoms within our local environment, limited to the area in which nano-bots are dispersed and the reach of electromagnetic signals emitted from implants in the brain, also limited by the mental symbiosis between a group of people if they’re working together, and of course the extent of their imagination. Everything within the Iris is touched by the stuff, so everything is under our control.”
“That’s…How did you do it?”
“Trade secret I’m afraid. But here, we call it…” Han Moret slapped the side of Caleb’s head, “…Pleroma.”
“Ow!”
“There! Brain implanted. You are now pleromatized. You can control the world around you, or at least the little bit within your proximate sphere. No worries, the plerons are easily inserted and removed, so no harm, no foul. Go on and try it. Synchronization is instantaneous, but learning how to use it is, well, a process. Your ability to control the world is determined by the strength of your mind—your concentration and focus. It depends on the speed and coherence of your imagination, the complexity and detail of your mental constructions, along with the depth of your knowledge and your intelligence, clarity of thinking, force of will, and, most importantly, very most importantly, the strength of your Self. Meditation helps, as does improving your brain with the stuff once you get the hang of it, but none of that will matter if you are not strong within. Oh, and you can change your body too.”
“Ah, so that’s why you look younger and glowing.”
“Indeed, and thank you. I’ve never felt better, haven’t been sick in years. We certainly look…godly, don’t you think? Although the secondary effects of being able to control our brains and bodies have been far more numerous than we anticipated, mostly socially, very odd and interesting things, but that’s a conversation and exhibition for later. If I may continue, with the Pleroma, the strength of your mind determines your power over the world, so if your mind is stronger than others, then you can overpower them. For example…”
Caleb’s body rose from the ground and hovered for a moment, then returned.
“See?” Han Moret said. “I could feel your instinctive surprise and mental resistance, but alas, I’ve had this stuff longer than you, and my mind is, for the time being at least, stronger than yours, so your resistance was, as they say, futile. The plerons that made their way into your body when you entered the Iris obeyed my commands and not yours, and your body obeyed my mind and not your own. Now, your turn. Try and turn the tree into something.”
Caleb looked at the tree and tried to concentrate. He vaguely imagined things, but was unsure of what to create and how. The tree became a gray mass, then began to violently vibrate and rapidly shapeshift. Colors flashed and textures flickered. Various sounds blasted all at once. It seemed like reality was having a seizure. And then the asteroid began to rumble…
“Woah! Alright, alright! Not bad for your first try. Certainly better than others. You have a powerful mind, no doubt, but not yet a disciplined one.”
Han Moret waved his hand and smoothed the chaotic patch of existence back to an empty table. “We’ll try it again soon. Mastering the Pleroma will require a lot of practice and self-improvement. I can improve your brain of course, if you’d like, it’ll help speed up the process and enhance your basic abilities, but even with a better brain, you’ll still fail to use the Pleroma if you don’t improve your consciousness, your mind—your Self. You must become stronger, Caleb—not physically, but mentally—if you want to master this power over the world. You could have a perfect brain, but if you don’t perfect your Self, then the Pleroma will be useless, as we just saw. You’ll only create chaos in the world and others will be able to control you.”
“Yeah, alright, I understand. But Han! That was amazing. I’ve never felt…I’ve never felt like that before.”
“Yes, but it is so much more than that, Caleb, so much more. You’ve only seen the least of it, the smallest bit. You see, this is why we had to leave the Empire. Weren’t you listening before? I was onto something. We’re going to need all the help we can get, including from other forms of life, if we are going to do the ultimate thing, since the only reason we exist is to prevent the end of the Universe.
For centuries, we’ve known that, given the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the Universe will end in the future, or at least its habitability for life—for us! We know this, and so we have a responsibility to do something about it, to stop it from happening so that life can keep living. ‘We’ are the Universe—just a local collection of its atoms, yes, but an equal part of its whole nevertheless—and we have within us both the genetic urge to survive and a personal desire to not die, so we can say that the Universe itself does not want us to die, or rather it does not want to die itself. Don’t you see? The purpose of our lives, the purpose of the Universe, is embedded within the structure of our existence. But how do we prevent the end of the Universe exactly? We don’t know the answer to that yet, specifically. That’ll take time. But we do know the basics of the answer, and it is very simple: we must control the Universe to prevent its end, and to do that, we must become God.
If humankind is to live forever, and more importantly ensure that there is a world in which we can live forever, then we must gain the knowledge and power to control the Universe so that we can prevent its end. In other words, we must become all-knowing and all-powerful, or at least gain sufficient knowledge and power to ensure that we can have an endless life in infinite eternity, through whatever ways we can. But whichever way ultimately works, we’ll need to create an eternal home for life, and that’s Godhood boyo. That’s the ultimate thing, and the Pleroma is a first step towards that: controlling the world around us with our minds, instantaneous creation by command. It’s a growing up for us. We began as children, born from the God of the Great Unknown at the Beginning, and we must grow up to become God to prevent the Great Known at the End. That’s the only thing when you think about it, our only purpose and the measure of our being, the direction of our progress and the future we’re heading towards: Godhood. If we don’t, then we will have accepted the end of the Universe and the eventual death of humankind, and everything before that will become pointless, the value and meaning of our lives will become forfeit. If we choose to do nothing or say that it’s impossible without trying, then we condemn the generations of the future to ultimate destruction, and in the long stretch of time, we will have annihilated the basic and universal value of human life, and therefore annihilate our own value too. Even if the end of the Universe will happen billions of years from now, or much sooner from some natural or cosmic catastrophe, that’s just a number that seems big to us, so the number doesn’t matter, it could billions of years from now or tomorrow—or today. On the scale of the Universe, what’s the difference between a billion and one, tomorrow and today? If humankind will become extinct in the future, no matter how many years from now, then there will be no point to all of this.
No, we must save ourselves by preventing the end of the Universe and become God to achieve that salvation. What comes after that? I don’t know. But for now, I know that we must spend our days working to achieve Godhood. That’s why we’re here and nothing else matters, except of course to make life worth saving, by making it worth living, by spreading love and creating art and asking questions and filling the darkness around us with light and the color of our lives, to expand outwards until we reach the end and then go beyond it—always onward, always creating, always living. You see, the end gives us our beginning. We begin at the end. God created and God will save, because we will become God to save ourselves. I call it the Anthroteloeschacosmological Principle, the purpose of humankind arising from the end of the Universe. I tell myself a little poem every morning: “The Universe will end / and I will die / if today I do nothing / to save starlight and humankind.” I wrote all this in an anonymous essay a few years back, The Salvation of the Universe…”
“That was you?”
“Yes, and it made quite a stir across the imperium as I understand it, but nary an effect. Typical. Anyways, we must prevent the end of the Universe—by whatever means, at all costs, and within moral bounds. The Sargons knew this and accepted the first two, but they rejected the last. I grew up with them. We discussed it often, along with your father. The Sargons think morality is an obstacle, a human thing that will prevent us from becoming God. They think Godhood is only about being all-knowing and all-powerful, but we Altas think differently. We think morality is essential to Godhood, because being all-knowing and all-powerful will be pointless if we are not also all-good, or at least as good as we can be when we try. Without morality, that wonderfully human thing—determining what is good and evil and then making it so—there’d be no point in becoming God, because there’d be nothing worth saving in the end. We’d just be a heap of atoms that figured out how to perpetuate themselves, like all of the other forms of life in the Universe, except on a bigger scale. But we are not like the other forms of life. No, we are different, and that’s what makes us so special and important. What’s the point of living if not for something, and why are we unique if not because of our morality allows us to say, “This is good and this is bad,” and then use that power to shape the world around us according to our imagination and will, enhanced by our knowledge and technology?
So you see Caleb, this is why we had to leave the Empire. We all know that the Universe will end in the future, but it seemed to us Altas like were the only ones who understood the significance of that fact, what it means for us and our purpose in life, the responsibilities that it gives us. We saw that the plan for existence is embedded in the structure of the Universe, our destiny and fate written across the stars, but when we looked around, we saw that everyone was living their days as if it wasn’t so, ignoring our ultimate purpose and wasting their time on lesser things. We had to leave, you see, to be away from the limitations and distractions of Empire, so we could do the work to achieve Godhood, to take the first step in leaving our childhood to create the Pleroma.
Your father disagreed with all this. He thought Godhood was a silly idea based on old religious notions. And that’s what makes what happened all the worse. You see, the Altas and the Sargons agreed with each other. We were unified against your father in our belief that we must achieve Godhood and that the stagnation of the Empire was preventing us from doing so, and your father was leading that stagnation, so we both felt compelled to take action. The difference between us, however, the vital difference, is that we Altas believe in morality, so we left the Empire to work in peaceful isolation, and the Sargons do not, so they murdered your family to seize power.”
And with that, Han Moret was finished.
Caleb was silent for a while. “But, I don’t understand. If you had this the entire time, why couldn’t you save my family when the Sargons attacked? Why couldn’t you use it to protect them? You could’ve prevented all of this. Why didn’t you share it with us?”
“Because the Pleroma is still in development, Caleb. It still has its imperfections and unknowns. We’ve only worked within the asteroid so far, and only with a small group of people who already had deep bonds and a shared way of thinking and years of training together as the power of the Pleroma slowly progressed, so our learning was limited by the pace of its development. And this was good, since the Pleroma would be apocalyptic in the wrong hands. This asteroid, these people, are minuscule compared to the scale of the Empire, to the true extent of what the Pleroma could reach and do. So, with all of its unknowns, we couldn’t risk deploying it beyond the Iris, and we couldn’t risk revealing ourselves by going beyond it and using it or building transmission relays across the Solar System so we could take long-distance action from here. We had precious little time after learning of the Sargon’s betrayal. And once we were there, in the fog of war, for all we know we could’ve killed your family if we had tried to intervene. Not everyone here has mastered the Pleroma yet, especially to use it in such a complex and rapidly changing atomic environment like war, with life and death in the balance, with its intense mental pressures and emotional reactions and all that would test the mental strength of even the best of us, even me. So, even if I had brought the best of us when it happened, we couldn’t risk trying it for the first time in such a situation, especially with such a close proximity between friends and foes. But we’re improving it and eliminating its imperfections, we’re learning, and it’s nearly ready to be used beyond this little home of ours.”
Now Han Moret was silent for a while. He looked around the Iris.
“I… You see Caleb…” He tried to gather his thoughts, but was conflicted between defending himself against Caleb’s criticisms and trying to proceed with his planned lecture. “With the Pleroma, we can control the Universe, both around us and within us. Everything, everywhere, all the time. And time itself too! Though that’s still in the experimental stages. One fellow tried to slow time by condensing his local spacetime and then went poof and, well, we don’t quite know where he is at the moment, but we’ll find him…hopefully. But with this stuff, we can speak and it shall be. We can create by command and move worlds with a wave of our hand. Dear, I’m getting poetic, but isn’t it so? This is what we’ve been working on all these years. And once we created it, we knew that the people of the Empire weren’t ready for it, so we remained in hiding. Most people beyond the Iris aren’t mentally and spiritually strong enough to have this power without creating chaos, destruction, and death across the Solar System, especially with the Sargons around. But now, with the Sargons in power, with chaos across the imperium, with you here, we think that perhaps it’s time. You have a powerful story Caleb, and you were born into a unique position to sway the hearts and minds of the people to shape the course of Empire and help them. And as your old tutor, well, I have faith in you, especially now that you’ve seen the Pleroma and understand what it can do and what’s at stake. I believe you can do what we could not and prepare the way towards a better future.
What are those quotes from the books I used to read you? ‘A people shall come, and when they say, “Be…” It shall be,’ and ‘Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, so that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth lightning, so it may go and declare, ‘Here we are?” That is this. We are it. Speak your voice, Caleb. Manifest your spirit. Create by command. With this, you can do anything, everything…” he amplified his voice to make it was deep and booming, “…ALL.”
And with the last word, hundreds of people suddenly appeared around Caleb.
A few hours passed and it was night. The suns above had dimmed, sharing their fading light with rising moonlight, creating a new and beautiful natural phenomenon that Caleb had never seen before, what the people of the Iris called a Sunrisset.
They were all in the field, groups of them sitting around bonfires. The ceiling of the asteroid was made transparent so they could see the stars around them. They were celebrating the arrival of Caleb and the simple fact that another day had passed of which they had come to know. Some of the fires were multi-colored, shifting with the mood and intentions of the people around them. Around one of them was a woman singing an ancient song. The flames danced and rose and changed colors to match her pitch and rhythm and tune—and when she finished with a climax, the flames burst into the sky, adding sparks to the stars. Throughout the night, there were fireworks from all directions and mini-supernovae exploding in the sky. Auroras waved above and among and between them. Such was life in paradise.
As conversation mixed with music and song, there was, most of all, a feast. It was the best food and drink that Caleb had ever tasted.
Han Moret gave another lecture, “Food is just chemistry, a unique combination of atoms that interacts with our taste buds to cause a specific reaction in the brain: pleasure. And with the Pleroma, we can have it all the time.”
“Don’t you get used to it though, having the best food all the time? What’s that saying, without the ordinary there’d be nothing extraordinary?” Caleb asked.
“I used to think that, but it’s been years and the food is still great, so no, you don’t get used to it. It’s utopia here boyo, paradise, the land of the blessed, whatever you want to call it, and not just culinary-wise. We can control our brains and bodies on the micro-level, so there’s no disease and, more importantly, no aging. I realize I might’ve buried the lead on that one, but yeah, we’re immortal here too, along with everything else. Godhood again. Everyone in the Alta, anyone touched by the Pleroma, will live forever, or at least as long as they choose and not be murdered by nature, which is all that matters. We can create anything we might need and want, and so we have everything we might need and want. It’s utopia, but it’s not without its problems.
Frankly, utopia is not all it’s cracked up to be. It’s certainly better than the past and something that everyone should have, power and abundance and immortality and all, and we’ll help them get there, certainly, but it’s not the final place, not by a long shot. Even with all of this, we have a lot to do and further to go. You see, when all the problems are solved, when you can have anything you want all the time, some people just get bored. Who would’ve thought that heaven would be boring. But it is so. Since humans began on the planet Earth all those years ago, our purpose was to survive and solve the problems that nature laid on us—scarcity, poverty, ignorance, disease—so we could have a brief moment to pursue our happiness before we died. But what happens when our survival is secured, the problems are solved, and we have infinite opportunities to pursue our happiness? Wouldn’t life get boring? That’s what we’re struggling with now. Frankly, utopia doesn’t agree with everyone. There’s trouble in paradise and all. Ah, perfect timing. Look over there. See him?”
Han Moret pointed to a man who was a few bonfires over. He was drunk and stumbling through the crowd. Since the man was pleromatized, he had a literal aura of drunkenness around him and projected a blurred existence beyond his body that wreaked a playful and entertaining havoc on others as he walked by.
“Damn it, Thrax. Not again!” someone shouted.
Han Moret continued, “You see, many people here have chosen to drown themselves in happiness and never resurface, as if that’s the only end and aim in life. Maybe it is, maybe we haven’t found the true meaning of happiness yet, maybe there’s something else, who knows, but with the ability to instantly create whatever we want whenever we want it and cure our bodies of anything, a lot of people have chosen to exist in what, in my opinion, is a false state of happiness. They get drunk and use drugs or just go straight to the source and alter their biochemistry so they can remain in a permanent state of euphoria, and they can do so without harm because the Pleroma prevents damage from constant intoxication and allows them to become sober immediately, whenever they choose, so their productivity remains the same, which makes it harder for me to argue that they should imbibe less. There have been many arguments about it. But it’s undeniably a feat of hedonic adaptation for our species when you think about, being bored in heaven and all. Nevertheless, many people like that fellow Thrax over there seem to never want to end it, their eternal happiness. I don’t know, boyo. We’ve done wonders here, but it’s not perfect, far from it.”
Han Moret was silent for a while and looked lost in thought, “Anyways! Apologies, I’ve strayed from my prepared remarks. There’s more for you to learn. Alright, what’s next? Yes, one of my favorites. Lora! Get over here.”
A wind blew through the camp and a woman appeared in front of Caleb. She looked into his eyes and smiled flirtatiously, then became wind again and reappeared behind Caleb. She tapped him on the shoulder and then rose above the ground and swirled around him, finally landing on the seat next to him.
“Hello, Caleb. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She drunkenly leaned into him, “So, did he tell you about the sex yet?”
“Uh…” He looked to Han Moret, who was conveniently looking elsewhere. “No.”
“Of course not, the prit. An old-fashioned manners man through and through. But my god! You have to try it. Imagine two people are like two atoms and now they’re having sex, but people are many atoms, octillions of them, so sex with the Pleroma is octillion times greater, a grinding cloud of pleasure, a great orgy of the Universe, all between two people, or more if that’s your taste. Does that make sense? Oh! See that electric cloud thing in the sky over there? There you go, some people are having a go at it,” thunder rolled across the camp, “and by the sound of it, having a lot of fun. One night when the elders were away and the kids were in bed, we younger ones—well young is relative now, I guess—but anyways, we wanted to test the limits of the stuff, and man…let’s just say we filled the space and rocked the place a little too literally.”
Han Moret interrupted, “Yes you did. Thank you, Lora. You may go now.”
Lora laughed, then kissed Caleb on the cheek and disappeared, creating a golden streak of light across the camp as she moved to another bonfire.
Han Moret resumed his lecture, “So, as you just saw, when you can control the atoms of your body, you can move yourself around. In other words, you can fly. Now, after hearing this, there is, logically, an obvious question.”
Caleb thought for a moment. “How is the mind not destroyed when the body are deconstructed and moved? Wouldn’t the person die in the process?”
“Correct! That is something we did not know until we tried it, or rather one person. Some crazy bastard just tried it one day and it worked, and from the fruit of such courageous experimentation we learned a lot about the nature and structure of consciousness. We still don’t know everything though. We know it has something to do with the attachment of plerons to neural atoms and the signals that they send to each other across a distance, like a spatial expansion of the underlying physical structure of consciousness, but we’re still figuring it out. For now, though, the important thing is that it works.”
“But isn’t the reconstructed person just a copy of the deconstructed one and not really the original person? Wouldn’t the original person be destroyed during deconstruction?”
“No, it’s them. When you go from body to nebulous state to body again, you can feel yourself the entire time. There aren’t any gaps or skips. It’s a continuous process, from one point to another, and you’re aware of it throughout. You can feel yourself dissolving, then nebulous and moving, then coming together again. And let me tell you, when you’re scattered like that, truly at one with the Universe, it’s liberating. It feels like…” Han Moret searched for the right words “…pure being.”
He continued, “Anyways, we’re nearing the end of the night, so let’s end it with a bang. What do you want? You can have anything you’d like. Some Viking ale?” A horned cup appeared in his hand. “One of those Parisian cafes we toured on Earth?” He tossed the cup in front of him and it became a miraged-like partition of one. “An ancient mosque?” The cafe rearranged into one. “A conversation with the legendary President Takhani?” The mosque condensed into the 22nd century woman. “Or better yet, how about a chat with another me?” The President morphed into another Han Moret.
“Fret not, he’s just a copy of me. Not really me. He’s not actually alive at all. Doesn’t have a consciousness. Just a puppet on my mental strings. Anyways, anything you want. What do you say?
Caleb stared at the fire and the flames slowed. He thought “my family” and must have unknowingly projected due to his intense emotional state, because Han Moret sighed.
“I’m sorry Caleb. I can’t do that…Not yet.”
The copy of Han Moret chimed in, “But we’re working on it!”
“Yes, thank you. We’re working on it, trying to resurrect the dead. So far, we can recreate the bodies of those who have been, but it’s recreating their consciousness that’s the tricky part. As you’ve seen, we can deconstruct and reconstruct the consciousness of living individuals across space while maintaining their continuity of being. The Self isn’t destroyed. It’s reconstructing…Hold on, that reminds me.”
The copy of Han Moret dissolved.
“That’s better. It’s reconstructing consciousness across time that’s the problem. Specifically, it’s reconnecting the consciousness of someone who lived in the past at the moment of their death, the presumed termination of their consciousness stream and Self, to the present that’s proving difficult. We’re trying to connect disjointed time-points between death and now so we can restore a dead person’s continuity of being, their true and original Self. We have the ability to create a likeness of someone’s consciousness, dead or alive, as I just showed, but it’s not truly them, it’s just a copy of them. If we can resurrect their stream of consciousness, awaken them from what would seem like a long nap, then we will have achieved true immortality, and not just for those who are living and yet to be born, but for all those who have been, all of the billions who once existed in the Universe, back in the world alive and well, forever. And we’re close, Caleb, we’re close. We actually made a big step today. Let me show you.” He amplified his voice and carried it on the wind, “Arina!”
A young and beautiful woman appeared. Caleb struggled to think of another word than “perfect.”
“Meet Arina. It’s her birthday, by the way.”
“Hello, Arina. Happy….” Caleb stopped because he recognized the name and remembered his conversation with Han Moret earlier. “Hold on, when I asked you how many people were in the Iris, you said that someone named Arina was born today.”
“And indeed they were. Her. The first of her kind, a fully grown human created by the Pleroma. Instantaneous creation. Now, I can anticipate your train of thought, and yes, the ethics of missing childhood with all its memories and growth and learning are concerning, and we will explore them, but we are in the first days of this stuff, so there will be many questions, and we are ready to answer them. But regardless, we constructed a new consciousness boyo! We did it, and we’re learning. Perhaps we can spark consciousness in animals too, any form of life actually…maybe even non-life come to think of it. But the next step is to resurrect old consciousness, which, as you know, would be the true power of resurrection. Godhood again! I told you Caleb, we’re seeking Godhood here, and we’re gaining a little of it every day.”
Han Moret seemed satisfied with himself and took a deep breath. “Alright, I think that’s enough for tonight. You’ve had a long day and have been shown much. Time for some rest. We Irisians don’t need sleep anymore, but you certainly do. Your body isn’t used to the godly life yet, so…tut tut, time for bed.”
The next day, Han Moret flew himself and Caleb around the Iris. Children passed by in the air on their way to school and nearly crashed into them several times, laughing. After a while, Caleb and Han Moret landed near the edge of a lake.
“See them?” Han Moret gestured to a man and woman in the distance between the lake and the foothills of a mountain. They were in the midst of combat. As they fought, various weapons rapidly materialized and dematerialized in their hands; each strike and block with someone new: now a sword, then a bow and arrow, now an axe, then a spear. They were flying and shifting and moving in a rhythmic flow, using the land around them and pure force as weapons. It was a literal storm of battle, as if reality was at war with itself, clashing shards of spacetime, two gods battling in a field.
“So, you want me to learn how to do that? Fight with the Pleroma to defeat the Sargons?” Caleb asked.
“Fight? No, those two are just bored, so they’re having a little dance. For Earth’s sake, Caleb. Haven’t you been listening? Watch.”
There was a boom in the distance. Caleb looked to where a mountain was, or rather, where it used to be, since it was missing. Han Moret had destroyed it instantly, deleting it from existence.
“With this, all you need is to be in the same room as them and then boom, gone forever in the blink of an eye, with only a thought, without even a fight, without even a flinch. Theoretically, you don’t even need to be in the same room as them. You could be here and destroy them wherever they are in the Solar System with targeted pleron dispersal and sufficient transmission relays. You could do whatever you want wherever you want. But I think the people need to see you, Caleb. They need to see you standing before the Sargons, declaring their wrongs, making things right. They need to hear your words, your plans for the future, and see the awesome power of this stuff, how it will change everything. Because with this, there will be no more war. With this, we become God. We’ll live forever, boyo. We’re free now. What will we do? Ah, so much, so much. There’s so much we can do now! Peace in our time, gods in Empire. A new day in a new age. It’s coming, Caleb. Gods among us because they become us. Are you ready?”
Caleb thought for a moment, then closed his eyes and stood in silence.
After a while, he flashed his hand. And all at once, a burst of wind blew, thunder cracked, and the suns shone brighter—the world shook.
He opened his eyes, “Yes.”

I taught for a year at my town's private school four years ago during COVID and they asked me to come back six weeks ago to replace a teacher who left to take another job. I thought I did a good job back then, not so much this time. But one of my courses is 9th grade geography, and I had taught that before, so I had plenty of material on my computer.
I teach geography a little differently, in that I want the kids to be able to label where the countries (or states, or counties) are, and then throw in some random history. For example, for the British Isles, we talked about the oppression of the Irish, the Troubles, the potato famine, the Faulkland Islands war and Margaret Thatcher, Winston Churchill, and how the Roman, Viking, and Norman Conquests shaped the English language. I include some other things as well, but I teach it as a hybrid geography/history course.
Anyway, our year is almost over and we haven't gotten to the Middle East, which is sad given what is going on in the world. I hand out the map and there are 17 countries to label. I also gave them a five-page magazine article written by the King of Jordan in 1947, addressed to the American public. I told them since our time was running out, I'd rather just skip the map labeling and have them read the article and write me a short essay summarizing what the king had to say. If they wished, they could share their opinion at the end of the essay, but they weren't required to. I told them I would grade it easy, I just really wanted to know they had read the article. Every kid in the class: "Just let us do the map!" So I let them do the map. Most did just fine. They just couldn't stand the thought of reading a five-page article.
Part 2: As I was walking down the hall leaving school today I was chatting with a couple of 10th grade girls from my world history class. I taught them 7th grade civics. I'm not sure what made me say it, but I told them, "Y'all really need to develop some intellectual curiosity." One of them immediately asked, "What's that?" She wasn't joking. Nor is she particularly dull.
For anyone interested, here is a link to the article. And FWIW, my bias is pro-Israel, but in 1947 it would have been pro-Arab. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kwj2f7vwz0ghjv6sshqx9/as-the-arabs-see-the-jews.pdf?rlkey=3oo9a3xj1ts5121mpoix67n8d&dl=0

Tout ça a débuté quand j'ai reçu un appel dans le bus. La femme de l'autre côté essayé de me parler mais je l'entendais mal du coup j'ai dit "excusez moi je suis dans le bus" et puis elle m'a dit qu'elle travailler pour Proximus et m'a demande si je suis chez Proximus qui sont connu pour leur appels chiant commercial.
J'ai dit que "je suis chez a Mobile Vikings et que je ne sui pas intéressé par des offres." Elle me répète "Mobile Vikings ?!". Je dit "Oui" et elle coupe l'appel.
Je me dit juste qu'elle a vu que je suis pas intéressé et elle va essayer de vendre un forfait à quelqu'un d'autre.
Mais le jour même je reçois un message sur LinkedIn où y'a cette phrase exacte "If you are interested please reply (yes)".
J'avais déjà entendu qu'il faut pas dire oui pendant les appels avec les gens qu'on ne connait pas. Coups de parano je commence a vérifier tout et n'importe quoi j'essaye de rappeler le numéro ça ne fonctionne plus.
J'appelle mon opérateur téléphonique ils me disent que c'est rien. Mais depuis je reçois des appels 2-3 fois d'appels par semaine et/ou des messages sur LinkedIn.
Sur LinkedIn c'est des soit disant Recuteur de Gi Group (Compte crée il y a une heure maximum) qui m'envoies des offres bidon.
Les appels sont des appels vides comme si on attends que je dit "Allo... Oui allo". Mais je réponds à chaque fois pour voir si c'est une entreprise qui s'intéresse à mon profil.
Et dernièrement j'ai reçu un message WhatsApp d'une entreprise Italienne qui me donne le site ou il faut opérer et me demande si je suis disponible.
Donc voilà si tu as tout lu merci et si tu sais me donner plus d'informations sur le sujet tu es le bienvenu.
Je pourrais donner des photos s'il faut mais j'en ai pas beaucoup.

I've enjoyed the challenge of writing reviews as I read different bingo books; however, I can be verbose and I'm not the best at condensing things to a short blurb or numerical rating. So I've excerpted a couple paragraphs from each of my Dreamwidth blog reviews for a tl;dr summary. If you're interested, there's a link to the longer reviews at the bottom of the post.
Some statistics:
Books (or the short stories anthologized there) written before I was born: 5
Christianity, a lot of it: 5
World War I was a bad time: 3
Boy-Girl twins are trouble: 4
Most "ugh, way too familiar" character: the enlightened bishop from The Great Divorce
Title with a Title: Ghost Talkers, by Mary Robinette Kowal
Premise: it's WWI, and the British military employs "spirit mediums" to get messages from ghosts who have died in battle. Ginny Stuyvesant, a woman from the US whose fiance is a British officer, has to find a traitor in the military. I liked this better than Kowal's "The Calculating Stars," because I think the didacticism works better when it's farther from the present day. There are cases where the characters are like "okay, let's consider how our prejudices may have interfered with our enemies' plans; maybe the allies we dismiss as unimportant or beneath notice are also people our enemies dismiss as unimportant or beneath notice, and therefore, they aren't moles!" We get a cameo from an RL historical figure that would be gimmicky if it was the entire plot of the book, but works well for a throwaway joke. PS if you like the "spirit medium" premise, I strongly recommend "Debrief" from Paracelsus Games, a one-shot RPG designed to be played over video chat which wrecked me in the best ways!
Superheroes: The Meister of Decimen City, by Brenna Raney
In a world where superheroes and -villains are normal, Rex is a supergenius who has her own lairs complete with AI and genetically engineered dinosaurs; the dinosaurs' intelligence is evolving throughout the book. This sets up a bunch of comedy. After Rex breaks up with her boyfriend, one of her new guards/friends helps her realize that maybe the reason her relationships haven't worked out so far is because she's ace, and so this becomes a long-running plot thread about earnestly researching her identity and realizing "hmm, maybe this is me." It also comes with increasingly heavy-handed metaphors about her tastes in food. It's possible that if I hadn't read "Hench" this would feel more fresh, but as it is, there's a lot of mood whiplash; one minute people are being very earnest-millennial talking about asexuality and trauma, and the next, dinosaurs are saving the day. Maybe that's the point, but I found it jarring.
Bottom of the TBR: Voyage from Yesteryear, by James P. Hogan
Premise: decades ago, with war and nationalism and tensions flaring on Earth, scientists decided at the last minute to add some embryonic DNA material and caretaker robots on a scientific ship heading for Alpha Centauri, so a new generation of humans could grow up away from the problems of Earth. Now, a US-based colony ship that's been in flight for twenty years is about to land and meet planet "Chiron." The first chunk of the book is about the colony ship; the ideology of the people in power there is "we must bring Proper Authoritarian Leadership and the Good Old American Way to these helpless infants, because without it, people from Bad Countries start believing that they deserve Rights and Equality and As You Know Bob, That's Terrible." Given that this author rates pretty high on the yikestastic scale, I was suitably unnerved by this. But let me reassure you: this is not, in fact, true! Sometimes, the messages sent by important people in power, or even held by ordinary people, are wrong, and the narrative is self-aware enough to reveal that! Whew. Almost all of the conflict boils down to "false flags" and "bad guys not comprehending that most people are decent and can be trusted to do their own thing." Hogan wants to both point out the absurdity of our Earthling prejudices, but also, have a quirky ragtag squadron of misfits come to the rescue and blast open the doors to save the day, and I'm not sure you can have it both ways.
Magical Realism/Literary Fantasy: The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov
M&M consists of three-ish interwoven narratives. The first concerns the visit of Satan (he goes by the name "Woland," which is apparently a Faust allusion I didn't remember) and his posse to 1930s Moscow. The gang makes trouble, handing out ten-ruble bills that disappear or turn to embarrassing foreign currency, but even the literal forces of darkness are no match for the resolutely materialistic Soviet regime trying, and failing, to explain away all the strangeness. The second is about the titular characters; "the Master" is a novelist who has faced intense criticism for trying to write a novel about Pontius Pilate, and his lover, Margarita, who fiercely believes in him. (Margarita is the cognate to Marguerite/Gretchen in Faust.) And the third is the story-within-a-story about Pilate, as told in turns by Woland and the Master. In some ways it's a suitable-for-Soviet-print, "historical" version of the Passion story without any of that dangerous supernatural stuff, but it's plenty weird in its own right. The edition I used had some useful afterwords (and endnotes for each chapter--it's an ebook, couldn't they have linked it? /petty gripe.) Even I did pick up on some obvious parallels between the outer and frame stories: full moons, thunderstorms, the symbolic Friday-to-Sunday timeframe of many of the events (also the case for "Divine Comedy.") One thing I appreciated the notes spelling out and dumbing down is that a lot of the things you'd expect to see in the Easter narrative--last suppers, miraculous events--take place in Moscow, while a lot of the harshest realities of the Stalin era--show trials, secret police informants, executions--take place in ancient Yershalaim. It's a good way to avoid the censors.
Young Adult: Princess of Souls, by Alexandra Christo
Sometimes, "YA" is used as a pejorative. This is bad because 1. books that are actually in that genre can be pretty different from each other, and 2. the tropes that it can be a shorthand for (first-person POV, female lead, romance as a major plot point) aren't bad in and of themselves, so it comes across as men complaining about women. Unfortunately, the prose in this particular book is often at the level of "YA as a pejorative." Some of the language that the narrative uses feels very modern and not secondary-world in tone. Someone's words hit like a "bullet." The king manipulates people like "chess pieces." Nox joins the army, like his father, so the king refers to him as "a legacy"--as in, legacy student? That phrasing is jarring and not very fantasy-Ancient-Greece to me. [Also, this is the king who murdered the father for plotting against him. I feel like I would not keep reminding the kid of his family's history of military service. That has to be somewhere on the Evil Overlord List, right?]
Mundane Jobs: Light Years from Home, by Mike Chen
Chen does "complicated but realistic family dynamics" very well (see also: "Here and Now and Then.") The Chao family grows apart in the aftermath of an alien abduction. At times, it felt like the plot kind of repeated itself. We, the readers, know that Jakob really has been traveling with aliens, that's made clear from page 1. So his dithering about "oh I can't tell them everything, just gotta complete my mission" and his sister Evie's "do I trust him? do I not?" felt like a lot of back-and-forth and/or characters refusing to communicate just for the sake of complicating the plot. Similarly, when we learn early on that another sister, Kass, has held onto a memento their father believed was associated with Jakob, it's clearly going to be Chekhov's alien tech. The parallels between the family members were nicely drawn. At different times, the characters take turns doing things like narrowing their focus to one-step-at-a-time plans; making, and then breaking, promises to themselves about quitting smoking or keeping the peace; and being too responsible to gloat--most of the time. They may be neurotic, but they come by it honestly!
Published in the 2000s: The Rabbit Back Literature Society, by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen
This has a great cold open: "The reader was at first surprised, then shocked, as the criminal Raskolnikov was abruptly slain in the middle of the street, right before her eyes. Sonya, the hooker with a heart of gold, shot him through the heart. It happened midway through an essay on the Dostoevsky classic." There's a curse or a virus or something strange stealth-editing some of the books in the town of Rabbit Back, and if you're not careful, it can spread and infect others! But then it detours into literary fantasy--there are some weird things going on under the surface in the mysterious disappearance of famous children's book writer, Laura White. (Thanks to the Goodreads reviewer who pointed out Ilmari Jääskeläinen's blog, which spells this out more.) I personally would have preferred more of the cursed library books.
Angels and Demons: From All False Doctrine, by Alice Degan
Premise: in 1920s Toronto, a pair of best friends meet another pair of best friends on a beach. Elsa Nordqvist is starting her masters' in classics; Harriet Spencer is a flirty, lighthearted undergrad; Peverell "Peachy" Peacham is an effervescent musician who can't hold a real job, and Christopher "Kit" Underhill is quiet but wise. When Harriet and Peachy meet, sparks immediately fly; Elsa and Kit are also quietly drawn to each other, but mostly interested in setting up the Harriet/Peachy romance. Elsa is talkative about her research, her childhood on a farm in Saskatchewan, and her attitude of healthy skepticism. Only when they're going their separate ways does she realize that Kit...is actually an Anglo-Catholic priest. Oops. Awkwardness ensues. Because this was recced as a fantasy, I'm primed to read between the lines and look for supernatural happenings, but the characters don't know that they're in that genre, from their perspective it's a meet-cute or an academic detective story for a long time. When I say this book stuck the landing, it really stuck the landing and my feelings of it will probably warm with hindsight. But it's hard to rec to anybody looking for a fast read, or even a clearly-fantasy read.
Five SFF Short Stories: Ingathering: The Complete People Stories, by Zenna Henderson
Premise: there was another world full of humans living a mostly-idyllic, pastoral, life, with lots of psychic powers, levitation, etc. They're also explicitly Christian (their version of "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" is "the Power, the Presence, and the Name"). But God, or the universe, decides they've had things too easy and haven't developed their gifts like they should, and plans to destroy the planet. The People have to build spaceships, scatter into semi-related groups, and evacuate, crash-landing on Earth in the Arizona Territory in the 1890s. From there, some of them find each other and live in isolated communities where they can levitate freely; others are separated and grow up with psychic powers they don't understand, searching for others like them. The stories range in time from the evacuation to the late 60s/early 70s timeframe; they often involve children and teachers in one-room schoolhouses, miners and ranchers dealing with floods and fires in the canyons, etc. This is a big volume that was preceded by two smaller anthologies, so both of those contribute "frame stories" that interweave with the main narratives, about Earth humans who meet and react to The People. (Like "Stewards of the Flame," the People are just "the People," their homeworld was "The Home," anyone who's not part of the People is an Outsider, etc.) The o/Outsider POVs are the best, if you're looking for something like Steerswoman or Children of the Star in which an uninformed character has to gradually figure out what's going on. "Captivity," "No Different Flesh," "The Indelible Kind," and "That Boy" are probably the standouts in this regard. The first stories to be published, "Ararat" and "Gilead," are from the perspectives of People who already take their differences in stride, while "Pottage" is narrated by an Outsider who just happened to go to teacher school with one of the People who blabbed; these are more anticlimactic, and overall the stories can get samey. These kinds of POVs do allow a couple cute moments like "no levitating at the table, kids."
Horror: What Stalks Among Us, by Sarah Hollowell
"What Stalks Among Us" is a YA horror novel about a pair of best friends from Indiana who skip out on their high school trip and get lost in a haunted corn maze. It's a fun look at the time loop trope, and the genre-savvy narrator often describes her possible reactions as video game dialogue trees. The depiction of the setting is very evocative; even though the overall setting is a corn maze, it features various Midwestern gas stations and restaurants inside. This will be a feature to some people and a bug for others, but it's also very earnest about topics like neurodiversity, body positivity, and (especially) the horrors of abuse and the importance of standing up for oneself to escape horrific relationships.
Self/Indie Published: Silence and Starsong, Volume I, Issue I, edited by Joseph Knowles
Some of the longer stories were able to worldbuild at their own pace. Two stories worked well paired together as reflections on the Cold War in an era of weapons of mass destruction: "Archangel" by Frederick Gero Heimbach was a very imaginative alternate history in which the Czardom survived, and Russian Orthodoxy coexists with modern submarines. In contrast, "Hidden Empire" by T.R. Alexander requires very few changes in history--at least, the history of the public record. The story's conceit for how the Pax Americana came to be is cynical, but all-too-believable. "The Two Godly Fishmongers: A Tale of Strange Providences" by Kevin White has a droll sense of humor. The characters are 1600s Puritans, so we get to see great names like "Preserved Fisher" and his son-in-law, "Trout Roundtree."
Middle Eastern setting: Untethered Sky, by Fonda Lee
It's a novella and a pretty quick read; the narrator, Ester, is a rukher who teams up with her roc to hunt landbound creatures, particularly the manticores that terrorize the kingdom of Dartha. Rukhing is a stressful career--many apprentices flunk out, or are injured or killed, before they successfully hunt. And Ester has a personal stake in the matter, since her mother and baby brother were killed by a manticore years ago, and her relationship with her father never recovered. There are also several mentions of birds taking a crap in this book. Good job, points for realism. Based on some of the blurbs, I think some of the themes Lee was trying to engage with were "monsters" and "obsession"--the rocs are trained to hunt manticores, but if somehow the manticores were to be defeated forever, would the rocs and rukhers lose their purpose? Does the grueling training process produce humans who are just as "monstrous" as their bird partners? "Innumerable tedious hours are spent training and hunting, leading to a few crucial seconds to prove oneself, and those seconds are often determined by sheer luck," rang true in the context of sports, but I didn't really think Ester came across as a monster or bad example.
Published in 2023: The First Bright Thing, by J. R. Dawson
Basically the repeating dynamic is that Rin sees the horrors of Nazi book-burning/the Holocaust/Hiroshima/one of her circus friends being killed by the bad guys, and decides We Must Stop It, no matter how much she burns herself out trying to fix the timeline. Then Odette preaches the virtues of self-care and reminds Rin that she's Enough and Valid and Worthwhile, uwu. And then a couple chapters later the roles have switched and Rin is the one patiently explaining to her honorary daughter figure (the circus' new illusionist) that they can't fix everything and we just have to take it day by day, uwu. There's a kernel of something in here about parenthood, and that even if you can't fix the trauma in your own life, you can still be inspired to fight for the next generation so that things can be a little better for them. But, regardless of whether you're talking about the horrors of the mid-twentieth century or, IDK, twenty-first century climate despair, it's really really hard to strike the balance of "this is terrible and we must stop it" and "you're totally Valid, uwu."
Multiverse/Alternate Realities: The Frugal Wizard's Handbook For Surviving Medieval England, by Brandon Sanderson
The setting is a slightly-alternate universe version of medieval England. The locals are Anglo-Saxons, whose bards speak in alliterative verse, and who live in fear of the Hordamen (Vikings) from across the sea. Their lives are hard, but they're very brave and loyal, and not dumb; in fact, their perspective on John's world (2100s Seattle) is very insightful. There's also Yazad, a cheerful monotheist from the Middle East who has come to Britain in search of adventure, and to spread the good word of...Zoroastrianism! This sort of character is a familiar trope for Sanderson fans, and again, I think he's very well-written here!
POC Author: Readymade Bodhisattva, edited by Sunyoung Park and Sang Joon Park
Unfortunately, most of the stories didn't click for me, for one reason or another. In many cases, it felt like the authors were kind of regurgitating tropes without creating characters I got invested in or worldbuilding that I cared about. I don't want to generalize or jump to conclusions from these selections, of course: it might just be that the editors' tastes are bleaker than mine! But for me, there wasn't much new or exciting. The story I found most original, by some distance, was "The Sky Walker" by Yun I-hyeong. Eight centuries after nuclear war, humans have different beliefs about how Earth bounced back--was it a dragon deity? Kindly aliens? Just human resilience? Meanwhile, in an area out beyond an enormous wall (that was originally the limits of a radiation zone), the descendants of exiles and a few others demonstrate gravity-manipulation powers that make them incredible trampolinists. And there's even an "Ender's Game" type of "the enemy's gate is down" reorientation/perception! The end sort of trails off to something vaguely about "even if you can't make a revolutionary change in your own abilities/the social order, you can at least push the limits and create a little more freedom than was there yesterday"? But the setup was very compelling, I wanted more unique worlds like this.
Book Club/Readalong Book: Inda, by Sherwood Smith
The titular character, Inda, is the third child in an aristocratic family in a fantasy world. His elder brother is a bully, while his elder sister is a sweetheart. But while younger sons (who aren't expected to inherit) usually don't go to the military academy in the capital city, the rules change just as Inda is turning ten, so it's off to school to learn military skills, and demonstrate them in highly competitive wargames. Inda proves to be a natural leader, rallying people to him with humility and brilliance: even if he doesn't take credit for being in charge, he comes up with genius strategies like engaging the bullies in fights while the tiny kid who no one expects runs around capturing all the flags. So, "Ender's Game," but fantasy. Except, "Ender's Game"'s SFy worldbuilding is compelling--when I read about the zero-gravity battle rooms or the "giant's drink" RPG or the arcade games, I wanted to experience them. In "Inda," there are hints of magic behind the medieval warfare, but it's so sparse that it's hard to be caught up in the wonder.
Novella: The Great Divorce, by C. S. Lewis
Several of the ghosts were very well-drawn. Early on we meet an Intelligent Episcopalian ghost who is way, way too familiar as the progressive liberal sort who cares so much about being the right sort of open-minded chap that he's drifted away from, you know, actual faith. Another really strong character was a woman whose son had predeceased her. She's greeted by her brother, but all she wants to talk about is getting her son back. This was written in 1945, the same year that "That Hideous Strength" came out to complete the Space Trilogy, and five years before the first Narnia book was published. We can see early glimpses of some of the Narnian whimsy (lions playing in the grass! a unicorn stampede! even people afraid of being "taken in" in the double entendre "deceived"/"received" context the Dwarves use it). And the skepticism towards modernity that also appears in That Hideous Strength.
Mythical Beasts: D (A Tale of Two Worlds), by Michel Faber
"D" is about a girl named Dhikilo, who is growing up in the UK but was adopted from Somaliland (which is contained within, but not the same entity as, Somalia; in some ways it's de facto independent, but it's not internationally recognized). So there's a sense of "stereotypical portal fantasy protagonist has parents who are either dead or useless offscreen, but we should make this more diverse; Dhikilo's birth parents are dead and/or gone because she's from a liminal sort-of-country." The book has plenty of allusions to Dickens (there's a "Bleak House," the villain gives a speech where he quotes only the good halves of the "it was the best of times" intro), Narnia (always winter but never Christmas), Lewis Carroll (the mysterious mentor is Charles Dodderfield, instead of Dodgson), and maybe the Phantom Tollbooth (trying to be playful with language). One day, in the real world, the letter D vanishes and Dhikilo is the only one to notice. What's the connection between the Ds in our world and Liminus? Why is Dhikilo able to notice that something's wrong when no one else cares? Beyond the punny name, is there a reason that being from an unrecognized country matters, or would any refugee do?
Elemental Magic: The Sword of Kaigen, by M. L. Wang
The Sword of Kaigen handles POV and pacing really well. It kept me on my toes. I can recommend it highly on those fronts. If you want a story where you can't feel confident in what will happen next, it delivers. But explaining how would go into spoiler territory, which defeats the purpose. The geographical worldbuilding, on the other hand, was very rough. There are several ways to do "fictional setting inspired by IRL setting"; I found that "The Sword of Kaigen's" approach veered into uncanny valley territory. Also, the infodumps were painful. In chapter two, we have a history class. I understand that the purpose is to contrast the propaganda version of history that students learn with the actual truth, but no one actually teaches history like this. Not even for the unit on the French Revolution, which is the one unit where my teacher was like "yeah, you actually do need to learn a bunch of names and dates." It's just attacking a strawman.
Myths and Retellings: The Mythic Dream, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe
I enjoyed the humorous tones of "Fisher-Bird," T. Kingfisher's take on the Labors of Hercules. And while "Across the River," Leah Cypess' version of The Legend of Akdamot/The Legend of Rabbi Meir and the Sambatyon got bleak at times, the way the narrator used his skills to defeat a bigoted sorcerer was fantastic. Indrapramit Das' "Kali Na," based on Durga and Kali, and Alyssa Wong's "Live Stream," based on Artemis and Acteon, both draw on the misogyny and cruelty of internet trolls and reimagine ways of bringing them to justice.
Queernorm Setting: Unraveller, by Frances Hardinge
Our hero, Kellen, has the gift of "unravelling"--he can break curses, given access to enough particulars about the curser's means and motivations. The other protagonist, Nettle, and her siblings were cursed by their evil stepmother and turned into birds; Kellen unravelled the curse, and Nettle is now human again, but her brother, Yannick, has chosen to stay a gull. When Yannick and Nettle are close, they can communicate telepathically. The details of shapeshifting, like Nettle having to get used to walking again, and Yannick's reluctance to leave the sky together with his utility as a scout/mail carriesecret weapon (he complains about it but he deeply appreciates staying close to Nettle), were all reminiscent of the nothlits from Animorphs--and if you know how much I love Animorphs, you know that's very high praise. Unfortunately, while Kellen has superpowers, he is also a fifteen-year-old boy with a temper, so he often spends time getting on the authorities' bad side and needing to be bailed out. The plot is a bit episodic in terms of "go to point A, deal with miniquest 1, find clue that leads you to point B, deal with miniquest 2," and so on; it's also one of those plots that could be elided somewhat if the characters just communicated better with each other (although, again, they are all dealing with their own trauma and/or underdeveloped frontal lobes). But I enjoyed the mystery and puzzle-solving aspects; in terms of being able to reason though "okay, realistically there are only so many viable suspects in this scene, who can it be," I found it satisfying (but maybe because it's "only" YA so I don't have to be "really perceptive" to make the right deductions, idk). And the twist of why a small village is surprisingly chill about the bog witch that's been haunting the woods for thirty years was impressive!
Coastal or Island Setting: Stewards of the Flame, by Sylvia Louise Engdahl
Jesse is at first horrified by the Meds and only secondarily, if at all, willing to embrace the paranormal. This means that he can be an effective audience surrogate; when Peter's arguments about the ultimate superiority of mind over matter or the pitfalls of an overly-zealous bureaucracy go too far, Jesse dials it back and goes "hey, wait a minute, there are times when trading a little freedom for a lot of security is good, actually." Which is good, because as Engdahl notes in the introduction/afterword, many readers will find this weirdly preachy, especially in the context of COVID. ("Stewards" was written in 2007.) She mentions that there's a direct sequel and a later trilogy in the same universe (but with different characters) that some people might prefer even if they bounced hard off this one. Given the constraints of bingo, it might be a while, if ever, before I try those, so all I can say is: if you are a strong believer in government regulation of public health, there will be many parts you'll bounce off of, and it does sometimes read as a commentary on COVID even though it wasn't. The most yikes-inducing part for me was when a member of the Group somewhat-inadvertently betrays them; "She was bipolar, and would have been diagnosed as mentally ill even on Earth." Her impetus for rebelling against Undine's Meds is her terror of more electroshock treatment, which is an "improvement" over the 20th-century kind, but still not good. But yeah, "the only reason someone would sell us out is because they really were sick" is...kind of not a good look.
Druids: Uprooted, by Naomi Novik
In the beginning, Agnieszka explains that everyone expected her friend Kasia to be carried off by the "Dragon" (the wizard's nickname) in the once-a-decade selection process--the Dragon always chooses girls who are especially smart, or brave, or pretty, and Kasia is just the best at everything. But, to everyone's surprise, when Agnieszka reacts to his ball of magical fire, he chooses her instead! Not until later does Agnieszka (and the reader) learn that she has latent magical powers, and he's required to teach any potential magician he can; he doesn't go about this in the nicest or most transparent way, but he does. This is not a case of "the protagonist is a Mary Sue;" this is the case of "turns out the narrator of a story about magic actually happens to be magical herself." There's some heavy selection bias in terms of "who would be telling this story," in much the same way that the kids at Hogwarts are not really representative of the UK at large, because they're all magical! There is a character who has Mary Sue archetype energy, and...it's Kasia, who is explicitly lampshaded as being the smartest and the bravest and the prettiest, and then has to deal with the aftermath of not being the chosen one, after everyone around her, for better or for worse, has been expecting that for her for basically her entire life. This is an interesting and (to me) relatively original take on the trope! Kasia and Agnieszka's relationship, especially after the choosing, is a big part of the plot.
Robots: Hellspark, by Janet Kagan
Tocohl walks in and basically solves everyone's problems with the power of...body language. Because behaviors like gestures, or how close someone stands to you, or what side of you they sit on, are all culturally dependent; if you can't get those right, you may be able to speak the same vocabulary as someone else, but you don't "really" know their language. Hellsparks, however, are completely fluent in every language, including their unwritten aspects, so Tocohl speaks to everyone like a native without them being consciously aware why or how. Then she engages in lots of "noble lies" to get the crew to get along--misleading one person to believe that a new kind of boot is fashionable on her homeworld so she'll cover her feet and not freak out the foot-taboo culture, lying to another when two cultures both clash over "which side of your conversational partner is more honorable to approach on." Some people learn after-the-fact that she was lying and just applaud her for the chutzpah; others never catch on. And, like, I think this is supposed to be uplifting! Even well-intentioned people will have culture clashes, but don't worry, with the right background information the hero can come in and save them from themselves! Instead, it hit me as fatalistic. No matter how hard you try, you'll never get anywhere unless you can miraculously master the unwritten rules which nobody will teach you, because nobody thinks they're actually that important. It hits me hard as an autistic person in a world full of neurotypicals; in this setting, the Hellsparks who actually know the unwritten rules are a small minority. We're supposed to believe that none of the interplanetary survey crew, not even the polyglot who's supposed to be the mission's language expert, knew this. The crew mentions that the cultural liaison who got them set up as a team but didn't stick around was a moron, but how often does that happen? The way it comes across is that the Hellsparks are superpowered individuals in a galaxy full of mundanes; either everyone should be wanting to learn what the Hellsparks can do, or the Hellsparks should come across as more condescending and patronizing to everyone else.
Sequel: Wildings, by Eleanor Glewwe
There are several ways someone could handle a story about the divide between the magical elite and everyone else. One approach would be to have the majority group be genuinely mundane, and grapple with the implications of "yeah, it's just fundamentally not fair that we can't do what they can do." Another approach would be to have halani have a different form of magic that's looked down upon for absurd cultural reasons; maybe halani magic involves more motion and body language and kasiri are just prejudiced when they deride it as inferior to their incantations. But the rather painfully kludgy approach taken here is for halani to have "the intuition," which gives them gut feelings when the plot demands it, I mean, something important is happening. Again, maybe the target audience doesn't find this lazy writing, but I do, sorry. Rivka has an unwavering commitment to reunite with her brother, despite the obstacles society puts in her way. However, compared to Marah, I felt like there was more "things falling into her lap" than her initiative moving the plot. It just so happens that, for the first time in four years, political hero Marah has come forward to speak out against forced adoption before even hearing about Rivka and her plight. Rivka happens to be attending class with Marah's brother, so she reaches out to him in order to contact Marah, and he unsurprisingly is like "you're just using me to get to my sister, everyone wants that, leave me alone." But oh look, the plot grants them another reason to hang out.
Full reviews here!

Realism, History, Anachronism, Expectation and Truth in Fantasy.

I like fantasy, you probably like fantasy being here on /fantasy. But why? Why do we like some fantasy that is explained as rooted in “Realism”. Why do we use “Realism” as a literary defence of fantasy criticism – when what is claimed as realism is ahistorical. What is the relationship between Truth, Historical fact and Realism.
In short – it comes down to audience expectation – let me explain.

A fundamental difference or just sides of the same coin?

Before I dive into it – in this essay, when I speak of Truth or True, capitalized and all, I don’t speak about something being verifiably true. I’m specifically speaking about an emotional resonance that feels like right and honest. Truth is not historical, Truth is not realism, Truth is an emotional resonance that feels right. Truth is about you the reader or viewer. Therefore, Truth is always a reflection of us here now. Truth speaks to you and to the current zeitgeist and sometimes intentionally against it.
Like the anachronism of the crowd singing we will rock you in A Knight’s Tale – this speaks to the truth of being part of a live sporting tournament. They might be knights riding horses with long pointy sticks and not burly men with a ball. But it transports the reader immediately with that feeling of Yeah – sporting event, I know -how- this feels, I know this experience I know what this audience and these sportsmen are experiencing. It feels True.
Clearly the music is an anachronism, clearly the medieval ages didn’t have Queen, sure a few dozen queens but not Queen. It is not realistic. It is not historical. But it sure feels True. It makes you understand that you’re watching a sporting match.
Realism on the other hand is the audience perception of how and what the past was – it is neither historic, nor does it speak to Truth as that requires an emotional resonance.

Freedom in Fantasy

Historical fiction has this interesting dilemma of being historical, but also providing an emotional experience that resonates with the reader or viewer. A knight’s Tale is great because it uses clear anachronism to signal an emotional experience. But other tactics are simple coding. (I.E using audience knowledge of visual and literary entertainment to get audience buy in) Terrible examples are the White Marble Statues of the Roman Empire (historically they were painted) Victorian style dark medieval castles (where are the coloured rugs and paintings and tapestries?) To using Mongolian throat singing and deer antlers to signal viking pagan music. These latter tactics sure can be crimes in historical fiction, because while it speaks to a perceived realism through coding – Its both not historical and doesn’t speak to Truth. Because historical fiction is supposed to be at-least historic there’s a little more onus on presenting history as more historical.
Fantasy however does not have this problem. It is after all Fantasy. And as we all know The past was a brutal time, filled with rape murder and pillaging.
Bot Historical Fiction and Fantasy are written for us – an audience living today, now, at this moment in time. With our current understanding of both history, historical research, pop culture, philosophy and understanding of what the past might have been like. And when reading a book, we’d like it to speak to us, to feel like an honest expression. We’d like for a book to speak Truth. Some kind of Truth. Just a little bit.
This is where fantasy has better time because it has more tools available than historical fiction to speak to us. It can use everything to tell a story that speaks to you. It can omit all the things it doesn’t want to deal with to craft a story. That talks to you about something. Sometimes that’s just slaying a kick-ass dragon and feeling powerful, sometimes it’s an exploration of sexual assault, or an immigrant’s tale in fantasy land. Sometimes it’s a lot of things together.
Coding isn’t realism, or historical – it is a Masquerade - it is the spoonful of sugar that makes it feel historical, and we kind of just interpret that into realism. Because it feels familiar as it lines up with our expectation from the past.

Discourse is Dead

And yet we know that we’re reading Fantasy. We’re not reading history. So why do we defend criticisms against fantasy books with: but it’s realistic?
In our discourse, I believe we use realism – as the little bridge between historical information and Truth. Like the Victorians belief of the medieval period. Like the renaissance’s belief of roman time, like the misconception of the historical fact of the dark ages. It is solely our common (mis)conception of history matched with our desire to speak Truth to us. But because Truth is always about us here right now, and History is always about what actually happened in the past. Our idea of realism is just stuck in the middle.
And so when people criticise works of fantasy on their Truth value. i.e tropes, society, violence, equality, love, death, heroism, etc. it is not an historical criticism, and a defence through realism is misguided. Because the disagreement is about Truth, which is about us here. It is philosophical, it is political, it is emotional and it is personal. It is not however historical.
Not all Truth speaks the same to all people. It is okay that you are transported into another world thanks to the use of realism and coding – and aren’t interested in engaging with the discourse relating to our world – I’ve written enough about the power of escapism in fantasy. But “its realistic” is not a defence against criticism or exploration. It is okay to like things uncritically. It is okay to accept at face value the story you’re presented with, and all the signposts that tell you about the story. But this is not a defence against the examination of Truth. It is a desire for avoidance. And you’re allowed to avoid that examination, but that means a lack of engagement, not a dismissal through the transitive properties of realism when dealing with Truth. Just like historical criticism cannot be countered by perceived realism. realism is a bridge you can use to explore history and Truth I’m not saying you cannot debate the examination of Truth or lack thereof. On the Contrary, please do! This speaks directly to our experience. It is super valuable!

The power of love Fantasy

I like my gritty fantasy, I like the complication of reading about characters stuck with difficult moral dilemmas, where it seems the option is death or having to sell part of your morality. I like the human struggle there-in and the myriad of ways different people can come out of there and learn to live with themselves afterwards. I like my heroic adventures. I like my melancholic Guy Gavriel Kay Novels. I like my novels without SA, and I like some with It. I like fantasy...
I like reading books in settings I know nothing about, that feels strange and alien to me. And authors that use coded language to transport me into another world, and use my expectations of reality against me.
I like it when fictional authors do deep historical research and present a world totally outside of my lived in perception.
I especially love it when the author manages to use it all, history, anachronism and perceived realism to speak Truth to me
Sometimes it feels in ways that only fantasy can because they’re untethered by conventions for certain levels of accuracy. But that same lack of tether is also what makes these books highly criticisable on many different deep levels. And books that you love, will cause strong disagreements in others, and that’s okay! Just know – its’ not because of realism or lack thereof. It’s about the Truth.
Thanks for reading, I think this ended up slightly more structured than my diatribes typically end up being, so, please get in the comments and tell me how I’m obviously wrong, maybe I should have used a different noun than Truth. but that felt the best.
What is your favourite anachronistic trope in fantasy or historic fiction?

Fictional Books for sale. Based in Hyderabad. All are in good condition. Interested people can DM.

Toriyama sensei's influence all over the world is hardy matched by anything that came after Dragon Ball. We all know and respect him for that. He was a great mangaka who had several successfull and popular titles. But this also lead to people overblowing things out of proportion So with due respect to Toriyama Sensei, i'm here to merely clear some of these misconceptions, purposeful lies and simple ignorance, via a compilation of Oda's official statements.
First of all i will say that this isn't abt Toriyama himself as a person or his quality of writing. It's abt Dragon Ball fans spreading misinformation. Stealing Credit of Different Author's Life time's work in the name of using someone's death as an opportunity to get some likes, is such a miserable thing to do. Some people are simply saying things for the sake of it to get as many likes they possibly can using this opportunity. It's also extremely disrespectful to Toriyama Sensei as well. Nothing is more miserable than using someone's death to feed your own ego by spreading lies.
I'd start with few things.
1. Liking and Admiring an author out of respect for his achievements ≠ Your work wouldn't exist without said author.
You can respect people without having to take inspiration from him. Oda-sensei is a huge fan of all kinds of media and we have seen him show his love for all kinds of media. He is also a huge fan of toriyama-sensei since he was a teenager and never shys to show love his for Toriyama Sensei. But saying he became a mangaka because of toriyama is simply a lie.
Oda-Sensei wanted to be a mangaka since the age of 4 due to a Pirate Cartoon called "Vickey the Viking". This is 10 yrs before Dragon Ball was even a thing or Toriyama sensei had became a writer.
Complete Interview from 2016
You can tell where exactly his love for pirates and mangas originated from. Which obviously has absolutely nothing to do with Dragon Ball. One Piece would still exist in it's full glory whether or not Dragon Ball was a thing.
2. People don't understand Google is a search engine which finds and provide you with things which are most similar to your search keywords. What u see at the top of search results aren't words out of bible. Stop believing them blindly.
Everytime this discussion gets brought up you will wayyy too many people on internet show screenshots of first thing that shows in your google search results. They never check where post is from or who wrote it or what credibility they have.
Worst offender of this is this specific, One Piece fan wiki fan forum post which casuals treat as "It's from One Piece wiki itself so it must be true".
Mr. "MadManMal" singlehandedly ruined perception of millions of people with one single post. There are more from screenrant,sportskeeda etc web but this is the worst of of them all.
3. Oda's artstyle
When talking abt inspiration, "Oda's artstyle is inspired by Toriyama" gets brought up a lot and use Oda saying "i used to imitate dragon ball manga's artstyle as a kid since i wanted to be mangaka" as proof.
https://imgur.com/a/hCmN6yJ
This is referring to a 12-14 yo Oda who is yet to officially pick up a pen for any manga or even start developing his unique drawing style.
I will quote Oda from same 2016 interview i linked above:

Q: since secondary school you'd started to get get ready for this..
EO: Well not really started getting ready...i just thought of drawing a pirate a manga, that's all. (referring to being inspired by Vicky the Viking)
Q: So how long.... for this idea to....
EO: If we look back from now, it's like a very great one but...actually I only started to learn how to draw a manga when i was about 17 yrs old,after i received award i was assigned with editor, for that time only i know that manga should be drawn in this way and began my study on how to draw manga. The actual begnning was that time so that idea remained as an imagination back when i still know know about nothing.

When he was 17 years old, Oda first made "Wanted!" and managed to win several awards including placing second in the Tezuka Award. This is where he started learning how to professionally draw a manga. He then got a job at Weekly Shonen Jump magazine as Shinobu Kaitani's assistant for the manga "Suizan Police Gang".
At the age of 19, Oda began working as an assistant to mangaka Nobuhiro Watsuki for "Rurouni Kenshin" before winning the Hop Step Award for new mangaka. During this time, Oda drew stories one shot with a pirate theme entitled "Romance Dawn" with the character Luffy. The story was published by Akamaru Jump and Weekly Shonen Jump in late 1996. In 1997, One Piece debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump and sold 100 million copies as of February 2005.
When Oda joined Watsuki, he also started working on his own Manga with pirates he had always wanted to. He released Romance Dawn as a test but after seeing the reception, he wrote version 2 of Romance Dawn which is what we know today. This Romance Dawn had an artstyle and plot repurposed into the style One Piece would have in 1997. This is where his One Piece artstyle comes from. If you've read Rorouni Kenshin you'd know how similar Oda's artstyle is to Watsuki's artstyle. While Oda was working on Rorouni Kenshin he also referenced One Piece in it before One Piece's official serialization began.
Roruoni Kenshin CH160:
https://imgur.com/a/5sYGLTT
"Oda didn't want his drawing influenced by other mangaka beacuse otherwise his drawing originality would gradually fade away" is the reason for One Piece's completely unique artstyle. Saying his artstyle is based on Toriyama's because "he tried to imitate dragon ball as a teenager" is not only wrong but extremely disrespectful to both Oda Sensei and Toriyama sensei's memory.
4. Luffy's creation
This is personally most infuriating to me because people who do this, mischaracterize Luffy so badly that it should be criminal. Most of it is usually completely baseless, but at times it's misinformation and misintepretation of an old interview.
In said interview, Oda's asked what he did think of when he created Luffy. Oda replies in word. "Manliness". The further explaining how he wanted to write a story abt "A Man's World". OG Dragon Ball, which is based on chinese novel "Journey To The West" had an adventurous-esque world which Oda liked. Oda used that as a basis to write a completely new character which oozes of manliness, charisma, and optimism to explore "a man's world". He then added depth to him making him more humanistic, emotionally intelligent, deep layered char with a well refined strong moral compass which keeps getting reformed as story progressess. He also takes inspiration from Kenshin from Rorouni Kenshin, in regards to him not killing villains but instead crushing them psychologically.
Monkey D Luffy is NOT inspired by Son Goku!
i had several essays written last night to explain Luffy's character with this graphic but slept and then woke up to find i had closed my chromes. Which lead to whole post being erased and then me rewriting it again. This time i wouldn't be able to write a deep character analysis of Luffy and how he symbolizes these different concepts and represents ideas of those specific philosophers. But i will try to drop small explainations with a comparison between Luffy and Goku
First of all a surface lvl comparison between Luffy and Goku's personality traits.

Goku	Luffy
energetic, kindhearted, pure hearted, innocent, and generally stupid	enthusiastic, carefree, rude, self aware, incredibly wiser for his age, extreme emotional intelligence, brash but joyful and generally goodhearted. doesn't brood over troubles, faces death with infectious grin, lives in present, extremely charismati
never had any ambition, was just following bulma for most of the series, then got married and defender of planet from aliens	poster boy of all dreamers. literally kickstarted a whole era of "i wannabe king, hokage,mayor,champion,hero,free" or find something/someone (usually father figure). (but this is just for appearances, he actually has a hidden dream)
things simply happen to him for most of the series. doesn't have as much agency.	is a force of nature, actively ruining balance of world with every move every decision every thought. has responsibility of life of 10 other people who listens to his judgement to the t and follow his leadership to death.
can read, write and do math	never had any proper education since he was raised by criminals but can read and write somewhat
loves food just cuz/ comedic purposes	loves food because he understands pain of hunger, respects food as something of utmost importance (fell for sanji the moment he fed a bad guy despite him being a threat), food plays massive role in plot and his ambitions. i.e., his love for food actually adds more depth to his character.
respectful, caring, sometimes unknowingly rude	brash, outgoing, knowingly rude,doesn't follow rules and most of all, doesn't respect anyone unless they are worthy of such, Brazen hatred of authority and never does what he is told. Infact he does the opposite.
generally well mannered but falls short at times due to his own foolishness and obliviousness.	Terrible Manners, would say what he wants no matter who gets bitter (with few exceptions), unbothered abt others perception of him, doesn't use honorifics, doesn't even remember names generally , instead uses nicknames (which is considered INCREDIBLY rude in japan)
strong sense of justice and always strives to protect the innocent	strong moral compass which he himself defined by living with bandits, his brothers, and criminals in nearby slum.
upholds justice	doesn't care abt justice or laws defined by others, would act upon something if and only if it directly concerns him. doesn't want to be called hero. punishes people for what he believes to be right as One True King above all.
risks his life to protect the innocent no matter what circumstances or consequences	risks his life only for his specific ideals that concerns him personally (i.e., his moral code, his friends). doesn't care abt strangers. wouldn't help unless begged to do so.
hates evil bad guys	hates cowards, indifferent to ambitionless fools like bellamy (but still sees them with contempt), and hates doflamingo
believes everyone can be changed, usually doesn't kill bad guy because he wants to fight him again in future	unbothered abt anyone's and everyone's past. judges people for their present. would whoop people without ever thinking what will become of them in the future. would also most likely leave them alive after crushing thier dreams to shame them further.
pure of heart, even to an extreme. also has difficulty understanding the concept of deception	pure of heart, but knows some people would backstab him at a heart beat, never trusts people he judges them as suspects, would ally with questionable people and commit inhumane crimes to suite his selfish goals.
never knew when to give up (with 1exception)	believes in his own strength and his allies, above else, but also recognises when to give up and tell his crewmates to run. would sacrifice himself to allow his crew's escape
risks lives out of desire to fight stronger opponents and stupidity	risks lives of his comrades (who have chosen to be follow him specifically because of what he is) for his morals, would do extremely dangerous things despite knowing the consequences because he'd rather die standing upto his beliefs than live with regrets.
submissive to overbearing women	wouldn't think twice punching anyone if he wants to, or shutting down his closest female friend for acting unfitting of a crewmate of future pirate king. has extreme pride but also humble if it means he can help his friends
believes in fair fights, wouldn't take any advantage to win no matter the consequences. wouldn't run away.	doesn't play fair, doesn't expect his opps to play fair, would use everything possible to win, still mostly has pure 1v1s where he is at disadvantage due to circumstances/fate, doesn't care abt pure 1v1, would run away if it suits him (with few exceptions)
doesn't know marriage, sex or kiss. thinks marriage is food.	knows what marriage is but isn't intereted in it currently. has already rejected most beautiful women in the world twice.
reaction to close friends dying is rage, and shows rare few emotions to be a relatable human character.	shows a whole spectrum of human emotions from extreme rage to extreme depression which even made him suicidal, extreme joy to extreme sorrow, has random quirks which make him look more and more real and relatable. his treatment of people around him... He is almost too real.
you can predict exactly what he will say, how he will say, how he will react to something from the get go for almost all the time.	luffy's so extremely unpredictable all while being consistent with everything he does your reaction every single time is "hell yeahhh". it's like whenever he does it we go "ofc it makes sense he'd do this" but nanoseconds before it we have absolutely zero clue abt what he'd do. this continues on for 1000 f-ing chapters with each arc adding more layers to his character. Even after 1000 chapters One Piece fans can't predict Luffy's true dream. That's how deep his bag goes. This is also why him saying "I will be pirate king" at random unpredictable events are one of the most hype moments in all of One Piece.

i'd like to keep doing this for hours but obviously wouldn't read it if it's too long. so the point is just that both Goku and Luffy are fundamentally different characters. Stop mischaracterizing Luffy into something he isn't.
I already hate all the karens in One Piece fandom hell bent on making Luffy look like a stuffed toy who must be protected and infantilizing him to hell. It genuinely infuriates me.
will later edit the post with more stuff on luffy's writing and how he represent Nietzsche’s Übermensch, Sigmund Freud, Marx, Albert camus's and etc philosophies on different concepts. (assuming post gets good reception). Or comparisons between different deities, thier powers and symbolisms with Luffy.
5. Bit unrelated, but this post is basically what motivated to complete the post after it got erased first time. So i wanted to plug it here to increase awareness.
It basically says, Toriyama never gave no letter to Kubo or Jump after Kubo got rejected. It's a false lie.
Kubo's one shot got accepted the first time he applied for it. In fact it reached number 1 spot.
It was One Piece which was rejected 3 times by infamous Torishima san beforee finally caving in to it, while on contrast Naruto and Bleach were accepted on first attempt. Torishima san still to this day hope for a manga to come and surpass One Piece in sales as soon as possible.

Taito Kubo, author of Bleach, revealed that he has been hating Oda ever since his debut manga was defeated by ONE PIECE in readers' popularity poll.
In 1996, Chief editor Kazuhiko Torishima, known as editor for Dragon Ball, scolded Kubo that his manga was terrible and recommended him to read Dragon Ball and Fist of the North Star first volumes. But Kubo didn't read them, thinking "Damn you!!"

source:
Translated Version:

Former OP editor Sugita (the current editor for The Promised Neverland) was talking about some influences from Oda:

"...Sugita proceeds to reveal that, while he was One Piece's editor, Oda revealed that One Piece was something of a deliberate subversion of Dragon Ball through having a vastly more complex story and characters, while Dragon Ball is a manga infamous for its simplicity."
Basically Oda : praises Toriyama
Also Oda: "u simpleton" /s
Oda admired Toriyama but never wanted his manga to be like Dragon Ball. According to both himself and his editors, Oda is an ardent worker and perfectionist.(source:) He wanted to tell a story only he had imagined in a way only he could do.
Oda's Advice For Up-and-Coming Artists: https://imgur.com/a/uCAT4Wd
Saying One Piece wouldn't exist without Dragon Ball on this specific occasion isn't just disrespectful to Toriyama sensei's memory, but also Oda sensei while completely ignoring what he'd been aspiring to be with his lifetime's work. It's also a disservice to everyone who have been involved with One Piece for past 25 yrs to write an extremely unique and engaging story.
That'd be all. If you have any questions regarding anything i missed or a source for something i forgot to add, please let me know in the comments.

Hi everyone :)
Once again I've managed to expertly transform what was intended to be a brief amendment to an earlier post into a rambling trainwreck of an essay.
For context:

1. Some time ago I noticed some similarities between some elements of Fargo S3 and Master and Margarita (a novel); which I attempted to demonstrate here: https://www.reddit.com/FargoTV/comments/16sj0a2/chertovschina_similarities_between_fargo_s3_the/
2. Half a year later I realised that somehow I've rather stupidly omitted a minor (or major, eye of the beholder and all that) detail in the comparison of Varga and Woland - their names XD

So, after looking into it for about 20 minutes, I decided to share my findings.
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There are no direct spoilers in this post, at least not as far as I can tell (at least not to Fargo ahaha). Although I do struggle to imagine what might constitute a spoiler to those most afraid of them, so if you count yourself among that group - stop reading, I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Another reason to not read this post (you're very welcome) would be if you feel like you might be what they call "triggered" by the word "Russia" and its derivatives.
Hopefully, it is evident almost to a fault that I write what I write without any relation to anything going on out there, in what they call "outside" or "the real world". I'm a rare visitor if there ever was one!
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There's not a lot to say on their points of resemblance beyond the names being somewhat similar phonetically and, to a first approximation, devoid of any apparent meaning. Where it gets interesting is how they refer to their characters' attributes, especially in Varga's case.
It is fairly well known that WOLAND the character is heavily based on Mephistopheles, especially as the latter is portrayed in Goethe's Faust (to the point of exhibiting direct references to his prototype, like a poodle-headed cane). I won't bore you with more details, let's just say that, from the standpoint of what they represent, they are more or less the same thing - either the Devil's emissary (or the Big D himself), here to make deals and teach lessons (as in life lessons, hard and painful ones).
What is less well-known is that Woland's name is basically taken directly from from Faust, where Mephistopheles uses it (albeit exactly once) to refer to himself during the events on Walpurgis Night (as Squire Voland).
Apparently, Voland is an archaic German word that was used to refer to the Devil and, to tell you the truth, I can't be bothered to perform any further research.
So, to sum up - Woland's name straight up means "the Devil", no subtleties here. If only his victims were a bit more knowledgeable and observant, wink-wink.
Now, some findings on VARGA. While a search of the name in this form yields nothing of substance, a few hyperlinks later we arrive at Tolkien's wargs, which are, in turn, based on giant wolves from Old Norse mythology, written originally as vargr; the notorious Fenrir was one such vargr (varg?..) - if Wikipedia is to be believed.
And that's the obvious (see linked post above if not obvious yet) wolf motif for you.
But, if we were to take a couple more steps in our etymological endeavour, we might find a variation of this word which is, believe it or not, even more similar to the one used is the series, to the point of containing every single letter. It's just that they are transliterated :)
And thus we arrive at the second (and, one hopes, the last) archaic word in this comment - варга. This time the word is Russian, although to call it that might obscure the full picture - in my understanding, it must have found its way into the language at least about 800 years ago, when Russian didn't yet exist in its current form. Now, you might ask something like:

Yo, CM, why'd you say "found its way into"? And why 800 years?

Well, dearest reader, to this I can only say that I admire your astuteness, to say nothing of your attention to detail, and even less of your interest in my ramblings!
There was a lengthy (300-400 years, give or take) period in the history of Russia (again, keep in mind that this is long before the formation of the contemporary state) referred to as Novgorod Rus. The name refers to the Novgorod Republic, a medieval state that, among other things, engaged in extensive trade relations with the Varangians - which was, essentially, just a Rus word for Vikings. And where we find extensive trade relations - we usually also find extensive cultural exchange.
This combination of rudimentary historical knowledge, ad-hoc research and unwarranted self-confidence leads me to suspect that the word in question undertook the following journey: Old Norse -> whatever dialects were used by Vikings trading (and, presumably, engaging in sundrie other activities) in northern Russia -> contemporary inhabitants of northern Russia (we're still at least 800 years in the past) -> ... -> name of Fargo S3 antagonist!
Barring this hypothesis' resemblance to the proverbial business plan of the Underpants Gnomes (of South Park fame), I think you see my point.
So, going back to this word, варга (exactly [varga]) - it had two sets of meanings. One of them is a clearing (as in a forest clearing, a spot in a forest with no trees), but we should be more interested in the other one - throat, or maw.
Again, I'll spare you an exhaustive comparison (ha ha) and limit myself to the following:

• There are, one might say, explicit close-ups of Varga's oral cavity (prominently including his throat) featured on the show; this also connects well semantically - a significant attribute of his character is eating, or rather devouring. Not only of food, but also of resources, information and lives.
• What would you use to devour things? A maw. And who's got a maw? A giant freaking wolf, that's who! See?

Well, there you go, I guess.
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Many thanks for reading; and to those, who read my first post - thanks for your warm reception!
(づ๑•ᴗ•๑)づ♡
Perhaps it's time for a rewatch of S2, felt like there's a lengthy essay in there somewhere...

Okay so i've been a fan of the saga since I was a kid, and I recently got the whole collection and said to myself, lets play every single one of the AC's and rank them. Basically, I'm gonna start from the bottom all the way up. Just so you know I won't criticise the RPG / New ones just becasue they are new, imma try to explain why I like or dislike them.
Valhalla: Long a** repetitive game, tried to finish it like 4 times and it's so unbearable (for me) that I couln't even end a single run. Basically when the game starts, it's like okay vikings that's cool, but the way that they centered the story around building alliances with the different lords/kings/nobles they made it in a way that with this type of progression it becomes so repetitive that combined with the length of the game it becomes unbearable (for me it started to feel as a 2nd job to finish it). Plus I think the arugment was boring af. The only good thing was the combat but it didn't make it up for the story.
Liberations: No comment on this one, cheap aah AC3.
Chronicles: Good stories (except India) but platform games aren't for me.
AC3: Good story and setting but the character is bland af, like agent 47 but with daddy issues. The progression and upgrading mechanichs like the ranch (idk if it's the name of the house in english, I played them in my native language) were repetitive and boring. I get why people would like this game but it's not my one.
Freedom Cry: Basically a DLC from Black Flag, good game but it's a DLC so It wouldn't be fair to get it higher.
Syndicate: Very good ambientation (as usual with ubisoft) with the Industrial Revolution in London, gameplay overall pretty smooth and addictive, I loved the fight clubs, the combat, the secondary missions with historical figures, the grappling hook and it's combination with parkour in an industrial XIXth century city, and much more, but I felt like they didn't do good in adapting the "assassin" format into the story, basically why the f is a gang leader an assassin, isn't he supposed to be like stealthy and all of that, like I get the "rebel boy" type of character that they tried to present but they couldn't fit it in with the assassin style. Plus the main story was boring af.
Mirage: Imma be honest, I liked it, idk why (maybe because I was expecting a disaster) but the parkour was better than I expected, and the stealth was fun af. IK that the IA was dumb AF but I still loved the gameplay of parkour and stealth. The story was good (but istg the ending made me MAD) and the blackbox missions are a blast. PS: I hate modern day Basim. In my opinion Roshan was the GOAT, but yeah schizo basim had to fuck it up.
Brotherhood: Good story, recycled and boring mechanichs, idk if it's because I compare it to AC2 but I think the game was a downgrade in overall quality in the chronology of the saga. Like maybe if there was no AC2 or it wasn't that good this game would be ranked higher but I can't not compare it to it's predecessor.
Oddyssey: I LOVED the combat and the progression, how the story develops on itself, the gameplay, exploration, parkour, naval combat, MALAKA this game IS GREAT. But it's not an assassin's creed, I consider it a Assassin's Creed Story as some essay put it but yeah, good shit but not a real AC.
Origins: Same as Oddyssey but this time is an AC, I didn't enjoy the combat as much as the later one because it's more slow paced but yeah the story and exploration makes it up for the combat.
AC1: The OG, it was so buggy but the story was great in my opinion, plus it's simplicity did the exact opposite that Valhalla did. It made me want to replay it. But yeah some mechanics needed some improvment.
AC2: They grabbed AC1 mechanics and upgraded them to the max. Great parkour, combat, progression, the secondary missions, the tombs, EVERYTHING. And the story, oh boy the story, man I LOVE EZIO, yeah enough meat riding. One of the best (if not the best) game of the saga.
AC4: Basically the story (narrative) it's great but idk why ubi pumped this game with so many TAILING MISSIONS, apart from that the game is PERFECT, maybe too much liberties on the "assassin" setting (the thing I commented on Syndicate) but I think they linked it in a good way.
Unity: I remember when this game came out, it got so much hate, because of the bugs and all, but it's fixed. And as of 2024 this game is way more playable than any other one, like I (personally) did not experience any bug at all. So why I consider this one is my favourite? (imma b real, it was my first one, and that may create a bias in me but idc). Let's start with the story, the redemption and vendetta of Arno's, the Romeo and Juliet type of romance between the coprotagonists, the Ezioesque personality of Arno, the ending and how this events show us how a cocky young adult who struggles to find it's place in the world due to his traumatic childhood becomes a wise master. Next point, up to now (as of 2024) there has been no match that got close to Unity's parkour, it has the best parkour of all the saga. Combat is overall balanced as it's not "press O/B/E to block then proceed to SQUARE/X/LMB" as you have to learn how to counter every enemy. Proto-Blackbox missions as you can approach the objective with such ways, distance and stealth, avoiding every single enemy, going guns blazing, any way you want. And even though the MP is pretty much dead, due to it's low price you can play with your friends which isn't possible in any other AC (and by that i mean like real missions, not playing hide and seek like in AC3)

The question that spawned these book-related thoughts was: what if EA started a publishing house?
​
I'm not sure this is a good proximate aim, because It's unclear why you'd want to replace many of the functions that established publishers already serve. For instance, many publishers are well-known, and getting your book published by them counts as free credibility and publicity. And as mentioned, publishers operate through relationships which take a long time to establish.
​
But it would be very cool to have close to an end-to-end publishing operation. To begin with, this would get rid of some of the friction and frustration associated with grappling with an outside editor over content, cover imagery, and so on. And it would be very easy to reprint classics in the public domain, in order to bring them to a wider audience. Collected blog posts, also.
​
Plus, you could spin up your own badass brand, and shape it however you like. You could quickly earn 1,000 true fans who automatically buy the next book you release. I think that the real impact you get from books is heavy-tailed in the sense that almost all the impact comes from a small number of readers. If you can cultivate the brand to appeal to those few readers, you don't need a very large audience to get the 'impact-adjusted reach' of a well-established publishing house.
​
Some people did successfully publish some highlights from LessWrong, and they just did it again. But I imagine this would have been easier, and potentially reached more people, if a specialised initiative had existed with some of the infrastructure and expertise already in place.
​
The obvious and standout inspiration here is the (hopefully not) inimitable Stripe Press.
​
A spin on this idea could be to start an 'imprint' instead — a new 'trade name' for an existing publisher. For instance, Viking Press is an imprint of Penguin Random House.1
​
In the meantime, I expect it would also be obviously good for prospective EA authors to pitch ambitious book ideas to existing badass publishing houses like Stripe Press.
​
other idea to check if 100% overlaps and merge with:
​
Start a publishing company
The question that spawned these book-related thoughts was: what if EA started a publishing house?
​
I'm not sure this is a good proximate aim, because It's unclear why you'd want to replace many of the functions that established publishers already serve. For instance, many publishers are well-known, and getting your book published by them counts as free credibility and publicity. And as mentioned, publishers operate through relationships which take a long time to establish.
​
But it would be very cool to have close to an end-to-end publishing operation. To begin with, this would get rid of some of the friction and frustration associated with grappling with an outside editor over content, cover imagery, and so on. And it would be very easy to reprint classics (Like Mill's On Liberty or the collected works of Alan Turing, or whatever else). in the public domain, in order to bring them to a wider audience. Collected blog posts, also a beautiful hardback selection of Gwern essays, anyone? Or more SSC/ACX essays in book form?.
​
Plus, you could spin up your own badass brand, and shape it however you like. You could quickly earn 1,000 true fans who automatically buy the next book you release. I think that the real impact you get from books is heavy-tailed in the sense that almost all the impact comes from a small number of readers. If you can cultivate the brand to appeal to those few readers, you don't need a very large audience to get the 'impact-adjusted reach' of a well-established publishing house.
​
Some people did successfully publish some highlights from LessWrong, and they just did it again. But I imagine this would have been easier, and potentially reached more people, if a specialised initiative had existed with some of the infrastructure and expertise already in place.
​
The obvious and standout inspiration here is the (hopefully not) inimitable Stripe Press
​
A spin on this idea could be to start an 'imprint' instead — a new 'trade name' for an existing publisher. For instance, Viking Press is an imprint of Penguin Random House.1
​
In the meantime, I expect it would also be obviously good for prospective EA authors to pitch ambitious book ideas to existing badass publishing houses like Stripe Press.

Are there any anthologies of essays and/or articles by philosophers from the past 30 years? (Eg Zizek, Chalmers, even Chomsky)
Something similar to a Viking portable collection or Kauffman’s “Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre” - but present day?

Guess who? It’s me again! While it’s been pretty well established (as fanon or confirmed canon I’ll never know) that Chrysalis committed (die) on her own people’s culture in exchange for the Herzland culture, I’ve seen quite a few opinions in what this previous culture was. I’ve seen the opinion that it could have been Imperial Japanese, because of the feudal caste society. In my opinion, this is only the second-most likely option, but the most meme one (because then they’re the whole Axis). However, I believe that it makes the most sense for changelings to have been a pseudo-Swedish culture. Opposed to what you might think, this isn’t because I listened to the Carolus Rex album for well over six hours in total while writing Steel and Chitin (although that was a factor). I actually have a number of reasons to support this. (And I’ve also got a number of reasons to push down the idea of it being Imperial Japan)
Changelings Adapt to fit/Borrow Cultures.
This is the pillar on which all the other arguments rest.
It goes without saying that a changeling’s ability to change form also extends beyond a physical ability, changelings burgled the Griffonian Empire’s culture, and the culture switch seems to have been complete by game start, and for some hives the time frame to be converted isn’t that much, and could be as small as 30-50 years. That’s fifty years to convert an entire 30 million changelings in a decentralised system. While it’s not proof, I think fanon once again states the above. Assuming the above to be true, we can look at the neighbours to the changeling lands. Their only neighbours are Olenia, Equestria, and the frozen north filled with polar bears (hardly the most friendly of creatures). Equestria is quite far away for most of the major hives, and so the Olenians, who have had much more diplomacy with the changelings in history (actual canon) are the most likely candidate for culture stealing. So that establishes the changelings as having a base for a semi-Nordic culture (semi because blending elements of Equestrian, Olenian, and original Changeling culture), but why Swedish?
Language
Following from the above, ask yourself, if changelings borrow culture, it stands to reason that they also borrow languages. Now, language is a finicky topic for fantasy worldbuilding. As it turns out, language does not pop out of the ground! Whether you believe in the Tower of Babel, the slow and gradual evolution of man springing up people across the planet, or any other language origin, research has shown that most languages can be traced back to a handful (maybe twenty) original languages. Language splits, evolves, dialects spring up, and languages mix. Olenia is a mix of Norway and Finland, and while I have not played Olenia to know which one they speak (Norwegian or Finnish) I can make an argument for both.
Norwegian comes from Old Nordic, as does Swedish. It’s not too far fetched to say that the changelings borrowed Old Olenian (languages evolve, remember. Even in EaW), and then over time maybe they developed their own dialect, then evolved; or maybe it just went straight to evolving; either way, you can end up with a different language that is slightly different, but a seperate language.
If it’s Finnish.. I’ve got nothing. I thought i did, turns out I don’t. Finnish, while belonging to a Germanic people, is a Uralic language.
BUT I PLAY POT OF GREED GOOGLE TRANSLATE!
The Olenian Rike is the supremacist path for Olenia, achieved by getting the Godar in power. The word Rike means “offence” in Finnish, but ”Empire” in Norwegian and Swedish; and I think it’s obvious which is most likely. Checkmate!
“But JahJah, what about Ponish?”
Swedish is a germanic language. Old Norse and Old German both came from the same people group. You know what’s also a Germanic language? English. The Angles and the Saxons were German, and the Norman were frenchified Vikings (there’s traces of Old Norse again). Now, what’s Ponish? That’s right, English (if it isn’t I’ll eat a fish eyeball and pronounce a curse on Scroup’s family). Because of its origins, English follows similar rules to other Germanic languages such as Swedish.
Not part of my case, but if changeling language was Swedish, then Chrysalis’ switch to Herzlander isn’t as ridiculous as if it was a far-eastern language, since Swedish and German have a lot in common. Also, it would make no sense for a far-eastern language to exist next to Norwegian and English.
Sweden Expy
There isn’t one yet. There is however already a Japan expy.
The Queen’s Guard
The Queen’s Guard is what it sounds like: an elite fighting unit that serves the Monarchy faithfully. They were recently integrated into the army, and- wait a minute… This sounds a lot like the Livgardet (the Swedish Life Guard), an elite fighting unit that has served the Monarchy faithfully for over 500 years (making it one of the oldest units in history), and was recently (after WW2 I think) integrated into the army.
Chrysalis
…
Okay maybe I listened to Carolus Rex a bit***** too much. But hear me out.
​

• Grew up with a regency
• Ascended to the throne at age 15
• Fought off an attack from vengeful enemies after being coronated*
• Was arrogant, which lead to her downfall
• Brought sweeping army reforms
• Expanded her realm
• Had Finland in her empire
• Waged a Great War against enemies who outnumbered them, did well initially, then got bogged down in their largest enemy’s vast territory, got defeated, all of which resulted in the end of her empire

Chrysalis is a gender-swapped quadrupedal vampire insect pony Charles XII (Carolus Rex).
My brain is actually rotting after making that connection.
Caroleans
Okay, there isn’t any actual proof I have of changeling Caroleans (which would be called something else anyway, because the Caroleans were named after Carolus Rex) but.. come on. Changeling Caroleans sound so much cooler than Changeling samurai, and samurai (and Feudal Japanese society in general) don’t really fit well with changelings anyway, what with the whole honour thing versus the changeling nature of subterfuge.
Also, I like Caroleans. I love the Civilopedia entry which states:
“… most soldiers used pikes because they were good for fighting cavalry. The Caroleans used pikes because a bayonet wasn’t long enough.”
Terrain
The changeling lands are cold and forested, just like Sweden (source, Civ 6, I didn’t do much research on Swedish terrain before writing this). Also, Sweden and the Changeling lands both have large deposits of iron.
In conclusion
Equestria Universalis devs please make the changelings Swedish. This is why I believe that if Chrysalis met the old changeling culture in the dead of night in a back alley, pretended to sell it drugs before beating it to death so she could go out with the Herzlander culture, it would have been pseudo-Swedish.
This was all written today, so it might be a bit random. I was also on a playground structure for about half of the writing process, so I can justify the randomness and rant-ness(?) as me being high while writing this essay. I marked this as a discussion because I might have made an error, overlooked something, or just been dumb. Come, partake in the discussion, provide points of your own.
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*How do they get coronated if they don’t believe in a god? Who has power over changeling queens to be able to crown them? I need answers! ^{(Oh wait, I am the answerer})

Like the title says, in-depth interview of Sam Lake, originally published in Pelaaja-lehti (Gamer-magazine) January 2023 issue, number 241. The interview was originally in Finnish and can be found here https://www.pelaaja.fi/artikkelit/sam-lake-sami-jarvi/. Translation by ChatGPT, small fixes by your Assistant. Comments in [square brackets] by ChatGPT, comments in (parentheses) by your Assistant.
Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Barks, Tolkien, and Claremont
• Dungeon Master Awakens
• Death Rally's Special Stage
• Max Payne And The Dreaded Grin
• Max Payne's Distinctive Grin
• Max Payne 2: Back to School
• Alan Wake and the Agony of Creation
• John Finn and the Realm of Ahti
• A Counter to Isolation

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In the portrait of Sam Lake – read an in-depth interview with the writer of Alan Wake and Max Payne
In the portrait of Sam Lake, also known as Sami Järvi, the creative director of Remedy and the writer of Max Payne, Alan Wake, and Control. In a lengthy interview, we delved into his significant memories.
The interview was originally published in the January 2023 issue, number 241, of Pelaaja magazine. The portrait is now being released on Pelaaja.fi in its original form.
Sami Järvi, the creative director of Remedy and the writer of Max Payne, Alan Wake, and Control, is one of Finland's most well-known game developers. Järvi, originally recognized as the face behind Max Payne, gained visibility in a role that is quite exceptional for a game writer. In a lengthy interview, we revisited his significant memories, including rural summers and teenage Dungeons & Dragons adventures.
For help in writing, all sorts of colorful aphorisms have been invented. The most famous is claimed to be coined by Mark Twain. It goes: "Write what you know." However, this advice should not be interpreted too literally. It is fundamentally an encouragement to write about things that genuinely interest or resonate with you. Often, inspiration can stem from childhood experiences that linger in the subconscious. This guideline is also familiar to Sami Järvi, the head writer and creative director at Remedy, whose works include Max Payne, Alan Wake, and Control.
"As a young aspiring writer, I didn't understand what that sentence meant. I couldn't grasp where to draw material for stories. Over the years, I've learned why it's so true. One reflects on their own experiences and sees their significance," Järvi reflects.
Järvi's journey to becoming the creative director of a large and now international studio has often been a process of trial and learning, as during the early years of the gaming industry, there was no formal education or established practices. This journey may resonate strongly with players who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, and it begins in Matinkylä, Espoo (The neighboring city located to the west of Helsinki). Born in 1970, Järvi's family moved to the newly built suburb when he was just one year old.
"In 1971, we moved to Aapelinkatu, into newly completed apartment buildings. That was part of my childhood landscape. There were a lot of families with kids in those big housing complexes, and we played together in the courtyard."
Even in the metropolitan area, nature was always close by, and it was important to embark on adventures.
"Towards the cross-country skiing track, there were large rocky forests that we explored, and we even managed to sneak into the bomb shelters of the apartment buildings. For many who grew up during that time, I'm sure that sounds familiar," Järvi reminisces.
The adventures of childhood remained etched in memory forever and resurfaced much, much later in Remedy's games. Take, for example, Control, written by Järvi and released in 2019, whose protagonist Jesse Faden and her brother Dylan grew up in the fictional American small town of Ordinary.
"For a long time, I had a supernatural youth adventure in the spirit of Stephen King in mind, and it was always set in my head in Matinkylä. I ended up stealing it from myself as the background story for Control," says Järvi.
As mentioned, Matinkylä was only half of Järvi's childhood. One can infer this, for example, from Alan Wake, where the rugged forests of the state of Washington were depicted. In addition to the suburbs, Järvi's childhood landscape included the countryside and cottage life in Raasepori (municipality located to the west of Espoo, Gulf of Finland in between).
"Since I was two or three years old, my parents ended up renting a few cottages from Tammisaari to the north, along the shores of Lake Tuulijärvi, for 16 years. Until my teenage years, I spent summers there, until it was no longer interesting to go cottaging with my parents. I made friends there, and you could bring friends there. I have magical memories from there, which I have drawn upon in stories directly or indirectly," Järvi explains.
Barks, Tolkien, and Claremont
In addition to the environment, the influences that the writer holds dear are also important. The hunger for stories was sparked by the father who read bedtime stories to Järvi. Children's books were followed by Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan books, which were the guiding stars of library youth sections. When Järvi started reading on his own, he became enamored with Donald Duck, and many have unknowingly learned to write better Finnish inspired by it.
"Aku [Donald Duck] was delivered to our home, and I read them endlessly. Carl Barks' continuations at the end of the magazines were particularly excellent storytelling. I'm still a fan of Donald Duck," says Järvi.
In elementary school, there was a turning point familiar to many game and fantasy fans. The sacred book of fantasy enthusiasts was found in the library.
"In the fifth grade, I wandered into the adult section of the Matinkylä library and found The Lord of the Rings. I got hooked on it like crazy. For many years, it went like this: when I finished the book, I started it all over again.
In succession, Järvi delved into J.R.R. Tolkien's other books, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion. After that, he explored the Edda poems collecting Viking myths.
"I heard that Tolkien had drawn from them. In school, I gave presentations on Viking gods. My classmates commented on The Lord of the Rings, saying, 'Who can bother reading such thick books?' " Järvi says.
Completing the trinity started by ducks and Tolkien were, of course, superhero comics, which began to appear more widely in Finland in the early 1980s. Järvi's choice, among the two major publishers, was Marvel instead of DC. The comic book publisher Semic first brought Fantastic Four and Spider-Man to Finland, but when Järvi was 14 years old, a mutant group experiencing discrimination got its own magazine, X-Men, or in Finnish, Ryhmä-X. Chris Claremont, who wrote the series from 1975 to 1991, made an indelible impression on Järvi, but soon, the few translated comics were read to exhaustion."
"We had moved from Matinkylä to Laurinlahti, and I was in Kivenlahti Upper Secondary. There was a classmate who ended up ordering Uncanny X-Men from the United States. When I borrowed those, I understood how few comics were translated into Finnish. I ordered a bunch from the USA, and then I found Fennica and Goodfellows stores, where I went for years.
It was natural to transition from superhero stories to more mature material, such as Sandman published under the Vertigo brand. Järvi's comic book hobby has continued into adulthood, and until the recent decline of the Comixology service, he has enjoyed them digitally for years.
Järvi's childhood gaming console was the Commodore 64, the home computer for the masses.
Dungeon Master Awakens
A game writer wouldn't have grown without games, and it's hardly surprising that computer role-playing games made a strong impression on Järvi. It all started with Ultima 2 on the Commodore 64. Järvi played the Ultima series for a long time and later jumped into Dungeons & Dragons licensed games. However, D&D wasn't at its most authentic in digital form. He had to experience it in its true environment – around the gaming table with dice and character sheets. Järvi found the gateway to this world at the end of junior high, during the summer before high school.
"It goes back to the landscapes of the summer cottage. In the neighboring cottage, there was a guy named Jonne Reijonen, who is still a good friend. He started playing Dungeons & Dragons with his group and told with eyes glowing how amazing it was. I had to join in!"
The seeds of Järvi's game developer career were planted at this stage. Petri Järvilehto, who later became one of the founders of Remedy and played a crucial role in Max Payne, Max Payne 2, and Alan Wake, was in the same role-playing group and served as the dungeon master at the beginning of the adventures.
"A few years later, I became the dungeon master. I started developing my own material, and we switched to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. It was the first proper campaign I ran, and we played it a lot because the young ones had time. We could go to the cottage with the group and play for a week straight every day. The prepared material ran out on the second day. I stayed up all night writing material for the next day's game," Järvi recalls."
D&D has left Järvi with lifelong friendships, and the same group still plays together.
"Others have balanced their lives to play regularly every couple of weeks. I've put myself on hold because of Alan Wake 2 and said that I'll come back once there's bandwidth."
Writing fiction had interested Järvi since elementary school. His favorite activity included writing essays with an ever-growing focus on storytelling. Teachers often requested more facts and a factual style in their feedback. Dungeon Mastering in Dungeons & Dragons was a massive step forward in this regard.
"I've always said it's an incredible opportunity for an aspiring writer. It's easy to start writing adventures, material, and character backgrounds. The gaming group is an audience that is already so invested in that material, so the reception is always appreciative and positive. It's really exceptional. It's an inspiring cycle, and I started writing more and more. Stories started to emerge around the game," Järvi recalls.
Initially, Järvi used pre-made game material, but it gradually gave way to his own stories. All the pages of the game are still preserved in thick folders.
"When you talk to people in these circles, for many writers, role-playing games have been a common influence in the type of work they've ended up doing. Those currently working in video games often have it in their background. I think in the future, video games will similarly be a background for someone new," he adds.
Death Rally's Special Stage
When writing games for an international audience, the language is, of course, English. Järvi's interest in writing in English had already sparked. Nowadays, there's plenty of genre fiction in Finnish, but when Järvi was starting high school in the mid-1980s, the situation was bleaker.
Translated fantasy and sci-fi ran out. It wasn't until he explored the English paperback section at Akateeminen (bookstore located in Helsinki) that a new world opened up. Järvi initially read English fantasy with a dictionary in hand. If a single word was unfamiliar, it had to be checked in the book immediately. Quickly, it became clear that finishing a novel that way was impractical, and Järvi decided to consume foreign text more casually.
"At this point, all the entertainment I consumed, from comics to books and role-playing games, was in English, so it felt natural to start writing in English."
Järvi had attended a high school with a focus on visual arts and had speculated about ending up in a graphic field or filmmaking. His attempt to get into an art school didn't bear fruit, but he got into the University of Helsinki to study English philology instead.
"Many go there to become teachers, but I didn't accumulate teacher studies. It didn't excite me. I read impractically and took literature as my minor. I had a few years to study when Remedy was founded. My role-playing friend Petri was a founding member, and Death Rally was in the works. He came to pull my sleeve and asked if I wanted to write. Here I am still, 27 years later," Järvi laughs.
Death Rally was vehicular combat, and in such games, the script was crammed in wherever it would fit. Still, Järvi was excited to have the opportunity to do something that would actually be published. The constraints were tight. They could be three short lines introducing, for example, the game's equipment shop.
"I wanted the game to have strong tones nevertheless. The source of inspiration was Jeff Noon, known for the Vurt novel. He had a strong style. I thought it was a good example of turning the intensity up," Järvi says.
The strict constraints limited but also pushed Järvi forward.
"There could be empty space at the top and bottom of the screen, and I calculated that at a certain point, there's space for at least ten lines of text. I asked, 'Can I put text there?' and the answer was always 'Yeah.' I even wrote a short story as background for the game. It was hidden as a text file on the disk. Death Rally wasn't supposed to have a story by default, but I snuck one in."
At this stage, Järvi was writing with a self-taught "Siberia teaches"-method (this was Ahti style literal translation of Finnish proverb, close English equivalent would be "Through hardships to the stars"). There were no models or training.
"We were working with American publishers, who gave harsh criticism of the then English. It was laughed at, which was strongly annoying. But that's okay. You learn along the way, project by project."
Max Payne And The Dreaded Grin
The attitude of learning by doing was also in use when Remedy set out to create the game that would establish the studio's reputation—Max Payne.
"When we started, there weren't really any benchmarks. We could freely roam and do crazy things. Max Payne shows a love for comics. The in-game cinematics were quite bad at the time, so we thought, 'Let's tell the story with comics.' The player would fill in the story between the panels with their imagination. On top of that, there was a radio drama-like soundtrack," Järvi says.
Järvi has always wanted to create transmedia projects that combine different art forms and sees it starting with the comic book narration of Max Payne.
"I think any other media can fit into video games. They can be brought in to make the world deeper. That's where it started."
Unlike Death Rally, a proper, tens-of-pages-long script had to be made for the police story. The game told a noir tale of an angry detective's journey through wintery New York. The dark and yet humorous narrative made an impression on players worldwide so strongly that in 2008, a film starring Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis was made, which Järvi didn't get to write himself.
Instead, Järvi became Max Payne's face. The cop in the game has a grinning face taken directly from Järvi's photograph. The grin is so recognizable that fans still ask him to contort his face in the same way for pictures.
Max Payne's Distinctive Grin.
Max's face and its consequences were entirely exceptional in the gaming industry. Very few game developers are recognizable, and even esteemed developers may be faceless to the average player. Max has made Järvi a kind of unofficial figurehead for Remedy, but the whole chain of events is pure coincidence. The subsequent publicity caused long-lasting anxiety for Järvi, who was nervous about appearances.
"I proposed a comic book for the story, and at that point, I had seen Dave McKean's Sandman covers, where drawings were mixed with photographs. At that time, there were other artists who used photos as material. I brought this image material, and someone asked, 'Do you want to pose since you've posed before?'"
At this stage of the game, there was no intention of achieving any kind of photorealism. All the photos taken were meant to be used only as reference material for artists, and the final panels were supposed to be painted with watercolors and markers. The photos were taken by the previously mentioned acquaintance from the cottage, Jonne Reijonen, who introduced Järvi to Dungeons & Dragons.
"At that point, I thought, "whatever." The character didn't look like me at first", Järvi says.
But where had Järvi posed before if he was considered a natural model? Everything goes back to role-playing games. Live-action role-playing, or larping, wasn't a thing yet, but enthusiasts like Järvi had fun posing in photos as their game characters.
"During the time of Death Rally, there were publications from the university's role-playing organization, Alter Ego, where we posed for art and cover images. When someone released their own cyberpunk game, Järvilehto and I took photos where I posed with a vacuum cleaner tube in hand. Pete photoshopped a cyborg-like weapon hand onto the vacuum cleaner. This was the background for the Max Payne images."
However, Max Payne, developed at the end of the 1990s, coincided with a turning point in graphics development. The thirst for visual realism grew, and instead of hand-drawn textures, the idea of using authentic photographic material began to emerge.
"Petri advocated for the use of photos. We wouldn't draw a brick wall anymore; we'd take a photo of the wall and use it. This led to taking photos of characters and placing them on top of 3D models", Järvi recalls.
The same evolution affected Max Payne's digital comic. As its length increased, the labor-intensive hand drawing became challenging in terms of the schedule. Therefore, photos were also taken for the comic, which were stylized into a more illustrative look through image processing.
"The game's photorealism took a massive leap in the middle of the project, and people started recognizing me from Max's character. The decision about it was made quite casually earlier, and we went with these resources. It didn't begin to cause doubts; we just went with it", Järvi reflects.
Remedy's graphics team visited New York to gather authentic photographic material, but compared to its current size, the studio was merely a workshop. That's why photos were sought and taken from closer locations, and many facades of Helsinki buildings can be spotted in the New York of the game. Järvi gathered friends, his parents, and his brother as models for the characters.
"We never even thought about hiring actors for the roles. It was a basement vibe", Järvi says.
Järvi became truly recognizable as the face of Max Payne, and at some point, he realized that people started recognizing him in real life because of the game. It was a problem because he had always dreaded public appearances. Elementary school piano playing and class presentations had been traumatic experiences for him.
"When we went to showcase games at E3, I was always terribly nervous. I wrote my lines for the presentations down to the last detail and rehearsed them for weeks, day and night. And still, I was nervous", Järvi recalls.
For a long time after Max Payne, it felt like he needed a break from the character. He intentionally got a completely different hairstyle, let it grow longer, and dyed it blonde. When people at events asked if he could show the Max expression, he instantly regretted it. Colleagues reassured him that he would get used to public appearances.
"I believed I would never get used to it for sure. Only years later, everything magically changed. I noticed that I wasn't nervous anymore. At that point, I began to see it as a great thing that people remembered Max and wanted to see that pose. Nowadays, it feels like a thanks for creating a character that has lived its own life in popular culture", Järvi reflects.
Max Payne 2: Back to School
Remedy continued with Max in Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, released in 2003. Before that, Järvi sought proper training as a screenwriter. Information about the long screenwriting course at the Theatre Academy jumped at him from an ad in Helsingin Sanomat (the biggest newspaper in Finland). The adult education course was aimed at people who actually wrote scripts for a living.
The course, lasting one and a half years, was led by the skilled and respected dramaturge Pentti Halonen, who had studied the field not only in Finland but also in the UK and the USA. Järvi was drawn to the fact that the course allowed writing in Finnish or English. The admission requirement was to send 75 pages of a script for Halonen to read. Järvi sent the Max Payne script.
"I got into the school with fourteen other writers. In the meantime, Max was published, and there was adult education every weekend. I had to write three feature films, one in half a year and ten pages per week. It was tough", Järvi remembers.
Nevertheless, Järvi felt at home and wrote two English texts and a Finnish horror script titled Pohjavesi [Groundwater].
"Pentti is an incredibly great dramaturge, and many writers I know have been under his guidance at some point. He has left his mark. I learned a lot, and with those lessons, my first game was Max Payne 2."
With Max Payne 2, Remedy sold the rights to the Max Payne series to the publisher Take-Two. With the money, the studio practically bought its future and current financial independence. The deal included that Remedy could make the sequel for Max on its own. The game, produced on a tight schedule, was completed in just 18 months, and Järvi's ambition had risen to a completely different level due to the education.
"The script for Max Payne was 150 pages, but Max Payne 2 was already 650 pages. When the tunes were clear, you could do much more", Järvi says.
At the same time, Järvi bid farewell to the face of Max's character. In the sequel, the production of the comic shifted to New York and Rockstar took over. Now, professional actors were hired for the roles, and Timothy Gibbs became the new face of Max.
"I spotted Gibbs in an episode of Sex and the City. He played a boyfriend who was a tough cop. I thought he would be a good Max, so I suggested Gibbs, and we got him. It was a distancing step. The schedule was tight, and by that time, I already identified myself primarily as a writer, so I wanted to focus on writing. By working on the game for a couple of years, the idea that they were farewells took shape", Järvi reflects.
At that point, Remedy had been working on Max exclusively for seven years. It began to feel like a long endeavor.
"The thought of staying with Max forever started to distress us. It felt incredibly exciting to come up with something else. After a long and winding road, it turned into Alan Wake."
Alan Wake and the Agony of Creation
The studio's next game, the adventure Alan Wake, reminiscent of Stephen King's horror novels, is in Järvi's memories the most challenging time in Remedy's history. The game's concept was easily sold to Microsoft, the publisher, but Alan Wake was a project like a wisp of smoke that couldn't be held in the hands of its creators. Max Payne 2 was released in 2003, and Wake was completed only in 2010. Seven years is an eternity in the world of games, which could become fatal for the studio.
"Petri and I went looking for the next thing and brainstormed concepts, which I wrote extensively on various topics. Nothing just clicked. The squeeze of Max Payne 2 had been heavy, and both Petri and I were tired", Järvi says.
Järvi favors the metaphor where the Max series was like a band's first hit album. When you have to somehow make the second album as good or better, the pressures start to accumulate.
"We knew that the next game should be consciously even more our own thing. There were also many talented people involved. Video games were evolving in general, introducing open-world structures. All of this piled up on the table as a mountain of ambitious ideas, and when you added them up, the equation was practically impossible", Järvi reflects.
Alan Wake initially had about ten completely different concepts, and many of them ended up combining ideas into the final game. One concept borrowed the battle between light and darkness, and another the Stephen King small town. For Järvi, it was important that the player character wouldn't be a stereotype.
"It wasn't supposed to be an action hero but an ordinary person who is forced into an action role. That's how we found the character of Alan, the writer, which felt great."
After the game's release, many have seen the writer Alan Wake in the game as Sami Järvi writing himself, grappling with his own creative agony. Järvi disagrees. Firstly, it's not a solo project. Järvi co-wrote Alan Wake with Mikko Rautalahti, who later wrote the expansion Alan Wake's American Nightmare and the time-travel game Quantum Break.
"Echoes of one's thought process are present in everything one writes, but it's not on such a simple level that I am the main character. Mikko Rautalahti had jumped on board, and it was a joint effort. All elements were spun together. As a team effort, it started to come alive and take on new forms."
If you were to find a hidden metaphor in the game, according to Järvi, it's more of a metaphor for the entire creative process at Remedy."
"If you scratch the surface of our games, you'll find metaphors for the creative process. What is it like to make a video game? What is it like to work as a team? What is the creative process like? In this game, how we contemplate storytelling became a more concrete element," says Järvi.
In Wake's story, Järvi returns to both his childhood and writing school.
"I had made a Pohjavesi [Groundwater] horror movie in theater school, and I set it directly in the landscapes of my childhood cottage. There was a lot of junk on the farm. There was something magical about not understanding the use of some gadget. I assigned meanings to them myself. My favorite gadget was a large old-fashioned light switch. It ended up in Pohjavesi [Groundwater] as 'Naksutin,' and it had mystical powers. From there, it moved to Alan Wake as 'Clicker,' a light switch," explains Järvi.
Many elements from Järvi's only Finnish script found their way into Alan Wake, including Barbara Jagger, inspired by the mythical Baba Yaga, and the Viking rockers of the Old Gods of Asgard, echoing Järvi's youthful interest in Edda poems.
Sami Järvi at the Remedy studio. Photo: Lasse Erkola
John Finn and the Realm of Ahti
As Remedy grew, Järvi transitioned further from the role of a pure scriptwriter. In 2010, he became Remedy's creative director. In Quantum Break (2016), he took on the role of game director alongside Mikael Kasurinen. In Control (2019), he returned as the lead scriptwriter, but in today's game production, large narrative teams are needed. The narrative team for Control included individuals such as Josh Stubbs, Anna Megill, Brooke Maggs, Clay Murphy, Sinikka Annala, Ben Gelinas, and Simon Wasselin. At this point, it is more interesting to discuss the broad strokes than the details of the plots. One of the most notable aspects is the pronounced Finnishness of Remedy's games. It was subtly present in Max Payne, but in Control, Finnish exoticism exploded onto the international scene. Is this some kind of mission for Sami Järvi?
"It's kind of a mission, but it can be misunderstood. It's not a necessity. I just find it terribly enjoyable. Looking back, you can see it as something endearing. I'm Finnish, and Remedy's core team was initially Finnish. Now Remedy is a truly international company, which I see as richness and strength," says Järvi.
In Max Payne, Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and Control, American heroes and American society are depicted in each game. Järvi feels that he writes from an outsider's perspective in this sense.
"When we talk about all the sources of inspiration and youthful influences, it's about American popular culture, which I interpreted from the perspective of Finnish culture. It's a view through a certain kind of filter, a very outsider's perspective. As a young person, you didn't understand true American culture. The whole image came through fiction, and when you interpreted your version of it, there was a strong Finnish filter. An example is the snowstorm in Max Payne."
Originally, Max's Finnish influences were supposed to be even more prominent, but during the game development process, things appear and disappear. One of them was a Finnish side character.
"A character named John Finn was cut from the game. Jonne Reijonen was supposed to be the model for his face. He was supposed to be a Finnish black market arms dealer from whom Max would get guns. We would clink vodka glasses with John, and instead of a "kippis" (cheers), he'd say 'perkele.' (goddamnit). His warehouse was a level with the Finnish flag on the wall. But in these processes, some things stay, and others leave," says Järvi.
Finnish references have become more visible from project to project. In Control, there's a mysterious janitor named Ahti, portrayed by the legendary actor Martti Suosalo, who won a Bafta award for his role. The janitor, who speaks rally English, is hinted to be an ancient Finnish sea god who, while cosmic evil rages, just wants to enjoy the sauna.
"This goes back to 'write what you know.' As I've gotten older, I've found pride in my cultural background and looked at it from the perspective of how exotic it is internationally. Ahti is one of my favorite characters," Järvi reflects.
In the game, Ahti sings a song called "Sankarin tango" (Hero's Tango), composed by Remedy's trusted composer Petri Alanko and written by Järvi. It is a direct reference to Aki Kaurismäki (Aki is a Finnish movie director and screenwriter, kind of living legend, coincidently as Time magazine selected "Alan Wake 2" as GOTY 2023, it also selected Aki's "Fallen Leaves" as MOTY 2023).
"Aki Kaurismäki joked that the tango originated from Finland and that sailors took it to Argentina. That idea stuck in my head, and, of course, Finnish tango is the kind of music Ahti would listen to. Sometimes I laugh in the darkest hours of the night about how much crazy stuff you can do without anyone shouting stop. Perhaps the mission was born through that. Ahti's character was very well received internationally."
As Järvi looks at things from an outsider's perspective, does he experience the familiar imposter syndrome, the feeling of not knowing what to write about? He says he has been working on that feeling intensely over the years.
"In Max Payne, I didn't want to draw from reality or the real New York. I wanted to draw from the pop culture I grew up with because that's what I knew. In Alan Wake, too, it felt like you don't need to know what kind of colorful personalities there are in an American small town. I've encountered them in Finnish rural settings as well. A small town is a small town. We put a lot of effort into making sure the visuals are authentic and grounded, even though the stories ultimately soar to high realms", Järvi says.
A Counter to Isolation
Although comics, games, and role-playing games still inspire him, Järvi has become more and more interested in television in recent years.
"When you're more in the role of a director, you have to look at all areas and want to bring different media into it. Quality series combine music, acting, and visuals. I've long thought that a one-season miniseries is an incredibly fine art form", Järvi notes.
On the other hand, the pull of television and the displacement of books may be signs of fatigue.
"When busy, I'm much slower to read and read less. It's a constant source of frustration. When there's an opportunity to open a book at night and get tired, I end up opting for a streaming service instead."
In 2017, Järvi sought new inspiration outside of games by writing a book himself. "Milla Marmori ja kadonneen mummon mysteeri" was a children's book illustrated by Minttu Wikberg. Järvi also created an English version of it ("Milla Marble and the Mystery of the Lost Grandma"). For the past couple of years, he has experienced the same struggle with the pandemic as everyone else. It hasn't been easy, even though the writer's work is easily seen as hermit-like.
"A challenging time in every way. Many games that were supposed to be released in 2022 were pushed to 2023. Remote work seemed promising, but it has its own challenges. The spontaneity that happens in the same room suddenly takes place in messages or a Zoom meeting. The creative process that happens in a few seconds slows down when someone responds a few hours or a day later."
Now Järvi is working on Remedy's next big game, Alan Wake II, with Clay Murphy as his writing partner. In this, Järvi is trying a new writing method that has really excited him.
"Now that the worst of the pandemic has passed, there's been a swing. With Clay, we've created a massive script by sitting in the same room side by side, with one having the keyboard, and the script on a big screen. We've been writing in the same room and entirely together, line by line, spontaneously brainstorming in the same space. Perhaps this wouldn't have happened at all without the forced isolation of the pandemic. I've never worked quite like this, and it has worked really well!"
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See also Sam Lake's 01/2024 interview https://www.reddit.com/AlanWake/comments/19ax6hl/sam_lake_interview_at_pelaajacast_gamercast_jan/
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