I'm 22 and like a lot of young guys in their early twenties, I'm set on making it big! Mr. Money Bags with all his rich ideas, transforming the world, sleeping with models in his mansion, and isolating himself from people who truly care about him for the sake of finally being seen as someone that society has deemed as having value! Hell yeah!
Weird self-aware monologue aside, the new breakthroughs with AI technology and seeing what's on the horizon really scare me. I get the feeling AI will be running the world soon, and more so before I can make anything of myself. I've been set on the idea for so long that a business I started and owned would be able to provide the life I want for myself and my family. That I'd earn a sense of self that felt true to who I actually was capable of being and others would see me as I truly am for the first time. I imagine somewhere down the line of AI taking over the world that we all eventually receive a universal basic income and all the money worries I've learnt in my life will be a thing of the past, and myself and my family will have everything that my success could have otherwise provided.
But, entrepreneurship is more than starting a business to me; it's been one of the key pillars in the narrative I've been acting out my entire life. All the lows were intentionally there to prepare me to achieve all the highs i was destined to achieve. And all the social approval i'd receive would be god patting me on the back for making it out the other side with my dreams still intact to inspire another of his beautiful children to make the world a better place.
It's exciting seeing AI come along on one hand and the single most devastating thing on the other. I'm sure there's a million ways it could go wrong and another million ways it could go right, but something about this point in time feels really weird and unsettling. The kind of life most of us have lived, or at least slowly grew into becoming accustomed to in the last 100 years seems reasonable, at least in hindsight. But thinking about what the future holds, as it's yet to be written, especially as a huge main character is being introduced, really makes me feel a deep sense of powerlessness as I see it grow and evolve so much faster than any human, or even any group of humans, could ever possibly wish to do.
I know these feelings aren't unique to me or entrepreneurs, and they're a symptom of facing the unknown as well as the deepest parts of my own psyche. But it's something that upsets me more than most, and i dont know how to quell these feelings.
The current moment feels so much more valuable now because It's like i can clearly see that the future life I'll be living in the next 10 to 20 years will look absolutely nothing like it does today. The almost certain feeling of all of this innovation ultimately leading to human obsolescence gives me an extremely bizarre sense of nostalgia for the current moment. It's almost like I'm seeing myself and the era I'm in, in history from the outside. Watching myself type this on the floor with my old school retro laptop and thick hair and watching in awe of how young I looked. It doesn't feel natural. It feels like AI is being forced on all of us, faster than we could ever hope to adapt to. For now, it's a tool most of us have access to, and even now im using ChatGPT to fix my spelling errors and reassure myself im not being too cringe in a sub people didn't ask to hear this in>
But moving forward, I see it having way more access to us and our lives than we do to it. Whoever decides its motives ruling over the world. Maybe AI-generated TikTok won't be so bad, and it'll actually make some funny memes. Maybe AI TikTok figures out exactly how to tear the world apart faster than we can stop it. All for the sake of maximizing video watch time. Man, I was deep as shit in my twenties. I should've sold a course on how to be an edgy deep pessimist on Reddit, I would've been so rich... ALEXA! Turn this post into a AAA blockbuster in the animation style of Finding Nemo, but instead of fish, make the characters look like... Like, this empty bottle of soju, and then after make Mrbeast watch it on his old reaction channel back before the...Incident happened... Please.

Inspired by a recent comment I made on this reddit, I posit this: Willem Dafoe has the greatest career of any actor, ever. Not saying he’s the best actor ever, not saying he’s the most consistent in terms of movie-quality. Just that he has the most diverse, storied, wide-ranging, most interesting career I know of.
He has his regular collaborators but also constantly collects new filmmakers. He has the biggest auteurs you know of in his filmography, but also a bunch of first-time directors. He’s worked in the US, the UK, France, Brazil, China, Mexico, Greece, Poland…
In genre, he’s done the classics, such as western (Dead for a dollar), romance (The English Patient), sci-fi (What Happened to Monday), horror (American Psycho), noir (Nightmare Alley), but also the more fleetings ones, such as erotic thriller (Body of Evidence) or YA adaptation (The Fault in Our Stars).
Otherwise, he’s an action mainstay, going from stupid sequels (Speed 2, XXX 2) to franchise starters of varying quality (The Boondock Saints, John Wick).
He switch between the worst DTV trash (Control, Tomorrow You’re Gone, Bad Country) to the most dominant blockbusters of their era (Spider-Man, Aquaman…).
He’s done all that after starting in experimental theater. He hasn't abandoned the avant-garde, working regularly with Lars Von Trier (Manderlay, Nymphomaniac…) or doing museum installations (Sculpt).
He also often does documentary narration and short movies, and has dabbled in video games (Beyond Two Souls).
His movie career started with Kathryn Bigelow (The Loveless) and since then he’s worked regularly with female directors (The Night and the Moment, The Last Thing He Wanted…).
Got his second Oscar nomination for a highly-stylized role, caked in make-up (Shadow of the Vampire), followed by a third one for a very naturalistic, raw performance (The Florida Project). He’s got four in total.
He’s been Vincent Van Gogh (At Eternity’s Gate), Pier Paolo Pasolini (Pasolini) and T.S Eliot (Tom & Viv).
He landed his voice to Pixar (Finding Nemo) and Studio Ghibli (The Boy & The Heron).
He can be the avatar of good (Platoon) and evil (Wild at Heart).
Going from Mr Bean’s Holiday to Antichrist in the span of a year is just a regular thing he does.
He's Martin Scorsese’s Jesus Christ (Last Temptation) and Paul Schrader’s man in a room (Light Sleeper).
He’s done one-man-show movies (Inside, Siberia…) and gigantic ensembles (Murder on the Orient Express, a bunch of Wes Anderson…).
He takes on wild monologues (The Lighthouse) and silent roles (The Grand Budapest Hotel).
He has starred both in one of the highest grossing film of all time (No Way Home) and one of the biggest box-office bombs in history (John Carter).
He works both with the most workman-like directors in Hollywood (Roger Donaldson, White Sands, Philip Noyce, Clear and Present Danger, Roger Spottiswoode, Ripley Under Ground…) and with indie outsiders coming from the world of photography (Anton Corbjin, A Most Wanted Man) or painting (Julian Schnabel, Basquiat).
He’s appeared in movies every single year since 1983. Right now, he has 9 movies to be released. That’s average for him.
And to mention the directors in his filmography I haven't yet called out by name: Robert Rodriguez, David Cronenberg, Abel Ferrara, Spike Lee, Wim Wenders, John Waters, Yorgos Lanthimos, Walter Hill, Theo Angelopoulos, Werner Herzog, William Friedkin, John Milius, Michael Cimino, Guillermo Del Toro, Sean Baker, Tony Scott, Tim Burton, Alan Parker, Robert Eggers, Zhang Yimou, Oliver Stone, David Lynch, Sam Raimi…
At the end, that guy will quite simply have done cinema, all of it.

More details of the chapter by myself, chapter of 17 pages.

• Chapter 1,106: "Always be on your side".
  
• Reader request in the cover: Robin is dressing up a crocodile on a beach.
  
• Chapter starts where last one ended. Vegapunk continues with his monologue from previous chapter (he was talking about the possibility of Bonney being killed by a Pacifista now that she's a pirate).
  
• Vegapunk feared about this, so he risked his life and put a secret program in all Pacifistas "based on Kuma".
  
• Vegapunk put Bonney on top of Pacifistas' "authority hierarchy". She's even above Five Elders' authority. Vegapunk: "Even if the whole world is your enemy, your father will never betray you!!"
  
• Vegapunk asks Atlas to tell Bonney that she has the highest authority to control Pacifistas.
  

Bonney: "Daddy, stop! Help us to escape from here!!" - Thanks to Bonney's voice, all Pacifistas turn on the Marines.

• Saturn realizes what Vegapunk did and he immediately stabs Vegapunk with his leg. Then Saturn orders Kizaru to kill all of them.
  
• Sanji and Franky try to stop Kizaru. Franky is pierced by Kizaru's beam. Sanji blocks one of the beams, but he finally is pierced by Kizaru too.
  
• Then Kizaru goes for Bonney. Kizaru is about to kill Bonney but Luffy (using Gear 5) appears to stop him.
  
• Kizaru is blown away by Luffy's punch (he uses a normal Haki punch, not a new attack).
  
• Then Luffy turns ground to rubber saving everyone who are falling down. Saturn stares at Luffy in silent.
  
• After that, we see that Kizaru is sitting on ground. He's holding his head after being punched by Luffy (seems he's fine).
  
• Bonney rushes to help Vegapunk and he reveals Bonney that Luffy is Nika.
  
• In an AMAZING double page we see Bonney crying and looking at the sky, where Luffy is doing "Nika's pose" (the same that appears in Volume 103 cover).
  

-Vegapunk: "So you haven't realized. But I also wouldn't have believe it before witnessing it with my own eyes.
-That "Straw Hat Luffy" that had Kuma's attention, turns out to be "The Sun God Nika" himself...!!" Bonney: "What..."Vegapunk: "Kuma was right...!! "Buster Call"? What good will that do? There are people in this world who have waited centuries for him!!!" INU

• We also see that Ancient Robot starts moving a little with Luffy's heartbeat.
  
• Cut to the northeast coast of Egghead Island. Marines report that an unbelievably large ship is approaching to the island.Marine: "It's them!! No doubt about it!! But I thought they disbanded 100 years ago..." Large ship: "Should we stop!? No!! Break through!!!"
  
• In the EPIC final double page of the chapter, we can see the "Giant Warrior Pirates" ship destroying all Marine battleships in the northeast coast. Marines: "Fire!! Damn it!! Why are the "Giant Warrior Pirates" here!!?"
  
• The 2 giants that lead "Giant Warrior Pirates" attack are Dorry and Brogy!! Brogy: "Look at them, Dorry!! They are asking why we are here!!" Dorry: "What a stupid question!! There's no coincidence in this world!!! Right, Brogy!!" Marines: "We have an emergency!! The "Giant Warrior Pirates" have showed up!!!" Brogy: "Gahahaha!! We're here for you "Straw Hat"!!"
  

Dorry: "Gyagyagyagya!!! "The Sun God"~~~~~~!!!" End of the chapter. BREAK next week.

FULL RAWS

Chapter 1,106: "Always be on your side".
Reader request in the cover: Robin is dressing up a crocodile on a beach.
Chapter starts where last one ended. Vegapunk continues with his monologue from previous chapter (he was talking about the possibility of Bonney being killed by a Pacifista now that she's a pirate).
Vegapunk feared about this, so he risked his life and put a secret program in all Pacifistas "based on Kuma”.
Vegapunk put Bonney on top of Pacifistas' "authority hierarchy". She's even above Five Elders' authority.
Vegapunk: "Even if the whole world is your enemy, your father will never betray you !! "
Vegapunk asks Atlas to tell Bonney that she has the highest authority to control Pacifistas.
Bonney: "Daddy, stop! Help us to escape from here !! "
Thanks to Bonney's voice, all Pacifistas turn on the Marines.
Saturn realizes what Vegapunk did and he immediately stabs Vegapunk with his leg. Then Saturn orders Kizaru to kill all of them.
Sanji and Franky try to stop Kizaru. Franky is pierced by Kizaru's beam. Sanji blocks one of the beams, but he finally is pierced by Kizaru too.
Then Kizaru goes for Bonney. Kizaru is about to kill Bonney but Luffy (using Gear 5) appears to stop him.
Kizaru is blown away by Luffy's punch (he uses a normal Haki punch, not a new attack).
Then Luffy turns ground to rubber saving everyone who are falling down. Saturn stares at Luffy in silent.
After that, we see that Kizaru is sitting on ground. He's holding his head after being punched by Luffy (seems he's fine).
Bonney rushes to help Vegapunk and he reveals Bonney that Luffy is Nika.
In an AMAZING double page we see Bonney crying and looking at the sky, where Luffy is doing "Nika's pose" (the same that appears in Volume 103 cover).
Vegapunk: "So you haven't realized. But I also wouldn't have believe it before witnessing it with my own eyes. That "Straw Hat Luffy" that had Kuma's attention, turns out to be "The Sun God Nika" himself ...!! "
Bonney: "What ... "
Vegapunk: "Kuma was right ...!! "Buster Call"? What good will that do? There are people in this world who have waited centuries for him !!! "
We also see that Ancient Robot starts moving a little with Luffy's heartbeat.
Cut to the northeast coast of Egghead Island. Marines report that an unbelievably large ship is approaching to the island.
Marine: "It's them !! No doubt about it !! But I thought they disbanded 100 years ago ... "
Large ship: "Should we stop !? No !! Break through !!! "
In the EPIC final double page of the chapter, we can see the "giant Warrior Pirates" ship destroying all Marine battleships in the northeast coast.
Marines: "Fire !! Damn it !! Why are the "Giant Warrior Pirates" here !!?"
Brogy: "Look at them, Dorry !! They are asking why we are here !! "
Dorry: "What a stupid question !! There's no coincidence in this world !!! Right, Brogy !! "
Marines: "We have an emergency !! The "Giant Warrior Pirates" have showed up !!! "
Brogy: "Gahahaha !! We're here for you "Straw Hat" !! "
Dorry: "Gyagyagyagya !!! "The Sun God" ~!!! "
End of the chapter. BREAK next week.

It seems that the film is well-received among most people, but most reviews I've read are from people who hadn't read the source material or watched the movie first. I was wondering what people who have read the original novel think about the movie.
For me, as someone who adores the novel... I have mixed feelings about the movie. I think the cinematography and acting are phenomenal, and I was very impressed with what Disney was able to do with two hours of film. However, I was a bit disappointed that Aronnax had a diminished role in the film, especially in the second half. I think his internal monologues are essential to capturing Nemo's character and the sense of immersion in the story, and I felt that these narrations seemed to disappear halfway through the movie. I also prefer how the novel ended compared to the movie.
What did you think about the movie?

SO! I'm a Freshman auditioning for Les Mis at my school, and we're required to audition with 3 things, a Dramatic Monologue, a Comedic Monologue, and a song. All must be from a play or musical. Problem is, other than Starkid, I've seen Hamilton, the first act of Newsies and Thirteen. I've been in Oliver Jr. Aladdin Jr. and Finding Nemo Jr. I've already chosen the song (An abridged version of Twisted from Twisted), the Made In America Monologue is my dramatic monologue, but I can't think of a Comedic Monologue that doesn't have excessive swearing. It can have "crap" but otherwise I have to change every swear to a non-swear. Any suggestions?
I've also seen Les Mis, but our director doesn't want us auditioning with anything from the show.
(I'm AMAB, but I can, have, and am fine with portraying a woman, so don't worry about the character's gender lol)
Shows I've seen from Starkid: TGWDLM, Black Friday, Ani, Twisted, Firebringer, NPMD, TTO, (I've also seen like the first third of Holy Musical Batman)

This page is aimed to help users find new litrpg content on a month-to-month basis by constructing a list of new releases. This post will be updated based on multiple sources, like reddit, discord and other locations. This page is not meant to replace promotional posts like on reddit but to make it easier for users to find them. The list is also hosted out of reddit, just in case, and the calendar gives you some pre-orders for the future: https://www.theinfinitelabyrinth.info/litrpg/
Due to size, links to the original posts (if any) are only on the page above, but the link column should bring you to the relevant content.
This page contains exclusively litRPG, or adjacent content. Progression fantasy or cultivation without any gamelit elements are not included.
Promoted Webseries from reddit's litrpg, ProgressionFantasy or royalroad are included only once every five months. If your Webseries does not include a significant number of chapters or pages at the time of promotion, I might delay inclusion until it does.
If you missed all the content from July, there were a whopping 83 ebook releases, 60 audiobooks, 21 promoted webseries, a novella-sized releases and 3 omnibus releases of series.
Note: Some entries for July may have been noticed too late, in which case they are included on top for this month's list.
​
Here's what the new month brings you!
​
Ebooks:

Title	Author	Link
Battleforged Survivor #1	M.H. Johnson	AMZ
Wicked West	Matthew Davenport	AMZ
Dawn of the Void #3	Phil Tucker	AMZ
Concurrence (Eternal Domnion #21)	Bern Dean	AMZ
Underdog (Hackers of Artem #1)	Lars Machmüller	AMZ
Tailspin (Pilots of Artem #1)	Dawn Chapman	AMZ
Revenant (Artem #1)	Jez Cajiao	AMZ
The Rise of Oshbob (Artem Underworld #1)	Kevin Sinclair	AMZ
Dark's Domain (Voice of The Gods #6)	S.D. McKittrick	AMZ
Reborn on a Systemless Earth... With a System #2	B. A. Baker	AMZ
100th Run #1	Flossindune	AMZ
Soulblade (Sybil #2)	Azrie	AMZ
Lost in the Code	Nick James	AMZ
Nexus Guardian (Elemental Realms #2)	Timothy McGowen	AMZ
Lost Shadows (Alpha #7)	Arthur Stone	AMZ
The Weakest Frost Mage (Magus Rising #1)	Gryphon Frost & R. Brady Frost	AMZ
Dead Tired #1	RavensDagger	AMZ
Level Run (A Student Wants to Live #5)	Boris Romanovsky	AMZ
Regicide (Dimensional Wars #3)	Blake Severson	AMZ
Rise of the Beastkin (Bonded Summoner #3)	JJ Bookerson	AMZ
Card Mage	Benedict Patrick	AMZ
Oath of the Birdie (Dungeon Gold Pro Tour #1)	Rube M. Sharpe	AMZ
Havoc (Renegade Ravager #2)	M.E. Thorne	AMZ
Legend of the Ice Demon (Eternal Grind #4)	Joel Poe	AMZ
Garden Core (Green Dungeon)	M. E. Merrell	AMZ
The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound #5	Noret Flood	AMZ
Worldseed Initiate (Worldseed Saga #2)	Philip Etusson	KOFI
The S-Ranked Returner (Retired S Ranked Adventurer #5)	Wolfe Locke & James Falcon	AMZ
The Neutral Nation (Dungeon from the Void #4)	Shane Purdy	AMZ
Rise of Fenrir (Legends Rising #1)	S.D. McKittrick	AMZ
Farrington Farms #1	Rayden Fox	AMZ
The Accidental Corruption (System School #4)	Kos Play	AMZ
War Eternal #1	Yuri Vinokuroff	AMZ
Arcane Cultivator #1	Harmon Cooper	AMZ
Trials of Cydaria (System Universe #4)	SunriseCV	AMZ
Warring Insanity (An Outcast in Another World #5)	KamikazePotato	AMZ
Apocalypse Station (System Bound #2)	Kaz Hunter	AMZ
Godrender (Shattered System #2)	Actus	AMZ
Echoes of War (Guardian of Aster Fall #6)	David North	AMZ
The Creator (Xeovis #1)	M.A. Perkins	AMZ
Depression in the Ground (Afterlife Quest #4)	M. Declan Morris	AMZ
Judge (Wandering Warrior #1)	Michael Head	AMZ
The War Hounds (The Dream #1)	JD Glasscock	AMZ
The Bilgewater Battle Royale #1	Denis Usynin	AMZ
Janus and the Dreamer (Nightmares of Alamir #3)	Noam Oswin	AMZ
The Grumpy Little Kobold	Ed Nemo	AMZ
Gilded Tower (Double Blind #2)	J. McCoy	AMZ
Goblin Wrath (Armageddon of the Greenskins #2)	Sean Hall	AMZ
Vengeance (Artem #2)	Jez Cajiao	AMZ
Preservation (Battlemage Farmer #6)	Seth Ring	AMZ
Time's Keeper #1	DB King	AMZ
Castle Core #3	Milo Storm	AMZ
Revolution (Electrified #3)	J.D. Olson	AMZ
Core Domination (Dimensional Dungeon Cores #5)	Jonathan Brooks	AMZ
Builder of Blade's Rest (Blade's Rest #3)	Tom Watts	AMZ
Demonic Devourer #1	Aaron Shih	AMZ
The Razing (System Dilemma #3)	DoomApricot 1402	AMZ
Sorry, You Are Too Late For The Party (Apocalypse Latecomer #1)	Constantin Step	AMZ
Beyond Time (Elirm #2)	Vladimir Gottlieb	AMZ
Road to Mastery #2	Valerios	AMZ
The First Starwalker (Forging Valerence #1)	Cailan Wilkinson	AMZ
Portal to Eveirea (Dark Portal #1)	C. M. Matthews	AMZ
The Bard Gone Bad	Liam Chalk	AMZ
Thorne & The Ice Maiden	Liam Chalk	AMZ
Shattered Races (Fortifier #2)	D.K. Landtroop	AMZ
Sentinel of Earth	Ian Hawk	AMZ
Apocalypse: Regression #2	R.A. Mejia & Charles Dean	AMZ
Apocalypse Challenge (Gravity and Divinity System #5)	Hunter Mythos	AMZ
Hell-Forged	E.M. Hardy	AMZ
Apocalypse Knights #4	DB King	AMZ
System Update (The Turning #3)	Kenny King	AMZ
Baneslayer (System of Nil #1)	Tim Paulson	AMZ
The Cosmic Blade (Broken Tech #2)	Marc Mulero	AMZ
Empire of Ruin (Chronicles of the world tree #2)	Johnny Matrim	AMZ
Asoka (Etramus Archives #1)	Eddie J.M. Audrey	AMZ

​
Simultaneous Releases:

Title	Author & Narrator	Link
Awakening (Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale #1)	AbyssRaven (Narrated by: Erin Bateman)	AMZ & AUD
Soulseer (Divine Progression #2)	Jake Brannigan (Narrated by: Neil Hellegers)	AMZ & AUD
Defiance of the Fall #10	JF Brink (Narrated by: Pavi Proczko)	AMZ & AUD
One Moo'r Plow #1	Exemplar (Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble)	AMZ & AUD
Isekai Warden (Fantasy World of Komax #1)	Han Yang (Narrated by: Dylan Wheeler & Ellory Lane)	AMZ & AUD
To Play with Magic (Forerunner Initiative #1)	Draith (Narrated by: Andrea Emmes)	AMZ & AUD
Wish Upon the Stars #1	Malcolm Trent (Narrated by: Neil Hellegers)	AMZ & AUD
Runic Cultivator (Realms & Runes #1)	Joshua Kern (Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin)	AMZ & AUD
The Second Tail (Nine Tails of Alchemy #2)	Taniko K Williams (Narrated by: Rebecca Woods)	AMZ & AUD
The Great Escape (Awakening the Angel System #1)	Ducky Dungeon (Narrated by: Dylan Wheeler & Ellory Lane)	AMZ & AUD
Dark Lord of the Farmstead #1	John Broadway (Narrated by: Jonathan Waters & Jessica Threet)	AMZ & AUD
Electric Angel (Cyber Dreams #1)	Plum Parrot (Narrated by: Suzy Jackson)	AMZ & AUD
Warrior of Mist (Mists of Redemption #1)	M. L. Reid (Narrated by: Laurie Catherine Winkel)	AMZ & AUD
Mimic & Me #1	Cassius Lange & Ryan Tang (Narrated by: Ryan H. Reid , Dorrie Sacks & Jeff Hays)	AMZ & AUD
Infused Rally (Metier Apocalypse #4)	Frank G. Albelo (Narrated by: Gabriel Michael)	AMZ & AUD
Elf Empire #1	John Stovall (Narrated by: Todd Haberkorn)	AMZ & AUD
Past's Price (Resonance Cycle #3)	Aaron Renfroe (Narrated by: Christian J. Gilliland)	AMZ & AUD
Player Manager #1	Ted Steel (Narrated by: Luke Francis)	AMZ & AUD
Be Thou My Brilliant (Devil's Foundry #2)	Joseph Marcia (Narrated by: Hollie Jackson)	AMZ & AUD
Upgraded (Infinity Construct #2)	Buckley Orion Smith (Narrated by: Kyle Snyder)	AMZ & AUD

​
Audiobooks:

Title	Author & Narrator	Link
Whisper of Iron (Isekai Blacksmith #2)	Matt Pivots (Narrated by: Matt Hicks & Erin Bateman)	AUD
Scions of Sylum (Whims of the Gods #2)	S.I. Waxman (Narrated by: Soneela Nankani)	AUD
Wrong Divinity: Oh Sht! I Fcking Hate Spiders! (Arachnomancer, Book 1)	Dustin Tigner (Narrated by: Qarie Marshall & Reba Buhr)	AUD
Scions of Sylum (Whims of the Gods #2)	S.I. Waxman (Narrated by: Soneela Nankani)	AUD
Horde (I Don't Want to be the Hive Queen #2)	ValetheHowl (Narrated by: Michael Braun)	AUD
Sangis (A Student Wants to Live #3)	Boris Romanovsky (Narrated by: Nick Mondelli)	AUD
Dungeon Keepers (World Over #3)	Marc Mulero (Narrated by: Heath Miller)	AUD
Sweet Revenge (New Kind of Freak #2)	Bananalloy (Narrated by: Ben Farrow)	AUD
Midnight Bounties #2	Cassius & Castor (Narrated by: Todd Menesses)	AUD
Corsairs and Cataclysms #1	Devan Drake (Narrated by: Tom North & Faye Bishop)	AUD
Abyssal Planes (Creation's Bane #4)	Kevin Sinclair (Narrated by: Simon Wright)	AUD
Sporemageddon #1	RavensDagger (Narrated by: Savy Des-Etages)	AUD
Crucible (Beastborne #4)	James T. Callum (Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer)	AUD
The Primal Hunter #6	Zogarth (Narrated by: Travis Baldree)	AUD
Second Chance Swordsman #2	Jakob Tanner (Narrated by: Steve Campbell)	AUD
Shadowfall (Prism Academy #5)	David Burke (Narrated by: Jonathan Waters & Maeve York)	AUD
Bookworm to Badass	Dustin Tigner (Narrated by: Reba Buhr)	AUD
Bloodming Apocalypse (Blair #1)	Azrie (Narrated by: Kimberly Woods)	AUD
Goblin Apocalypse (Armageddon of the Greenskins #1)	Sean Hall (Narrated by: Luke Daniels)	AUD
Dawn of the Void #2	Phil Tucker (Narrated by: Tom Taylorson)	AUD
Bent and Twisted (Wake of the Ravager #3)	Macronomicon (Narrated by: Steve Campbell)	AUD
Exploration (Erryn's World #6)	Cathfach (Narrated by: Peter Kenny)	AUD
Tokens and Towers #3	Harmon Cooper (Narrated by: Daniel Wisniewski & Rebecca Woods)	AUD
Jackson (Everybody Loves Large Chests #9)	Neven Iliev (Narrated by: Jeff Hays, Annie Ellicott, Dorrie Sacks, Justin James, Laurie Winkel, Alejandra LaFlor, Lucky Byfleet, Gary Furlong & Will Watt)	AUD
The Fort at the End of the World	Justin Marks (Narrated by: Christian J. Gilliland)	AUD
Wings Spread (Dragon Sorcerer #2)	Sean Oswald (Narrated by: Neil Hellegers)	AUD
Wretched Insect (Salvos #7)	V.A. Lewis (Narrated by: Tess Irondale)	AUD
Dimension Dungeon #1	S.D. McKittrick (Narrated by: Nicholas Gilomen)	AUD
Ghost of the Truthseeker #2	Strungbound (Narrated by: Daniel Wisniewski)	AUD
Soulblade (Surgecaller #8)	Todd Herzman (Narrated by: John Pirhalla)	AUD
Final Core #3	D.M. Rhodes (Narrated by: Adam Verner)	AUD
Compulsion (Eternal Dominion #12)	Bern Dean (Narrated by: Zachary Johnson & Annie Ellicott)	AUD
Dead God Husk's Arc (Berry Barry #2)	Vash the Author (Narrated by: Ben Douglas)	AUD
The Grim Guys #1	Eric Ugland (Narrated by: Neil Hellegers)	AUD

​
Short stories/Novellas:

Title	Author	Link
The Shield of New Orleans (Pushing Back Inevitability)	Tall Owl	AMZ

​
Webseries:

Title	Author	Link
Prince's Poisonous Knight	Virne	RR
The Worldseed Saga	Philip Etusson	RR
Dawn of the Last Dragon Rider	Shawn Wilson	RR
Mythildriss	K.E. Coons	RR
The Debugger	WanderingStar	RR
Born of Wrath	Frosthawk	RR
Magical Girl Undergrad	Aestereal Belequa	RR
You are Summoned	Dean Henegar	RR
Aureate Ascending	Rain Ambyll	RR
Creation	AbnormalVAverage	RR
Sigma 16	Erios909	RR
Renalia's Tale	DataNerdX	RR
The Grind of Getting Close	Flammette	AUT
More Than Human	Acrinoe	RR
Fallen Times	Fantexic	RR
An Unwelcome Stranger	Sacred-Fire	RR
Threads of Fate (Ascend Online 6)	Luke Chmilenko	YNDR
The Last Observer	The First Observer	RR
Chronicles of Emberstone Farm	Lin Meili	RR
Rune Seeker	J.M. Clarke & C.J. Thompson	RR
Deadworld Isekai	R.C. Joshua	RR

​
Omnibus editions:

Title	Author	Link
The Troubled World #1-3	Stephanne Payne (Narrated by: Erin Bateman)	AMZ & AUD
Before the Collapse (Weight Of It All #1-3)	J.J. Thorn	AMZ
The Path of Ascension #1-3.5	C. Mantis	AUD
Blessed Time: The Complete Series	Cale Plamann	AMZ & AUD
The Mage of Shimmer Mountain: The Complete Series	Adam Sampson	AMZ

​

Like... I'm in the middle of writing a hot scene, I get carried away a bit too much and... I end up exhausted, if you know what i mean....
Soon I'm Poaching the egg, Shaking hands with the milkman, Manually overriding, Marching the penguin, Double clicking, Polishing the banister, petting the cat, Lone Rangering, Boxing the one-eyed champ, Celebrating Palm Sunday, Nulling the void, Visiting the safety deposit box, Orbiting Venus, Finding Nemo, Cuffing the carrot, Cooking cucumbers, Dialing the rotary phone, Taking the self-guided tour, Playing five-on-one, Making waffles, Doing a Meg Ryan, Downstairs DJing, Turning on the sprinklers, Shucking the corn, Softening the peach, Spearing the bearded clam, Paddling the pink canoe, DIYing it, Scratching Yoda behind the ears, Trolling the Bermuda Triangle, Taking selfies at The Bean, Dotting the "i", Burping the worm, Tapping into my potential, Giving myself a hand, Rotating the drive head, Keynoting in Cupertino, Taking my talents to South Beach, Auditioning the finger puppets, Badgering the witness, Making soup, Preparing the monologue, Rosing (thanks, Titanic), Clicking the home page, Drilling for oil, Singing soprano, Debugging the hard drive....
I'M JACKING OFFF! Full palmed, no gentleness, wanking it like I want to TEAR MY DICK OFF.
and then i have no motivation to write a sex scene. reduces my productivity.
if any other erotic writers face this issue too...well, raise your hands! (AFTER YOU CLEAN THEM) ;) Suggestions to fix the problem are obviously welcome.
Sauce

Back First Next
I decided to go ahead and release the next chapter, it is longer than the others because it is the first scene of combat.
I want to thank you all for the encouragement, it was unexpected. There were two complains, one I will address here. I use the Memory Transcription the same way other pieces of written work use Memory Orbs, where you experience it through the eyes of one person but you distinctly know you are watching something in the past and are looking through the eyes of another person. 2nd Person feels like it fits or 3rd person plus internal monologue more so than pure 1st person to me. I apologize if I've gotten this wrong.
Still not 100% about not having an editor and proofreader look it over but it's for fun not for printing.
Now on with the story:
​
Memory Transcription: Corporal Thompson, United Nations ‘Black Watch’ Company #4
Date [standardized human time]: December 3, 2136
Thompson turned to Zim who was staring at the radio in astonishment. Thompson was barely twenty but she was a wiz with tech, her father had been an electrician and now she would rig just about anything to work with a 9 volt battery and some bubble gum. “He was telling us that he does not expect us to come back from this assignment and to account for ourselves well.”
Thompson got up from her chair and walked over to Zim, “Hey, I’m here with you, alright?”
Zim turned to her and Thompson could tell the color had drained from her face. She ushered the Tilfish over to a chair and pulled a mug from a nearby canteen kit. “Can Tilfish drink coffee?”
Zim blinked a few times, “I umm… what is coffee?”
Thompson pulled the cold pot from nearby and checked it with her palm, “It’s better hot but this is all we got.” She held up the black liquid. “It helps calm us down, it has a drug in it called caffeine, gives you energy and focuses your mind; at least in humans.” Thompson pulled out her guide book for Tilfish biology and started checking it.
“Let’s see, you can have it, at no more than 100ml per day and in slow sipping increments, can you handle that for me?” Zim nodded, still quaking as she tried to sit awkwardly in the human chair provided to her.
Thompson pulled the coffee to Zim, putting a dash of cream powder in it and sprinkling in a sugar packet. They had plenty but she wanted to slowly make it work. “It’s probably going to taste awful but I do need you to sip it okay? This is 100ml mug so this is every bit of it you can have in a single day, got it?”
Zim nodded and reached for the mug, taking a sip of the still bitter and cold liquid. Zim made a face of disgust and then groaned, “How do you drink this?”
“Carefully with years of practice,” Thompson pulled out a physical paper book and slid it over to Zim, “Can you read our language?”Zim blinked a few times, “Physical paper?”
Thompson smiled, “Makes it easier to destroy if we need to and also means if you can’t read it, you can’t run it through a translation program, you have to physically enter it into a computer to start the decoding process. Can you read our language?”
Zim nodded, “Yes, I learned while you were on the way here, it was required by our surrendering government for all officials to keep their position to learn it.” Thompson smiled at him and started to turn the book open.
“So you know what talking in code means?”
“You mean like the 65 million BC thing?”
“Yeah, we just refer to the Arxur as Bravo-Charlie, Bravor for B and Charlie for C, meaning BC. That way they can’t identify who or what we are talking about without knowing that.” Zim nodded as she opened the book and started to flip through it.
“You’ve got 2 hours to read through this,” Thompson gently reached and caressed the feeler of Zim to reassure her and then pulled the feeler up to the book at the start of it. “There are over 1100 code words in here, I need you to read it as fast as possible okay? Even reading it once might make it where you don’t have to look at the book. If you’re confused about something let me know. When your ready or the fighting begins I’m going to cut on the radio for your side of the room, you’ll start receiving transmissions okay? I know you Tilfish are good at multi-tasking, I’m going to get back on the radio over there.”Thompson pointed to it, “I’m going to turn it onto speakers instead of the head phones.” She reached down to the transmitter and put the microphone in front of Zim along with a pair of headphones on the desk, “I need you to watch how I operate it and listen to what I say and how I say it, then copy me. Our walkies get all sorts of interference from the orbital rounds and firefighting. It’s our job to cut through that static and make sure everyone has the message clear and concisely okay?”
She pointed to the cave entrance, “If anyone comes into there, once the fighting starts,” She reached under the desk and pulled out a pistol from under the desk. It was made for a human hand but Zim got the point when Thompson cocked the pistol, then placed it back into the holster under the desk. “Flip the desk towards the door for cover, pull this gun, and shoot to kill. At that point, our job is done and we hold the line.”She pulled something from under the chair, making the Tilfish jerk at her touch of a sensitive area on the lower thorax. “Relax,” She pulled a small joystick looking device out. It had an orange trigger and a red cap on the top of it along with an antenna sticking out of it.
“This is our detonator, if we’re going to die, pull this.” She pointed at the trigger on the front. “That will unlock the cap on top, flip it open.” Thompson flicked the cap with her thumb to show a red button underneath. “Then push this button, the explosives will go off. You won’t feel a thing and you’ll take a few of those bastards with you. Got it?”Zim took another sip of coffee, she could already feel the black liquid acting on her, making her more alert if somewhat jittery, “Yes, got it.”Thompson went back to her station and got onto the radio, broadcasts were coming through rapid fire and Thompson was replying to some while sending others to Captain Neil. The radios moved and squawked rapidly, between reading and listening, Zim could barely keep up with the coffee adding to her reaction time.
She had precious minutes to get this right and it was starting to dawn on her that she wasn’t going to live. She had to make sure the others that went deep into the mountain did. Every word was strange to her and she had to comprehend them quickly as she moved down the list onto the next page. Her feelers having some difficulty flipping the narrow pieces of paper but her exoskeleton prevented a papercut at least.
--------------------
Memory Transcription: Lieutenant Honnie Schmidt, United Nations ‘Black Watch’ Company #4
Date [standardized human time]: December 3, 2136
Schmidt had ten individuals with her. One machine gun, five rifles, three submachine guns, and two shotguns. That plus the Tilfish Herci and Tia. Neil had insisted on separating the twins in case one died, the other wouldn’t freeze up. The soldiers moved with mechanical precision and made nearly no noise of their presence. It creeped the Tilfish out just how quiet the humans were despite the equipment they carried and their seemingly more cumbersome way of walking. The Tilfish on their native planet where making much more noise than the humans were, which Schmidt say their eyes pay particular attention to how they moved and shifted to avoid making noise.
They were nearly a kilometer from the caldera and had already seen Arxur ships flying overhead. They stuck to the trees and stayed low. The Tilfish were uncomfortable with how the humans had smeared mud, dirt, and tree sap onto their bodies and then done it to themselves. Hanover, Williams, Zephyr, Rhodes, Cleland, Swann, Tenet, Kelly, Yules, and Cambell all walked with Schmidt now, between them eleven soldiers and two Tilfish recruits.
They had armed the recruits with rifles that had been jammed in single shot mode in case the Tilfish panicked. They came upon a road, the road the civilians hours before had fled along. Tracks of vehicles, footprints of the thousands that had walked down it still embedded in the road. The Arxur would know which way to go to find them, that was for sure. Carefully examining it, Schimdt measured every variable she knew how.
The way the wind shifted, the scent of something and the sound of distant engines told her this was the best spot they were going to get. Her instincts of years of training and now battles told her this was their point.
“Zephyr.” She whispered and the sergeant came up to her. She turned her head and made some hand signals to setup the ambush before Zephyr nodded signaling back the confirmation. Jellio seemed confused and Schmidt turned to explain, as she pointed at Zephyr who was working her way down the squad taking every other member to follow her and then getting Tia to follow with her back the way they came.
“They’re going to go back 100 meters and cross the road then make their way down here and signal with a red flashlight when they are in position, we’ll make this our crossfire ambush.” She turned to Williams and motioned him forward as Zephyr took Rhodes, Cleland, Tenet, Yules, and Tia.
Williams moved up with the big heavy weapon, a rapid fire belt fed machine gun that must have weighed a good 20 kg with all the ammo he had to carry. “Yes Ma’am?”
“Setup at the end of the line, 20 meters behind us. I want them to have to punch through the whole crossfire to silence you gun, we ambush on your weapon firing, understood?” Williams nodded with his face full of mud and hustled back away from them.
“Hanover, get the claymores, rig them along the forest with trip wires, double time. Anything comes hunting us I want it to find out if there god is real or not.” Hanover nodded and went to each soldier, taking the mines. Zephyr would be doing the same on the other side.
Jellio looked confused for a moment, “What… what do we do now?”
Schmidt took out her flask and took a sip of coffee, “The worst part, we wait.”
Jellio was now even more confused as he whispered, “Waiting is the worst part? I thought the violence would be?”
Schimidt and everyone around her took a moment to chuckle or stifle a giggle. “No, waiting is. You hurry up and wait, and wait. You know it’s coming but you can do nothing except wait for it. Once it starts, our actions are mechanical, practiced, rehearsed almost but leading up that, it’s waiting; painful, terrifying, and crippling.”
A red light signaled towards Schmidt’s position and she signaled back with her own. Seconds turned to minutes, Hanover returned to her position, Schmidt’s troopers spread out in units of 2, with Jellio being her second.
The radio chipped but nothing on it. It was Cleland their designated marksman with a medium range engagement rifle. Schimidt reached up and chipped her radio back twice. Jellio tensed and Schmidt motioned him down, laying her belly on the ground at a nearby rise over the road. She put a finger up to her lips and Jellio seemed to get the hint with a nod. Coming into view on the road were a dozen Arxur, hooting and hollering, lacking any form of stealth.
Good, they can’t smell us and they haven’t seen us. The mud would cover our heat signatures and the earth and trees would be all they would smell from us. The Arxur were making a brisk pace and approaching quickly. Schmidt reached up and clicked her radio, whispering into it, “Hold, we go on Williams burst.”
Soft, barely audible clicks echoed in Schmidt’s trained ears; if you were not listening for them you would not hear the sound of safeties being cut off and weapons readied. The wildlife in the area went quiet, bugs dying down, birds ceasing, all species grew quiet.
The Arxur were 100 meters away and Jellio was shaking as Schmidt slowly reached over and gripped the Tilfish’s feeler with a gentle reassuring squeeze. Her eyes were focused, piercing as they looked at Jellio, her rifle was resting on the berm to the road. Her side arm on one hip, knife on the other, and a sawed off shotgun against her knife. Jellio steadied the rifle in his grip and focused down range.
50 meters, Jellio could smell the Arxur and it made his stomach twist, he wanted to wrench. Did they even bathe? Schmidt could too and felt herself getting on edge, her stomach was in knots already from the waiting. She wanted action, to rip the band-aid off. She had to strain against tunnel vision to keep her situational awareness up. Williams would fire at the right moment, she said a prayer to Saint Mary silently.
33 meters and it happened, the Arxur paused, as if sensing something. Williams did not hesitate when the lead Arxur raised his hand to stop his troop, opening fire with a concentrated burst of 7.62 from his LMG.
The lead Arxur was cut in half as every weapon in the jungle opened fire. Schmidt was counting as she pulled the trigger, “One, two.” Another burst flung from her weapon, “Three.” With the same robotic precision they made their defenses, the soldiers relentlessly cut down the Arxur. Jellio heard the next number as his ears were ringing from his weapon's sporadic fire, “Seven, Eight.” It was now that Schmidt ducked down to reload, “Cover me.” She shouted and Jellio turned to fire wildly at anything that moved along the road. His digit working the trigger as fast as it could go despite the awkward grip for him.
The smell of blood and metal rose to the sensitive Tilfish and made him want to recoil but Schmidt’s rifle rejoined his as he heard it click and her’s open fire. “Reload, I got you!”
Jellio scrambled to load his weapon as Schmidt ticked up her kill count, using the counting to focus and keep straight how many rounds were left in her current magazine. “Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen.” Three more Arxur fell to the ground, directly in her sights after she pulled the trigger.
The Arxur were rushing their position now, a squad of them had turned into a small horde, but the infantry rush was cut well short by a long burst from the much louder LMG at the end of the squad, ripping apart scales, limbs, teeth, and torsos, leaving gore in it’s wake.
The machine gun was so loud that Jellio missed Schmidt’s counting and left his ears ringing even at this distance. In less than a minute, the road was covered in gore that left Jellio reeling and freezing, he couldn’t bring himself to move or fire his weapon.
Schmidt suddenly brought her arm around and close lined him to the ground as return fire ripped apart the trees them where their heads had once been. “Get down!”
She checked Jellio over, “You’re not hit, load your weapon and fire! That’s an order!” She shouted, hoping some fight instinct existed inside the Tilfish as he fumbled with the rifle, she reloaded her own, hearing the Arxur howl when an explosion turned her attention towards the forest, they were trying to flank and just found their god that way.
“Jellio, stay here.” She turned to see Kelly and Swann near her. “Swann with me!” She called to the corporal. “Kelly, take my position with Jellio, make sure he keeps fighting.”
They scrambled up and moved into the trees behind them. Jellio could hear their weapons separate from the squad echoing a few moments later as the next wave of Arxur moved up and started to fight them. He kept shooting, Schmidt on the other hand was somewhere in the woods, moving as a blur.
Anything that moved in this forest was her prey and she tried to time her shots to the bursts in the distance so her position would be harder to find by hearing the gunshots. Swann did the same, moving with her, time and again they would fall upon three, four, or five Arxur with fury and destroy that small detachment in moments as they were searching for more booby traps, only to fade into the leaves before return fire could meet them.
Then it happened, they ambushed a group of three only for another group to appear behind them, Swann cried out into Schmidt’s ears as she spoke, “Fifty-five. Swann? Swann you still with me?”
“Ma’am… run…” She heard the click of a grenade pin and Swann was pulling his side arm. She snapped her eyes for a moment to get a view of him. Swanna was on one knee, his right arm was barely attached, the bicep ripped apart and a dead Arxur with it's rigor mortis jaw while the creature's head had been blown from its body by repeated pistol fire. Swann holding a grenade handle against itself and the ground by weight of what was left of his arm alone.
He had made the decision to ensure that Schmidt couldn't change his mind.
“Swann.” Schmidt barked irritably as she fired another burst and tore an Arxur’s skull from it’s neck. “Fifty-Six.”
Swann raised his left hand, firing his pistol, hitting an Arxur that was closing in for the kill. “Grenade’s live, you can’t carry me away before it goes off. They got my arm and my knee.”Schmidt knelt down as she reloaded, checking Swann over. The light in his eyes was fading, his leg was gone at the knee, and his left arm was torn open at the shoulder, exposing the bone, only his body weight was keeping the grenade lever on so it wouldn’t go off. “Ma’am, run.”
Schmidt nodded and nudged her forehead to his, “See you on the other side.”
She bolted upright, firing full auto as she ran away from Swann’s position who shot at anything trying to chase her with his pistol, over and over again, hitting the next pursuit group in the flank and forcing them to deal with him. They were maybe thirty meters from their squad.
His pistol clicked, he threw it away and pulled another grenade, concealing it between his pocket and his hand as he saw the creatures cautiously close with him, a dozen, no nearly two dozen walking slowly towards his knelt form, pointing their weapons at him. They wanted him alive, they wanted to see what he tasted like. He could see the hunter in their eyes, staring at him as one of them pulled a spear of sorts from his walk and lowered it to point at his chest, forcing his head up as he felt his blood draining, the life was leaving him quickly.
He smiled at the Arxur, “Hey ugly.” He weakly raised his right hand as the rest closed in rapidly towards him, the spear pulling back, he knew they wanted to tear him apart in a feeding frenzy.
Schmidt looked over her shoulder, threw the trees and saw him mouthing the words, she knew those words all too well, “Nemo Me Impune Lacessit.”
Swann opened his hand and let the grenade roll from it as the Arxur closest panicked but was stopped by his approaching kin trying to feed upon their wounded prey, it screamed in a panicked voice but the hesitation was too long as both grenades went off and annihilated every single body within five meters, wounding a dozen more within ten.
Schmidt finished her sprint back to her lines, as an Arxur leaned up, weapon armed to Jellio and Hanover, she fired a hip shot from her rifle, hoping her instinct was true on it’s aim. The bullet punched through his throat and sent the Arxur rolling back into the road, “Sixty-nine.”
She called, sliding back into her firing position, Hanover smirked at her, “Nice.”
“Not now pervert, focus.”Hanover raised his rifle and his smirk broadened, “A guy can dream even in his final moments.”
“Zephyr, fire-team B, status?”
Zephyr coughed into the radio as she broadcast back to Schmidt, “1 plus me left, I’m hit in the lung; half my chest is gone.” She coughed again, “I sent Cleland with Tia back to base. I’ve rigged the C4, cease fire on your side, we’re going to draw them in and blow this side of the road to kingdom come.” More coughing came across the radio as the remaining human weapons on the other side of the road went full auto for a moment.
Schmidt winced upon hearing this, they were pinned down and outnumbered. There was no real escape. “Affirmative. Fire team A, cease fire unless fired upon. Let B draw them.” She turned to Hanover and Jellio, “Jellio, you’ve done your job, Hanover, make sure he gets back to the mountain, as soon as the explosives go on, go, sprint for it. Hanover, every bit of ammo you can spare leave it and you too Jellio. Carry Jellio if you have to but make sure he lives.”
Hanover started to protest and Schmidt cut him down with a glare before turning her rifle back as the Arxur charged the positions still firing. Her remaining team used the opportunity to reload their weapons and throw grenades as far as they could.
Schmidt wasn’t sure how many Arxur were coming but it was a lot. The world suddenly went quiet as the air was sucked from it. The echo of the explosion left all their ears ringing as the opposite side of the road atomized.
Schmidt raised her weapon, “Fire at will!” Every remaining soldier opened fire as Hanover and Jellio sprinted for their lives while ditching their ammo magazines and throwing their last grenades. An Arxur gunship came into view, just over the horizon only for a long range anti-air missile to impact into it and send it careening in that moment into the Arxur infantry. Screams of shock followed the explosion as the cheers of the Arxur turned to calls for aid and howls of agony.
They had wised up now, not charging directly but trying to suppress then move in. Williams Machine gun finally stopped short when the area he was in exploded from a rocket on Arxur was carrying, Schmidt snapped her weapon to the end of the contrail and fired, “Ninety.”
She kept firing, hitting what she could until her rifle clicked, “Ninety-Three.” It now she noticed no human weapons were still firing. "See you on the other side." She whispered to her fallen friends and stood to run into the trees at the nearest gray flash.
She pulled her sawed off and leapt through the trees, everyone else’s weapon was silent as she came upon an Arxur at arm’s length. He turned and opened his jaws only for her to press the barrel in and his look of surprise as his tail stood on end before his head turned to a pink mist.
She span the barrel towards the nearest gray thing and pull the second trigger, buckshot ripping apart it’s chest and sending the Arxur to the ground screaming. “Ninety-Five.”
Schmidt pulled her sidearm and started firing, having to put multiple shots into each Arxur to bring it down, she hoped the command would get higher caliber sidearms for the next soldiers who met the Arxur. “Ninety-Seven.” Her pistol slide clicked back and locked, she threw it at an Arxur between some trees as she drew her knife and dashed towards him.
The pistol bouncing off his head bought enough time to slam the knife into it’s throat.
Three Arxur rushed her and she called out, “Ninety-Eight.” Her counting keeping her focus razor sharp as she parried a spear and span, ducking just beyond it’s mouth snapping at her, only for him to just get the bun of her hair as he knocked Schmidt's helmet off. She uppercut, slamming the knife into its eye, twisting and ripping it clear before stabbing again and again, until the Arxur stopped screaming, “Ninety-NinE!”
She let out a gasp all the air driven from her lungs. Her eyes loomed down as agony ripped through her to see a spear punched through her back, through her ribs and chest, she felt her strength fading. Her heart beat against the metal wedged beside it, slowly loosing life and power to keep going.
She wasn’t sure if she could even move as the reptile leaned in to snarl at her, baring its teeth in the corner of her eye. Adrenaline and fight instinct took over.
She tossed the blade to her opposite hand away from the spear and slammed back with her full body weight. She skewered herself deeper on the spear and all the way through, out under her right breast between two ribs.
The Arxur must have been shocked as he lost his balance. Schmidt could sense the stun that she could move as much for her as for her attacker. She span tearing her own flesh to jam the knife into his throat and with all her strength pushed it through the surprised lizard. She nearly decapitated him, even severing a vertebra as it collapsed, twitching in death throes.
Schmidt fell to her knees, feeling herself fading as tunnel vision took over. She did not want to die weakly, she did not want to end quietly. Her lungs burned, her heart ached, her body screamed in confusion at all the error and pain signals her nerves were sending.
She turned to the last of the three Arxur bearing down on her. They hesitated, the Arxur spear skewering her should have killed her but she just slew its wielder.
The bravest Arxur approached with an electric shock in the air as it barred a cattle prod. Slowly thrusting it at her and closing in, scared now. “One Hundred,” She exhaled with gasping breathes.
She could feel herself fading fast as the Arxur closed in on her, the final member of her squad. Her muscle reflex flipped the knife for her to hold the blade and she held the spear with her other hand to steady it. Her helmet camera watched every moment from where it fell to the ground. She rose up just enough to hurled the knife at the attacker. “One-o-one.” She called out as she fell facedown in the dirt beside her would be attacker.
Her helmet camera zoomed upon her as she turned her head and stared into the lens, “Nemo Me Impune Lacessit.” She reached for a grenade and pulled the pin as the Arxur leapt onto her, seeking to tear her apart and devour her just as they sought with Swann. The grenade rolled away while they were still in the air.
The Arxur cackled and screamed with glee to finally have a kill. As their jaws started to tear into her flesh, Schmidt's last grenade turned their laughter to fear.

lit club 39 - polito
stoffel vandoorn - have a seat fdr..
robert wickens - vro im in a wheel chair
stoffel vandoorne - how it feel when u fly into da sky eagle
robert wickens - ow
stoffel vandorn - (taking down note . . . sayori)
"yes u were upside down.."
stoffel vandoorn - (wrist spinning round like a switch cuz dimindz fightin geo dude. . . )_ "FUCK IMA LISTEN 2 UZIIIII"
ROBERT WICKENS - MONTH WITH NATSUKI MORE LIKE MONTH WITH MONIKA RIGHT
ROBERT WICKENS GLITCHING 'O K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K KK K K K K K K "
FRED FROM SCOOBY DOO (SHIELDIN HIS EYES FROM DA LIGHT M A WRIST TYPE SHI . . . YURI_); "SL IMIER DAN MONTE PYTHONN N N N N
DRACO MALFOY - "IS S GETIN OUT HAND MONICA LEWINSKY. . ."
THE DUDE IN THE FUCKING PRESS BOX ANNOUNCING THE GAME - "pft t tTT "
ROBERT WICKEN S - CANT MOVE MA LEG
SHINZO ABE - IT RICE TIME HONDA CIVIC TYPE R SHIT
JEFF BEZOS. - "ACURA TYPE R SHIT",..
JOHN F KENEDY - IF DAT REAL U GON A BE RICH A S FUCK LIL WAYNE..
JEF - "MA NAM JEFF"
TEAM RESTRUCTURING
IN THE MIDDLE OF ITS 48TH SEASON THE CART SERIES HAS MADE DRASTIC CHANGES TO ITS OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE, ELIMINATING MULTIPLE CAR ORGANIZATIONS IN FAVOR OF SINGLE TEAMS. THE CHANGES ARE REFLECTED BELOW.
JOE GIBBS RACING - #34 KYLE LARSON
CERA - #7 RICHARD VERSCHOOR
ROCKSTARS - #16 YUKI TSUNODA
MCLAREN A.R.T. - #41 JEFF GORDON
DOOIN IT BIG - #15 MARTIN TRUEX
M.B.G. - #21 ROBERT WICKENS
LIT CLUB - #2 DOMINIQUE JONES
METS - #61 SYMERE WOODS
LOGANG - #54 RYAN BLANEY
UZI GANG - #11 GEORGE RUSSELL
CLUBSPORT - #12 DANIEL RICCIARDO
BJR - #50 NICHOLAS LATIFI
CARDINAL - #13 KIMI RAIKKONEN
JEGS-MENARDS - #20 TATIANA CALDERON
TRENT MAFIA - #88 ESTEBAN OCON
WAVES - #26 EMMA MACKEY
TEAM KVYAT - #37 CARLOS SAINZ
EPIC MODE - #18 PASCAL WEHRLEIN
XSAYORI - #23 NOBUHARU MATSUSHITA
YO T'S 1 - #99 HANNAH SIMONE
EAGLES - #19 LANDO NORRIS
SCUDERIA FERRARI - #6 STOFFEL VANDOORNE
PANTHER RACING - #5 KEVIN MAGNUSSEN
BB DAD - #84 ALEX PALOU
TEAM23 - #10 PIERRE GASLY
WILDCATS - #9 CHASE ELLIOTT
AMG - #31 LEWIS HAMILTON
SKATECREW - #25 SCOTT DIXON
WAVEFORM - #3 SIMON PAGENAUD
MOUNTAINEERS - #22 MAX VERSTAPPEN
79ERS - #1 DAN TICKTUM
RACESPORT - #52 MCHAD
RATS - #4 CONNOR ROOT
lit club 38 - butch
tjay- (runnin g in2 walmart like a bear chasing him) WHERES THE COMPUTER I GOT LOOK UP NATSUKI
employee- vro issa fucking walmart
lil tjay- yain makin cents. . . . . . . .
lil tjays - i sees u on da digital tablet rn 5v
employee (grabbing the side her head) - FUCK MA SAMSUNG PODS BLASTIN KENNY CHESNEY
LIL TJAY - O M FING G. . . USE GOT SHIT TASTE IN MUSIC 2 GIRLS 1 CUP
EMPLOYEE - I DONT GET PAID NUF 4 DIS
lil tjay (sirius)- aint no wag e justify slavery..
shaggy ( gripp in da tool bob builder vietnam) - ive had enuf of da dawgs. . .
scrappy (wavi n hands like when playboic arti on) - no no u spos 2 let da dawgs run around rabid hounden u making lot t a noise
shaggy - 'sleep wit ma 9 ' .
*pop pop lil uzi.*
lit club 37 - toshiba
lil durk- how u like ma fit?
nemo - iss tight noose
monika (slumping over exausted yuri)- i put myself in as a character before having anything to say
calvin johnson (leanin over nemos fishbowl)- what da fuck r u talkin about
calvin (gesturing)- this is life
monika- wasnt that a mark walberg movie
calvin - fuck maybe
nemo - hey whatchu think bout ma fanfiction migos
monika-..
monika - blueface baby it ight
stoffel vandorne- IM da new max verstappen.
monika - ok drake
lit club 36 - whos internal monologue is this
fred weasly- i wanna talk about sayori
yuri (pullin out da magic beans)- pop 1 deez bad boys you gonna be talkin nonsense martin lawrence..
fred weasly - CHAMPION ON MA BODY MISTER COW
TOBIAS FUNKE- dere was hiroshima in the cars universe..
yuri (putting on da air suorin) - "whatever... doo .. u mean.."
yuri - (staring off into space) yes, none of this makes, any sense
tobias funke - and heres da yuri car get it haha number 19 and theres a y on it
monika - i had enuf dis bee honest jerry or im taking errybody at face value lil baby
tobias - is.. that not what is happening right now??
monika - hmph
tobias (2 his full gay potential like he was wearing a fred from scooby doo scarf) - ok natsss.
yuri - fred weasly kinda thick

You've had prank calls before, right? Everyone had them at one point. Either making them or receiving them. They are a part of modern life you could say. Ever since we were little we liked to prank our friends and neighbors, harmless stuff. Though some of the older kids, I remember, went a little too far sometimes.
Anyone can be a victim of a prank call. The vast majority of phone numbers are publically available. They can be found quite easily, if you remember phone books, maybe? Or am I that old already... Alas, today there is the internet which gives you access to an endless stream of information of all kinds.
If you're skilled enough you can even give a call to some big wig if you so wished... But there is one number that cannot be found that easily, if at all. Unless you're an expert hacker of some sort or a head of state of another country, you can't call that number.
That is the official phone number of the president.
Which president? You might be asking yourself, but I am going to withhold that information for a few reasons. One of which being that if I said which president, I would probably be dead or worse by the end of the week. Take a guess, will you?
Anyways, I can be a bit more specific about when this little incident took place. It was about two years ago, give or take.
I should give you a bit more context. Who am I exactly? Well, obviously I won't tell you my name. But I can tell you about my profession.
I tap phones, professionally. When I tell people I do that for a living they assume I am some sort of spy working for a three-letter agency. They picture me sitting in a van outside a house surrounded by cutting-edge technology while listening in on cartel members talking big money...
It isn't that glamorous, trust me. On the contrary, it is a very boring job. While it has its interesting moments, having the privilege of knowing some info that the wider public will never know about is one thing. Of course with the catch that if I speak, I go to prison.
Let me be more specific, I listen in on the phone calls that go in and out of the presidential building. I record and document them.
There are certainly better ways of doing this, but I keep my mouth shut so that I don't lose my job. But that's beside the point.
The point of me writing this is because the president of my country, as well as to my knowledge others, received a particular call from... someone.
First of all, as I've mentioned it is incredibly difficult to get the phone number of the president. Moreso for the leaders of some other major nations I believe. But the point stands.
Two years ago, in the middle of the night, the president received a call from an unknown number. Of course, I did my job and began recording the call. We tried to trace the call by any means but we couldn't. We had at least two agencies that employ very talented people trying to find the location of where that call was coming from... And they all came up with nothing.
It's as if the call was coming from point Nemo. From nowhere.
Of course, that was not possible. We knew then for a fact that whoever was making this phone call was someone you wouldn't want to mess with.
Even after all was said and done, we couldn't confirm who was on the other end of that phone. We could only speculate. Months of investigation and probably millions of dollars went down the drain to find that caller. Rumors spread that other countries' leaders received the same call... But that was just that, rumors. But I am led to believe that those rumors are in fact true. I really can't go into detail because I would be writing this all day long.
Now, I was there in my small claustrophobic "office" listening in on that very call. I have the full transcript of it here. I am writing this two years after the fact because I didn't want to be too hasty. I'll lose my job or worse I thought... But one thing led to another and this would probably be my death sentence if they figure out who was the person who blew the whistle.
I won't blab on, here's the transcript in full. Make of it what you will.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ring
Ring
Ring
sound of someone picking up the phone
President [Redacted] - "Hello? Who is this?"
Unknown Caller - "Did you know that is 1697, one full year before the steam engine was invented by one Thomas Savery... One of his friends made a similar design of the engine, but he used it for making machines for erotic purposes..." (deep voice, vaguely British accent, voice change[?])
President [Redacted] - "W-what? Who is this!?"
sound of moving sheets, the president getting out of bed
President [Redacted] - "Listen do you know who you're calling?"
Unknown Caller - "You see, Savery stole the idea... But he made something useful with it. Of course, everyone was none the wiser to that fact. It isn't written anywhere. But you see... I know... I know everything."
call ends, president hung up
seconds later the phone rings again.
President [Redacted] - "Look, I do not know who you are but I will find out and you will find yourself in a world of trouble! Do you hear me?!"
Unknown Caller - "A world of trouble? I think your wife would give you just that if she knew about Miss [Redacted]. Or should I maybe tell you about the [Redacted]? What say you? Don't you agree?"
silence
President [Redacted] - deep sigh "H- how... What do you want?"
Unknown Caller - "Oh, what do I want? Hahahaha, I just want to talk... I want you to listen. That is all."
President [Redacted] - "Alright, I'm listening... In return I want you to tell me who you are. You don't need to be exact, just tell me-"
Unknown Caller - "Oh, you want to bargain. Do you want to trade? Oh, there is no trade here, right now. There will be one day, believe me. Everyone does that trade. And in whose favor that trade will go in depends solely on the person. And I will be generous and tell you that your trade is not going in your favor... Wouldn't bet on it in a million years."
President [Redacted] - "Okay, give me a moment..."
President gets up from bed and goes to the cabinet to grab pills for [Redacted]
Unknown Caller - "I have all the time in the world... Those pills won't work."
President [Redacted] - "How the hell did you know I'm taking them..."
Unknown Caller - "Your [Redacted] is too far gone now for the pills to have any effect. They might lessen the pain but they won't heal you as the doctors say. They aren't lying, they are just as convinced as you are that they will help. But they are wrong."
President [Redacted] - "How would you know?"
Unknown Caller - "How would I know about [Redacted] and [Redacted]? I can also mention the [Redacted]. And that clandestine operation which you do every morning in the bathroom, the mole on your left thigh... That blonde secretary who you believe is into you... She's just being nice. Leave the girl alone."
President [Redacted] - "Who the fuck are you? Tell me, how the fuck do you know all that?!"
Unknown Caller - "Ah, yes. The age-old question. I think I can give you hint. I have fallen down below a long time ago."
President [Redacted] - "Enough with the vague bullshit, tell me what you fucking want."
Unknown Caller - "I already told you, I want to talk, I want you to listen."
President [Redacted] - "I am listening and you're just spewing bullshit! I am the fucking president of [Redacted] do you know what kind of resources I can use to find your sorry ass? I don't know how in the nine hells you know everything you know. I will make your life hell! Goodbye."
President goes to hang up the phone
Unknown Caller - "DON'T YOU HANG UP THE PHONE ON ME AGAIN OR I WILL SHOW YOU HELL" (voice goes deeper, like a growl, yell)
silence
Unknown Caller- "You're still there, I know you are."
silence
Unknown Caller - "Are you going to let me finish the story I began?"
President [Redacted] - "... Go ahead."
Unknown Caller - "Excellent, now where was I with that... Oh, yeah. Thomas Savery the thief of ideas. As I've mentioned before you so rudely de-railed my monologue, Thomas Savery invented the steam engine in 1698, but a year earlier in 1697 his good friend who went by the name of William D. made a similar machine. But its use was for the pleasures of the flesh. I won't go into detail I am sure you are familiar with the topic, and I am sure you can use your imagination."
Unknown Caller - "Now, thievery is a sin. But so is William's abomination. So who is the greater sinner? Thomas, or William?"
President [Redacted] - "Thomas, he is a thief who stole from the original inventor. No matter what that invention might've been."
Unknown Caller - sigh "Is that so? Alright, Thomas it is then. I have another story for you."
Unknown Caller - "Have you ever heard of the [Redacted] island?"
President [Redacted] – "What? I've never heard of it."
Unknown caller – "Don't you lie to me, not only have you heard of it. You've been there, many times."
President [Redacted] – "As I've said I... Alright, you got me, okay? Get to the point."
Unknown Caller – "You are aware of the others who went to that island. And many islands like it, isolated places... A heaven for the likes of you, and a living hell for others. Tell me then, have you sinned there?"
President [Redacted] - "Why are you even asking me, you know the answer."
Unknown Caller – "I do, but I want to hear it from you. Are you a sinner?"
President [Redacted] - "Everyone is."
Unknown Caller – "That is true to a certain extent. But those who truly deserve punishment are those who consciously did something that they knew was abhorrent. And they kept repeating with no solid reason, other than their own pleasure or enjoyment."
Unknown Caller – "There was a time, long ago, when people the likes of you did the same things again and again. Yet, they saw themselves as being favored by the powers that be. They saw themselves as above the law. To invoke God one moment. Then to do the opposite of his commandments another moment is not only hypocrisy, but it is also a crime... To speak and do things in His name, things that make even His stomach turn. And I have to be honest humans like you have even surprised me. Before you were on par with me in some instances, but you have gone above and beyond in your quest to become what you have."
President [Redacted] - "... Who are you."
Unknown Caller – "I am the one who fell down below. I have many names in many languages."
President [Redacted] – "Are you..."
Unknown Caller – "Yes, quite attentive of you. You can read between the lines at least."
President [Redacted] - "Impossible... That is not possible."
Unknown Caller – "Your kind did the impossible many times. Sometimes you are wrong, and sometimes you are right. And you don't even know it. Not completely, but you were on the right track. As you were a long time ago before the likes of you led the flock astray."
President [Redacted] – "What do you mean that I led the flock astray?"
Unknown Caller – "You wrote down one thing that was sort of right. That there was punishment when mankind went down the wrong path. But drowning will be the least of your concerns. You've failed the test. Hope that some of you will pass it."
President [Redacted] – "W-what test?"
Unknown Caller – "You'll find out soon enough. The slate will be wiped clean once more... I am excited to see what you will do this time hahahahahaha."
Phone hangs up
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I honestly do not know what to make of this. This was obviously some sort of threat. And from what I can surmise it is Biblical in nature.
I am not a man of faith, and I'm not religious in any way, but I have an aching feeling that this call was not an empty threat by a simple terrorist. There are things you simply can't fake. Unfortunately, you weren't there at that moment when it all happened. It was like a sense of dread fell on us all.
Two years had passed since and that feeling of dread did not dissipate, not at all. If anything it got worse with each passing day.
I had the urge to share this because I think this is not a simple prank call, not a terrorist threat... This is something else.
If they, whoever they might be, decide to wipe the slate clean in some way. My gut tells me they are more than capable of doing it.
I just hope that I am wrong, that I am paranoid.
If you want to believe this, go ahead. If you decide to throw it aside as another fake... You can do that as well, I couldn't care less. You being aware of it will suffice.
Make of it what you will.

Previous
To say Jack was annoyed would be an understatement. In the 30 years he had been a Fury he had never come across a more stuck up people than the Alkosh. He had destroyed world ending asteroids, stopped extinction events, kept wars from occurring with his presence alone, and had ended quite a few wars himself. Yet the Alkosh never seemed to relent. He almost respected them for their tenacity. On the other hand, it pissed him off. They had been given more chances than he felt the deserved and yet they squandered it.
Suddenly he got pulled out of warp space. Sighing he prepared for the usual pirate lord speech about killing him and delivering him to the Alkosh king. The pirate lord appeared on his screen and begun to grandstand and monologue. Jack just waited. Finally the pirate lord finished.
"You done?" He asked. The pirate just looked at him in bewilderment. He had Jack outnumbered twenty to one. He even had multiple larger ships ready to fire.
"Ok lets just get this over with." Jack stated as his hit his sublight thrusters. He shot towards the ships faster than they could track. he began to fire his weapon systems. The depleted uranium rounds tore through their ion shields and devastated their ships. By the time they had a chance to fire back Jack had wiped out all the single person fighters. He then opened fire on the frigates, tearing them to shreds, all the while dodging laser and plasma fire. He knew his shields could just absorb the shots, but it was more interesting this way. Soon no pirate remained alive. He reentered warp space.
"If I run into one more pirate I'm just gonna launch an anti-matter bomb and just run. This is getting annoying." Jack mumbled to no one. Finally after many disruptions he made it to his destination. The home of The Collective of Galactic Governments. A meeting was to be held to determine the CGG's stance on the war, if they would remain neutral, or join a side. Jack wanted them to stay neutral, as did Earth, but the Alkosh wanted the CGG to help them in this war.
"Fat chance of that." Mark had said. "They hate the Alkosh quite a bit, not as much as us, but they won't help them. Just make a show of it."
Jack landed in the hanger bay a stepped out of his ship. A mechanic stepped forward.
"Need any repairs or ammo sir?" he asked.
"Do you have any .50 caliber depleted uranium rounds?" Jack asked, damn well knowing the answer already.
"Um... no I'm afraid we don't." the mechanic replied confused. Depleted uranium rounds were a human specialty of course so Jack expected this.
"Then I don't need anything no." Jack replied as he walked off to were the meeting was being held. He wasn't invited but it wasn't like the CGG could just make him leave either. As he began to approach the meeting room he noticed Alkosh soldiers waiting out side. He smiled, as he knew they couldn't do anything to him here, no matter if they wanted to. He passed them, as they looked at him with malice. They knew who he was, and why he was here. Jack opened the doors and stepped in the rooms at practically the best moment.
"The humans are weak and pathetic and yet the CGG lets them control a large amount of galactic space. They only have three soldiers, we could crush them and you let them walk all over you! We have given you the offer of releasing all of our prisoners of your species and agreed to begin to trade. Your practically stealing from us at this point. All we ask is for your help at killing these three *Furies* and forcing humanity to surrender." King Mag'nerl stated.
"It was pretty good deal." Jack thought to himself. Honestly Mag'nerl was right, the CGG was getting a better deal here. Though he also knew that the Alkosh would eventually try to destroy the CGG.
"In fact, their one soldier is likely to be dead soon. The one they call Jack has a large bounty on his head. Pirate lords will soon rip him apart to get the reward money. That offer extends to all of you as well. He isn't nearly as dangerous as Humanity has stated." The King stated. Jack smiled, and stepped forward. Showtime.
"You know, I thought my ears were burning, this must be the cause." Jack spoke calmly, and with an affable undertone. This was a skill he had practiced for a long time. He watched as the the council took sudden notice of him, and as King Mag'nerl whirled around shocked.
"Kinda rude not to invite your foe to negotiations with the CGG isn't it. We should be able to present our arguments. Such as why they remain neutral." Jack stated.
"It would not be in your interests, no matter what the Alkosh promise, to help them. The moment they get the chance they'll stab you in the back and destroy you. Happens all the time in war." Jack said.
"Do you really think us so crass?" Retorted the King. "It would be ridiculous for us to do such a thing."
"Well of course I don't expect them to believe me, which is why I come with a statement from Earth and a message from myself. Earth's government says, "Stay out of this war." That is all they want" Jack said.
"And the message from you?" Asked the head of the CGG, Hexleth of the Corodian people.
Jack simply smiled. Suddenly a bright flash erupted behind them. All the council people and King Mag'nerl turned around to watch the Flagship of the Alkosh navy explode before their eyes. A small Fighter ship suddenly moved around and parked Infront of the large window, displaying the side of the one person fighter, and showing no one in the cockpit.
"That is my message." Jack said. The side of the the ship read *Nemo Me Impune Lacessit*.
What, what does that mean?" Hexleth asked.
"No one provokes me with impunity." Jack responded, his voice far colder than it had been before. He teleported back on the Bruce, took one look at the CGG, and warped out of there.
​
(That took longer than I thought. My hand hurts. Storyboarding is boring. Chapter four is tomorrow.)
Next

The Cambridge Online Dictionary defines — Humanize as to make something less unpleasant and more suitable. There is also the mention of kindness and gentleness.
Before you start your video production journey with the intent to deliver humanized content, try to identify the irritants.
Take away all those elements that dehumanize your content.‍ Become conscious that you want to deliver a piece of content that is real. Spread awareness and place an active demand on all stakeholders to the need of delivering a video that is organic and genuine.‍

Where should you start the journey towards humanizing videos?

Audience

Many marketing videos are produced without talking to a real human from the intended audience. We may not have the time to conduct in-depth research of the audience every time we are producing a piece of video content. However, at least once a year, try to realign with your brand audience to understand their expectations from the brand. Yes, you can do this as a B2B company too, there are still humans on the other side.
Traditionally, agencies used to have planners who would represent the customer into the process. If your team is small and you cannot afford a dedicated resource to do so, nominate a team member and let her speak for the audience. The will to represent the audience should be an explicit and conscious act.
Three important elements should be a part of any exercise that seeks to represent the audience to humanize video content.
· Research‍
· Empathy‍
· Honesty
While research will help you identify what is that you need to talk about, empathy will help your story gain the audience’s perspective. Without empathy it is difficult to establish a connection with your audience.

How does one bring empathy into the process through kindness?‍

Lofty words, one might think, and that person couldn’t be more wrong.‍

How can you empathize through kindness?

· Choose simple words instead of complex vocabulary‍
· Avoid acronyms and abbreviations that are not a part of the common parlance‍
· Use concepts that are relatable‍
· Use the language of the audience‍
· Tell a story instead of making a presentation‍

Honesty‍

Honesty is all about creating expectations that one can fulfill. Honesty is also about respecting the intelligence of the audience. With honesty, you acknowledge the ability to make sound decisions on the part of the audience. This leads to a genuine relationship.

What are the important aspects of an honest video?

· Fact checked‍
· No exaggeration or hyperboles‍
· Creating a wholesome picture — the product or service proposition is a part or an extension of the brand’s values‍
· Does not airbrush to create a synthetic reality‍

Led by Story

Simply put a story in a narrative with tension and resolution. A story that follows contours of life brings the audience along into the journey. The ups and downs of a tale has a humanizing effect owing to relatability. Individuals project themselves into the video that is led by a story.
Video content producers must consider its potential and not limit the medium to an announcement or a monologue.

Driven by Value

Good journalism with its what, why, when, where, whom and how approach is a good example of delivering value via content.
The goal of effective communication is to warrant action. A comprehensive approach to information packaging will help you deliver a takeaway. Try to answer questions, solve problems, show a better way of doing things to build value through your content. To receive value upon time investment is a very human expectation. By fulfilling human expectation, you are humanizing your content.

How not to dehumanize your video content?

Depiction‍

Unfortunately, a lot of technology depiction goes overboard. Data scientists are not using 20 feet screens to run simulations. Hologram is not a widespread usable tech yet. While we must talk about things like data, analytics, artificial intelligence and so on, we are required to think beyond science fiction driven imagery. A great reference to a realistic future was in the movie ‘HER’, directed by Spike Jonze. The movie is a story in the future, and while technology is on the next level, it does not depict earth being some star war type space colony.

Sound

‍Sound plays a very important role in forging our perception. Most stock footage-based videos do not carry speech. The treatment is one that of a VO coupled with music. This does great disservice in dehumanizing content. Brands must consider generating live action content with real human sound bites.
Beyond human conversation what makes things alive are the ambient sounds, traffic, keyboard and so on. A video that is completely stripped of these would build a synthetic perception. Human subconscious is highly sensitive to such omissions.

Replacing real team members with models

‍Stop using models to talk about your company, or worst have them pretend working on a computer layered with a VO. There is no better brand ambassador than the team that believes and nurtures your organization. Put them in front of the camera and you will get some great footage.
The last point that you need to consider is that you do not necessarily need live action footage to humanize your videos. Animation done properly can evoke emotions, ‘Finding Nemo’ is a great example of this.‍
What one truly needs to humanize videos is to treat them with sincerity. You need to build a sense of belonging amongst your audiences, people have a deep need to feel connected and this happens when you tell stories with truth.‍
If you want to explore humanizing your video content, let us connect — hello@allinmotion.com

The next part of this season is from ChefShank Redemption to The Aftermath 2. I call these 6 episodes “Oh Shit, we only have 10 contestants”.We get 3 people going home in these episodes. To note is that the eliminations are to close off plot lines that the show started in the Trent’s Descent episodes, Gwen, DJ and Izzy. It is very transparent that they wrote themselves into the first corner of the season, one of many corners, that being they already have 4 people on one team- and the team has the screw ups- Justin, Lindsay, Beth and Owen. One thing about Total Drama is that it gives a pretty good reason for why one team is better than the other. In TDI it was because The Bass lacked leadership, in this season it’s because we are shown multiple times the Grips are completely useless, also that Trent was throwing challenges and D.J. has “Help” from Chef. There are THREE reasons that the Grips lose but the most prominent one is that the members are shown to be dumb, all the time. This seems unnecessary if you have two other reasons why they would be losing. So, TDA goes out of its way to make the members of the Grips seem incompetant- the only exception is that sometimes Beth has a good idea in a challenge and we see Lindsay get some limelight as well in this set of episodes, but it feels weird coming off the first 6 episodes.
The Gaffers are also weird. If you noticed, their plot lines only start in 3:10, this is because the Grips are shown to be the far more dynamic team- which is very strange considering Heather, Leshwana, Harold and Duncan are on a team together. This part of the season everything gets evened up and we finally start getting some plot lines that will carry deeper into the season, but that doesn’t stop it from feeling like they only now realized the path they were on for a complete Grip defeat. They even this up again which makes me wonder why they split the teams like this in the first place- ah well. Let’s jump into the end of Gwen with The ChefShank Redemption.
We start the episode with the teams being locked in their trailer so some comedy can happen. Justin cannot have any more cuticle damage so Owen has to try to open the door and we get some farting, classic. The girls use Heather’s vainness to have her climb out the top as the boys ask “Where is DJ?” This is really where we get the first scene I would call strong between Chef and DJ and we get another one in this episode. This episode and The Sand-Which Project are the only two episodes I would even consider calling good DJ/Chef episodes- this is where we see DJ making food and using his Mama Spice. Chef advises DJ that pride is the most important thing in a man’s life. This is also the episode where Harold becomes somewhat of a main narrator of the season. Which is very interesting because he hasn’t really done much for the beginning. This shows the shift from Trent/Gwen into the other characters starting, signaling Gwen’s departure. The first part of the challenge is one person on the team needs to eat a bowl of disgusting prison food, and the winner gets an advantage in the second part of the challenge. I actually don’t hate this set up- at least they tell us that the challenge is two parts. So Lindsay needs to eat for the Grips and Gwen for the Gaffers. Justin and Beth are really happy as Gwen “owes them”. Something I see somewhat often (as often as TDA Gwen is brought up) is the complaint that Gwen doesn’t owe them anything and it bothers some people. The answer is an obvious- yeah, she doesn’t. What marks it interesting is that this is Gwen’s “new” character in a nutshell, as we will see in World Tour and All-Stars, she does things she doesn't want to out of obligation of friendship. This is a subtle change in this season because Gwen doesn’t get explored as much as she should, but think about it. Her main driving force in the other seasons is the need to be liked, due to her change of attitude from TDI. A super interesting change that isn’t explored enough, but yes Gwen owes them because she wants them to like her. Anyway, we go ahead and make some gross stuff but it is BETH that winks to Gwen and says “We shouldn’t have a problem beating, GWEN” (very subtle). Another huge problem with TDA is the themes and where these characters end up. Beth is set up against Duncan in the finale- and is supposed to be the nice and team oriented one. But with all these points of her getting Gwen to throw (or cheat as she said two episodes ago) and being so aggressive, it’s no wonder why people are so iffy on her ending. It makes sense for Justin to do this, and Owen and Lindsay have very little agency so far but Beth is very aggressive. Just adding to the confusion in TDA. Gwen and Lindsay start eating and since DJ used mama spice, Lindsay is eating the whole thing, until…. Gwen spits Beth’s retainer out… with vomit on it…. And Beth slips it back in her mouth, making Lindsay vomit- all over Gwen. Gross. Just gross. Also paints Beth in a bad light, a truly terrible episode for Beth. Heather knows Gwen is up to something and DJ runs up to Chef exclaiming about his pride and Chef has a pretty funny monologue. “Pride? Pride and two bucks will get you a coffee, what a man needs is loyalty… I used to be like you, younge, dumb, kinda ugly but you got a gift, don’t waste it… like I did.” I always found that funny because when I was a kid when I told my dad I loved him he used to say “That and 50 cents will get me a small coffee at Tim’s”, just one of those childhood things that I find so funny now. We needed 100 more of these scenes to make the plot line worth it but bad news, we got 0 more. The Gaffers get the shovel and we get to the next part of the challenge.
In this part they need to push a laundry cart and dig under a wall. I don't HATE this challenge set up because they explain it'll be in two parts but it still is just two parts that vaguely fit together for the episode theme. So DJ with new found confidence volunteers to push the team, but Gwen talks him out of it and decides she will push the laundry cart, winking at the grips while she does. On the other side Owen fakes a trick knee, and Lindsay asks Justin for some real manliness, Justin of course not wanting to do any challenge says he can't do it because it will look too unfair and talks Lindsay into pushing. Just more great Justin stuff he has so many character scenes this season it's amazing. The race begins and Gwen takes off, while Lindsay can hardly push. Beth calls out "Wow Gwen, you're going so fast. Much faster than TRENT ever could'' our heroic, nice, protagonist everyone! So Gwen fakes a cramp and Heather calls her out, knowing she is up to something. This is an indicator of how GOOD this plot with Gwen could be on a different season. We have the teams interacting, we have interesting team dynamics, we have a way to get our weaker tribe on even footing without random chance, but we can't do that because we are down to 9 people in episode 7. Gwen throwing shows Justin, Beth, Heather, Duncan, and Gwen showing character or interacting with one another. This one episode plot is better than most of the multi episode arcs this season. So the Grips start digging as do the Gaffers, fearing the win Gwen smashes the shovel over Harold's back. Harold then explains how this is how prison works and he is now attracted to Gwen. Again watch for Harold as a narrator for this stretch of episodes. The Grips are about to eat their way out when my nightmare happens, Izzy finds them in the tunnel as 2nd in command Groundhog. I wrote another long write-up about returning players, it boils down to I don’t like it but since it is so unimportant to the season it really turned into a neutral. Right before the challenge ends we get a VERY odd scene between Chef and Chris, where Chris asks if he is busy and wants to hangout but Chef has no interest whatsoever. This is another really half baked plot line I will get to in the last part because that is when it comes up again, but Chris and Chef’s friendship is a plot line to keep and eye on. So, the Gaffers lose and need to vote someone off which seems to be Heather. Izzy joins the Grips and my rage of one of my least favorite characters rejoining the game after I was freed of her cannot be matched. We have Owen and Izzy flirting with each other and we get to the vote. Gwen goes home over Heather and Heather calls her a loser. We find out that Heather, Leshawna and Harold all vote for Gwen, adding to Leshawna taking care of Harold and looking out for him, and Gwen also votes for herself. On the way out she exchanges goodbyes with Duncan and gets in to ride off to Toronto.
Gwen is very odd this season. Again, since it is an All-Star season, where does a winner go? Winners (especially on All-Star Survivor) usually get worse because… they’ve won already. We saw 27 episodes of Gwen interacting when she was the main focus, now we get 6 of her being the main focus but in a negative way. She is written into the corner because we wanted the big dramatic moment to happen with her and Trent breaking up, and since we cannot keep her cheating because the teams are so small, we need to get rid of her. I think Gwen is a character that had no hope in this season and it sucks because the cheating plot line is at least interesting and I think the Trent plot is at least a thing that happens. Gwen’s main trait everyone hates shows up here and really it just sucks she couldn’t have been used more in this season. I find it really hard to hate Gwen but that’s what OG winner status gives you.
One Flu Over the Cuckoo’s is an episode that barely needs talking about. It is a reward challenge and has maybe two important scenes overall. This episode’s challenge is just confusing and we will just try to run through it as fast as possible. DJ is making pizzas with Chef because they need to study like they are in Med school. We get Beth thirsting over Justin when he asks if he squints when he reads and Beth responds with “Your shirt is distracting me, maybe” and before the thought is even finished, Justin throws his shirt off, lmao, again I love Justin. Beth then reads to him so he can spare his beautiful eyes. Izzy and Owen then get to have their moment where she eats hands free pizza and Owen is very pleased, They get dueling confessionals where they are happy to be with each other like Pizzmas. Leshwana and Duncan ditch the studying because it is just a reward challenge and she tries to get him in an alliance with Harold, to this, Duncan just laughs. We know that they don’t get along but we haven’t really seen it in any of these episodes still. Just a weird thing to note, but it does heat up in this episode. So the challenge is answering questions and assembling a cadaver. The only thing of note is the Duncan and Harold rivalry finally starting up in this season. Duncan pushes Harold to the ground and steps on his nuts, also known as a gas pedal, and then pantsed by Duncan, as he’s about to p[ull out a “Kay-ra-tay” move on him Leshawna separates them and tells Duncan to get out of Harold’s grill. She then pitches the alliance to Harold which he immediately declines, calling Duncan a worthless punk in his confessional and revealing his middle name is Dorris. Something of note before we really jump forward is the nastiness that this Harold vs Duncan showdown goes to. I mean, Harold calls him a “worthless punk” that’s like, REALLY mean. And it really gets worse. Anyways, the Grips and Gaffers are pulling the cadavers to the top in a race for first, however they notice a sore on Owen. On top of other symptoms, they realize he has an infectious and fatal disease. This then shows everyone else having symptoms, except for Duncan and Leshwana. Also shows that Leshawna is the only one to know that there is no way it is real because they are on a T.V show. We get more Beth thirsting for Justin, wanting to press her lips against his before she dies and Heather writing her will. Something to note, Heather gets a lot of content in this episode for really the first time all season. So, they explain that it was all a hoax and mind tricks and Owen gets released from his bubble filling the room with fart smell, great.. Leshwana tries one more time to get an alliance and Duncan refuses, calling him Dorris. Harold expresses that he would be in one with Leshawna but never with Duncan. Chris comes back with the reward which is a night away with your best friend. Which is weird, Harold has his brother, Duncan has his dad, Heather has her mom and does DJ and Leshwana has her best cousin Lashaniqua. Leshawna fake-cries to get the reward and the Gaffers all vote her to go. She then laughs at them for falling for her trick. This is an actually pretty well done plot line and it lasts more than two episodes which is rare for TDA. This is a plot that people aren’t super fond of and I don’t know why. In my opinion it gives Leshawna something to do. But, overall this episode doesn’t do much for the main plot and is just around. It adds fuel to Harold/Duncan and gives Leshawna things to do. A low point for sure.
The Sandwitch Project is next and I feel like this episode reveals the major problem in the first half of TDA, who is our main character? We don't need a single lead but it helps the narrative, which is TDA's biggest issue. So far, Trent and Gwen have been the main focus of the season but they are both gone. So where does our focus go? Harold and Duncan have finally started their rivalry, and Leshawna has been flying low. Since DJ is going here and Heather was never making it into the merge, we have to go over to the Grips. Owen and Izzy are out as they both have the comedy role and so we are left with Beth, Lindsay and Justin. This is where Lindsay gets her first push as leader, and nobody likes it in universe. It's a weird place to put the Lindsay push because Justin is RIGHT there. The villain, the antagonist, he has the chance to control the team right now and we give it to Lindsay? Just a choice that was made that confuses me. However, it does strengthen the theme of Leader vs Team Players and individual strength. Beth is a great advisor to Lindsay in a later episode, and Lindsay gets in trouble quickly. So this is really where the Lindsay push starts, while everyone else settles into the role they'll take the next 4 episodes or so. Without further ado though let's get to the episode.
We open up with a REALLY GOOD scene. And I mean like, this is maybe the best scene in TD history, the contestants just hanging out. Justin and Duncan are playing soccer, Leshwana, Harold , Izzy and Owen are playing cards, Heather is sun bathing and Beth and Lindsay are goofing off while DJ sleeps. Something TDA starts doing is showing the contestants just hanging out, or interacting without the game going on around them. It’s cool because the competition lasts for 2 or 3 months so doing things is PART of the competition. Beth shows off her juggling and everyone takes her sandwiches, as she tries to stand up for herself Heather calls Beth and Lindsay spineless followers, this cuts to Lindsay’s confessional holding up an X-ray explaining she has a spine, and that she has great ideas, she’s always the third vote when her sisters want to decide something. She realizes how she has been and resolves to change and we start Lindsay’s rise as the Killer Grips leader, which is not a position you want to be in at any time. They also question why DJ is so tired in which it cuts to a flashback of him making sandwiches and throwing a spoon at Chef while scared. This sub plot is so tired at this point that nothing else really that interesting happens in it. Chris calls them to the challenge and he fakes getting impaled by a spike. This is where the very real and canon fact that wasn’t made up at all for this episode that Beth cannot “scream worth a darn”. He asks if anyone wants to know how he did it to which everyone replies “No” except for DJ who says “Hecks yeah”. We get the Horror challenge, this starts with a scream off to see who is “Attacker” or “Defender” in the next part of the challenge. Which is a set up I hate but whatever. The Grips are all arguing on who should be the killer with Izzy saying it should be her, but Owen saying she is too cute, and Justin wanting to be the killer for face protection and to not risk his pipes, which Beth is too hot and bothered to do anything about. Good thing she is single otherwise this would be really weird. Lindsay then takes charge and yells that Beth will be the killer because she cannot scream and she is putting her foot down, and this is even the correct play! Lindsay then says how much she loved being in charge. The Gaffers all agree that Duncan should be the killer to which Chef insists that DJ needs to do it. So we get off to the challenge, Harold screams louder than Justin, Lindsay has an accidental tinkle again and screams louder than Leshawna who just laughs at DJ. Hearing this, Chef realizes that he will need to step up. We then get the make-out scene and Owen and Izzy are way too distracted to even be threatened by Beth saying she’ll chop them up into teriyaki bits. They let out a little scream while Duncan and Heather kiss and Heather screams because Duncan “tastes like street” and she screams louder than Owen and Izzy. So when Chef comes in with a chainsaw and makes DJ pass out, it seems kinda pointless, again and again and again the “”””CHEATING””””” has been nothing so why even have it? It makes me so mad that this plot takes up ANY time when it is just so whatever and has no bearing on anything. Heather beat Owen and Izzy WITHOUT Chef, so Chef coming in only serves that specific plot, and the worst type of character or plot is one who only makes themselves good. We get a dream sequence of DJ meeting his Mama in heaven… or cloud world I guess and she slaps DJ saying her Devon Joseph would never lie. It turns out Heather is slapping him and he wants to talk to Chef, but Chef is in a disciplinary meeting with the producers, to which Leshwana mentions she knew something was up but does nothing about it because the characters care as much about this plot as I do.
We move onto the next part of the challenge where the Grips need to stay in the Craft Services Tent the whole night. Chris tells them a story about Ronnie the Rent a Cop, which is an amazing reference to 6Teen, and gives them some ghost hunting gadgets. Since nothing else of substance happens this episode I want to talk about the team energy and dynamics. The team energy is an often overlooked aspect of what makes a season great or bad. For example, the Killer Bass are very much the Unlucky Losers. They are less than the sum of their parts and cannot get it together no matter how good their team is. This plays perfectly off the Gophers more “No Fun Allowed” attitude. Heather controls Beth and Lindsay, Trent, Gwen, Noah, Justin and Leshawna are too cool for school and anyone who tries to have fun gets shut down, see Izzy/Owen/Cody. The Grips this season is what I call “Crack-Head Energy”. They are all narcissistic, delirious at times, and just wack- with no one to ruin their fun or tether them to earth. It would have been Trent but he went wacko over his relationship with Gwen. So we get a pure ball of energy that is really fun every time we see them on screen. The Gaffers on the other hand, again for the green team, are the No-Fun tribe. DJ’s plot with Chef sucks energy out of him, Harold and Duncan fighting isn’t fun, Leshawna trying and failing to get an alliance with them is painful at times not to mention her lie, and Heather just kills fun as her character. Not to say the Gaffers aren’t funny, but the energy they put off is harsh (which is part of the charm). They don’t really have any unbridled joy- just straight business. Just something to note how a certain someone changes the show in a… way. We’ll get to it. Anyways, the Gaffers need to get the Grips to leave the Tent to win immunity. Harold uses his Magic Steve’s Magic Camp abilities to put a hook through Duncan’s soccer ball, aka the Phantasm Ball!! Initially the crack-heads, I mean Grips, run out except for Lindsay, who demands they stay. Only to reveal that it is in fact a ball. Duncan then proceeds to punch Harold. I only mention this because for how big a rivalry this is, it barely has shown up still. Duncan then advises them how to make fake blood to scare them. We get ANOTHER throw away comment about how DJ knows his way around the kitchen. Duncan explains he is good at making fake blood and Leshwana is respectful until Duncan reveals how he gave 4 kindergartners seizures. Really underrated moment I laughed for way too long. So the Grips are playing cards until the walls start bleeding, they scamper away until Lindsay again tells them to stop and forces Owen to lick the walls. DJ then steps up and they come up with a Rube Goldberg Machine of a plan after being told that Mama isn’t around. There is a quick moment of the Grips playing cards and Lindsay saying “Give me your twos” showing that her bossiness has now become her personality. Duncan cuts the power, Leshawna does some moaning and Harold suspends Heather from a rope in a mall cop outfit successfully scaring the Grips from the tent and winning the Gaffers immunity. DJ sees his Mama once more in Heather hanging there. We get the gilded Chris ceremony and Chef is back in the dress (haha) and it gets down between Justin and Lindsay. Lindsay is supposed to go home here if DJ doesn’t quit and Beth mentions “You were a little bossy” wow, thanks Beth, the best protagonist we have ever had. As I mentioned previously, no clue why Justin wasn’t the main focus here, then he has a fall from “grace” in two episodes where no one thinks he’s that hot anymore. So adding on that he becomes way too outwardly bossy would be a good explanation, but instead we get them not liking Lindsay is bossy to just listening to her and who cares. That always bothered me, but DJ quits, exposing his alliance with Chef and making Mama proud. He does stand up to Che and everyone “Awwwws” his exit and instead of getting a genuinely touching moment, Owen runs after him asking if DJ can still send food. Because Action cannot even give a halfway decent send off to any character.
DJ, as you can tell, is a character I do not like that much. It’s odd because I feel like most people really like DJ and the most negative is being neutral on him but I think it’s because people forget or misinterpret DJ as a character. He is a pure comedy character. The first season he is a big guy, the biggest guy out there, who likes Bunnies, loves his Mama and does ribbon dancing. Then World Tour, the animal curse arc is supposed to be funny. Action is the closest he gets to being a more serious arc but again, it is usually played for laughs. Chef needs DJ so he can get one liners and build on his own character. Dj’s whole character is a joke- big guy who is actually soft and to think of him any other way is a miss in my opinion. Action DJ is just bad. I see a lot of praise for this plot line with Chef but at best, it is unfinished and ends too soon because we need to even up the Grips with the Gaffers, while still having the Gaffers be the dominant team. The writer’s i guess realized they wouldn’t be able to continue this sub-plot so they axed it before anything even happened with it. None of the cheating even mattered, and if it did, it makes the season worse. Even when we find out DJ got fresh clothes, letters from home etc, he never made a difference in the challenges, it is all fake bullshit TDA does to pretend like this plotline is worth giving a damn about. The main purpose of any interaction should be to either explain or make another plot better. Cody and Trent’s one off interaction on Boney Island has more of an impact than the entirety of this plot. It only serves itself, which makes it bad in my eyes. A huge problem with this part of the season is that a lot of stuff doesn’t matter that much. We will see it with Izzy, we saw it with Gwen and it is here with DJ. DJ isn’t the worst character, but he is a comedy character that keeps getting put in unfunny parts of the seasons he is on. Thank the Gods we can move on until the Aftermath 2.
Masters of Disaster is the next episode and it is another reward challenge. Hooray. What's more, it is a challenge that is mind meldingly dumb. So we start off and everyone is back to hating the food that is being served. And Beth lets us know a secret. Something no one saw coming- words heard around the world. “I really miss my boyfriend Keith”. No but this is the second worst boyfriend reveal in which Beth says she has a boyfriend, Brady. She is asked when they met which she says was between seasons, which Lindsay points out was 2 days. Beth only agrees to go out with Brady also because he got his braces off. When probed further, she pulls out a headshot of him and reads the facts out, Justin exposes her as having Brady’s comp card and he knows what that is because, he is a “Professional, MALE model (Thank you Justin for pulling me back in to the show when it starts to lose me). Leshwana has the perfect response of “You’ve been chasing boys out here and have had a honey back home all this time?” To which Beth responds “Yeah but Brady is a regular guy, Justin is a Supermodel, with my braces off it is a whole new dating game”. Recently there were posts essentially complaining that certain characters that cheat get way more hate than others. To that I say- it is all based on presentation. When Bridgette kisses Alejandro in WT she is immediately sorry and regretful. Sky meets Dave with hostility and refuses to be wrong. Beth is REVELING in her attraction to Justin while knowing Brady is waiting back home and then she WINS. And Justin isn’t the only guy!! This is just such a bad look for Beth and a direct contributor as to why she is (or at least was) an unpopular finalist. Beth only really becomes a big character in the last stretch of episodes and they do a quick turn around which we will see. We learn that Harold had his kidneys switched at birth and he loads up on bendy straws. Challenge time, they have to run up an earthquake machine. Beth mentions her boyfriend 1000 more times and no, it isn’t funny. In a way it shows that Beth is getting walked all over and we are supposed to be super happy that Brady is in fact real at the end of the show but since Beth is such an unlikeable character it really doesn’t land. We get Chef throwing things at them, then Chris starts shooting Golf Balls at them- hitting Justin when Justin complains he will never get his skin care contract, and he is no longer silky smooth. Chris and Chef have their cute little quoting Star Wars moment and Chef goes back up. Owen and Izzy are arguing over who should go first, and as Owen climbs over the wall- Chef throws his unpublished manifesto- shattering Owen’s jaw. An actual injury of a player, really the first after Cody, but first in total that affects them in later episodes of the season. The Grips win because Chris makes the rules up and everyone looks on with dismay as Owen is carted away, hoping he is a Fast Healer like Cody. Of course we try to save Beth’s image by having her be concerned about Owen and sad he cannot eat. Great recovery there. The second part of the challenge is escaping a submarine. They give the Grips, since the “Won” the combination to the door, which is why this challenge sucks so hard. If the Grips weren’t the crackhead team, they just use the combo on the door. Like, it isn’t hard in the slightest. But luckily for us, they are crackheads, so the subs start filling with water and Beth exclaims how she can stand next to Justin all day. Lindsay and Justin drop the paper in the water ruining the combination- to which Izzy responds “I’m surrounded by Loons” yeah, because I want Izzy to be the voice of reason after a great Lindsay episode, no idea how we could have made this scene better. Justin mentions how he wants to learn underwater modeling and Beth nearly loses her mind at the thought of having both Justin and Brady. Weird, uncomfy, terrible- our protagonist for the last 6 episodes everyone. Moving on from the energetic yet boring team, the Gaffers are trying to get out, which you wouldn’t be able to unless you had the combo, again- fuck this challenge. Harold is going to pick the lock using his skills from Picky Steve’s Lockpick camp, Duncan trips him in the water and Harold is unable to open the door as the water rises. The lever breaks as Chef and Chris play poker and Chris starts stressing. It’s always nice to see Chris and Chef have emotions and this odd little plot of them being friends will continue in the season. The doors above reveal fire and Heather clings to Duncan for safety (happy fanon week), Leshawna cries and as Harold comforts her she exclaims “Leshwana never cries!!” Now exposing the lie of her fake crying to get the reward is done so poorly, but how else would they do it? Duncan kinda just says “Oh you were faking” and then that’s that. At least it sticks around for a while longer to have some fallout. Harold stands up for her, stating how great she is to be a teammate of and remembers he has his bendy straws, makes a snorkel and drains the water. The Gaffers win and instead of going on an 8 day hike they take chips and pop. Owen promises to not sue if he can have soda and chip blendees with the Gaffers, which I am sure will not set up a plot for the next episode involving the bathroom. This episode is annoying. It sinks Beth’s character, does nothing interesting with Lindsay, makes Izzy the voice of reason for no reason, blows Leshawna’s spot up in a pretty lame way, and has Owen get hurt for really no reason except for an excuse for him to go crazy in a couple episodes but he was shown to be a shell of TDI Owen before this anyways. Overall a weak episode that sets up a bad joke and ruins their main character- what were they thinking?
(Part 2 to be posted)

I was first introduced to One Piece about a year ago. 4 months of heavy binge watching (I have no life) got me through the first 1000 episodes.
About a week ago, I decided that I was suffering from One Piece withdrawals and began binge watching all over again. Here are some Easter Eggs I missed. Please let me know if there are others

1. First Season Intro: Dragon is hinted at as a Character who will have relevance to the story. He is shown with the villains for the first season along with Smoker so I don't think that this foreshadows him as a villain.
2. First Season Intro: there will be a point in the story when Luffy will actively travel with Sea Kings at his side. This hasn't happened yet and I haven't rewatched the Fishman Island Arc again. However it seems to me that The 1000 Sunny won't be Luffy's final ship. Instead it will be Noah's Ark. But This is pure conjecture based off of what I know about Joy Boy, the lost century and what was covered in the Fishman Island Arc.
3. Episode 4: Red haired shanks lied to Luffy about his devil fruit. Because Luffy is an idiot, trust Shanks and is a little kid, he believes Shanks. (at least this is my understanding based off of current information) which gives the audience a false sense of security about the plot.
4. This is also the first hint of Haki (conquerors specifically)
5. This is also the episode where we discover that the Straw Hats will have 10 members. Maybe this is a core crew, but I think it will be the total for the whole show.
6. Episode 53: here we're officially introduced to Dragon, and He is smiling as he saves Luffy from Smoker. This could either be because of his getting the upper hand on the navy or he's happy to see his son and his progress.
7. Same Episode Multiple wind gusts occur bringing everyone together and giving Luffy and company a favorable outcome. This is either plot armor, a subtle hint of Dragon's Devil Fruit powers (or another person's) or both. I personally am leaning towards both because It's a little too convenient and Buggy and Alvida also benefit from these sudden gusts of wind while the government does not. As the world's greatest criminal, it makes sense that this could be Dragon's power on display.
8. Same Episode: Smoker and Dragon Foreshadow Luffy's Destiny. Smoker foreshadows Luffy's and Gol D Roger's shared spirit. While Dragon is foreshadowing (at least from my perspective) Luffy's shared path with Joy Boy.
9. Same Episode: Dragon's smile and happiness indicates that there is a shared relationship/connection because otherwise there is no reason for him to get involved. It is my belief that this show of emotion is Dragon's love/pride for his son.
10. Same Episode: Smoker under the guise of chasing a Pirate is chasing his hunch that Luffy is going to become the King of the Pirates.
11. Season 2 opening song: During Gol D Roger's monologue as we are seeing all of the characters and those who are connected to their past, Red-Haired Shanks and his crew are shown with Gol D Roger indicating that there is a direct connection between Buggy, Shanks and The Pirate King.
12. Episode 62: foreshadows Brook's existence. This is kind of a stretch because only Brook's captain is seen and Brook's ties could have been a creative redaction on Oda's part. However, Luffy's echoing that promise is a strong indicator that someone tied to Laboon will be involved with the crew.
13. Episode 66: our second hint at Haki is on display during Luffy and Zoro's fight. It is at the climax of the battle when an invisible energy is highlighted and surrounds them. Because this is so brief and because it is so early on, it is easy to overlook.
14. Episode 72: This is our third glimpse of Haki. During Dorry and Broggy's fight, the two of them send out a shockwave that only Luffy senses. It is so immense that it knocks Luffy over with a sense of awe. None of the other observers are knocked over despite Luffy being the strongest human character present.
15. Same Episode: This is the first time that the Luffy Pirates are called the Straw Hats.

That's all I have picked up so far. Again, let me know what you guys think and if there were any that I missed.

I think I have found potentially the main reason why Marika shattered the Elden Ring. I’m going to explain (with proof):

• what happened after Godwyn died,
• who ensha is,
• Miquella and Malenia’s close relationship with Godwyn,
• details of what happened at the battle of Aeonia,
• some extra stuff (some of it is just pure speculation)

Be warned that this post is full of major spoilers. I have also not finished the entire game so for some parts (farum azula and last boss battles) I’m relying on gameplay from others and the fextralife wiki.

1. Morgott’s monologue – the start of a puzzle

When you fight Morgott in Leyndell he goes over all the thrones around him:
“Godrick The Golden. The twin prodigies, Miquella and Malenia. General Radahn. Praetor Rykard. Lunar Princess Ranni. Willful traitors, all.”
This really confused me; how can Godrick and Ranni both be there? Isn’t Godrick only distantly related to the others? For him to be allowed to sit on a throne you would think every other non-omen member of the golden lineage has to be dead and gone. But if Godwyn is dead, then why is ranni still there? Would nobody notice that the princess changed into a blue puppet with four arms? (you might also be surprised that Godrick is here referred to as “the golden” not “the grafted”)So I started looking where Godwyn and his family could possibly be. Boy o Boy have I discovered some stuff.

2. Godwin, Lord of Stormveil

You may have noticed that Stormveil isn’t defended by Godrick’s knights and soldiers. But instead by Banished Knights and Exiled Soldiers. Maybe these are mercenaries, like the horse riding men from Kaiden. However the banished knights use storm attacks and the emblem on their shield is also found on tapestry in the castle. There is also a painting of a banished knight. The emblem on their shield depicts what looks to be a dragon or a mixture of a lion and a dragon. If one of the knights drops its helmet or chest armor you’d see that it is ‘(altered)’ but you can’t alter it yourself. The same armor is also found in the roundtable hold.
​
Golden version of the Banished Knight armor found in Leyndell
Unaltered Banished Knight armor
Claim: *Banished knights and exiled soldiers used to serve Godwyn and his family.*Evidence:

• Dragon on the top the helmet of banished knights
• (dragon?) horns on the armor
• The dragon/lion creature can be found on some of the tapestry in Stormveil.
• The armor itself is also prominently placed in the roundtable hold and several places in Leyndell.
• There is also a painting of a banished knight in Stormveil.
• These knights can use storm attacks.
• The armor is ‘(altered)’ but you cannot change it yourself. However if you explore every part of Stormveil, or go to the Cathedral of dragon communion, you will find a banished knight with the other version of the helmet. The knights with this helmet can spew dragonfire.
• Attached to the helmet is extremely long hair. One of the few things we know about Godwyn is that he had long, golden and unbraided(!) hair. This would be similar to the red hair on the Cleanrot Helm.
• There are 2 banished knights guarding what’s left of the cathedral.
• If you go to the perfumers(?) building in the capital where you can find one of the Dung eater’s victims there are versions of this armor that are bright gold.
• The unaltered version of the chest armor is found in (I think) only one place: Castle Sol. Dropped by the dual-wielding teleporting knight who probably made you have a little accident in your pantalones.
• Two banished knights have names: Oleg and Engvall. These are spirit ashes. They were referred to as the : “wings of the storm”.
• Edgar, The warden of Castle Morne wears the banished knight armor and Godrick wears it on his left foot
• All the locations where you find these men are linked to Godwyn.

There are 2 surviving commanders of Godwyn’s army: Niall and O’Neill. O’Neill fought with Malenia against Radahn. O’Neill was ordered by Miquella to create an eclipse. See the paragraph on “The last battle of the golden lineage” and the one on Castle Sol respectively for more information on them. If you use to skill of the standard they use and take a picture at the right time you’ll see:
Commander's Standard
To compare:
Banished Knight Shield
The same crest on tapestry in Stormveil Castle
Q: “wasn’t Godfrey the last lord of Stormveil?”. Evidence against this:

• Its quite likely that Godfrey did not spend time sitting on any throne. He was the lord of the battlefield after all and becomes tarnished as soon as he defeats his last worthy opponent.
• The first elden lord doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who would have a statue of himself behind his own throne.
• Godfrey uses bestial incantations (likely because of Sekosh). Godrick uses bestial incantions, stormwind and dragonfire.
• Who was sitting on the thrones in Stormveil and in The first Manor in Leyndell when Radagon was elden lord?

Possible counter evidence is that Nepheli Loux has a connection with the ancient storm (had a hawk as a child, uses the stormhawk axe and talks about summoning the storm).
There is also Godwyn’s first/second body under the castle. If you walk on top of it and look down (use a light source) you’ll see that it isn’t just his head but an entire body – scar included!
On the ‘info items’ page on the wiki there are 2 items that are (possibly) not in the game. Carrier pigeon letters. They are related to I think Ensha’s quest to find Latenna. The second letter mentions: Godwyn’s highroad. This is i pressume the road from Stormveil to Castle Morne.
Finally there is the golden epitaph. A sword that Miquella made to commemorate the death of Godwyn. You know its Miquella because of the haligtree symbol that appears when you use its skill. Look closely at the hilt of the sword (haven’t got a screenshot of this) – to me this resembles the golden rooftops of stormveil towers.
Btw: If you read this entire post and listen to Godrick’s dialogue again you’ll understand the deeper meaning of his words.

3. The Stormcaller church

Claim: *Radagon/the fundamentalists had Godwyn’s statue in the stormcaller church replaced with one of the second elden lord.*Evidence:
Go to the ‘rampartside path’ site of grace just to the west of the outer wall of Leyndell.

• First you’ll be greeted with golden lightning
• Then there is the sainted hero’s grave. The entrance is guarded by a black knife assassin. In this building you’ll find the ancient dragon knight Kristoff.
• In the middle of this small plateau is a “sword memorial” that states: “The Routing of the Ancient DragonsGodwyn the Golden fought to the last,Earning the friendship of dread Fortissax” this is possible the largest memorial in the game. The swords visually lead you to a church.But we are first going to the east where you’re going to find the ancient dragon Lansseax. She was the sister of Fortissax and was a priest of the Dragon Cult.
• The Stormcaller church. What is stormcalling? Spoiler: Calling for Farum Azula (“the ancient storm”) and using the power of lightning.You’ll notice that the church is still guarded by leyndell men. Which is somewhat unusual.There is a chest here with a “superior incantation of the capital’s ancient dragon cult” called Dragonbolt blessing. The description tells you that “only those loved by dragons can survive the ordeal of cladding their bodies in lightning”.Then you’re still ignoring the statue itself and look at the items around it: gravel stone. The scales of ancient dragons. Now you finally look up: and behold! A statue of the redhaired bastard! Except off course his hair is gold – but those are details not to be pondered by a lowly tarnished.

Behind this church hidden in the woods is a statue of Malenia consoling Miquella. This statue looks to be older than the one of Radagon and used to be gold. They are figuratively hiding from their father and/or the events that took place around here. If you would have worked for the creepy doll guy (seluvis) then he would have send you here to pick up amber starlight. He would then use it to create a potion to take control of Ranni (or something like that – I married the witch). This item is very interesting given what you’ll learn in Castle Sol.

4. Cult and Communion

At first I was under the impression that the dragon cult and dragon communion are two different and possibly opposing factions. However the church and cathedral are full of ancient dragon statues. In each building there is an ancient dragon on top of the rubble. The moveset of the malformed tree sentinels tells you a lot. They use both dragon fire and red lightning. To use the former you need to eat dragonhearts, the latter requires you to have gone to Farum Azula. Red lightning is what the ancient dragons themself use, while golden lightning is (possibly) Godwyn’s interpretation created when he founded the cult. The red lighting spells you didn’t get from bosses are gained from the Ancient Dragon Prayerbook which is found in Farum Azula. The description states that it never reached the lands between. There is also a malformed tree sentinel in farum azula (according to the wiki – I haven’t been there). Ancient dragons don’t have hearts (are immortal) and given descriptions like the one of the dragon king’s cragblade its possibly that they look down upon their mortal kin. From the malformed armor set you learn that tree sentinels decided to acquire the power of dragons after Grossax attacked. The bowl fire thing in the church/cathedral also has a lion emblem (it should be noted that Sekosh used to be the lord of beasts… So dragon communion could be a lot older).
There is an interesting duality with the ancient dragons where their culture is about defense:

• forming a wall of living rock to protect your lord (see the talismans);
• gravel rock that can’t expand (fight offensive wars) only defend and slowly crumble (and lose everything in the process);
• Most/all dragons you encounter are defending something - Grossax was likely just defending his crumbling kingdom (remember that the dragon’s used to rule over everything);

and even deep affection: Fortissax fighting the death within Godwyn (his “companion)”and Lansseax loving (platonic or not) the dragon knights. But their treatment of their mortal offspring and the culture of prehistoric beasts and the origin of life originating from the crucible in general is all about chaos and survival of the fittest (see the bestial sanctum, dragon comm. Incantations requiring arcane,..).
The only people who dragons seem to intentionally hunt are sorcerers (look at the description of glintstone dragon incantations). On a related note see the symmetry between Ranni + Azula and Godwyn + Fortissax.
What’s also noteworthy is the dragons in caelid. Close to the cathedral is the dragon ‘decaying ekzykes’ who is afflicted with the scarlet rot. His incantation says:“Ekzykes, Dragon Communion Revenger, did not forget his hatred even as he succumbed to the scarlet rot.”
Maybe this means revenge against the practice of dragon communion? More likely Ekzykes wants revenge for what happened to the cathedral and the dragons who lived there. In both the church and the cathedral all the statues have their heads cut off. The dead ancient dragon that you find in the ruins also has its wings and a horn cut off. So someone (likely an army) attacked and destroyed these buildings and the dragons there. From the dragonbarrow map fragment you learn that the dragon’s that escaped the scarlet rot made nest in the north. Since Greyoll is the mother of all (mortal) dragons maybe whoever attacked the cathedral also wanted to kill greyoll and thereby cause the dragon’s extinction. Who would be against the dragon temples and worried about the dragons themselves? Given the location and other information i’ve given it seems likely that this is either Radahn or Rykard’s work. Not Radagon or Morgott since the remains of Grossax in the capital are left alone, leyndell soldiers still use lightning (radagon too) and Morgott even invites the wings of the storm back. Not Malenia or Miquella since they are attached to Godwyn. Not Gurranq/Maliketh since he is still allowed in Farum Azula. The scenario that too me seems plausible is that Radahn (and possibly Rykard) sacked the church and went to the cathedral to do the same. Radahn after all was in the neighborhood and we don’t have much evidence to suggest that Radahn was allied to the dragons. Malenia possibly pursuit him and/or maybe wanted to find allies amongst the dragons in Caelid and this is (maybe) a reason for the battle of Aeonia. (see “10. the last battle of the golden lineage” for some more information about the battle of aeonia)
The cult is consistently referred to as being based in the capital. But where in the city is their headquarters? If it is in the game the only location it could possibly be is the First Manor since:

• There is banished knight armor there
• A big throne like the elden lord throne and the throne in stormveil
• The building is right next to the remains of Grossax

So after the war certain knights began to revere the ancient dragons. But what did Godwyn become for the dragons? A friend, a steward (until their lord returns), a priest or a god?
Farum Azula used to be in the middle of the lands between encircled by the six divine towers. When and why did it leave?

5. Castle Sol

Castle Sol reveals a lot. When you travel to the castle you’ll see:

• A graveyard with deathroot
• A death rite bird (connected to death and to mausoleum knights who protect soulless demigods)
• Golden lighting
• A walking mausoleum
• The castle itself with the eclipse banner that is also on the shields of the mausoleum protectors.
• Inside there are lion guardians (associated with locations/people connected to Godfrey), hawks and spirit versions of exiled soldiers and banished knights

There are 2 spirits you can talk to

• one in the church: “Ohhh great sun! Frigid sun of sol! Surrender yourself to the eclipse! Grant life to the soulless bones!”
• And one at the top of the castle: “Lord Miquella, forgive me. The sun has not been swallowed. Our prayers were lacking. Your comrade remains soulless. I will never set my eyes upon it now… You divine Haligtree”

In the church you’ll find the “eclipse shotel”:“Storied sword and treasure of Castle Sol that depicts an eclipsed sun drained of color. One of the legendary armaments. In Sol, the sight of an eclipse inspires a dreadful awe, preventing an onlooker from averting his gaze.”
It has a unique skill – “Death flare”:“Set the lusterless sun ablaze with the Prince of Death's flames, inflicting the death ailment upon foes. Follow up with an additional input to bring down the armament, triggering an explosion.”
Commander Niall - the boss in the castle:

• Uses ice storm and lightning attacks
• Commands Banished knight spirits
• Has the same outfit as Commander O’Neill. After you defeat niall you can buy it from Enia at the roundtable. The description states:“Old armor that has seen many battles. Worn by Niall, the veteran general of Sol.Niall was a lone survivor who commanded spirits to defend his long-passed master.This aging general could not die, nor did he have anywhere to fade away.”
• The emblem on the front of the veteran’s armor is possibly a depiction of the ancient storm. The one on the back is either the eclipse or a ring of thorns (mark of the guilty). Just like the banished knight armor there are horns attached to his armor set. (note that the dung eater’s rune also kinda looks like the emblem)
• And was entrusted the other half of the secret medallion

Further points:

• There is a Stormhawk axe in the castle
• It’s interesting how Miquella and Ranni (and the nox) are after similar things: the eclipse = dark moon. If Ranni “wins” she might be able to revive Godwyn. Does she want to?
• The mending rune of the death prince and the law of causality kinda look like an eclipse.
• The sun itself isn’t gone but is greatly diminished. Contrast this with the moon. Which is also no longer a full moon. Most light comes from the erdtree. If you look at the sea you can sometimes see sunlight reflected on the water. I have never seen the sun itself.
• Look at the description of amber starlight and Sellen’s dialogue about amber and glintstone.
• See the crescent moon axe that some exile soldiers use
• See the icerind hatchet found close to raya lucaria. Was this send from Godwyn’s family or from the Nox (possibly previous inhabitants)?
• There are signs of an attack at the gate. Is this when Niall took over or is this when the bones where stolen?

6. Ensha is Godwyn

Evidence:

• Soulless king – when does losing your soul become a problem? How many kings are there?
• Soulless bones –> castle sol
• His hair
• The description of the “clinging bone” suggests grave robbery
• Gideon’s is researching if anyone can become elden lord. He kidnapped Nepheli, is no fan of omen people (omenkiller and his dialogue), and his men stole the bones.
• The person wearing the armor is possibly a drake knight (see the drake knight armour). These knights don’t / cannot speak.
• It fits Gideon’s character to never refer to his servant by name.
• On the armor is a candle. There are spirit candletrees around the world (where do they lead you too?) and real versions in the haligtree. This tree is mentioned in the description of two items: the candletree wooden shield (found in the sage’s cave) and the helphen’s steeple (dropped by a tibia mariner). The candle is also a part of the Miquella/Haligtree crest.
• Golden bones. The graveyard right next to the battlefield at the inner wall has skeletons with golden bones. Godwyn is also buried close by. There is a skeleton who drops the “sun realm shield”. Some skeletons wear a horned helmet you’ll also find in Radahn’s arena.
• Gideon takes a lot of time to say that ensha is dead:“Ensha is slain and gone. Finished, forever more.” Which seems to me like he is teasing you. (on a related note: Gideon doesn’t have much respect for Nepheli because she hasn’t figured out that trying to become all knowing means never becoming elden lord)
• There are potentially 2 bodies of Godwyn (one in leyndell one in stormveil). It also looks like there is not enough room to draw an entire circle on Godwyn/Ranni’s body.
• “lost and desperate”. The twins where lost and desperate when they fled to the north. The people of sol where lost and desperate when they couldn’t find a way to swallow the sun. The bones themselves are also lost and desperate.

But why the strange name? I’m wondering whether Godwyn did something similar to his mother and had his “other half” join the dragons. This would then be the stormlord that Godfrey fought alone near the end of his reign. Ensha sounds somewhat similar to names like “gurranq” and “Sekosh” (both used to serve the ancient dragons). If this is true than maybe fortissax recognized who Godwyn was and this is what ended the war.

7. The Haligtree

Statues
In the Ordina Liturgical town there are 4 identical statues of miquella. In the haligtree there are several newer versions of the statue of Malenia and Miquella that is hidden next to the stormcaller church. In the arena where you fight Royal Knight Loretta you’ll find a new similar looking statue of three people:
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Godwyn, Miquella and Malenia
Behold and cry your eyes out: Godwyn with his brother and sister.
Evidence:

• The grownup here has both arms
• The child on the right possibly doesn’t have a right arm
• The man/woman has a crown with flowers. There are only a couple of possible candidates for the kind of flower (many don’t have the correct shape) – very likely it is fulgurbloom. Fulgurbloom is (I think) found in locations with something related to Godwyn.
• Marika consistently is depicted with another type of crown (see her statues and painting)
• The crowns of all three are off similar design and I think are given to the demigods who are closest to being faerie/elven/numen like (possibly Marika’s favorites) (elpheal looks to be partly inspired by the elven cities in Lord of The Rings)
• Numen and their direct (non-omen) offspring look femine (elvish). Godwyn being Marika’s first born likely looked a lot like her.
• Castle Sol, Golden Epitaph, Stormcaller Church, Battle of Aeonia,..

In the church in Elphael there is another statue of someone holding a staff and looking up. Their hands look like those of a skeleton. The face is hidden. The character possibly depicts someone in pain or having a vision. Finally when you reach the area with scarlet rot lakes (where millicent’s sad quest comes to an end) you see the complete statue:
Those who live in death
Before Malenia’s arena you find the statue again this time lying down with a stone crown. Just like the bodies inside mausoleums but here with head attached. “O Brother, Lord Brother, please die a true death”.
The Miquellan Knights Sword
In the city there is a bell tower with a great view of the sea. The east where the sun rises. Here you’ll find a sword with the following description:
“ Sword forged by servants of Miquella of the Haligtree, with a design modeled after those carried by Carian knights. Instead of glintstone however, amber from the Haligtree is embedded in the blade.A sumptuous piece, yet it has never been offered to any knight — an ill-starred sword with no master. Skill: Sacred Blade”
My interpretation: When Godwyn rises from the dead and arrives at the capital the bell will ring and the sword will be given to him. Finally he has beaten the carians.
**Artificial Empyreans?**The nox have tried to create a new elden lord and ice dragons. Likely the albinaurics where also made by them. These people are mistreated (see their village, volcano manor and castle sol) and some where led to the haligtree. Could the female (first generation) albinaurics be an attempt to create empyreans? They all have a wolf (their “other half”). In that case the large albinauric woman that Latenna leads you to is maybe one that is capable of becoming the new vessel? I wonder who her Elden Lord will be...
There are no albinaurics in the haligtree itself. Is this really a safe place for them?
What did Godwyn do for his siblings?

• Protected them from the two fingers perhaps? The twins notably don’t have shadows (wolves). You can also find the dragoncrest greatshield talisman in Elphael. That talks about the association with ancient dragons and protection.
• Conspire to get rid of outer gods? (Miquella’s comrade. candletree as competitor to the guidance of grace)
• Teach them about the prehistoric age?
• Actually raise them? There is not that much to suggest that Radagon/Marika is a kind and capable parent.

8. Civil War

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Banished Knight Armor and Marred Wooden Shield
In front of the main gates of Leyndell are the remnants of an assault on the city. This looks to be the battle portrayed in the story trailer. However in that trailer you only see Godrick/Godefroy’s forces attacking the capital. But when you look at the armor that is scattered around it’s all banished knight armor and marred wooden shields (but here not ‘marred’). There are also red banners with a golden hawk similar to the hawk crest wooden shield (found in stormveil). We know from the great Kenneth Haight that Godrick fled the capital ‘amongst the womenfolk’ and that Godrick’s soldiers/knights are ‘what remains of the army that fled the royal capital’ [godrick soldier ashes].
Golden Hawk Standard
There is a memorial close to the second church of Marika that states:“The First Defense of LeyndellA sovereign alliance rots from withinTraces yet remain of bloody conspiracy”
From the Kristoff Ashes you’ll learn that Godefroy was captured by Kristoff after the battle. You can fight Godefroy in the Golden Lineage Evergaol close to this memorial.
This attack I think was caused by Radagon disowning Godwyn by removing his statue and creating valiant gargoyles from his remains after the greattree starts rotting. In retaliation Godwyn’s offspring attack the city. At this point the demigods that Morgott mentioned with the exception of Ranni and Godrick are still officially working together. But I suspect that Miquella & Malenia aid the assailers in some way and leave the capital with the royal remains. For their actions the attackers are punished:

• People closest to Godwyn/The worst offenders/the leaders are enslaved and are ordered to explore the eternal city (the company of the fallen hawk – the opposite of the golden hawk crest). Probably with the admonition that if they really want revenge for Godwyn they should hunt the actual perpetrators. The leaders of the fallen hawks are what are now the dragonkin soldiers. Notice that these creatures wear clothes (red, gold and black). Around them are thorns (<- mark of the guilty). Close to the dragonkin soldier in Siofra River you’ll find Marika’s scarseal the other version of this talisman is found in Elphael. Their cape on the back has an emblem that includes a snowflake in the middle (possibly they come from castle sol. You can find spirit versions in consecrated snowfield). I think you can see this same crest on a banner on the left side of the screen in the story trailer at around 1m52: https://youtu.be/K_03kFqWfqs?t=112
• Other knights are banished and their land is taken from them. (banished knight)
• Common soldiers are send to penal colonies. (exile soldier)

I think that when Marika is told that her youngest children have disappeared and her son’s men are punished that she shatters the Elden Ring.
Note that there is a memorial much closer to the battlefield that states:“The Second Defense of LeyndellThe Fell Omen stacks high the corpses of heroesYet the Erdtree remains unshaken”
So you would think that it describes what you are seeing around you. But this seems to be after the shattering since Morgott/Margit tries to gain access to the Erdtree by protecting it from potential Elden Lord candidates. Also, in the intro there is a depiction of him fighting (what looks like) Radahn. Furthermore it would make the armies that still had a major demigod as leader, look like amateurs if only Godwyn’s former forces ever managed to attack the capital (first defense: Godefroy; second defense: dragon knights). I also suspect that Rykard would be involved in the second defense (as an attacker) since he is geographically the closest and this would give a clear reason for the assault on Volcano Manor.
Some further points:

• The first defense has to be after the war against the dragons because Kristoff is an ancient dragon knight. However this makes it not really the first defense. Since Leyndell had to defend itself against Grossax. But its possibly that after Godwyn created the dragon cult that people acknowledged that the dragons where defending their own land. First and second defense could just mean of the war of the shattering.
• Notice that the ghost in the weeping peninsula that says: “The mausoleum prowls. Cradling the soulless demigod. O Marika, Queen Eternal. He is your unwanted child.” Is next to a church with a Radagon statue. What he is saying could be interpreted as a reminder to her (or even a command) not a statement of what she herself thought of her son.

And last but not least in a yt video of the song those bat ladies sing (“song of lament” - https://youtu.be/4gLYbrvNo7E) a commenter named “Chris Wheatley” translates it as:
" O locus ille, - "O that place"beatus quod nondum deminuit - "what hasn't the blessing already weakened?"nos destinatem matribus - "we'd been destined for motherhood"nunc fiunt turpes - "but now they've become sordid/disfigured (tarnished?)"ploravimus - "we cried out"lacrimavimusque - "and wept"sed nemo nos consolatus - "but no one has comforted us,"aureum qui irascebaris - "you who were enraged at the golden one"
I should point out that I can’t understand a word of latin and that other commenters seem to have a whole debate on whether his translation is correct.
second part (post was to long):
https://www.reddit.com/Eldenring/comments/u2wd2h/major_lore_discovery_the_civil_war_before_the/
I want to emphasize that I’m not claiming to be the first to discover any of this stuff. I made a reddit account specifically to post this. Sorry if I’m not referring to someone who had already uncovered some of the things that are described here. Please feel free to post links to those or your own theories.
Thank you!

A certain four footed fuzzy someone overindulged for Christmas and now has a rumbly in his tumbly. After the vet visit today I was given instructions that he was to be put on a bland diet and no people food for three days. I picked what I thought was the easier battle (fuzz face has the rest of my family wrapped around his paw) and made the trek to the forbidden land: the grocery store.
After a misadventure that resulted in coming back with unsalted butter, which is apparently the good stuff if you're a foodie. Myself and my family think it tastes of hopelessness and despair. As a result I was forever banned from the grocery store because I couldn't be trusted with the responsibility. Which I'm fine with.
So I need two things from the grocery store: lean hamburger and rice. (Spoiler: I got the wrong kind of rice) I find the hamburger easily enough, put it in my basket and move on to the quest for the rice aisle. I'm nearsighted and can't wear glasses and a mask so this isn't as easy as it sounds.
I wind up getting side tracked in my quest by the grandma candy display. The stuff is supposed to be priced on weight but there's a little box that says you can buy one piece for a nickel. I dig out a quarter and grab five pieces and surreptitiously lower my mask to pop a candy in my mouth.
It was then that I heard a little kid say excuse me, can I have one? And there's an adorable little girl with a my little pony mask on asking me for a candy and hitting me with maximum strength puppy dog eyes. I stood not a chance. I was going to just cough up the candy but I realized allergies are a thing and we'd need to get clearance before I fed anyone anything.
I told her absolutely, but we need to ask her mom or dad first to make sure it's okay. She says okay! Stay right there. I do as instructed, blissfully unaware of the horrors I'd wrought.
Maybe two minutes go by and I'm seriously considering wandering off, then I catch sight of the little girl again and she's leading a pregnant woman with a toddler in the cart seat... And five other children in tow. It was then that my inner monologue popped in and said, "you're gonna have a bad time."
The little girl then bustles up to me and turns to her mom and said this guy said he'd give me a piece of candy if you say it's okay. As soon as the word candy was uttered, the other five kids became the seagulls from finding nemo, except they were shouting candy! Instead of mine! All six descended on the grandma candy like locusts. One of the intrepid littler ones has actually started to climb the display to get to one of the upper bins.
Almost immediately a fight broke out between two of the kids over who got one specific piece of candy. Push became shove and next thing I know the whole candy display has toppled over. Candy is everywhere and I'm mortified. (The climber bailed to one side and was unhurt) I go to reach into my wallet for a five to cram into the now horizontal coin box when the woman starts shrieking at her brood, and when they ignore her she vents her rage at me:
Look what you made them do! I hope you don't expect me to pay for all that candy! Look at the mess! What are you going to do about this?!
I won't lie folks, like the brave Sir Robin I bravely ran away. Positively fled the scene. Hamscrayed. Beat feet. I'd signed up to give one cute kid a single piece of candy if it didn't result in swift death for the kid. That horror show was so far outside my pay grade it's not even funny.
I was so ready to be out of there I'll even admit I stopped to ask directions for where the rice could be found in the interests of fleeing the scene entirely. Yes, yes, I'll be mailing back my man card in the morning.
When I got home and it was discovered I had the wrong kind of rice it almost broke me. Happily enough someone competent to grocery shop took pity and got the right kind. In my defense I was told I needed to get not-instant rice. Nobody said nothing about not-instant not-bagged pre-cooked rice!

A certain four footed fuzzy someone overindulged for Christmas and now has a rumbly in his tumbly. After the vet visit today I was given instructions that he was to be put on a bland diet and no people food for three days. I picked what I thought was the easier battle (fuzz face has the rest of my family wrapped around his paw) and made the trek to the forbidden land: the grocery store.
After a misadventure that resulted in coming back with unsalted butter, which is apparently the good stuff if you're a foodie. Myself and my family think it tastes of hopelessness and despair. As a result I was forever banned from the grocery store because I couldn't be trusted with the responsibility. Which I'm fine with.
So I need two things from the grocery store: lean hamburger and rice. (Spoiler: I got the wrong kind of rice) I find the hamburger easily enough, put it in my basket and move on to the quest for the rice aisle. I'm nearsighted and can't wear glasses and a mask so this isn't as easy as it sounds.
I wind up getting side tracked in my quest by the grandma candy display. The stuff is supposed to be priced on weight but there's a little box that says you can buy one piece for a nickel. I dig out a quarter and grab five pieces and surreptitiously lower my mask to pop a candy in my mouth.
It was then that I heard a little kid say excuse me, can I have one? And there's an adorable little girl with a my little pony mask on asking me for a candy and hitting me with maximum strength puppy dog eyes. I stood not a chance. I was going to just cough up the candy but I realized allergies are a thing and we'd need to get clearance before I fed anyone anything.
I told her absolutely, but we need to ask her mom or dad first to make sure it's okay. She says okay! Stay right there. I do as instructed, blissfully unaware of the horrors I'd wrought.
Maybe two minutes go by and I'm seriously considering wandering off, then I catch sight of the little girl again and she's leading a pregnant woman with a toddler in the cart seat... And five other children in tow. It was then that my inner monologue popped in and said, "you're gonna have a bad time."
The little girl then bustles up to me and turns to her mom and said this guy said he'd give me a piece of candy if you say it's okay. As soon as the word candy was uttered, the other five kids became the seagulls from finding nemo, except they were shouting candy! Instead of mine! All six descended on the grandma candy like locusts. One of the intrepid littler ones has actually started to climb the display to get to one of the upper bins.
Almost immediately a fight broke out between two of the kids over who got one specific piece of candy. Push became shove and next thing I know the whole candy display has toppled over. Candy is everywhere and I'm mortified. (The climber bailed to one side and was unhurt) I go to reach into my wallet for a five to cram into the now horizontal coin box when the woman starts shrieking at her brood, and when they ignore her she vents her rage at me:
Look what you made them do! I hope you don't expect me to pay for all that candy! Look at the mess! What are you going to do about this?!
I won't lie folks, like the brave Sir Robin I bravely ran away. Positively fled the scene. Hamscrayed. Beat feet. I'd signed up to give one cute kid a single piece of candy if it didn't result in swift death for the kid. That horror show was so far outside my pay grade it's not even funny.
I was so ready to be out of there I'll even admit I stopped to ask directions for where the rice could be found in the interests of fleeing the scene entirely. Yes, yes, I'll be mailing back my man card in the morning.
When I got home and it was discovered I had the wrong kind of rice it almost broke me. Happily enough someone competent to grocery shop took pity and got the right kind. In my defense I was told I needed to get not-instant rice. Nobody said nothing about not-instant not-bagged pre-cooked rice!