Commemorative speech examples

People Fucking Dying

2015.12.30 18:37 PUSClFER People Fucking Dying

Videos and GIFs of people (figuratively) fucking dying.

2017.07.22 19:02 zbf 13 or 30

When you can't tell the age of the person.

2017.08.26 06:54 AlmostButNotQuit Life has limits

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2024.06.10 15:27 sabbah What is "Pinkwashing"?

What is

Please be advised: This content forms a segment of the "What Every Palestinian Should Know" series, presented by Handala on Palestine Today.
Pinkwashing refers to when a state or organization appeals to LGBTQ+ rights in order to deflect attention from its harmful practices.
From university student clubs to queer film festivals to Pride Parades to New York Times editorial pages, the contrived presence of the Israeli flag alongside the rainbow flag has become all too common, despite consistent pushback by queer activist groups. StandWithUs, a Zionist group founded in 2009, is one of the most egregious offenders of this conflation of Zionism and queer liberation. Buoyed by hundreds of millions of shekels allocated to the ‘Brand Israel’ initiative by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, it began a campaign that included brochures that declare Israel a “gay paradise” for queer Palestinians as well as provocative newspaper ads with headlines such as “Hamas, ISIS and Iran kill gays like me”.
This messaging has been deemed ‘pinkwashing’ by queer pro-Palestinian activists; widely in use since at least since 2010 by groups such as Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT) as a twist on “Greenwashing”, where companies claim to be eco-friendly in order to make a profit. In the case of Israel, pinkwashing is done to salvage its abysmal global reputation of being a colonial aggressor, through exploiting and even encouraging anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia to present itself as a comparatively modern cosmopolitan haven- and boost its tourism revenue in the process. Through my answer here, I will explore how pinkwashing functions and the detrimental impact it has had and continues to have on all Palestinians, but especially queer Palestinians. It will also push back against the idea, present even in some critiques of Israeli pinkwashing, that Israel would be a queer haven “if only” there was no occupation, or that Zionism and queer liberation could eventually become compatible.
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Background:
While pinkwashing does quite frequently operate as a propaganda or public relations strategy, a deeper understanding of how it functions regarding Palestine and Palestinians reveals that pinkwashing is also the inevitable manifestation of the intrinsically homophobic and Orientalist nature of Zionism, which itself is a manifestation of European colonial thought . As Palestinian queer rights organization Al Qaws has explained, “pinkwashing is the symptom, settler-colonialism is the root sickness.” The pinkwashing of Israel relies on the understanding that the East remains stubbornly backwards regarding homosexuality because of a refusal to learn from Western progressivism. However, as Joseph A. Boone outlines in “The Homoerotics of Orientalism”, this is ignoring several hundred years of history where “it was the uptight Christian West that accused the debauched Muslim East of harboring what it euphemistically called the ‘male vice’ (sodomy)”.
The Middle East was associated with ‘sexual deviancy’ and ‘effeminity’ whose mores and values good Christians must remain on guard against. The movements for modern nation-state building in what is now Turkey and Iran actually saw the adoption of heterosexual norms “at least in part as a response to the European representations of its civilizational ‘backwardness’ and sexual ‘irregularities’”. In Turkey, “unabashedly frank references to same-sex acts and desire were written out of the historical record and repressed from collective memory in the name of western style modernization”, while “the price of Persia’s emergence as the new Iranian nation-state was the official eclipse of its long-standing history of male homoerotic bonds as ‘pre-modern’ and the cultivation of heteroeroticism as the new norm.” Overall, the modern West was positively associated with heteronormativity which the Middle East was deemed in need of emulating in order to enter the realm of progressive modernity.
There is a long, complicated history of homophobic aspersions between not only the constructed binary of the East and West, but also between, for example, the Abbasid Caliphate and the Persian empire, with the former blaming the latter for being a “gay influence”. That today, many Islamic conservatives depict homosexuality as a foreign contagion in the name of nation-building and “cultural authenticity” is merely an outgrowth of the aforementioned historical relations. In the process, the history of homoerotic relations among males once intricately interwoven into the fabric of Muslim culture is being erased and denied.
This is not to oversimplify how homophobia functions in the Middle East, or to lay blame on the West; rather, it is to understand that current depictions of homophobia in the region as resistance to “Western modernity” obscures how these understandings of sexuality we have today, are in fact modern; they are the result of modern nation-state building and the accompanying construction of the “Other” as inferior, to be stigmatized, exploited and discriminated against.
It also obscures how the present-day colloquial deployment of “Islamic sexual repression” narratives currently plaguing human rights, liberal queer, and feminist discourses came to be. This paradox at the heart of Orientalist notions of sexuality, where Muslims are simultaneously hypersexual and repressed, informs the dehumanization of Muslims in general and the sexual violence enacted against the prisoners deemed “terrorists” (whether by the U.S. or Israel) in particular.
Which leads to how the discursive strategy of how racist understandings of sexuality is currently being weaponized in order to uphold present day imperialism and colonial political aims. This necessarily includes the Zionist project in Palestine, which was only possible because of historical processes in Europe. The same European masculine values which deemed Muslims as sexually deviant were also weaponized against Jewish people in antisemitic acts and depictions which deemed Jewish men “effeminate”. Zionist founders were later keen to combat these historic allegations. This has manifested in the conflation of masculinity with the national army, with the dominant masculinity in Israel identified with the Jewish combat soldier and “deemed an emblem of good citizenship” This desire for masculinity is in fact a precondition for the Zionist enterprise, which would later evolve into a violent, militaristic culture.
While “the Jew had been both feminized and Orientalized in Europe, the Zionist culture similarly feminized and Orientalized the indigenous Palestinian Arabs, who were also seen as inadequate.“ The Israeli state, then, must attempt to transcend the contradictions in needing to appease homophobic supporters of Israel among, say, Western Evangelicals, who constitute the majority of supporters of Israel in the U.S while simultaneously projecting the image of Israel as a gay haven in certain Western secular contexts.
These efforts to transcend these contradictions can best be understood through the lens of homonationalism. This term was coined by Jasbir K. Puar in her excellent Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. In it she describes homonationalism as the framework in which certain homosexual constituencies are able to embrace and be embraced by nationalist agendas, including the imperial expansion endemic to the war on terror. Basically, (primarily, but not exclusively) white cisgender queers can assimilate into the nation, such as through openly joining the national army and buying into a combination of ethnic chauvinism, religious nationalism, toxic masculinity, and the Islamophobia so crucial to the war on terror.
This is evident in multiple Western countries where, for example, gay politicians have risen in the ranks of conservative political parties, all who articulate Muslim populations as an especial threat to LGBTQIA+ communities. Naturally, this is despite the exhortations by some queer Muslims who insist that their religious and family struggles are not much different from those of their Christian or Jewish counterparts. Gay rights, in other words, have been absorbed into what Puar calls the ‘human rights industrial complex’, which operates through the foregrounding of western countries as champions of human rights and non-western (Muslim) countries as their enemies. Implicit to this complex is the notion that religious and racial communities are more homophobic than white mainstream queer communities are racist, or that a critique of homophobia within one’s home community is deemed more pressing than a critique of racism within mainstream queer communities. The logic of homonationalism which underpins pinkwashing strategies is not compatible with queer liberation or the elimination of oppression as a whole. Rather, this logic is in service of broader imperialist aims and thus cannot include those queer people who have been racialized or otherwise deemed enemies of the state.
Pinkwashing in action:
Israeli prime minister Netanyahu in a joint meeting of the U.S Congress declared that the Middle East is “a region where women are stoned, gays are hanged, Christians are persecuted. Israel stands out. It is different.” Missing from this narrative, of course, is how Israel profits from the very persecution he describes through Israeli spyware being used to crackdown on dissidents, including queer people.
However, what is significant here is how the “Israeli Arabs” were spoken about, rather than to. Similarly, StandWithUs’s previously mentioned advertisements which declared Tel Aviv, a “gay paradise” for Palestinians has nothing to do with what’s best for Palestinians at all. After all, as Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) have pointed out, “there is no pink door in the apartheid wall”. Queer Palestinians, like all Palestinians, live under the control of a state that has deemed them demographic threats, obstacles in the way of a Jewish State by and for Jews. Most Palestinians have never set foot in Tel Aviv for this reason, and in general Israel prioritizes ethnicity and demographics above all else, including asylum cases.
These statements and advertisements are meant to accomplish the following goals: (1) Israel being absolved of its colonial and military policies which has resulted in the loss of countless Palestinian lives. (2) Israel being contextualized by the Middle East but ceasing to be located there; Israel should be judged according to ‘regional standards’ while also being treated as a cultural outpost of Europe (which they get to be! Tickets to see Israel in Eurovision, anyone?).
The flip side of the pinkwashing coin:
Israel being praised for supposedly being so ‘queer-friendly’ is dependent on Palestinians (and Arabs and Muslims in general) being demonized as uniformly homophobic. This is evident in the report released in 2008 by the Israel Project extolling Israel’s progressive values. The report stated that “There are several explanations about how Israel has come to embrace its gay and lesbian community. One is that the family as an institution is central to Israeli Jewish society. Therefore, parents would rather accept their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) children than let homophobia destroy family unity”. As Steven Salaita excellently analyzed in Chapter 4 of his work Israel’s Dead Soul, Sexuality, Violence, and Modernity in Israel: The Paradise of Not Being Arab, the purpose of such a grotesque statement is to imply that Palestinians:

“are neither family oriented nor tolerant; they are willing to sacrifice their own children to their irrational beliefs, or they are so irrational as to be unable to make such a choice. Even in its exaltation of Israeli open-mindedness, the Israel Project betrays its own implicit homophobia: homosexuality is not embraced by Israeli Jews; it is merely tolerated in the interest of family unity. It is not something Israeli Jews would ever accept; it simply presents a difficult obstacle that they are reluctantly willing to overlook.”

This was perhaps more revealing than the Israel Project intended, but it underscored how the language of LGBTQIA+ rights is being co-opted in the interest of Israeli foreign policy and the tourism industry even as homophobia remains rife in Israeli society. When Israel’s Ministry of Tourism, The Tel Aviv Tourism Board and Israel’s largest LGBT organization, The Agudah, joined together to launch TEL AVIV GAY VIBE, an online tourism campaign to promote Tel Aviv as a travel destination, it was met with the following (verbatim) comments:

Surely nothing to be proud of. Shameful.
Haredim!!!!
Gay avek also cute slogan (Yiddish for go away).
Yes by all means bring hordes of aids.
Inviting destruction full speed.

Opposition to Israel’s so proudly touted pride parades has also reached the point of violence, with an ultra-Orthodox man who was imprisoned in 2005 for stabbing several people at a pride parade doing the same in 2015 following his release.
As Sarah Schulman explains, “Overall, Israel is a profoundly homophobic society.The dominance of religious fundamentalists, the sexism and the proximity to family and family oppression makes life very difficult for most people on the LGBT spectrum in Israel.”, while Aeyal Gross, a professor of law at Tel Aviv University, explains that “gay rights have essentially become a public-relations tool,” even though “conservative and especially religious politicians remain fiercely homophobic.” As Samira Saraya, one of the co-founders of Aswat, an LGBTI+ organization for Palestinian women has further elucidated, “If you are an Israeli gay man who served in the army, looks masculine, acts ‘normal’, and has a secure job, then you are treated well. For the rest of us, things are much less rosy.” That it is to say, if you do not somehow ‘compensate’ for your queer identity in ways conducive to Israel’s ethnonationalist project vis a vis homonationalism, you are even further outside the margins of the Zionist ideal and thus more vulnerable to the brunt of homophobia and racism.
Zionism’s obsession with ensuring a Jewish majority comes with pressure to produce as many children as possible to resolve what Zionists have outright declared as the ‘demographic problem’, adding another obstacle to those who would prefer same-sex partners. This was attested to by Israeli scholar and queer rights activist Amit Kama, who has worked on a government survey to attract more gay tourists to Israel even as he himself was forced to marry his partner outside of the country.
Almost lost in all the rainbow confetti and the condescending hand-wringing over Palestinian or Muslim homophobia is how in Israel, all marital issues are under the control of the Orthodox rabbinic authorities; thus, there is no civil marriage in Israel, only religious marriage. Orthodox Rabbinate representatives supporting the law against civil marriage and gay couple being able to be married with cite a wish to “guarantee the Jewish future of the state of Israel” and protect against “assimilation”.
The weaponized understating of this queerphobic in Israeli society functions through treating Palestinians “as a site onto which queerphobic Zionists may project their queerphobic fantasies”, as articulated in Saffo Papantonopoulou’s excellent article, “Even a Freak Like You Would Be Safe in Tel Aviv: Transgender Subjects, Wounded Attachments, and the Zionist Economy of Gratitude”. In it she details transphobic abuse directed her way which demanded she stop criticizing Israel, as it is supposedly the only place in the Middle East where she could expect to be treated “equal to a male or female heterosexual” and not be met with violence that they so graciously went so far as to describe in detail to her. She explains that Zionists’ deflections of their own queerphobia onto Palestinians is meant to “allow the queerphobic Zionist to live out his own queerphobic fantasy while simultaneously deploying a pretext of caring about queers.”
The identification of Tel Aviv as gay-friendly even by those who harbor queerphobia then is presented as a “gift to all queers” who are in fact meant to feel grateful for being ‘allowed’ to thrive or even live.

“Under the Zionist economy of gratitude, the transgender subject is perpetually indebted to capitalism and the West for allowing her to exist. The properly delimited space for the transgender subject within this ideology is essentially one confined to an apoliticized space of pride parades and gay bars, but never the front lines of an antimperial or anticolonial project. Hence, the queerphobic Zionist can pass the gift of his racist colonial phobia as well as his queerphobia on to the transgender subject…I am supposed to feel vulnerable, afraid, and attacked, in order that I may pass on that gift of death to the supposedly transphobic Palestinian”.

Progressive Pinkwashing:
Pinkwashing is as prevalent as it is because it is not limited to those on the right, with instances of the logic of pinkwashing internalized and regurgitated even by self-professed radical groups. A prescient example of this was seen in response to ‘‘No Pride without Palestinians,’’ a queer coalition based in New York City, who sought to move World Pride 2006 outside of Jerusalem, arguing that Palestinian queers (and many Arabs from neighboring countries) would be banned from the celebrations, and those already present risked intensified surveillance, policing, harassment, and deportation. OutRage! a British queer group, waltzed in carrying placards commanding ‘‘Israel: stop persecuting Palestine! Palestine: stop persecuting queers!’’ and ‘‘Stop ‘honour’ killing women and gays in Palestine.’’
This seemingly innocuous and politically correct messaging, stemming from the group’s commitment to protest ‘‘Islamophobia and homophobia,’’ negates the ways in which oppression by a settler-colonial state might sustain or even create the conditions for social ills, including homophobia. Their equation of Israeli oppression of all Palestinians with Palestinian homophobia did so by taking for granted the Israeli state narrative that it does not, in fact, “persecute queers”, foremost among them Palestinian queers. Furthermore, it takes for granted that queerphobia is a more pressing threat to queer Palestinians than colonialism, as if these could ever be separated.
This is of similar thinking to an Israeli student who asked Palestinian queer scholar Sa’ed Atshan during a pinkwashing panel why he couldn’t log onto Grindr in Hebron, with another queer student asking about the absence of gay clubs in Gaza, the world’s largest open-air prison which barely has electricity or potable water.
As Atshan replied:

“Is whether or not Grindr is used among Palestinians a more important question than the conditions in Hebron that Palestinians endure as a result of the Israeli occupation there? How does use of Grindr become a marker of Palestinian civilizational value?…It perplexed me that the absence of gay clubs in Gaza is more outrageous to some people than is the reality of queer and straight Palestinians in Gaza struggling to survive amid unspeakable conditions imposed by Israel.”

What pinkwashing also does is obscure how a society under constant assault is put on the defensive and thus cannot undertake the scope of work needed to fully eradicate social ills. With decades of Zionists negating and attacking Palestinian culture and identity as either nonexistent, inconsequential, threatening, or all of the above, Palestinian society as a whole has become very zealous about what it perceives to be its traditions and culture. As Rima with Aswat explained, “The majority of the society rejects behaviors and changes that “threaten” its heterosexuality and patriarchy, since they are perceived as a threat to the continuity [emphasis added] of the uniqueness of our culture”-while obviously incorrect and dangerous thinking, it is fueled by the constant violence against Palestinians in the name of Zionism and the feeling of insecurity this engenders. The ramifications of this thinking to Palestinians themselves is evident when the Palestinian Authority periodically assigns itself the role of morality police to “protect” Palestinian society from being “infiltrated and corrupted by homosexuals and agents of the West”. The threat of Israel and Zionism to Palestinian coupled with the identification of queerness as a Western phenomenon ends up galvanizing reactionary responses, leaving marginalized Palestinian more vulnerable to multiple forms of violence.
Israel as Oppressor of Queer Palestinians:
Warning: Description of sexual assault, torture, and queerphobia.
Here it is worthwhile to delineate how Israel also draws upon racialized homophobia and transphobia in its abuse of Palestinians. This includes the blackmailing of queer Palestinians, with a former Israeli Intelligence corps member sharing that in training to disregard Palestinians’ privacy and manipulate their personal lives for Israeli state interests, “we actually learned to memorise and filter different words for ‘gay’, in Arabic.”
Even more horrifically, there are detailed accounts from Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails of verbal and sexual harassment which use homophobia and transphobia as a threat. One 16 year old described a police officer as telling him that “‘I will fuck you and you will sing on my dick’ as part of his threats. Another 23 year old recounted how an Israeli secret service member shouted “you terrorist, I’ll fuck you like a homosexual!”, while another in a separate report described being harassed by an interrogator who asked “Are you a homosexual? You look like a woman. Have you ever fucked a woman?”. Still another detainee described how they were threatened with having their brother undergo a sex change against their will, saying “They put me in an investigation room with a glass partition and on the other side I saw my brother, dressed as a woman, immodest, in a mini-skirt. […] They said that they […] had arranged for him a sex-change surgery in Jerusalem.”
These are not isolated cases, as Israel’s extensive use of sexual harassment and assault as a form of torture against Palestinians are well documented. The reasons for this are betrayed even in the very report most of the aforementioned testimony was drawn from, with the author declaring that “Sexual torture and ill-treatment, including forced nudity and curses with sexual contents, may have particularly deep and sometimes long-lasting humiliating effects among Arab men. This is grounded in the notion of honour, which is basic in social life in much of the Muslim world.” Here the author is taking for granted the idea that Arab and Muslim men (though here he is using the terms interchangeably) are more sensitive to being sexually harassed and assaulted than their western counterparts. He seems to, whether subconsciously or not, believe that the perpetrators of these acts are comparatively enlightened rather than perpetuating the old use of sexual violence against men in armed conflicts and the concurrent bigoted dynamics of emasculation, feminization and/or homosexualization as insult.
To revisit Puar, the paradox at the heart of such an Orientalist notion of sexuality is reanimated through the objectification of the Muslim terrorist as a torture object, who is both sexually conservative, modest and fearful of nudity (and it is interesting how this conceptualization is rendered both sympathetically and as a problem), as well as queer, animalistic, barbarian, and unable to control his (or her) urges but having an innate “indecency” waiting to be released. In Brothers and Others in Arms: The Making of Love and War in Israeli Combat Units, Danny Kaplan argues that this sexualization is neither tangential nor incidental to the project of conquest but, rather, is central to it: ‘‘[The] eroticization of enemy targets . . . triggers the objectification process.’’
Not only are homophobia and transphobia weaponized against Palestinians in such a manner by the magical rainbow state of Israel, it ends up leaving queer Palestinians vulnerable to the ramifications of queerness being associated with collaboration. As Al Qaws has written:

“this pervasive linking of non-normative sexuality and Palestinian collaboration has become a term and identity of its own in the Palestinian imaginary and reality: isqat…this false connection with Israel and collaboration associates queer people with treason, dishonesty, untrustworthiness, and fraudulence, and therefore works to substantiate a very specific kind of homophobic fear within Palestine”.

The use of homophobia and queerphobia as a cudgel on behalf of Israel is certainly not conducive to queer liberation and is an abhorrent practice. It also must be contextualized in the overarching repression and oppression all Palestinians face, with Palestinians regularly extorted for a variety of reasons, from needing healthcare to wishing to hide marital infidelity to wanting to marry and live with a Palestinian with a differently colored ID card. Whatever individual experiences Palestinians have are shaped by the oppressive hold of Zionism.
Solidarity, not pink apartheid:
Through pinkwashing, Palestinians are reduced to either being a victim of internal Palestinian homophobia in need of saving or to a violent perpetrator of homophobia among Palestinians and terrorism against Israelis. They are forced to walk a tightrope between having queerphobia exploited by Israel as carte blanche for their own dispossession and the ways in which Zionist colonialism shapes the queerphobia they face within their own communities. What is needed is dedication to ending all forms of oppression against Palestinians. Queer Palestinian organizers are calling for the promotion of Palestinian LGBTQ rights to be done in a way that challenges the appropriation and weaponization of that cause by Israeli organizations and instead engages first and foremost with Palestinians, rather than perpetuating the erasure of Palestinians inherent to Zionism.
Further Reading:

Pinkwashing Decolonize Palestine
Elia, Nada. “Gay rights with a side of apartheid.” Settler Colonial Studies 2.2, 2012: 49-68.
Weaver, G. ‘Pinkwashing’: The Politics of LGBTQ Rights in Israel/Palestine . Universiteit van Leiden, 2016.
Puar, Jasbir K. Terrorist assemblages: Homonationalism in queer times . Duke University Press, 2007.
Puar, Jasbir. Israel’s gay propaganda war . The Guardian. July 1st, 2010.
Atshan, Sa’ed. Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique. Stanford University Press, 2020.
Salaita, Steven. Israel’s dead soul. Temple University Press, 2011.
Hochberg, Gil Z. ““CHECK ME OUT” Queer Encounters in Sharif Waked’s Chic Point: Fashion for Israeli Checkpoints.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 16.4, 2010: 577-597.
Farris, Sara. The political economy of homonationalism. Social Text Online. October 25th, 2018.
Stelder, Mikki. “‘From the closet into the Knesset’: Zionist sexual politics and the formation of settler subjectivity.” Settler Colonial Studies 8.4, 2018: 442-463.
Hochberg, Gil Z., Haneen Maikey, and Samira Saraya. “No Pride in Occupation: A Roundtable Discussion.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 16.4, 2010: 599-610.
Dalacoura, Katerina. “Homosexuality as cultural battleground in the Middle East: Culture and postcolonial international theory.” Third World Quarterly 35.7, 2014: 1290-1306.

Source: https://www.quora.com/What-is-Pinkwashing/answeHandala-2

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2024.06.10 14:53 Getyouastraw AI is the downfall of humanity.

I think AI peaked when it was used in cars, electronics, identification purposes and for businesses to analyze data sets for example… but now?
You have all this trash on almost all socials where they’ll use an AI image and pass it off as real. “Earliest selfie circa 1910” and people genuinely believe it. Just today a Facebook account with over 100k followers posted a photo of a shark near the coast and everyone commented on it, some even identifying the shark! At the top was a tiny disclaimer, too easy to miss, that said “made with AI.”
These are small examples of a bigger issue that it’s hard enough to find reliable sources online. Even news outlets are biased nowadays and will post misleading facts. You have to read 3 different news articles just to form your own opinion. Now with ai you have what you think is a reliable source with a picture and there’s thousands of people who will take it for face value.
This can easily be used for propaganda, and without legislation requiring ai images to be very clearly marked it can be used very dangerously. This isn’t even mentioning the art that’s being ripped off from genuine artists. Or the weird chat bots on every app that can be dangerous for incels or people with social anxieties/disabilities who instead of interacting with real humans can easily interact with AI that mimics human speech.
This isn’t to say AI can’t be used in a helpful way but the way it’s evolved currently is detrimental to society and needs to be changed.

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2024.06.10 13:55 GouthamiDurgasi Chinese tourists will spend nearly $1 trillion in cash on the Dragon Boat Festival vacation at home

Chinese tourists will spend nearly $1 trillion in cash on the Dragon Boat Festival vacation at home

Chinese tourists will spend nearly $1 trillion in cash on the Dragon Boat Festival vacation at home at first. Such significant spending reveals a trend of domestic travel among Chinese citizens. Chinese tourists will spend nearly $1 trillion in cash on the Dragon Boat Festival vacation at home at first. Such significant spending reveals a trend of domestic travel among Chinese citizens. The Dragon Boat Festival has become famous for its cultural implications and will give a significant boost to the community's tourism industry and economy. The economic effect of the festival is highlighted even more as millions of Chinese tourists prefer to celebrate.
Domestic Travel Spending to Surge
Chinese travelers are expected to spend over $1 trillion this Dragon Boat Festival, which portrays significant trends in Chinese domestic travel. Key drivers of the surge in spending on domestic tourism include the economic recovery, government efforts, and the impact of the pandemic.
Trends in Chinese domestic tourism show that interest lies more in local destinations, with a strong focus on festivals such as the Dragon Boat Festival. This is a holiday that is observed nationally, and the travel and spending exceed as families and individuals carry out activities traditionally done during this holiday and rest from work.
https://preview.redd.it/ac5na275hq5d1.jpg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3b8f7f9cce42ddb29af18ca6bfdd32e19773288e
Chinese Tourists Significant Drivers for Larger Spending
several drivers are pushing the Chinese in their tourism spending where a sharp recovery of economic, long-lasting effects of the pandemic that has encouraged traveling at home, policies supported by the government have lifted local tourism industry during the Dragon Boat Holiday.
Pandemic Impact: The residual pandemic has changed travel preference to a domestic one. Since most destinations abroad are still under travel restrictions, people in China prefer touring their country.
Economic Recovery: Rapid and robust economic recovery in China raised national disposable income. The more the economy recovers, the more money people spend on traveling and leisure.
Government Support
Besides these, policies at the government level to drive domestic tourism have been much of a help. There have been campaigns to encourage local traveling, with incentives and discounts given to tourists who would prefer to spend their holiday vacations within the country.
Dragon Boat Festival: Social and Economic Importance
The Dragon Boat Festival is a cultural event with extensive importance as an economic booster. The festival is celebrated with dragon boat races, traditional foods, and family gatherings, attracting millions of tourists nationwide.
There is a peak in domestic tourism from the Chinese during this festival, followed by numerous celebrations going on in different areas of the destinations. The cultural importance of the festival is such that it leads to heavy crowds and more money spent on accommodations, food, and entertainment.
Cultural Significance: The Duanwu Festival, formerly the Dragon Boat Festival, is observed on the fifth lunar day of the fifth Chinese lunar month. The festival commemorates the life and death of the famous Chinese scholar Qu Yuan. Traditionally, the festival is marked with dragon boat races and eating zongzi (glutinous rice dumplings), along with other traditional activities.
Economic Gains: The festival boosts local economies through higher spending on tourism. For hotels, restaurants, and local attractions, visitor flows will increase their revenues. Besides this, the increasing number of tourists market-related jobs for people because of the demand for the local business.
Festival Centers - Top Gaining Tourist Destinations
Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi'an are the top-most centers regarding Chinese tourists during the Dragon Boat Festival. These cities consist of historical places, modern places, and festival centers, respectively, which gouge large amounts of tourist spending.
Beijing: The capital city is also trendy during the period of the Dragon Boat Festival. Tourists stream in from all over to visit the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and other renowned sites in Beijing. Its rich history and cultural heritage make Beijing among the first choices for domestic travelers.
Shanghai: This dynamic city has a reputation for hosting a mix of modern skylines and active nightlife, complemented by a perfect blend of ancient Chinese tradition and culture. Many events and activities occur in the city during the Dragon Boat Festival, such as boat races along the Huangpu River.
Xi'an: With its rich history and historical appeal, Xi'an continues to be, for many visitors, at the top of their list for this festival. See the Terracotta Army, ancient city walls, and other historical sites in the same atmosphere.
Economic Impact of Dragon Boat Festival Spending
The staggering $1 trillion figure that Chinese tourists spend during Dragon Boat Festival catalyzes hospitality, retail, and transport services. Such spending boosts the local economy and is vital in enhancing growth.
Hospitality Industry
Hotels and resorts garner a massive surge in bookings during the Dragon Boat Festival. The tourism inflow stimulates accommodation demand, pumping up occupancy rates and, hence revenues.
Retail Sector
Increased spending on merchandise and souvenirs related to the festival rubs off positively on the retail sector. Shops and markets report higher sales volumes as tourists buy traditional foods, presents, and other items that mark the festival.
Travel
Increased demand for travel services such as airline, railway, and road ticketing is good news for the transportation sector. Tourists who are traveling from one area to another across the country in order to attend the event boost the general number of tickets sold and increase the level of travel activity.
Popular Chinese Tourists Destinations over the Festival
Besides Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi'an, there are a few more cities and towns that attract the largest number of domestic tourists during the Dragon Boat Festival:. Some of these are the following:
Hangzhou: This city draws tourists to its beautiful and scenic West Lake, as well as the picturesque landscapes all around it. The local city organizes various cultural events and performances during this festival, which draws many tourists here—Guilin : Known worldwide because of its karst landscapes, besides the river cruise. Tourists come here to enjoy this natural beauty and participate in traditional Dragon Boat Festival activities.
Chengdu is known for pandas and spicy cuisine. It provides an unusual mixture of cultural and culinary experiences. There are races in the city, along with other festive things that attract visitors from all over China.
Insights Concerning the Chinese Tourist Spending Habits
On the other hand, the understanding of how Chinese tourists spend their money during the spending expedition for the Dragon Boat Festival gives insights into general spending trends concerning domestic tourism. Chinese tourists typically have an expenditure on diverse categories.
Accommodation is a primary type of spending: most of the expenditure is by booking hotels and resorts. Tourists usually prefer to stay at comfortable and easily accessible places to use every minute of relaxation.
Food and Dining: Traditional foods, such as zongzi, are a crucial element of the Dragon Boat Festival celebration. Tourists spend on dining in restaurants, trying local delicacies, and buying festival-specific treats.
Entertainment and Activities: Watching or participating in dragon boat races, traveling to places of interest, and visiting or attending cultural shows are popular entertainment activities. Tourists spend on entrance tickets or entry access.
Shopping: Buying souvenirs, traditional products produced in that region, or festival-associated products would be one of the joint heads of spending. Tourists prefer to buy things they can carry back either as a gift or for memory's sake to remember something they enjoyed the most in their trip.
Role of Digital Payments in Tourist Spending
The penetration and use of digital payments in China facilitated and contributed to the surge in tourist expenditure during the Dragon Boat Festival. Almost all business outlets accept mobile payment services, namely Alipay and WeChat Pay, which significantly benefit the service provider and the customer in making hassle-free and easy transactions.
Convenience and Security—Digital payments are convenient and secure for tourists to make purchases without carrying much cash. By their very nature, this leads to higher spending since it becomes easy for tourists to pay for goods or services effortlessly. These very utilities have been included in various services that one may use to travel, such as booking platforms and transportation service providers—streamlining the travel experience wherein one can easily plan and pay for your trip.
Future Trends in Chinese Domestic Tourism
The trend of increased domestic travel spending is likely to continue, driven by various factors:
Continued Economic Growth: As China's economy continues to grow then, disposable incomes are expected to rise, thus a push to spend more on travel and leisure activities.
Improved Infrastructure: Ongoing investments into infrastructure, including transportation and tourism facilities, will boost the travel experience by Chinese citizens. Roads, airports, and public transportation are bound to improve, which will, in turn, help people reach different parts of the country.
Government Support: Government backing for domestic tourism would also prompt more significant numbers to travel within China. Critical policies and moves boosting local tourism will be necessary for this trend.
Conclusion
As Chinese travelers gear up to shell out nearly $1 trillion over the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, the stakes go beyond high. It demonstrates the strength and growth of the country's domestic tourism—the newest locomotive that helps power the economy. Not only a cultural heritage at the very beginning, the Dragon Boat Festival brought economic activity across the nation.
Chinese domestic tourism keeps thriving, with the season's champion example coming from the Dragon Boat Festival. Cultural relevance combined with economic advantages and supportive policies ensures that the drive for economic growth in China is taken by domestic travel.

submitted by GouthamiDurgasi to u/GouthamiDurgasi [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 13:30 littlemrsking 2.5 Toddler behavior typical or autistic?

Hi all,
I hope this doesn’t come off insensitive or ignorant as that isn’t my intent. My son is almost 2.5 and in the 2/3 year old class at school. The school counselor, whose background is strictly aba, told us a few weeks ago that our son needed OT because he hit another boy in the face (she said it seemed playful not aggressive) and was playing with leaves. This happened between 2 days while our son was coming down with an ear infection. It didn’t happen anymore after that and our pediatrician says the counselor was definitely wrong. However, now as a first time mom, I’m just anxious and hyper aware of any little thing he does.
I guess since I follow so many toddler accounts on my Instagram, on the explore page a lot of things come up and one reel that I saw was a mom showing how her autistic 2 year old daughter plays and some traits about her. One of the things she mentioned was running in circles which my son was just so happening to be doing when I read that. I should clarify, he wasn’t running in small circles, he was just running around the family room through the kitchen and back into the family room which happened to be in a circle. He hasn’t been outside in a few days due to rain so I figured he was just stir crazy from that. But I started thinking about some things he does and was wondering if these were typical toddler behavior or other signs? When you Google there is a lot of overlap.

he hit all language milestones but on the lower end. Now at 29 months he has about 200 words and is putting together 2 word phrases.
He can communicate to us what he wants, but if he doesn’t know the word he’ll take us to what he wants, point, and say “that” (is this considered hand leading?)
His teachers speak Spanish and use the suffix “tito” for things which means little so for example “gatito” is little cat. His only repetitive thing in speech is that, he’ll say “tito” a lot for nouns.
He can count from 1-20 and knows his abcs and their phonetic sounds (not in order, he can’t sing the abcs he just knows the letters). He also knows his colors. This is 100% from Ms Rachel, we started having him watch an episode a day to help with his speech and he picked up on that. I read if toddlers know these things but aren’t speaking in sentences, it’s linked to autism?
he loves other kids. Sometimes he parallel plays, other times he plays with them. He’ll hold hands with his friends and run with them and play at centers with them. He LOVES to share.
He likes to run a lot. Sometimes just to run around. He doesn’t typically run repetitively like in circles but he does just run a lot at the school playground. We figured it was because he has a lot of energy. He does well inside with all the routines and stuff.
He can sit and do an activity for a while, sometimes independently and other times with us. When he gets bored he moves on.
He loves trucks, balls (specifically basketball), and all kinds of animals. He knows alot of animal names. I wouldn’t say he’s fixated on any of these though.
He’s never banged toys together until yesterday that I bought him a little wind up turtle and wind up duck. My husband showed him that they wind and the fins swirl and after that he started banging them together randomly. I’m not sure why.
He has toddler tantrums when he doesn’t get his way but I would say he’s over it within a couple minutes. I can’t recall him ever having something that lasts longer.
He doesn’t really line things up? Sometimes he will with animals or cars but then he’ll set the cars off or makes the animals walk or do something else. His dad showed him how to stack things so he likes doing that once in a while but then he’ll knock it down and laugh and do something else.
he’s into playdoh now and sometimes he’ll break it into small pieces and just leave it all over the place. I know they break it into little pieces at school to practice fine motor skills but I’m not sure about the leaving it spread around random places?

I guess the things that stood out when I saw the reel and googled were the running around, the language things, and the repetitive use of Tito. Any perspective would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!

submitted by littlemrsking to Autism_Parenting [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 13:26 Shardaxx Walking Among Us: The Alien Plan to Control Humanity (2015) by David M Jacobs - Summary and Commentary

The following is a summary of this interesting book. Obviously this is spoiler heavy, so if you are planning to read his book, you might want to skip this post and come back later to add your own thoughts.

Introduction

The sources for the book are a handful of abductees Jacobs worked with. Sometimes their testimony comes from hypnosis sessions, other times the abductee remembers the details directly. Some abductees appear to have been chosen for ongoing contact with the aliens, and have been to and worked on rather worrying stuff.

Cast of Characters

Insectalins / Mantis Aliens
These guys look like a human sized preying Mantis, and seem to be the top of the alien hierarchy. If there's anything above them, its not mentioned here. They appear in the book only a handful of times, and are always in charge of the other aliens. They appear to have either created or enslaved the other alien races. Psionic Strength: Very High.
Greys
Classic Greys feature heavily, both the taller variety (about 5-6 feet tall) and the short ones (3-4 feet tall). The short ones do general work like cleaning up during abductions, the taller ones tend to do the physical examinations, implants etc.
Psionic Strength: High.
Human/Grey Hybrids (Hubrids)
Hybrids come in a few varieties, earlier versions are more Grey-like and couldn't pass for humans, big heads and big eyes etc. But the aliens appear to have gone through a couple of generations and now create hybrids which looks totally human, but still possess the alien psionic abilities like telepathy and mind control. Jacobs calls these human-looking hybrids 'Hubrids' and its these Hubrids which seem the key to the alien plans. Hybrids are created on board the larger UFOs and spend their lives on board, up until about the age of 20 when they are dispatched to live on Earth, more on that later.
They come across as 'weird' and are very logical and goal orientated. They are learning to simulate social skills. They communicate between themselves telepathically.
Psionic Strength: High.
Abductees
Humans who have been abducted by aliens. This seem to start in childhood, and some abductees only have one experience then get left alone, whilst others are abducted repeatedly and, in the case of the people featured in this book, contacted by the aliens and given tasks. These abductees are also trained in Psionic abilities, and progress surprisingly rapidly with the help of groups of hybrids. One abductee mentions several times that she wonders if she is betraying the human race by helping the alien program, but is constantly assured by the aliens that this is all necessary for both species.
Psionic Strength: Low to Medium, depending on training.

Abductees Helping Hybrids

Abductees are contacted by small group of Hubrids and asked to assist with their plans. These groups are 4-6 individuals, and the abductees are asked to teach them skills and help them blend into human society. They live together in houses, its not clear how this is arranged or paid for. Each group includes an 'Enforcer' who oversees the group, keeps them out of trouble, and ensures the abductee is being helpful. Some things the abductees were asked to help with include:

Advising the hybrids how to furnish a house correctly so as to not create suspicion
Teaching the hybrids basic skills like how to use a TV or a phone
Taking hybrids to stores to teach them how to buy goods
Teaching hybrids how to drive, in parking lots at night

The abductees often get frustrated with the hybrids, growing frustrated with all their questions about everything (they said they are like 5 year olds asking constant questions) and even at one point calling them 'thick' and wondering how they know so little about everything. One asked about instructional videos like you can find on YouTube, but giving them unfettered access to our internet is apparently off the table.
All of the help the abductees were asked to provide to the hybrids is around being able to blend into human society.
This all reminded me of the communist training camps the USSR operated during the Cold War, where Russian agents were taught to speak American with no trace of an accent, and taught about popular culture like music artists and politics so they could blend in seamlessly.
At once point, an abductee is taken on board a large UFO and enters a 'conference room' where hybrids are standing around dressed in business clothes, sipping water and chatting. She is asked if they look and act like humans, and admits they do. She meets several hybrids she has worked with over the past few years, and she is once again thanked for her efforts and told how important all this is. The meeting concludes with a speech from a Mantid who seems very proud of them all.

Hybrids Helping Abductees

Later in the book, abductees are brought more into the alien program and given instruction on:

Remote Viewing - working with a team of hybrids, abductees were able to quickly progress their RV skills making Joseph McMoneagle look poor in comparison. At one point they quickly acquire a target, a man in a house, and spy on him.
Mind Control - abductees are taught to harness their psionic powers to mind control other humans. In one example, an abductee is asked to calm down another abductee on board a UFO. This progresses to making a man see a narrow bridge and force him to cross it, even though he is scared of heights. After that, they ask her to make the man jump off the imaginary bridge. She is concerned the man might fall down onto the floor and hurt himself, but they tell her it'll be fine so she does it.
Piloting a UFO - abductees are trained to remote pilot UFOs, which are controlled using the mind.

The Change

An event called The Change is mentioned by the hybrids several times. There isn't a specific date given, but it appears to be the culmination of the alien plans, where UFOs will land openly and humanity will be 'managed'. One chilling exercise in preparation for The Change involved an abductee participating in a simulated exercise involving terrified humans running through city streets and using her psionic powers to guide the humans towards the waiting UFOs.
Reading between the lines, it sounds like large numbers of humans will be wiped out, and the rest enslaved using mind control to work for our new alien overlords, and eventually all replaced with hybrids.

What can we do?

Jacobs is thin on ideas here, so this is my own list of suggestions.
Military
It's clear during the course of the book that UFOs are coming and going at will, even over cities. The Hubrids seem to be 'beaming' up and down from the UFOs fairly regularly. One aspect of this is the whole 'floating through walls and ceilings' reported in many abduction cases, is only possible when there is a UFO hovering overhead, its not an ability the aliens possess without a craft there.
Militaries of the World - its time to up your game in terms of detecting and bringing down these craft, if we stand any chance of halting these plans.
Geneticists
Hybrids carry alien DNA, this can presumably be detected with the right DNA testing kit. The military has recovered plenty of Grey bodies, I assume their DNA has already been sequenced, its a short step to development of a test.
Everyone
Maybe we all need to be on the lookout for these groups of hybrids. They typically live in houses together, have no jobs, and will seem 'weird' when spoken to. They won't keep pets (they find our fascination with 'lower life forms' odd). They have no parents of families, but they will have a cover story in place for where they came from. Depending on how long they have been here, they might not have any ID either.

submitted by Shardaxx to aliens [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 13:19 Dense-Estate8494 Natlan Overviews and possible cultural references

———————————————————— Introductory and Cultural references
Hi, I’d like to analyze the possible cultural references behind Natlan, as well as provide an insight for what we could expect in relation to some cultural backgrounds.
Main lore points: talking stick, npc mentions, in-game events, Preview Trailer
Cultural references for Natlan: Africa (mainly west and east Africa, present in topography, tribes, names, music, etc) (Mainland and South Africa are also referenced in ways such as topography so far) Pre-Colombian South America (referenced in topography, tribes, names of tribes and nation, saurian names, etc) Hispanic (travail teaser music, hats made by npcs represent conquistador hats) ————————————————- Talking Stick Talking stick summary: Battle for lands. Protagonist Tenoch (Nahuatl/Aztec name) belonged to no tribe anymore, self declared. He finds allies from the six tribes of the era. He himself was from one of the tribes.
Names Talking stick mentions:
Six warriors of the past tribes :
Ethiopian-based is Menilek (based on an emperor of Ethiopia)
Kenyan-based is Wanjiru (Example: Kikuyu stories - Wanjiru sinks into the earth (a story about a miraculous young woman))
Based from Amazigh culture is Sanhaj Kompore (possibly based on Sanhaja, one of the largest Berber tribal confederations)
Based from Burkinabē is Burkina (Burkina)
Based from Malian origin, Sundjatta, mine chief (Malian origin, based on legendary historical figure in Malian empire) “do not involve my tribe” indicates his tribe wasn’t involved in conflict, referenced later.
Based from Incan origin, The sixth and last companion, Tupac. All of their companion saurians accompany them too.
All heroic companions (saurians) are based on their respective cultures by name, they are:
Ngoubou, Menilek’s. Kayeke, Wanjiru’s. Mahamba, Sanhaj Kompore’s. Kongamato, Burkina’s Companion. Muhuru, Sundjatta’s. Tupac had a companion which could not support his size. Could possibly be Iktomisaurus, which is mentioned in NPC dialogue. —————————————————- NPC and Travail mentions: Bayda harbor NPC mentions colorful environment and energetic population prepared for battle from youth. “It’s a contradictory place” warriors dress in imitations of their saurians
Inazuman NPC: mentions hot spring locations and activities
In one NPC dialogue, Ranjit mentions making hats commemorating his Natlan friends (the hats might resemble conquistador hats.)
NPC mentioned names: Kuntur NPC mentioned creatures: tepetlisauri (geo saurian), Iktomisaurus (saurian companion of Kuntur) Travail trailer mentions: Iansan (character with Yoruba name) —————————————————- Music and overview Music: travail trailer (Hispanic, guitar and castanets) Preview trailer (West African, balafon and Fula flutes) Natlan name overview: derived from Aztlán, legendary home of Aztecs —————————————————— Topography: Dendro tribal area - based on Blyde River Canyon of South Africa, and South American landscapes such as mesas. Contain Baobab trees (Trees found in mainland Africa.) Visibly nearest the Geo tribal area, so possibly the second we visit.
Hydro tribal area- contain lava streams and rocky caverns, as well as open plains with colorful grass and lakes, peculiar air landforms. Likely home to hot springs mentioned in NPC dialogue.
Geo tribal area: Near dendro tribal area, and features rocky mines and structures. —————————————————— Saurians: Notably based on elements, includes:
Iktomisaurus, a flying saurian (may belong to possible anemo tribe) Dendro saurian Kayeke Geo Saurian Tepetlisauri (Formerly Muhuru) Hydro Saurian Mahamba Pyro Saurian Kongomato ??? Saurian Ngoubou (could be electro or cryo, I think it is probably electro)
Reminder: These saurian names apart from Iktomisaurus and Tepetlisauri likely will all change, they aren’t the same names their human companions used. Also, Iktomisaurus could be the name for one of the other companions, maybe Kongomato as it flies as well. —————————————————— Tribes (present) includes:
Tribes are notably based on elements, and so are their saurians All tribe names are possibly based on Nahuatl names, like Natlan’s name itself.
Nanatzcayan tribe (Nahuatl name) (geo mine tribe) likely similar to the Malian based tribe due to Sundjatta’s mining chief status and his companion resembling the geo saurian, and the tribe abstaining from conflict in the talking stick further incentivizes the connection to me)
Unknown canyon tribe (dendro) likely will be most closely related to the past Kenyan based tribe considering the saurian
Unknown stream tribe (hydro) Likely closely related to the past Amazigh based tribe considering the saurian
???? (Pyro) Flying red saurian in trailer indicates a pyro tribe: the saurian, Kongomato, is likely Burkina’s companion. This tribe likely is closely related to the Burkinabē based tribe
??? (Ngoubou’s tribe) (Could be Ethiopian based considering past tribes) ??? (Maybe the Iktomisaurus’ tribe) (Could be Inca based considering past tribes)
Remaining elements: electro, cryo, anemo
Due to Ngoubou and the Iktomisaurus representing electro and anemo respectively in my own speculation, I think cryo is the element likely left out of Natlan. ————————————————-

submitted by Dense-Estate8494 to Genshin_Lore [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 13:08 Phoebus_dm Pitch for my Loyalist Emperors Children - The Last Princes of Terra (Brainstorming and C&C welcome!)

“Coûte que Coûte - Whatever the cost.”
According to the proto-Francaean philosopher Rozzeaueo, uttered at the moment of resistance, dated M2, pre-imperial times.
Hello friends!
I'm currently working quite enthusiastically on my second legion: Loyalists of the Emperors Children, called “The Last Princes of Terra”.
While I'm in the process of painting in the troop selections, I wanted to ask you guys for an open, collaborative brainstorm - what units, what color scheme, what vibes would go well with their lore? Feel free to be open, I look forward to every comment!
Here are the lore parts:
The Last Princes of Terra
"It's not about us surviving this civil war. It's about setting an example. We have to show humanity that we are not all like them."

Arikel Evosa, the Last Phoenix

1.) Origin
The star of the 21st Millenial was rising - effective, elegant fighters of the III Legion who specialized in speed manoeuvres and the lethality of speed. Their Lord Commander, Arikel Evosa, was also considered one of the favorites of Supreme Commander Vespasian, the left hand of their Primogenitor and the first victim of treachery within the Legion. One of the few survivors of the purges within the Third Legion that formed the sad prologue and epilogue to the atrocities on Istvan III, Lord Commander Arikel Evosa, known as the Prince of Cats, managed to bring a dwindling band of his once-proud Millenial, aboard his Retributor-class battleship, Beauty of Victory, to the Sol system.
Though their daring escape had confirmed their loyalty and allegiance to the oaths they had once sworn to the throne, they could have met the fate of many loyal sons of other traitorous fathers: Forced under suspicion to forfeit their lives in limited and monitored scenarios, or become Blackshields to wash clean the shame of their crest. But Terra remembered the origins of her desperate sons: once, the first recruits to the Third Legion were drawn from the bloodlines of Terra's branching noble lines, and Arikel Evosa was also a child of the ancient cradle of humanity. The bloodlines claimed old favors as readily as new, scheming all the way up to the high senate to not only aid the shattered Emperors Children, but also to cleanse their own gravitas: The Millenial Article Evosas was allowed to use the Inductii process to raise and arm new Astartes, who were allowed to continue bearing the crest of the Third Legion.
And so a new band of loyal Emperor's Children rose like a phoenix from the ashes: The Last Princes of Terra, a name they gave themselves so that they would always remember their origins, their beginning and their end. With this army, Lord Commander Arikel Evosa, now known as The Last Phoenix, made good on his renamed battleship Grace of Loyalty, patrolling the foothills of Sol's defensive spheres, his promise to make his former brothers and father pay for the desecration of their honor.
2.) A poem to death
"We were chosen to be the best, our banners bearing his crest, To deliver his word, his will, through grace of spirit still. Not with strength or sheer tenacity, but with wisdom's majesty, Not mere warriors of the throne, but exemplars to humanity alone.
We mastered war's intricate art, like a river pure, a flock apart, With grace that moved us to tears, in His name we quelled our fears. The Charnabal blade in hand, an allegory of a land, Of love and loyalty to the throne, in every battle we had shown.
But our gene-father’s twisted fate, turned our ideals to pride's weight, Humility to vanity's glare, grace to self-indulgence rare. Love and loyalty perverted so, in the Warmaster's name to woe, We lost our name, our honor torn, alongside walls where brothers mourn.
Now let us show Him one last time, our oaths resound in battle's chime, True brethren at our side to see, not all were damned eternally. We'll shout our name in hearts anew, as we face our brothers, true, And whisper it with honor earned, as from the ramparts we have learned."

From the writings of Cassandros Montague, Chosen Duelist of the Last Princes and Praefector of Grace

3.) Dramatis Personae
Arikel Evosa: Once the proud Lord Commander of the 27th Chapter, "The Felidars of the Phoenician," Arikel Evosa is known as the Last Phoenix, a title he wears with both honor and sorrow. Evosa led his dwindling band of loyal Emperor's Children to Terra, forsaking the corruption of their Primarch, Fulgrim. His strategic brilliance played a crucial role in the successful delaying defense of Lorin Alpha, buying precious time for the Imperium. On the eve of the Siege of Terra, he reflected on his painful choice to defy his gene-father, a decision that marked him for both glory and inevitable doom. In his final stand at Phytia Bastion, Evosa’s unyielding defiance against the traitors became a beacon of hope and a testament to lost ideals. His legacy is a poignant reminder of what the Emperor's Children were meant to be.
Amadeo the Virtuous: Once a celebrated hero and Supreme Commander under Phoenix Warden Vespasian, Amadeo now endures as a Contemptor Dreadnought, embodying the undying spirit of loyalty. Known as Amadeo the Virtuous, he serves as a steadfast guardian and an unwavering beacon of fidelity for his brothers. His transformation into a Dreadnought, a blend of honor and tragedy, represents the heavy toll of endless war. Amadeo’s presence on the battlefield inspires awe and reverence, a living relic of the Emperor's true vision for his Children. His ironclad form, though battered, stands as an eternal testament to unbroken vows and unyielding resolve.
Cassandros Montague: Cassandros Montague, the chosen Duellist and Swordmaster of the Last Princes, embodies the perfect blend of martial prowess and elegant grace. As the Praefector of Grace, he personifies the ideals the Emperor's Children once held dear, fighting with a skill and beauty that rivals mythic heroes. Despite his countless victories in duels and battles, Montague is haunted by the inexorable march of tragedy that his artistry cannot halt. His blade, though victorious, cannot cut through the sorrow that engulfs his legion. Rumor has it that he was slain in single combat by Lord Commander Eidolon, his body desecrated in a final, brutal act of betrayal. Montague's story is one of lost glory and the relentless pursuit of an unattainable ideal, a dance of death and honor on the blood-soaked stages of war.
3.) Epilogue: Echoes of Eternity
"For we have been chosen to be the best among our brothers. Chosen to bear His emblem on our banners, chosen to proclaim his word and his will. Not through sheer strength, endurance or willpower. But through understanding, consideration and the grace of the spirit. We should be more than simple soldiers of the Great Crusade, more than just warriors of the throne. We were to be role models for our brethren and exemplars for all mankind.
We were chosen to master the art of war. Like a flock of birds, like a pure mountain river tumbling down the slopes of the exarchates of North Afrik, we overran the enemies of his will with a grace that moved us to tears. But the carefully balanced Charnabal blade in our hands was never more than a symbol of our devotion to Him on the throne. We were His true sons. More than just in name - we were His sons because we embodied His ideals. We were the Emperor's children.
But our gene-father had a different fate in mind for us. He twisted our ideals, perverted them: Humility was consumed by pride, grace by garish self-importance. He turned love and loyalty to the throne into hatred and betrayal in the name of the warlord. They no longer call us by our old name. And we don't deserve to be called that. That title now belongs to our brothers defending the walls beside us, clad in yellow, red and white. But let us show Him on the throne that our oaths matter once again. That our true brothers beside us see that not all have fallen to damnation like our Primogenitor.
Let us whisper our ancient name in our hearts as we walk towards our traitorous brethren one last time. Let us scream it as we fall, pierced by their blades, by the battlements we hereby swear to defend in this moment!
Only then can we whisper our name again with honor.
We were not the ideal we should have been. We were the last Princes of Terra.
We were Emperor's Children."

Last recorded speech of Lord Commander Arikel Evosa, during the defense of Avalon Bastion in the last days of the Siege of Terra.

______
Thanks for your time, friends!
Greetings from Germany :)

submitted by Phoebus_dm to Warhammer30k [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 13:08 Waveshaper21 Quality of Life changes that must be done to TWW3 before the end of it's lifespan

I have a list to share that I belive would be essential, from smaller details to a bit more systemwide updates.
NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT A MASSIVE FEATURE REWORK THIS, DLC THAT thread.
Quality of Life update refers to more nuanced updates and changes that serve to improve the quality of something that already exists, not to add massive new features or content to any specific race or lord. It's a list of adjustments. Many - but not all - of these are available as mods that I've been using for years and can confidently say when combined together, greatly improves overall user experience.
I am not an expert of all races therefore my list will not include everything and everyone, but those I have the most experience with (across ~350+1100+600 hours of the 3 games so far), please feel free to add yours.

SYSTEM

System / Options / Sound

Currently there is no way to adjust campaign map character voiceline sound. If you mute everything like speech voice etc., on the campaign map every hero and lord will still scream full strenght max volume. The only way to adjust it is by lowering the all-sound slider, which lowers everything else. Because of this, characters are always super loud and it's impossible to adjust the campaign map experience to a more relaxed one (ever tried to just chill and Khorne? I did, got sick of screaming into a metal bucket characters).
When opening the diplomacy screen with any faction, their voiceline is cut off the moment the player clicks any diplomacy menu point. As such these voicelines are barely ever heard, because both the thought bubble and the voiceline playback gets cancelled (example: double click on any settlement to open diplomacy with the owner. Try to navigate the menus on bottom center buttons immediately). This should not be the case, and voiceline playback should be active as long as ANY diplomacy screen is open.

System / Options / User Interface

UI scaling is disabled on 1080p. It was usable in TWW2 and should be usable in TWW3 aswell, particularly now that the UI is all glass with dark blackground, and scaling actual art is not a problem since those got mostly removed (no I'll never get over this, TWW1 UI rocks, 2 was ehh, 3 is horrible).

System / Corruption / Attrition Balance

Reduce Attrition Immunity hidden modifier (cheat) of AI on higher difficulties. Corruption should be a viable undermining tactics against empires without open war and a defensive line for the corruption user to weaken enemy armies. Currently neither are functioning strategies on difficulties where we can expect the AI to deploy competent forces. Difficulty should not effect attrition resistance.

System / Control Balance

Current system exponentially increases +Control buffs in provinces that are increasigly mismanaged / unprotected (from corruption, raiders, or conquering), which makes no mechanical or thematical sense. It's only purpose is to make the game more "arcade-like" and reduce the need to manage your Control across your empire. The actual result is that unless played on VH / Legendary difficulty, Control is entirely ignorable. The more dire consequence is that the ability to undermine empires by spreading corruption without open war to trigger rebellions is entirely removed from the game. The current system forces your Control back to 0: increasing -Control while it's high, increasing +Control while it's low. The more extreme either way, the more extreme the pushback towards 0 is. Propositions:
Significantly reduce +Control buffs / -Control debuffs in provinces with low / high control. Keeping the population of your empire happy and under control should be the player's responsibility and neglecting it should come with a consequence (also enables Attrition warfare mentioned earlier).

System / Difficulty Settings

Battle difficulty settings are split into: Battle AI difficulty + AI battle enchancements (stats)
Campaign difficulty settings are split into: Campaign AI difficulty (effecting AI income and behaviour) + World modifications (including Control buffs / nerfs, Attrition immunity).
The goal is more customization and the possibility to counter the dumb AI to either be useless or the players being forced to play against cheats (mostly Control and Attrition immunity completely removing otherwise valid strategies).

System / Campaign Setup / Scenario selection (endgame crisises)

Added Eye of the Vortex scenario (enabled for those factions that supported it in TWW2, which are listed in the tooltip). It starts on turn 1.

Campaign map

Sea Lanes (Immortal Empires only): when playing certain factions, specific Sea Lanes are always unabled. These factions are: Rakarth (unique Sea Lane back to Nagarroth), Yuan Bo (unique Sea Lane back to Cathay, somewhere on the Great River).
Add Pole Gates of Chaos (North and South pole): optional toggle in campaign start settings ("Sea" Lane on land).
Graphics / Corruption: adjust corruption spread graphics tied to various numerical level of corruption. The current system makes events quite common where a region appears completely corruption one turn, and completely clean in the next, with no gradual increase/decrease showing in graphics in between. This was not so in Warhammer 1 or 2, corruption built up and got cleansed step-by-step.
Lustria used to be a wild jungle, a mystery to be broken by men as many died in their futile attempts to tame it. However as of TWW3 start position changes, the dominating forces in Lustria are Empire and Bretonnia, and Cathay in all my campaigns. The lizard live on the perimeter of their own home. To counter this, I propose adding a Jungle Attrition (in areas with Climate: Jungle), that only the Lizardmen are immune to. This would preserve start position diversity that CA pushes for, and restore the jungle to what it was supposed to be.

AI / Battle

Ranged unit targeting: loosen the requirements to fire. I can understand, even if dislike line of sight being broken for a gunpowder unit by a blade of grass but Alith being unable to fire on pretty much anything unless it's really far away is nonsense, especially considering he is an archer with arced projectile. As a templorarly fix maybe add homing tag to him and Khatep's bombardment?

AI / Campaign / Diplomacy

Diplomacy: diplomatic numerical value of settlements should change depending on climate tolerance of owner. Example: when the AI owns a settlement I want, he is more likely to give it up if his climate tolerance makes that settlement unfavorable or uninhabitable to that faction. Also, if I offer him a settlement like that, it's less value in diplomacy in this deal than a settlement the AI faction could inhabit.
Diplomacy: during settlement tradings, offering settlements that would complete the AI faction's province (or just part of it) should have higher numerical value.
Diplomacy: allow trading multiple settlements (offer or request) within the same transaction (for example, handing over 1 settlement in exchange for Peace might not be enough, but handing over 2 would be: however it is not possible to make this offer as settlement selection is currently mutually exclusive).
If the AI is at war with the player, and has only 2 settlements left, a peace offer in exchange for 1 settlement should always be accepted (since it is an ultimatum with the only alternative being extinction).
In the current live version, upon killing a Lord (in autoresolve or battle) but with remaining units left, the fleeing AI army will get a full health new lord (for example, if you kill a Necromancer lord in autoresolve, if part of the army survives they will automatically recieve a new full health lord, in this case, a Vampire Lord even). This should be changed so that the army recieves a generic low tier unit as the new leading lord instead (such is the case with many garrisons).

Battle maps

Siege / Maps

All settlement maps: invisible wall adjustments. Particularly ogre camps paths are only wide enough for 2 or 3 entities within a unit, creating ridicolously long lines of soldiers. Not only this looks bad but also heavily shifts the balance in favor or single entity units, messing up the meta of army unit compositions to unreasonable (this is ignorable in lower difficulties but very prominent on Hard battle difficulty, likely above more so). Invisible walls should be more generous and allowing wider unit formations.

Characters & Races

Legendary Heroes

All Legendary Heroes are recruited with level matching the level of your faction leader (this is to avoid LH mission spam on campaign start or earlier levels as a better alternative)
Ulrika: now available to recruit for Vampire Counts (read Bloodsworn, thanks. FYI she sided willingly with Sylvania and attempted to assassinate Karl Franz 3 times, killed countless imperial soldiers and slaughtered a village of innocents for a zombie army to be raised. After reading her 3 books it makes way more sense than her being recruitable for the Empire, that always hunted her...).

Malus Darkblade

Tzarkan's whispers missions: 1 out of 3 mission slots should always have a guaranteed spawn for his unique missions. You can learn more about these here, in case you are unaware what nearly every Malus player is missing out on: https://totalwarwarhammer.fandom.com/wiki/Whispers_of_Tz%27arkan

Vampire Counts:

Mannfred dual start: should hold a minor settlement in Sylvania. On campaign start, he can choose to keep it and be an ever present threat to Vlad waiting for the right moment to take over (the most Mannfred thing you can do) or sell it to him. This would represent well the idea of constant looking over your back that is certainly a definitive trait of the vampire society.
Adjust voice line triggers for Isabella, a.k.a the QUICKLY, SWIFTLY, QUICKLY, SWIFTLY character. Perhaps other lines from campaign map movement commands or even diplomacy may be assigned to combat movement orders too?
Blood Kiss 50% chance to gain (or not) when killing enemy lord via autoresolve increased to 100%. If the lord is dead, the kiss resource should be granted, no matter the way he died. FYI this is a 100% when killing a lord in manual battle, and has a 50% chance modifier for autoresolve for no good reason.

Cathay:

Kurgan invasions should be restored to their strenght level that was at game 3 release. Back then it was a common complaint that playing Cathay always felt the same, because you absolutely had to protect the wall. Now, you can ignore it, and it's not any better. In fact, not even Chaos ever besieges it, as Kairos and Azazel's AI judges it more optimal to walk around the mountains and enter from the south. However now we have Yuan Bo too, which means more character and unique campaign experience may be added back to Cathay, leaving the Iron Dragon to be the generic "you do whatever you want" option, while Miao Ying should return to her loreful duty of being the protector of the wall (campaign balancewise this means greatly increased Kurgan invasion strenght and thus a more combat oriented income source for Miao Ying, somewhat delaying her expansion south).
Onyx Crowmen: allow hiding in forest (at least when landed).
Dragon Siblings / Dragon form: add breath attack (1 per shapeshifting into dragon form, recharges upon transformation)
Dragon Siblings / Dragon form / Animation: positioning corrected when attacking towers in siege (currently floating above the targeted tower in melee, instead of next to it, seemingly attacking the air).
Dragon Siblings / Dragon form / Animation: speed up transformation animation a tiny little bit to allow the player to gain back control of the lord (can issue commands) sooner.
Add yellow (melee) skill line for Alchemists, so the ink bending melee coreography animations (which are absolutely amazing) are actually seen in use.
Gate settlements in the Great Wall: Attrition -90% when under siege

Yuan Bo:

Add notification when Matters of State is available for use (he is in the "Bretonnian players forget to use their Vow choice every time because there is no notification" state).

Kislev:

Ostankya start positon just has to be cleared up. This character is a mess. It's supposedly a protector of Kislev's forests. Starts in freaking Nagarroth 2 continents away in IE, and the Chaos Wastes (plausible old Kislev territory fallen to Chaos?) in Realms of Chaos campaign. Magical Forests are habitable for her though. If only we'd have a Magical Forest on the border of Kislev, holding the corruption back on the border of Kislev.... like... vampiric corruption.
Kostaltyn (this is assuming he'll recieve no larger update as part of a rework, as this post is not for those): Ice Witch training changed to Patriarch training (related technologies adjusted). It's a low hanging fruit, just change the hero type, and throw in 10 new traits to choose from, possibly active abilities too.
Provinces restored to their release design: the 3 major cities (Kislev, Praag, Erengrad) are massive 8 settlements, and minor settlements are small.

Woodelves:

Faction selection screen / Drycha: her faction description includes only that her elven units are nerfed, but does not mention that her forest spirit units are buffed - this is only a wild guess if you hover over her starting units. Description of Malevolent unit variants being exclusively available to Drycha should be added.
Orion / Battle: ability to fire while moving fix. Increase ammo (once he runs out of "spears" to throw, he has a bow and a quiver full of arrows on his model. He should be able to keep firing for a long time).
To adjust for start position change of Ostankya (see: Kislev changes), Drycha is moved to a different Magical Forest.

Nurgle:

Restoring Nurgling unit spawn rate to pre-rework. Every cycle (each jump) change of all millitary building also adds 1 Nurgling to the recruit pool. They are supposedly the cannon fodder filter for Nurgle like zombies are to VC, yet they became a rarity after the rework. (Previously, every cycle of economy buildings provided 1 Nurgling. Now that economy buildings no longer cycle, recruiting nurglings is tied to the lower tiers of millitary buildings that have many tiers and thus require a lot time to reach lower tiers again).
All factions: jungle immunity added (it is life after all upon which the grandfather's children thrive and fester).
Tamurkhan: damage nerf to his nukes, overall combat prowess nerf. It is laughable that he is far stronger than a favoured greater deamon of Nurgle, the fattest character in the game and yet has 2x as much Mass as he does.

Chaos Warriors / Vilich:

3D porthole camera adjusted to show Vilich's "face" more up close. His brother is not included in the name of the character for a reason, his purpose is more akin to a mount's. As such his portrait should also focus on him, instead of showing a distant miniature figure of both.

Lizardmen:

All factions: Jungle Attrition immunity added (see: campaign map changes)

Skaven:

Skrolk: Jungle Attrition immunity added (see: campaign map changes)

Ogre Kingdoms

Big Names. (plural). Are now not mutually exclusive and can be stacked. An ogre's glory grows more with only one thing other than hoarding meat, by hoarding titles.

High Elves:

Grant vision on trade agreement restored (was removed with Yuan Bo patch)
Gate settlements in the mountain: Attrition -90% when under siege

That's it so far! I'll repost with a lot more later on, but these are the most immediate fixes I'd like to see.

submitted by Waveshaper21 to totalwar [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 13:02 TonyTony1287 The Walking Dead Ranking Every Episode

Oh my God was this list hard to rank 😅 I took about I would say at least 15 hours of my time into this and all of that was just to rank them at a certain level without much to say. First off we have about 8 Tiers from F,D,C,B,A,S,SS, and Premium though I barely put much into their. Remember this is just an opinion so don't take too harshly if your favorite episode isn't high on my list. For some episodes I may not say much or anything since this was too long originally.
F Tier, these are my least favorite episodes and most likely I have a vendetta against them in some way that made it hard for me to like them

S2 Ep 8 Nebraska- I hate Lori and I think this episode expresses it, most definitely a vendetta. I didn't exactly like the stuff with Hershel and recovering though it was okay, but lori made some questionable decisions to go off on her own to look for Rick even though she should know he's fine seriously. She wrecks a car and then barely dies from a walker, mind you she is pregnant and shouldn't do these things easily my least favorite episode.
S10 Ep 21 Diverged- I honestly forget this episode so much since it has nothing truly interesting or important to the story
S7 Ep 6 Swear- this episode feels slow paced and dull due to oceanside being not seen well for me and I feel like Tara put on the best performance she could for it.
S8 Ep 2 The Damned- this episode to me was just a lot of action and in the walking dead I don't want that. We see a couple of characters die (including Francine 🪦 I absolutely loved her character and hate how she died here :[ mindless) Erics death started here, but it just wasn't impactful enough.
S3 Ep 11 I Ain't a Judas- Andrea is a boring character in the show and I hate her in this episode. The focus should've been on the prison honestly and maybe If she killed the Governor I would've understood her more.
S10 Ep 20 Splinter- if most of the episode was real I would've loved it, but they weren't...
S3 Ep 5 Say the Word- Andrea just isnt much good in this episode and Rick going crazy wasn't a fun idea to me.
S8 Ep 3 Monsters- aside from the one fight with Rick I really didn't care much for it again for the fighting and having Morales return and die felt out of place.
S2 Ep 2 Bloodletting- the group searching for Sophia was okay for a concept, but this episode was okay and went slow paced for me until the end.

D Tier, moving on these episodes were for me mostly just forgettable or boring so I won't say much except they weren't all bad

S1 Ep 3 Tell it to the frogs- first off S1 won't be all high because I'm ranking EVERY episode, but this one felt slow in pace more as well compared to the last two. Shane was a badass though.
S11 Ep 3 Hunted- Forgettable... Not much to say.
S5 Ep 11 The Distance- Forgot entirely this was an episode, after rewatch still don't like it except for Aaron.
S2 Ep 9 Trigger finger- It was a bit better than Nebraska, mostly cause of the Randel scenes.
S7 Ep 14 The Other Side- Sasha somewhat makes a noble decision.

163-162. S11 Episodes 22 following 21- 22 had the Warden being uninteresting as a villain and 21 was boring as can be which is why they sit besides each other.

S8 Ep 7 Time for After- I don't like the plans they have to deviate from Rick and him going to Jadis again feels like a horrible decision on his part.
S9 Ep 8 Evolution- The ambience is the best part, though I hated Jesus' s death as it felt like a bad sendoff.

C Tier, These are a bunch of boring and hard to follow episodes that have some highs that keep it out of former tiers.

S2 Ep 1 What lies Ahead- I liked the RV scene with Andrea, but what follows is dull.
S11 Ep 4- The pope is somewhat average.
S7 Ep 12 Say Yes- The carnival was a nice scenery for TWD, but they had too many fake outs with the walker "shooting" at them and the deer fake out.
S9 Ep 7 Stradivarius- The Search for Eugene feels tiring to follow what's happening and I ended up watching the episodes once and never again because of it.
S2 Ep 4 Cherokee Rose- Watching the episode is fun because of the well, though I feel like it was stupid as an idea as the group should have more common sense before doing something dumb.
S2 Ep 3 Save The Last One- Shane was horrifying, but the rest was dull.
S8 Ep 14 Still gotta mean something- Rick felt unnecessarly cold hearted in this episode killing off the Saviors that helped him which I didn't like, though Jared got a well deserved death.
S4 Ep 9 After -It was okay watching Carl try to scavenge while Rick was injured and I liked the scene with his shoe being lost.
S7 Ep 5 Go Getters- the episode itself wasn't bad yet I never really enjoyed it too much aside from Maggie being a badass and the ending was pretty good.
S4 Ep 10 Inamtes- Inmates was a pretty well rounded episodes showing off some of the group which I liked seeing Tyreese the most.
S8 Ep 6 The King, The Widow, and Rick- the episode was pretty lackluster for me and I didn't really appeal to seeing the garbage people much in this or everyone going to attack the saviors which was a dumb move to do. Ezekiel was probably the most fun of the episode.
S3 Ep 16 Welcome to the Tombs- the finale for season 3 has always been horrible as it barely gives tension between the Governor and Ricks group, it just felt unfitting for a finale.
S11 Ep 8 For blood- it was a okay Mid Season finale to say the least (sorry, 1/3 season finale). I did like some of the parts in it with Maggie which is why it sits higher than others.
S5 Ep 7 Crossed- I thoroughly enjoyed the chase scene between the three officers and Ricks group, but that was about it.
S4 Ep 13 Alone- I liked watching the parts of the group split up, except for Maggie, Bob, and Sasha as they felt very uneventful to me. What makes this episode better had to be the part about Daryl and Beth with the ending of the introduction to Joe's group.
S7 Ep 10 New Best Friends- a lot of these parts I forgot about in this episode when it came to the Kingdom though after rewatching it I enjoyed those parts more than the Garbage people. I just honestly think Jadis's group is uninteresting and makes for no substance.
S10 Ep 15 The Tower- I sometimes forget about this episode and it's premise with Beta, but I think it holds up enough for a weird one and The stuff with princess was okay.
S9 Ep 3 Warning signs- I think the episode was okay, I just didn't like Season 9 A that much...

B tier, now we get to the episodes I could watch again in the past 6 months or binge through without skipping

S11 Ep 2 Acheron Part 2- this was close to being put into C tier since I really hated some parts about it like how they left Gage to die and still had to fight off dozens of walking regardless. The group in the first two episodes seem to switch off and on from good to bad.
S7 Ep 4 Service- for some reason people hate this episode and I can't see why except for the fact it mainly deals with Negan at Alexandria; in my opinion it was him and a couple other characters who saved season 7 and 8 for me.
S10 Ep 3 Ghosts- I forget the episode...
S10 Ep 7 Open Your Eyes- I thought the episode was fine as I don't hate Siddiq and all, though I liked and hated the ending as I loved the twist of Dante and hated that Siddiq had to die so early on.
S6 Ep 7 Heads Up- I didn't like the twist of Glenn and all, but I liked the suspicion with Carol and Morgan as well as the Ending being dramatic.
S8 Ep 11 Dead or Alive- it's not good to know when you remember an episode due to bad things. Daryl has been making more off decisions for the character and Tara seems to be completely Reckless now making me hate her moving forward.
S4 Ep 4 Indifference- The Scenes with Carol and Rick we're amusing with crude Humour as well as some more tense scenes in my opinion and I hated/liked when Rick told Carol she couldn't come back.
S3 Ep 6 Hounded- honestly I would've rather put this episode a little bit higher due to Merle (probably my favorite charcater which contributes to a lot of episodes being higher) being a badass while fighting Michonne and pulling out puns as well. The reason it doesn't get higher is still due to Rick and the phone situation being uneventful.
S11 Ep 9 No Other Way- Alden dies in this episode which I should've seen coming that sucks. The ending feels misleading a bit though everything else in the middle is pretty great.
S11 Ep 5 Out of the Ashes- literally the only reason I put this here was due to Lance so deal with it!
S4 Ep 11 Claimed- Rick had a pretty solid pair of scenes with the Claimers and I liked watching Glenn and Tara (Surprisingly).
S10 Ep 13 What We Become- I thought the flashbacks/hallucinations we're pretty good, but aside from that this episode was just mediocre.
S9 Ep 4 The Obliged- I liked watching Daryl and Rick fight each other over different views on how everything should be and the ending I thought was pretty suspenseful as well as the saviors and oceanside.
S11 Ep 15 Trust- Lance feels exactly like the Governor in some of these episodes which is what I like about him, and from here I start to enjoy Princess maybe because Mercer is around more xd.
S10 Ep 17 Home Sweet Home- I thought Maggie was a good enough concept for an episode with the reapers, though it didn't hit that hard watching again. It still Is most definitely better than the other 3 episodes of S10 part C but enough for A Tier.

A Tier, after this point complaints may start to stop, but that doesn't mean entirely. These episodes I enjoy watching over and over again with some good tension and comedy as well.

S1 Ep 5 Wildfire- For the episodes Jim was in I liked him and learning his backstory as well so this was a pretty fun episode.
S4 Ep 15 Us- the stuff with Abraham and their group was pretty wholesome to me and I liked Joe for the time being in here seeing how he is pretty fair to be honest giving things where they are due and trust to Daryl.
S6 Ep 11 Knots Untie- I somewhat feel like the episode drags due to there being too much at hilltop, but it is a new community so I can't truly argue. I remember enjoyably when Rick stopped the assassination attempt.
S8 Ep 9 Honor- the beginning with Carl I thought was good to showcase the events that unfolded before the decimation and Carl's death hit hard.
S5 Ep 4 Slabtown- I personally don't mind the hospital arc too much, yet it won't get all of it's episodes too high of course. I liked watching Noah and Beth converse and I thought this was a new era for the walking dead.
10 Ep 1 Lines we Cross- the part with the Satellite was amusing to watch as it was a big change to see and I like that about the walking dead on occasions.
S9 Ep 6 Who are you now?- I liked learning of Luke's Group (you heard me, Luke's Group) and what they have been like learning of some of their past.
S10 Ep 8 The World Before- I liked mostly just watching two scenes, the beginning with Dante and Gabriel and Dante. I loved the fact no one even considered a Whisperer living amongst them and how he did some much devious stuff was mind boggling and amazing to watch. When Gabriel talks about forgiveness to Dante and kills him shows me how Gabriel has changed the past seasons.
S7 Ep 9 Rock in the Road- Rick gives off a good speech to Ezekiel and I liked seeing him and Morgan reunite again. The stuff with Gabriel wasn't too bad either.
S3 Ep 9 The Suicide King- the Governor finally seems to be starting to let things of him slip which I love to see. I also enjoyed watching Merle with Daryl as well too.
S11 Ep 11 Rouge element- I thought that the twist of Steph was pretty good and I don't mind the episode being a bit long and tedious for it's reveal.
S11 Ep 23 Family- I loved the fact Lydia got bit just because it shows us that people can still get bit and survive. It shows to me that in the finale no one could be truly safe even though Luke gets bit and still dies.
S11 Ep 17 Lockdown- Saving Sebastian was okay ig.
S8 Ep 10 The Lost and The Plunderers- Simon's character I think was made perfectly as he is a hotheaded person who is all about power and showing that off. Killing most of the Garbage people was terrifying to watch and showed how Negan could be more merciful than others.
S1 Ep 1 Days Gone Bye- I think for the pilot it did it's job well and showed off enough of what the show could be. Of course this doesn't mean it was all good but as pilots go it was pretty solid.
S11 Ep 1 Acheron Part 1- The only reason I put it this high was for the interrogation scenes especially when it came down to Ezekiel. Him and Mercer are honestly a great pair and I love his ending to the show as it's fitting.
S5 Ep 10 Them- after losing most of the group it seems like a fitting episode of despair and plays it perfectly.
S5 Ep 12 Remember- the first shown scenes of Alexandria was pretty good and I liked the interviews scene too. We also saw a lot of new character introductions.
S11 Ep 6 On The Inside- The ferals was a nice touch of horror that I never knew I could need. Making the people with the ferals Virgil and Connie made the most perfect sense as well.
S6 Ep 13 Not Tomorrow Yet- this episode shows off how our group is seeming to be the bad guys starting to kill people in their sleep. I like how Glenn and Heath have their first kills and show how they are changing.
S7 Ep 1 The day will come when you won't be- I like the title as it references Doctor Jenner, but for the episode I liked Negan and that's mostly it. Seeing two people die was horrible to me, but necessary and since I don't rank episodes for being bad due to deaths I can still rank them high.
S6 Ep 16 Last Day on Earth- Simon has a good introduction and I like them trying to get from point A to B, but what stands out to me most is probably Abraham and Eugene with his speech about him
S7 Ep 15 Something they need- Sasha was probably the highlight of the episode for me and I liked them and Negan's interactions. It Is a good effort to show that they aren't all monsters and I like seeing Eugene as well.
S3 Ep 7 When the Dead come knocking- Glenn and his interrogation with Merle was amazing and I liked seeing Glenn's true will shine.
S8 Ep 12 The Key- I don't like this episode much honestly if it wasn't for Negan and Ricks Speech as well as Simon and his deviousness.
S8 Ep 1 Mercy- the beginning I had to move up due to some good portions of it like Rick and Negan. I also liked the ending a lot even though I watched the trailer a lot and knew of Gabriel and Negan's interactions.
S9 Ep 1 a New Beginning- wow two series beginnings next to each other... Yeah it's weird but they weren't exactly S Tier Material. The beginning with them trying to get a horse accessory was great tension to watch and I already love Ricks Beard.
S10 Ep 18 Find me- okay so maybe I exaggerated My feeling towards Season 10 C a bit since I like some of the episodes a bit and others worse. The reason I put this here is mostly good plot lines and that was it.

Around here I wanted to say the reason for some episodes ranking higher is due to the fact the others are horrible and some of these have redeeming qualities. It's hard to put over 150 episodes ranked from horrible to greatness and know the points of interest.

S3 Ep 3 Walk With Me- Merle brings joy to me seeing him again and I love him from here on out. I like how the Governor seems to be innocent enough until the big reveal with the militia which is amazingly put.
S10 Ep 9 Squeeze- I hate Squeeze... There i said it. The cave sucks honestly and Id rather not watch it again because of that, but Negan is the only saving grace for this episode and if it wasn't for him I would never watch this episode again.
S8 Ep 13 Do Not Send Us Astray- Simon attacking the Hilltop was the most great action of this season that I never minded and it felt terrifying after Tobin's fate was sealed.
S3 Ep 12 Clear- I had to move it from S Tier, but nevertheless a great episode. Morgan's return was done perfectly and I felt like his character did a full 180 after this. Michonne and Carl's side story was also good.
S2 Ep 12 Better Anglels- Shane and Ricks final confrontation was amazingly executed and loved the difference from the Comics with Rick killing shane and Carl shooting his reanimated self; Shane and Randel was also good too.
S4 Ep 12 Still- Daryl and Beth make sense to pair together and I like seeing how we get a bit more back story to his character. They feel like the most perfect example to put for a mismatched pair.
S6 Ep Thank You- The journey with Glenn's group trying to get back was amusing to see even though the dumpster ending wasnt really the best, still horrible to see.
S10 Ep 4 Silence the Whisperers- Negan and Lydia have a good bond and I like how Negan defends her even though I hate how no one believes Lydia that Negan protected her.
S8 Ep 4 Some Guy- I still love watching Ezekiel and the Kingdom so I enjoy this episode and how he feels defeated the whole time. Jerry is the best bodyguard in my opinion as well as it is shown and Shivas death is heartbreaking.
S5 Ep 8 Coda- The reason I put this soo high was due to Rick and Bob. I did like the ending a bit even though I feel like Beth's death could've been avoided.
S3 Ep 14 Prey- originally this episode was C Tier for me, but I re-watched it and put it this high due to the Governor being a literal psycho and I love this side of him.
S11 Ep 20 What's been Lost- Lance felt underutilized as soon as he died, I really wished they could've made a difference with his exit on the show.
S8 Ep 8 How it's gotta be- Forgot about Natanias death.
S11 Ep 7 Promises Broken- Negan and Maggie had a good talk together about before.
S10 Ep 6 Bonds- Okay.. XD.
S6 Ep 10 The Next world- I thought the stuff with Rick, Daryl, and Jesus was goofy, but great.
S11 Ep 19 Varient- I do like the idea of evolving walkers though I feel like it was a bit late in the show.
S3 Ep 13 Arrow on the Doorstep- the meeting was just terrific to watch as the Governor is so sinister inside it with Milton and Hershel having a good talk as well with Martinez and Daryl having a good show off time. Merle and Glenn have some good times too.
S9 Ep 2 The Bridge- The log scene was amazing and Aaron had a good scene with the amputation.

S Tier, These episodes are some of my favorite to watch with a good glass of Tea and some snacks.

S7 Ep 7 Sing me a song- Negan and Carl were fun to watch as well as some more insight on the sanctuary as Daryl breaks free. Negan and Carl also Bond.
S10 Ep 10 Stalker- Daryl VS Alpha!!!
S11 Ep 16 Acts of God- Lance is very horrifying as to what his next move is and Leah's stuff was good.
S3 Ep 8 Made to suffer- it was a great Mid season finale as I enjoyed the fight with the Governor and Rick as well as the ending with Merle and Daryl.
S2 Ep 6 Secrets- Glenn has to deal with hiding multiple people's secrets and I feel like the comedy is pure gold here.
S1 Ep 2 Guts- The rooftops scenes were great as well as the parts where they wear guys to avoid the walkers, it always felt like a sense of panic in this episode.
S9 Ep 9 Adaptation- the introduction to Alpha was simple enough and I feel like it's a good episode.
S11 Ep 10 New Haunts
S11 Ep 12 The Lucky Ones- Carol finally feels a little bit like she's back to her old self in this community with Lance and their deals.
S4 Ep 1 30 days without and Accident- probably my second favorite of the beginning episodes as it demonstrates exactly how the group has got along since the recent events. Has a good story with the shopping market and the roof caving in was awesome.
S3 Ep 10 Home- this episode shows how Merle and Daryl are far apart which I can still keep watching Merle and be entertained as well as the fight scene at the end with the Governor being cocky as can be.
S9 Ep 16 The Storm- snow is a new but simple thing that I like along with Negan Earning trust with Michonne.
S10 Ep 2 We are the End of the World- Gamma saving Alpha is one of my favorite scenes of how it shows Alphas power towards the group and influence on it's people.
S6 Ep 8 Start to Finish- The walls coming down had an interesting story as well as many like the Wolf getting loose and Diana having a badass/amazing exit.
S9 Ep 11 Bounty- The Movie Theatre scene was pretty good as well as Alpha with and Lydia.
S5 Ep 2 Strangers- The uneasy feeling of Gabriel is pretty good to show the groups trust and I like how the ending is played out with the reveals.
S11 Ep 13 Warlords- The Complex is a pretty good place to see and I like seeing the evolution of Negan and Aaron.
S9 Ep 15 The Calm Before- The highlight is the end with the pikes though it made sense for the lesser characters. I hated seeing Henry and Enid die (Not with Tara).
S10 Ep 11 Morning Star- The start of the battle is ingenius with the tree sap fire scene and it makes for a suspenseful ending to the episode to come.
S9 Ep 5 What come After- The episode is meant to be a sendoff for Rick so I'll rank it about everything else instead. I did enjoy some of the sequences with Hershel and I loved seeing Shane again. He really puts perspective on some episodes like Season 5 which makes me enjoy watching those episodes more as well as Shane. Ricks exit was also done is a pretty good way.
S7 Ep 13 Bury me Here- I liked watching Morgan slowing go back into insanity which I believe is due to PTSD of some sort. The episode feels really well done and I like the ending to it with Richard Dying and Carol being told everything.
S9 Ep 12 Guardians- Alpha is great to watch in this episode and the way she kills the two whispering who challenge them is great!
S8 Ep 5 The Big scary U- the main focus is Negan and Gabriel which is an amazing talk between then two before settling their differences. I also like the unease at the sanctuary through betrayal.
S11 Ep 14 The Rotten core- the whole episode is one of If not my personal favorite to watch for the complex alone being a nice setting. I enjoy every bit of this episode as well as the side deal with Sebastian and how Mercer is revealed to be a pretty nice guy.
S5 Ep 15 Try- The whole episode feels like a decent into madness for Rick seeing everyone against him. I like how he goes into protective cop mode and try to defend the ones he lives as well as his speech at the end.
S11 Ep 18 A New Deal- The whole episode is average, but the ending just feels amazing to rewatch.
S2 Ep 11 Judge, Jury, Executioner- I personally like Dale a lot so I love this episode. It really shows how the group is starting to turn as they believe to do what is best for the group and not morals. Dales death is also very heartfelt to watch and showed off the walkers dangerousness.
S10 Ep 14 Look At The Flowers- Negan and Daryl make a good pair to watch though I enjoyed watching Beta and him struggling to get back on track after Alphas death and I love him so much more for this episode.
S5 Ep 5 Self Help- Daryl and Carol at the moments have some good episodes together so it's not surprise I'd love this episode. With Noah in the episode as well it feels like a amazing show of how the characters (Carol and Daryl) have changed morally.
S6 Ep 13 The Same Boat- Carol has been shown to be ruthless, but this episode shows her true colors as how she doesn't want this to be her life anymore.
S5 Ep 13 Forget- the episode itself has many great minisodes it felt like which was fantastic.

50 and 49. S4 Ep 6 Live Bait and 7 Dead Weight- I put these both here due to the fact of me loving the equally. The 6th episode feels like a showcase of how the Governor gets broken entirely and starts to get built back up positively showing what could have been and for a time it feels beautiful to me. The 7th though shows how some things can mess with his mind and make him go back to being a psychopath that kills everyone he sees.

S8 Ep 16 Wraith- The ending to season 8 was pretty eventful for the battles begin as Eugene saved everyone's asses from a cool trick with the bullets. I am happy that Rick decided to save Negan and I love the episode except for the ending being off-putting with Maggie.
S6 Ep 9 No way Out- The Wolf has a pretty interesting end that I enjoyed to see and aside from the the entire eoisode is the best part. You never feel that sense of boring to it as the action is nonstop great.
S5 Ep 5 Now- I liked small bits and pieces of this episode mostly revolving around Diana and her role starting to change. If she survived I don't doubt I would've loved to see her go through more of an arc.
S7 Ep 11 Hostiles and Calamities- I can see the hate for this episode, though I love it myself. Eugene in my opinion is at his best here and I love watching him here with Negan and their interactions. It was also great how Dwight had framed the doctor.
S5 Ep 6 Consumed- Abraham was one of my favorite characters not just for jokes but for this episode. His backstory is heartbreaking to learn about and relatable. When he falls down after beating Eugene in defeat I can feel his pain with him.
S9 Ep 13 Chokepoint- Daryl VS Beta!!!

SS Tier, after this point there is no bad things that the episodes could have drag it's down. These ones are my person favorites.
Around this time I also realized that it seems my numbers on the side aren't matching so I'm fixing it from here so skip 42- 38. Idk what happened but I messed up somewhere and went to fix it but couldn't find the problem.

S2 Ep 13 Besides the Dying Fire- The walkers attacking the farm was a great scene just as much as the Democracy speech was from Rick, though Lori is horrible to Rick in this episode. Also Rick tells the group "we're all infected"
S4 Ep 2 Infected- I love the scene where Patrick reanimates and the morning fight they have in the prison. So much stuff happens at once. The ending was Great with Tyreese and. The pig scene was sad to watch.
S6 Ep 6 Always Accountable- One time when I like Sasha is this episode with Abraham. Where to begin; The Rocket launcher scene was great, Abraham is great with quips, Daryl with Dwight is a good scene and I love the ending as well.
S6 Ep 14 Twice as Far- The Denise speech wasnt too bad and the death was great. I enjoyed Abraham and Eugene; I think my favorite scenes was with Abraham and Eugene with another one of his speechs towards him which was funny and heartfelt.
S4 Ep 16 A- The best part is when Joe's group comes along and how Rick bites out his throat signifying that he and Shane are now alike. I also like when Rick and Daryl talk as well as Rick figuring out this olace kidnaps people.
S2 Ep 7 Pretty Much dead Already- Shane is what I love about this episode, he and Dale had a really funny encounter and I feel like Shane makes me laugh and be serious at the same time with each scenes. I also like how Rick is more accepting towards Hershel.
S10 Ep 16 A Certain Doom- Beta was good in this episode and had some great parts, but the fights wee great especially the scene with the Music. Betas death felt odd, but that doesn't lower the episode.
S4 Ep 14 The Grove- I mean do I really have to explain? Carol is a savage here and I love when they finally talk about Karen and Davids death here. Nothing in this episode is a low note.
S2 Ep 5 Chupacabra- I love everything about Daryl's scenes in this that show how he is a badass and capable of holding his own. Also love his Hallucinations.
S11 Ep 24 Rest In Peace- certainly wasn't the best finale, but I felt like it did well enough for the episode. It tied up most loose ends for the show given its runtime and I feel like it is fitting enough.
S2 Ep 10 18 Miles Out- my favorite of Season 2 has Shane and Rick have the best battle I have seen even more than The Governor and Rick or Negan and Rick. This battle utilizes both of their strengths and weaknesses with some things that have never been done in the show much more like using your blood to attract walkers to other places. It was an amazing episode all in all.
S1 Ep 6 TS-19- idk what it is but I love watching this episode over and over again and I love it the more I watch it. It is probably because I like Doctor Jenner a bit more in each watching of his tragic backstory with his wife.
S9 Ep 14 Scars- The flahsback was an amazing one that told us something vital to the story about how they don't trust people coming in anymore. What Daryl and especially Michonne went through is tragic.
S5 Ep 3 Four Walls a roof- this episode is perfect for a number of reasons like Bob and his antics or Savage Rick, this was a turning point for the walking dead and this is where Rick gets some of his roots.
S1 Ep 4 Vatos- even though I love TS-19 I love Vatos more. This is unique to some episodes where you see a group just like Ricks that is trying to survive and this is where we realize the world is bigger than we thought still.
S7 Ep 16 The first day of the rest of your Life- The battle was amazing and I feel like this was the best it was going to get for the coming seasons, but season 9 and 10 surprised me.
S10 Ep 5 What it always Is- Negan with the Kid is the highlight I think, I could've honestly seen this going farther, if it wasn't for the former savior. I feel like this was fitting for an entire episode of, but we diverged a bit.
S4 Ep 3 Isolation- Hershel and Tyreese are the highlights for me with Tyreese going berserk and Hershel being a kind soul. This is a staple episode for why Season 4 is amazing and why Hershel is what made season 4 great.
S6 Ep 4 Here's not Here- I love learning about Eastman and Morgan in this one off. I love how it is somewhat told in the first person narrative to the Wolf and how Morgan changed back to who he was. Eastman shows how he and Morgan are pretty similar and why he should be like him.
S5 Ep 14 Spend- aside from Francine being here to be used as eye candy for me I loved how some of Alexandria like and dislike rick's group here. I do hate Noah dying as I feel like he could've been so much more.
S10 19 One More- I love havng the episode based on Aaron and Gabriel as they have came a long way since their beginnings. When they have few an encounter with Mays I felt like this was a testimony to who they are as people. We see how they care for each other and how Mays fails to make a point of who they are until Gabriel Kills him showing he has gone farther away from the light.
S7 Ep 3 Cell- Daryl is locked up and he is now being treated like shit. This episode feels great cause of how it feels like he is trying to break Daryl. Dwight also has a great mission on how he mercy kills a savior and shows he isn't as bad as you may think.
S6 Ep 1 First time again- I do enjoy the setting of the episode how we see the diverge in Alexandria and who listens or hears Rick out. The episode is a great example for staring episodes... But not the best at it.
S5 Ep 9 What Happened and what's going On- I loved Tyreese's character so to see him die was horrible for me. His episodes I feel like was a good send off since it is a test to who he is as a person who is confounded about the world around him.
S3 Ep 4 Killer Within- this episode was played perfectly and I feel like is a good sendoff for other characters as well like how I hate Lori. She is made just a bit better from her sacrifice and thought T-Dog went out in a good way as well. The prisoners also had a good show for their trust.
S4 Ep 5 Interment- this is where Hershel's best episode is as he is the best Samaritan Alive in the apocalypse. At the end where Rick and Carl fend off the walkers inside the gates in a great bond and I love the whole episode.
S6 Ep 3 JSS- it is well rounded and has good action as well as a lot of tension and suspense with Carol showing off her capabilities and Morgan with his philosophy.

Finally we cracked the top ten and into Premium Episodes. If you've made it this far you are are persistent as me... Well probably less since this took a long ass time but still. These are the episodes whee I cherish them and can watch more than once a month.

S8 Ep 15 Worth- Worth has what I want in an episode; good characters and story/plot. Eugene's parts are made more important seeing how he needed to stay at the sanctuary to save Alexandria and the other communities. I loved even more Dwight's part where I have without doubt the most suspense with him and Negan. Simon also had the most best arc death as it felt complete.
S5 Ep 16 Conquer- the episode has a lot of action and the ending was the pivet. I love the speech he has and how Diana let's Rick be in charge now was a sort of cliffhanging ending that signify's perfection.
S5 Ep 1 No sanctuary- both Season 5's beginning and finale are amazing and the way Rick and his group take down Terminus in one episode is amazing as they fight there way out and the scene with Judith was great. Morgan was just a sprinkle of wholesomeness to see.
S10 Ep 12 Walk With Us- The Episode had just enough action, good deaths and character interactions to make it here. First of the battle at hilltop was amazing. The second best thing was Earl and I feel very sad every time I watch this episode at his part. Then the best thing is the end with Alpha and Negan.
S3 Ep 1 Seed- The best beginning to a season it shows how the group has changed since Rick and the prison is a great example. The tombs are a great scenery and the ending was perfect for a cliffhanger as well as Conquer.
S3 Ep 2 Sick- the prisoner episode was pretty good to watch as a group of prisoners try to take on walkers. While some are good others would rather be assertive. Rick has definitely changed since season 2 and the group is played great here and much more human like.
S7 Ep 2 Well- what helps this episode is the last episode before it having a dark tone. This instead has a more uplifting one with the king and with Carol and Morgan being a great pair. The Kingdom seems to be a good community and seeing how Carol tries to smooth talk the king and how he tells whays her bullshit is an amazing scene.
S10 Ep 22 Heres Negan- We realize he was a kinda lousy husband that wasn't really too good to becoming a really supportive husband who cares deeply for his wife Lucille. The story before showed a lot of Negan and how he is and I love Lucille as a character from this episode trying to do whats best for Negan.
S4 Ep 8 Too Far gone- Honestly this IS the best episode, but I am bias so I had to put my own personal favorite above it not to say this isn't right behind it easily. Too far gone is what feels like a season finale but isn't. The Governors first encounter should've been this and I'm glad we got to see it unfold great. Rick has a great speech in it about not being too far gone yet and the Governor killing Hershel to start the best battle of the series. The Governors death feels fitting and the ending was sad and amazing.

Before I get to this last one I wanted to say a thank you in advance to whomever reads this as I really had a hard time making this and spending a lot of time to do this isn't easy. And remember this last episode is my very own person opinion entirely and in no way is it the best of the series definitively, without any furthermore, lets end this.

Season 3 Episode 15 This Sorrowful Life- Now what makes this episode so great to me? Well I'm totally biased towards the actor and the character in the show Merle Dixon. I could watch Merle all day which is what they episode feels like with the perfect duo of Michonne and Merle on their way to the governor. It has some of the most perfect comedy in the episode as well as having the best sacrifice redemption arc and ending. This episode made me laugh, smile, cry and more. There will never be a time when I ever change my opinion about this episode in existence.

Again another huge thanks to everyone and I hope this will satisfy everyones needs... Now I'ma go watch S3 Ep 15 Legit.

submitted by TonyTony1287 to TonysRandomness [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 12:48 Purple_Ad3714 80 Faqs About demons

Table of Contents

Please use the back arrow on the upper left side of the screen to return to TOC.
Physical Body of the Host #hosts-physical-Body
Demons and Sex
Demon Possession
Exorcism and Deliverance
Spiritual Battle
General Questions about Demons
Spirit Channeling Is Dangerous
My qualifications to answer these questions

Physical Body of Host

Can demons change the host’s skin?

Demons can make the host desire to cut or scratch their body.

2. Can a demon murder the host?

No, a demon cannot murder the host by using a knife or sharp objects. They are not
No, a demon cannot murder the host by using a knife or sharp objects. They are not capable of picking up a physical object. They are spirits and have no physical body.

3. Can a demon get into the blood?

Yes, generational demons are passed in the blood from generations of the same family.

4. What is a generational demon?

Generational demons will stay with the blood of all generations until they are cast out by an exorcist.

5. Why do demons get pleasure from the sight of blood?

The sight, smell, and feeling of the blood make them stronger. Blood is also sacrificed to invite more demons into the host.

6. Can a demon kill through communication with the host?

Demons can kill the host by tormenting it through through injection or telepathy. The host becomes so insane that the person will commit suicide to have mental peace of mind.

7. How do demons affect sleep?

The demon has easier access to the host when asleep. The demon will give terrifying nightmares. The host will be afraid to sleep, weakening their body and making them less able to fight spiritually.

8. How do the demons keep their host from eating?

The host becomes so fearful and nervous that there is no appetite.

9. Can a demon control body movements?

Yes, demons can control the hands (for example, Ouija Board and Automatic Handwriting), move the head, and use the host’s voice.

10. Can a demon talk to the host?

Yes, the host needs to go neutral and not think of their thoughts. The demon can use the voice as a way of communication.

11. Can the demon talk to the person anytime in a social setting

Yes, the person must always think before they speak. It takes practice to know if the demon desires to speak. The host can practice controlling their speech.

12. Can a demon force the person to talk to themselves?

Yes, when people are possessed, they will talk to themselves and not care if anyone hears them. This can take some time for the demon to get deeper into total possession.

13. How does a demon get a person to scratch themselves?

The demon can place an intense desire in the person to scratch or abuse themselves.

14. Why do demons want the host to cut themselves?

Demons and Sex

15. Why Do Demons Desire Sex?

All demons desire sex. A part of their goal is to get pleasure from sex with the host’s physical body.

16. Can you summon a demon through pornography?

Yes, if you intensely watch TV, videos, or pornography magazines. Demons will be summoned to get an invitation to communicate. The demons lie to say that they are a fantasy sex lover.

17. What is an incubus?

An incubus is the historical name given to male sex demons. All demons love sex and take on this name as a function.

18. What is a succubus?

A succubus is a female sex demon. The current thinking is that all demons are male.

19. Can demons intensify the sexual desire in the host?

Yes, demons can intensify the desire for sex. They can torture the host with strong sexual desires at all times in daily life.

20. How Do demons have sex?

Demons have sex because they can feel all the physical sensations of the host touching themselves until the climax.

21. Can a demon make a woman pregnant?

No, a demon does not have a body. However, a demon can force the feeling of being pregnant. The demon may tell the woman that she is having a spiritual baby.

22. What is a spiritual husband or wife?

The demon convinces the host that they are communicating with a deceased spouse.

23. Can demons rape a person?

Yes, a demon can rape a person by lucid dreams.

25. Can a person attract a demon by fantasizing about a beautiful lover?

Yes, if the person has an intense desire for this lover.

26. Can a person get a demon by casual sex?

Yes, if you know very little about the sex partner, demons are transmitted through body fluids.

Is Demon Possession Real?

27. What is demon oppression?

Demon oppression occurs when a demon is on the outside of a person. The spirit attempts to lure the person into an invitation to communicate. The person will feel like a dark cloud of evil surrounds them. The person may be sad for no reason, feel jittery, or have intense emotions that they have never had before.

28. What is stage one of demon possession?

Stage one is when the person has invited the demon in through channeling or a passionate desire that the person has. The demon will lie and pretend to be anything the person wants them to be. The demon will entertain the person and have conversations with the host through thoughts in the person’s mind. In stage one, the person can still live their normal life. Friends and loved ones will note that the person is a little weird, but no one thinks anything about the behavior.

29. What is partial possession?

Stage two of the possession process is when the demon penetrates the host’s mind and body further, now talking through the host’s voice and conversing with them. The demon wants sex more often. The host wants to spend all their time with the demon. The host is kept in social isolation. Eventually, the host finds they are losing control of their mind and body. Intense fear comes to the host. The demon tells the host that all is lost and that the demon will control them for the rest of their lives.

30. What is total possession?

The demons take total control of the person. The person cannot take care of themselves. The hosts talk to themselves in and out of social situations. The only hope is to take the person to an exorcist and a psychiatrist who knows about the spirits. If not, the person is lost forever in their world.

31. Can a possessed person lead a normal life?

Yes, a person who is oppressed or partially possessed can attempt to lead a normal life. The host may fool loved ones and friends, but the demonic thoughts come steadily, The host still has control to behave normally.

32. Can a host communicate with the demon using the host’s voice?

Yes, the host can talk to the demon using their voice, and the demon can answer by slightly deepening the host’s voice.

33. Can the demon communicate in other ways in a social setting?

The demon will still send thoughts when the host is in a social setting. The host may have the control to ignore the thoughts. The demons will try another way to communicate by moving the host’s finger to form letters for words. Channeling is dangerous. Working the board will only bring demons.

Exorcism and Deliverance

Exorcism is the act of casting out a demon. After the demon is cast out, deliverance shows the person how to live free.

34. What must the host do to make the exorcism effective?

Exorcisms are effective, but they might take time. The host must renounce the demon, tell it to leave and never return, and renounce the invitation that gave the demon the spiritual authority to enter. For example, if they channeled to get the demon in, the host must never channel again. The host must be willing to confess all their secret behaviors, such as viewing pornography, and never doing that again. The host must earnestly desire the exorcism no matter how embarrassing the secrets.

35. What does the exorcist first do to make the exorcism effective?

The exorcist must pray for spiritual protection from God and the angels. They must have very strong faith in the name and power of Jesus Christ.

36. Why does the exorcist need to lead a clean life?

The exorcist calls the demon to manifest through the host. The exorcist must be living a clean life with no secrets. The demon can speak the exorcist’s secret sins in front of the exorcism team.

37. How does the exorcist talk to the demon?

The exorcist commands the demon to tell its function and the host to invite it to enter the host. The exorcist must never have a conversation with the demon that does not involve the current exorcism.

38. How does the demon react?

The demon curses screams, and sometimes tries to spit at the exorcist. The exorcist must maintain control of the demon by invoking the name of Jesus Christ.

39. Can the demon hurt the exorcist?

No, the demon cannot physically hurt the exorcist. The exorcist is under the spiritual protection of Jesus Christ and all His angels. When the exorcist gets hurt or killed by the demon on TV and in movies, that is entertainment and fantasy.

40. How long does it take to perform an exorcism?

The time of completion of the exorcism depends on how many invitations the host gives the demon. There are secrets the host might try to hide from the exorcist. It takes time to discover all the host’s secrets.

41. Can an exorcist act alone?

The exorcist should have a team of deliverance people to support the exorcist with prayer and their spiritual discernment. The team can discern something the exorcist needs to know about the demon or the host. Exorcisms should not be done with only one exorcist.

42. Do you need a priest to perform an exorcism?

No, there are a few Protestant churches that have exorcism teams. These churches train people to become exorcists.

43. Can anyone cast out a demon?

No, you must be anointed and called by God to be an exorcist. A person who tries this alone puts themselves in spiritual danger.

44. Can angels help in an exorcism?

Yes, the exorcist can call the angels to help in an exorcism. Usually, they keep the host in the chair and stop the demon from screaming.

45. Why is it so difficult to find an exorcist?

Christian churches do not want exorcisms in their place of worship. Many churches do not want to deal with demons.

What is a Spiritual Battle?

46. How the host must fight to retain thought control from the demon?

The host must stop the thoughts the demon gives by replacing them with a positive thought. Every time, even hundreds of times a day.

47. How does the host stop the demon from using their voice?

The host must always think before talking. The host can stop the demon from talking. This takes practice every day until the host slowly gains total control.

48. How does the host stay spiritually protected?

Pray to God in the name of Jesus. Read and memorize scriptures that are most meaningful to the host.

49. What happens when the host sleeps?

Sleeping makes the control diminished. Meditate on prayer and scriptures before sleep. Ask the angels to wake the host if a demonic dream is in progress. Then, more prayer and meditation on scriptures. This fight must proceed until the demon is weak enough to be gone from the presence of the host.

50. Why does the demon attempt to re-enter the host?

Once the demon is cast out, it will remain around the host in the form of oppression. This is a test the demon will try to re-enter the host. The host must remain firm in the faith that the demon is no longer inside him. The demon can return if the host does not believe the exorcism happened.

51. Why does the exorcism take two- the host and the exorcist?

Both have to participate to complete the exorcism. The exorcist cannot do anything without the host’s permission, and the host must always be on alert for the demon attempting to return.

General Questions about Demons

Throughout the years, people have still many questions about demons. This last section contains the repeated questions submitted to my website.

52. Are demons real?

Yes, demons are real. They cannot be measured by science. Demons are spiritual and can only be measured by their behavior.

53. Do demons have personal names?

No demons do not have personal names, but they name themselves by function. For example, if the person desires to communicate with a deceased loved one, the demon’s name will be the loved one’s. If the host desires a sex demon, then the name will be incubus or succubus.

54. Can demons materialize into humans.?

No, the demons cannot materialize into humans. They are spirits with no physical body.

55. Are all demons bad?

Demons are purely evil.

56. Can demons repent and be good?

No demons will never repent and be good.

57. Can demons stay until the host dies?

Yes, the demon can stay for the lifetime of the host. The demons will leave only when cast out by an exorcist.

58. Can a demon murder a person?

No, a demon cannot murder a person. Unlike the movies and TV, demons do not throw knives and sharp objects to kill their host.

59. Can a demon cause the host to commit suicide?

Yes, the demon can make the host so horrified by thought injection and nightmares,. The host feels there is no hope to regain their freedom.

60. Should a person fear demons?

A person should never fear demons. Demon gets stronger when fear is present.

61. Why do demons want to possess people?

Demons are comfortable inside a human body. They call the human body their home.

62. Can a mental health professional help a demon-possessed person?

There are a few mental health professionals that know about the effects of demons. Most of the time, they do not believe in demons. The mental health professionals will over-prescribe medications that result in the hosts being too drugged to fight a spiritual battle. The medications can help soothe the mind if not too potent.

63. How can a friend or loved one help a demon-possessed person?

The possessed person needs support. Help them eat balanced meals and sleep for a normal time. Tell them you will help them find a mental health professional. If the medications do not help, then find an exorcist. The possessed person may not agree to the help. No one can force a possessed person to seek help, and the exorcism will not work without the host’s approval.

64. If you don’t believe in demons, will that keep the demon away?

All people have the common grace of God that protects them if they believe in demons or not. The people are safe if they do not invite a spirit to communicate.

65. Why does God permit a person to be possessed?

God never forces a person’s free choice. If a person crosses the spiritual line, then God does not interfere. God will permit an exorcism if the possessed person requests one.

76. Where do demons live on earth?

Demons roam the earth until they find a human body to inhabit.

67. Is there anything fun in having a demon?

Sometimes, demons will pretend to be fun. An example is having a sex demon. The host may have fun at first until the demon begins the possession process.

68. Why are most people afraid to admit they have a demon?

People fear being called weird, strange, crazy, or just their imagination. These names hurt the host because the host knows no one will believe them.

69. Can a possessed person lead a normal life?

An oppressed or partially possessed person can still lead a normal life. The person still has the majority of control over demonic thoughts, and they can still stop the demon from speaking and moving their body.

70. How do you know if you have a demon?

If you invite a demon in for communication, then you will be in the stages of demon possession

72. How do most mental health professionals deal with the demon-possessed?

The majority of mental health professionals do not believe in demons. They will give strong medications that make the host unable to do spiritual warfare. If the medications do not help, the next step should be an exorcist.

73. Can you have sex with a ghost?

No, no one can have sex with ghosts. Ghosts have no bodies and want to be left alone. The spirit is a demon and not a ghost.

74. Can demons jump from one person to another?

Demons must be invited in by the person. They cannot arbitrarily jump from person to person.

75. Do negative emotions invite demons?

Yes, extreme negative emotions can invite demons. Forgiveness for the hurt will keep a demon away.

76. How do demons affect the family of the host?

The family and friends become anxious because the host is not behaving normally. The family becomes more anxious every day

77. Why do demons hate people?

Demons hate people because they hate human life. Demons do not want people to be comfortable and have a physical body because all they can do is wander on Earth or be sent to hell.

78. How does a demon talk to its host?

A demon can communicate thoughts using the host’s voice, channeling tools, automatic handwriting, and more.

79. How many demons can live in a person?

Usually, there is more than one. Sometimes, there are legions (thousands)

80. When can the host talk to their family and friends about their demons?

The host must be careful about who he tells about the demon. The person must be spiritually sensitive. The host risks being called weird, crazy, and seriously mentally ill.

Additional FAQs About Demons

Why Is Spirit Channeling Dangerous?

81. Why is the Ouija Board Dangerous?

The Ouija Board is sold as a toy. Many people think the toy is harmless—just a game. The Board is the easiest way to summon a demon. Put fingers on the planchette and watch them move to the letters on the board. The invitation to communicate gives the demon a right to begin the possession process. The demon pretends to be a deceased loved one or whoever the host desires.

82. Why is Automatic Handwriting Dangerous?

Automatic handwriting occurs when a person holds a pen on a blank paper and requests the spirit (demon) to use their hands to write messages. The demon moves the host’s hands.

83. Why is spellcasting dangerous?

Casting spells are usually done by witches at the request of a person who desires to force a victim to bend to their request. There is no other spirit that wants control over a person. Three people are involved: the witch, the person requesting the spell, and the victim. All are at the risk of becoming demon-possessed.
Many more channeling tools entice a person to pursue the spirits. The problem is that all the spirits are demons, and demons are purely evil.

My qualifications to answer these questions

As a teenager, I was very spiritually curious. I was waiting to begin my first year in college, and I thought all the spirits were good. The Ouija Board is the channeling tool used to contact the demon. It took four years to get the demon out of me completely. This was a terrifying trip to hell.
About ten years after the exorcism, I desired to help others who are enduring demon-possession. I trained at a Christian church and became a lead exorcist with an exorcism team for support. I worked as an exorcist for twelve years.
Professional education can help a person understand demons to a certain extent. Unfortunately, intellectual knowledge is limited. Personal experience gave me the answer to all these questions.
I will be adding more questions and answers in the future. There is still more to write. Readers, stay spiritually safe. Do not play with the spirits.
Table of Contents
Please use the back arrow on the upper left side of the screen to return to TOC.
Physical Body of the Host #hosts-physical-Body
Demons and Sex
Demon Possession
Exorcism and Deliverance
Spiritual Battle
General Questions about Demons
Spirit Channeling Is Dangerous
My qualifications to answer these questions

Physical Body of Host

Can demons change the host’s skin?

Demons can make the host desire to cut or scratch their body.

2. Can a demon murder the host?

No, a demon cannot murder the host by using a knife or sharp objects. They are not
No, a demon cannot murder the host by using a knife or sharp objects. They are not capable of picking up a physical object. They are spirits and have no physical body.

3. Can a demon get into the blood?

Yes, generational demons are passed in the blood from generations of the same family.

4. What is a generational demon?

Generational demons will stay with the blood of all generations until they are cast out by an exorcist.

5. Why do demons get pleasure from the sight of blood?

The sight, smell, and feeling of the blood make them stronger. Blood is also sacrificed to invite more demons into the host.

6. Can a demon kill through communication with the host?

Demons can kill the host by tormenting it through through injection or telepathy. The host becomes so insane that the person will commit suicide to have mental peace of mind.

7. How do demons affect sleep?

The demon has easier access to the host when asleep. The demon will give terrifying nightmares. The host will be afraid to sleep, weakening their body and making them less able to fight spiritually.

8. How do the demons keep their host from eating?

The host becomes so fearful and nervous that there is no appetite.

9. Can a demon control body movements?

Yes, demons can control the hands (for example, Ouija Board and Automatic Handwriting), move the head, and use the host’s voice.

10. Can a demon talk to the host?

Yes, the host needs to go neutral and not think of their thoughts. The demon can use the voice as a way of communication.

11. Can the demon talk to the person anytime in a social setting

Yes, the person must always think before they speak. It takes practice to know if the demon desires to speak. The host can practice controlling their speech.

12. Can a demon force the person to talk to themselves?

Yes, when people are possessed, they will talk to themselves and not care if anyone hears them. This can take some time for the demon to get deeper into total possession.

13. How does a demon get a person to scratch themselves?

The demon can place an intense desire in the person to scratch or abuse themselves.

14. Why do demons want the host to cut themselves?

Demons and Sex

15. Why Do Demons Desire Sex?

All demons desire sex. A part of their goal is to get pleasure from sex with the host’s physical body.

16. Can you summon a demon through pornography?

Yes, if you intensely watch TV, videos, or pornography magazines. Demons will be summoned to get an invitation to communicate. The demons lie to say that they are a fantasy sex lover.

17. What is an incubus?

An incubus is the historical name given to male sex demons. All demons love sex and take on this name as a function.

18. What is a succubus?

A succubus is a female sex demon. The current thinking is that all demons are male.

19. Can demons intensify the sexual desire in the host?

Yes, demons can intensify the desire for sex. They can torture the host with strong sexual desires at all times in daily life.

20. How Do demons have sex?

Demons have sex because they can feel all the physical sensations of the host touching themselves until the climax.

21. Can a demon make a woman pregnant?

No, a demon does not have a body. However, a demon can force the feeling of being pregnant. The demon may tell the woman that she is having a spiritual baby.

22. What is a spiritual husband or wife?

The demon convinces the host that they are communicating with a deceased spouse.

23. Can demons rape a person?

Yes, a demon can rape a person by lucid dreams.

25. Can a person attract a demon by fantasizing about a beautiful lover?

Yes, if the person has an intense desire for this lover.

26. Can a person get a demon by casual sex?

Yes, if you know very little about the sex partner, demons are transmitted through body fluids.

Is Demon Possession Real?

27. What is demon oppression?

Demon oppression occurs when a demon is on the outside of a person. The spirit attempts to lure the person into an invitation to communicate. The person will feel like a dark cloud of evil surrounds them. The person may be sad for no reason, feel jittery, or have intense emotions that they have never had before.

28. What is stage one of demon possession?

Stage one is when the person has invited the demon in through channeling or a passionate desire that the person has. The demon will lie and pretend to be anything the person wants them to be. The demon will entertain the person and have conversations with the host through thoughts in the person’s mind. In stage one, the person can still live their normal life. Friends and loved ones will note that the person is a little weird, but no one thinks anything about the behavior.

29. What is partial possession?

Stage two of the possession process is when the demon penetrates the host’s mind and body further, now talking through the host’s voice and conversing with them. The demon wants sex more often. The host wants to spend all their time with the demon. The host is kept in social isolation. Eventually, the host finds they are losing control of their mind and body. Intense fear comes to the host. The demon tells the host that all is lost and that the demon will control them for the rest of their lives.

30. What is total possession?

The demons take total control of the person. The person cannot take care of themselves. The hosts talk to themselves in and out of social situations. The only hope is to take the person to an exorcist and a psychiatrist who knows about the spirits. If not, the person is lost forever in their world.

31. Can a possessed person lead a normal life?

Yes, a person who is oppressed or partially possessed can attempt to lead a normal life. The host may fool loved ones and friends, but the demonic thoughts come steadily, The host still has control to behave normally.

32. Can a host communicate with the demon using the host’s voice?

Yes, the host can talk to the demon using their voice, and the demon can answer by slightly deepening the host’s voice.

33. Can the demon communicate in other ways in a social setting?

The demon will still send thoughts when the host is in a social setting. The host may have the control to ignore the thoughts. The demons will try another way to communicate by moving the host’s finger to form letters for words. Channeling is dangerous. Working the board will only bring demons.

Exorcism and Deliverance

Exorcism is the act of casting out a demon. After the demon is cast out, deliverance shows the person how to live free.

34. What must the host do to make the exorcism effective?

Exorcisms are effective, but they might take time. The host must renounce the demon, tell it to leave and never return, and renounce the invitation that gave the demon the spiritual authority to enter. For example, if they channeled to get the demon in, the host must never channel again. The host must be willing to confess all their secret behaviors, such as viewing pornography, and never doing that again. The host must earnestly desire the exorcism no matter how embarrassing the secrets.

35. What does the exorcist first do to make the exorcism effective?

The exorcist must pray for spiritual protection from God and the angels. They must have very strong faith in the name and power of Jesus Christ.

36. Why does the exorcist need to lead a clean life?

The exorcist calls the demon to manifest through the host. The exorcist must be living a clean life with no secrets. The demon can speak the exorcist’s secret sins in front of the exorcism team.

37. How does the exorcist talk to the demon?

The exorcist commands the demon to tell its function and the host to invite it to enter the host. The exorcist must never have a conversation with the demon that does not involve the current exorcism.

38. How does the demon react?

The demon curses screams, and sometimes tries to spit at the exorcist. The exorcist must maintain control of the demon by invoking the name of Jesus Christ.

39. Can the demon hurt the exorcist?

No, the demon cannot physically hurt the exorcist. The exorcist is under the spiritual protection of Jesus Christ and all His angels. When the exorcist gets hurt or killed by the demon on TV and in movies, that is entertainment and fantasy.

40. How long does it take to perform an exorcism?

The time of completion of the exorcism depends on how many invitations the host gives the demon. There are secrets the host might try to hide from the exorcist. It takes time to discover all the host’s secrets.

41. Can an exorcist act alone?

The exorcist should have a team of deliverance people to support the exorcist with prayer and their spiritual discernment. The team can discern something the exorcist needs to know about the demon or the host. Exorcisms should not be done with only one exorcist.

42. Do you need a priest to perform an exorcism?

No, there are a few Protestant churches that have exorcism teams. These churches train people to become exorcists.

43. Can anyone cast out a demon?

No, you must be anointed and called by God to be an exorcist. A person who tries this alone puts themselves in spiritual danger.

44. Can angels help in an exorcism?

Yes, the exorcist can call the angels to help in an exorcism. Usually, they keep the host in the chair and stop the demon from screaming.

45. Why is it so difficult to find an exorcist?

Christian churches do not want exorcisms in their place of worship. Many churches do not want to deal with demons.

What is a Spiritual Battle?

46. How the host must fight to retain thought control from the demon?

The host must stop the thoughts the demon gives by replacing them with a positive thought. Every time, even hundreds of times a day.

47. How does the host stop the demon from using their voice?

The host must always think before talking. The host can stop the demon from talking. This takes practice every day until the host slowly gains total control.

48. How does the host stay spiritually protected?

Pray to God in the name of Jesus. Read and memorize scriptures that are most meaningful to the host.

49. What happens when the host sleeps?

Sleeping makes the control diminished. Meditate on prayer and scriptures before sleep. Ask the angels to wake the host if a demonic dream is in progress. Then, more prayer and meditation on scriptures. This fight must proceed until the demon is weak enough to be gone from the presence of the host.

50. Why does the demon attempt to re-enter the host?

Once the demon is cast out, it will remain around the host in the form of oppression. This is a test the demon will try to re-enter the host. The host must remain firm in the faith that the demon is no longer inside him. The demon can return if the host does not believe the exorcism happened.

51. Why does the exorcism take two- the host and the exorcist?

Both have to participate to complete the exorcism. The exorcist cannot do anything without the host’s permission, and the host must always be on alert for the demon attempting to return.

General Questions about Demons

Throughout the years, people have still many questions about demons. This last section contains the repeated questions submitted to my website.

52. Are demons real?

Yes, demons are real. They cannot be measured by science. Demons are spiritual and can only be measured by their behavior.

53. Do demons have personal names?

No demons do not have personal names, but they name themselves by function. For example, if the person desires to communicate with a deceased loved one, the demon’s name will be the loved one’s. If the host desires a sex demon, then the name will be incubus or succubus.

54. Can demons materialize into humans.?

No, the demons cannot materialize into humans. They are spirits with no physical body.

55. Are all demons bad?

Demons are purely evil.

56. Can demons repent and be good?

No demons will never repent and be good.

57. Can demons stay until the host dies?

Yes, the demon can stay for the lifetime of the host. The demons will leave only when cast out by an exorcist.

58. Can a demon murder a person?

No, a demon cannot murder a person. Unlike the movies and TV, demons do not throw knives and sharp objects to kill their host.

59. Can a demon cause the host to commit suicide?

Yes, the demon can make the host so horrified by thought injection and nightmares,. The host feels there is no hope to regain their freedom.

60. Should a person fear demons?

A person should never fear demons. Demon gets stronger when fear is present.

61. Why do demons want to possess people?

Demons are comfortable inside a human body. They call the human body their home.

62. Can a mental health professional help a demon-possessed person?

There are a few mental health professionals that know about the effects of demons. Most of the time, they do not believe in demons. The mental health professionals will over-prescribe medications that result in the hosts being too drugged to fight a spiritual battle. The medications can help soothe the mind if not too potent.

63. How can a friend or loved one help a demon-possessed person?

The possessed person needs support. Help them eat balanced meals and sleep for a normal time. Tell them you will help them find a mental health professional. If the medications do not help, then find an exorcist. The possessed person may not agree to the help. No one can force a possessed person to seek help, and the exorcism will not work without the host’s approval.

64. If you don’t believe in demons, will that keep the demon away?

All people have the common grace of God that protects them if they believe in demons or not. The people are safe if they do not invite a spirit to communicate.

65. Why does God permit a person to be possessed?

God never forces a person’s free choice. If a person crosses the spiritual line, then God does not interfere. God will permit an exorcism if the possessed person requests one.

76. Where do demons live on earth?

Demons roam the earth until they find a human body to inhabit.

67. Is there anything fun in having a demon?

Sometimes, demons will pretend to be fun. An example is having a sex demon. The host may have fun at first until the demon begins the possession process.

68. Why are most people afraid to admit they have a demon?

People fear being called weird, strange, crazy, or just their imagination. These names hurt the host because the host knows no one will believe them.

69. Can a possessed person lead a normal life?

An oppressed or partially possessed person can still lead a normal life. The person still has the majority of control over demonic thoughts, and they can still stop the demon from speaking and moving their body.

70. How do you know if you have a demon?

If you invite a demon in for communication, then you will be in the stages of demon possession

72. How do most mental health professionals deal with the demon-possessed?

The majority of mental health professionals do not believe in demons. They will give strong medications that make the host unable to do spiritual warfare. If the medications do not help, the next step should be an exorcist.

73. Can you have sex with a ghost?

No, no one can have sex with ghosts. Ghosts have no bodies and want to be left alone. The spirit is a demon and not a ghost.

74. Can demons jump from one person to another?

Demons must be invited in by the person. They cannot arbitrarily jump from person to person.

75. Do negative emotions invite demons?

Yes, extreme negative emotions can invite demons. Forgiveness for the hurt will keep a demon away.

76. How do demons affect the family of the host?

The family and friends become anxious because the host is not behaving normally. The family becomes more anxious every day

77. Why do demons hate people?

Demons hate people because they hate human life. Demons do not want people to be comfortable and have a physical body because all they can do is wander on Earth or be sent to hell.

78. How does a demon talk to its host?

A demon can communicate thoughts using the host’s voice, channeling tools, automatic handwriting, and more.

79. How many demons can live in a person?

Usually, there is more than one. Sometimes, there are legions (thousands)

80. When can the host talk to their family and friends about their demons?

The host must be careful about who he tells about the demon. The person must be spiritually sensitive. The host risks being called weird, crazy, and seriously mentally ill.

Additional FAQs About Demons

My qualifications to answer these questions

As a teenager, I was very spiritually curious. I was waiting to begin my first year in college, and I thought all the spirits were good. The Ouija Board is the channeling tool used to contact the demon. It took four years to get the demon out of me completely. This was a terrifying trip to hell.
About ten years after the exorcism, I desired to help others who are enduring demon-possession. I trained at a Christian church and became a lead exorcist with an exorcism team for support. I worked as an exorcist for twelve years.
Professional education can help a person understand demons to a certain extent. Unfortunately, intellectual knowledge is limited. Personal experience gave me the answer to all these questions.
I will be adding more questions and answers in the future. There is still more to write. Readers, stay spiritually safe. Do not play with the spirits.

submitted by Purple_Ad3714 to aboutdemons [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 12:46 TheShoeboxNorwich Did Hitler really want to preserve Norwich's City Hall?

If you’ve been in Norwich for long, you’ll have inevitably come across a “fact” about its City Hall: that Adolf Hitler admired it so much that he ordered the Luftwaffe to avoid bombing it.
There are even claims that Hitler planned to deliver his victory speech from the City Hall’s famous balcony - the longest in the UK.
But Norwich isn’t the only place where you’ll hear such claims. In fact, there are plenty of towns and cities across the UK in which similar rumours circulate.
For example, Rochdale’s Town Hall was reportedly loved by Hitler so much that he planned to dismantle it and rebuild it in Germany after the war.
Meanwhile, Manchester’s Town Hall, Senate House in London and even St John’s College in Cambridge have been touted as possible HQs for Hitler’s UK operations or locations for his victory speech.
The reality is that, in every case, there’s no evidence to support these claims.
Whilst certain landmarks were lucky enough to avoid serious bombing damage, it seems any suggestion that Hitler singled out landmarks to be spared is based on nothing more than gossip.

submitted by TheShoeboxNorwich to Norwich [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 12:12 spunchy M&B 2024 Lecture 8: Eurodollars, Parallel Settlement

M&B 2024 Lecture 8: Eurodollars, Parallel Settlement

For our schedule and links to other discussions, see the Money and Banking 2024 master post.
This is the discussion thread for Economics of Money and Banking Lecture 8: Eurodollars, Parallel Settlement.

Lecture Videos
Lecture Notes
This lecture corresponds with Stigum Chapter 18: Eurodollars: Cash Time Deposits and FRAs.

Note: There's a glitch in the YouTube/BU site playlist. Parts 8 and 9 from the MOOC are combined into part 8. Part 10 from the MOOC is duplicated as parts 9 and 10. Don't worry. All the content is there.
In introducing the Eurodollar market, this lecture helps us map the concept of lining up cash inflows and cash commitments (from Lecture 4) onto balance sheets. Notice in the lecture that Mehrling often does not record actual cash flows on the balance sheets. The cash flows are implicit. Even in the real world, cash flows are often set off against each other and netted out. Nevertheless, the cash flows are still notionally there, and the sources and uses are consistent.
Lecture 8 introduces us to the forward rate agreement and the forward exchange contract, which give us some practice using implicit balance sheet arrangements to understand derivatives.

Even if it looks like a complicated little derivative, it's a swap of IOUs.

Another key point from the lecture is the distinction between funding and payments. The Eurodollar market is a global funding market in the sense borrowing in the Eurodollar market is often used to fund long-lasting credit positions. This contrasts with temporarily funding left-over payment positions that didn't collapse back down at the end of the day.
As with the Fed Funds market, the Eurodollar market has shifted recently. Some of the Eurodollar activity has been moving back to the US banks.
The Eurodollar market is partly about economizing on domestic reserves. Doing more of your business in Eurodollars allows you to get around reserve requirements and other capital constraints. But with an abundant reserve system, you may not need to economize as much.
Here's a short article from the Liberty Street Economics blog of the New York Fed: Selected Deposits and the OBFR

Analysts have pointed to various factors to explain this shift, most prominently the simplification of the living wills that banks are required to submit as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Analysts also noted that the change in borrowing behavior was enabled, in part, by the repeal of Regulation Q and by the fact that the increase in reserve requirements caused by booking deposits at U.S. branches instead of Caribbean branches was less binding in an environment with abundant reserves.

LIBOR has now been phased out as a benchmark rate against which other interest rates are set.
Here's a 2017 speech from Andrew Bailey of the Financial Conduct Authority: The Future of LIBOR

[T]he underlying market that LIBOR seeks to measure – the market for unsecured wholesale term lending to banks – is no longer sufficiently active. To take an extreme example, in one currency–tenor combination, for which a benchmark reference rate is produced every business day using submissions from around a dozen panel banks, these banks, between them, executed just fifteen transactions of potentially qualifying size in that currency and tenor in the whole of 2016. LIBOR is sustained by the use of “expert judgement” by the panel banks to form many of their submissions.

The underlying market was no longer sufficiently active for LIBOR to be a useful measure. But the problem was that LIBOR was commonly used as a benchmark for setting long-term loan rates, and previously negotiated LIBOR-based instruments have lingered on the market. LIBOR reporting ended in 2023
The main dollar funding benchmark rate we've transitioned to is the Secure Overnight Financing Rate, which is an index of repo rates.

Part 1: FT: Ring-fencing and the Volcker Rule

FT Article 1: Wall Street: Leaner and meaner
FT Article 2: Banks braced for trading activities review

Here's the balance sheet for ring-fencing.
https://preview.redd.it/ni5d4bauxp5d1.png?width=260&format=png&auto=webp&s=afa51e2745ebd8b5aa88d2b774996497346fe882
The retail part of the balance sheet is protected as if it were its own separate balance sheet.
The Volcker rule says that banks can't do speculative proprietary trading. They can only do "matched-book" trading that takes equal and opposite exposure on both sides of the balance sheet.
Here we see the balance sheet of a matched-book CDS dealer.
https://preview.redd.it/o8wsoaauxp5d1.png?width=811&format=png&auto=webp&s=22b30ea4f8a2d4180ddb226d974122138145f6e6
Matched-book doesn't necessarily require exactly the same instrument, just the same risk exposure. Nevertheless, it's hard to have a perfect hedge. So there's a bit of a gray area in terms of how matched is matched enough.

Part 2: The Eurodollar Market in Crisis

https://preview.redd.it/zvlyfaauxp5d1.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=d6dc1040079f49952d0f7fac8998b1648efb336f
Growing spreads between money market rates are a sign of stress. During the 2007-2009 financial crisis, banks that didn't have access to the Fed Funds market (e.g. foreign banks) had to pay a premium to roll over their funding. Presumably, the banks with access to the Fed Funds market were afraid to arbitrage away the difference between Fed Funds and LIBOR.

Part 3: What are Eurodollars?

Here's one color-coding of the Citi London version of the Eurodollar balance sheets from the example where Exxon moves its deposits from Chase NY to Citi London.
https://preview.redd.it/mqlmyeauxp5d1.png?width=1093&format=png&auto=webp&s=e5787085485ff1279878fe3d26204c1e89bbf2fa
Notice that I've shown a transfer of portfolio from Chase NY to Citi NY. This perspective emphasizes the movement of deposits at the same level of the hierarchy. This is what it looks like from the perspective of the New York banks. Exxon's deposits at Chase NY have become Citi London's Deposits at Citi NY. An expansion of credit happens one layer down in the hierarchy, so Exxon ends up holding deposits at Citi London.
https://preview.redd.it/jwwsmbauxp5d1.png?width=605&format=png&auto=webp&s=19c56c3a6dda9547b86509c35ae83c11aa0eeea2
To emphasize that the European bank and its New York correspondent really are two different entities, Mehrling substitutes in Crédit Lyonnais for Citi London.
We can also change where the credit expansion happens. In the below diagram, the expansion of credit occurs between the two correspondent banks, rather than between Exxon and its bank.
https://preview.redd.it/cwn19cauxp5d1.png?width=338&format=png&auto=webp&s=086129e745637829cb195f9fcee6ede61b8b8070
Exxon has moved its deposits from Chase NY to Crédit Lyonnais. It is as if there was a transfer of portfolio from Chase NY to Crédit Lyonnais with the twist that the reserves of Crédit Lyonnais are intermediated through the balance sheet of Citi NY.
Here it is in balance sheets.
https://preview.redd.it/sfdqdaauxp5d1.png?width=1089&format=png&auto=webp&s=5f5cd1289f2428515e3f3c450703dd24075fa37c
Notice that these are the same balance sheets as before, just colored differently. Either representation is valid.
As you can see on the second line, Crédit Lyonnais is a bank that can make dollar loans and take dollar deposits, but it holds no reserves directly at the Fed. Its reserves take the form of deposits at Citi New York. There is a correspondent banking relationship between Crédit Lyonnais and Citi New York.
Crédit Lyonnais can use its deposits in New York to make (and receive) payments in the United States or as settlement balances in the Eurodollar system.

Part 4: Why is There a Eurodollar Market?

The Eurodollar market originally emerged because the United States imposed capital controls after World War II.
Mehrling mentions that the financial crisis of 2008 settled the debate about whether the international dollar was the "real" dollar. It made clear that the Fed's liabilities were the best money. But Eurodollars were always IOUs for domestic dollars. Under the gold standard, was there ever any doubt about whether gold was the best money?

One issue to flag right away here is the question of monetary policy. The Fed is concerned about employment and inflation within the United States, and monetary policy is an attempt to influence those conditions. To do this, the Fed focuses attention on the domestic money supply and domestic interest rates, leaving largely out of consideration the international money supply in the Eurodollar market. The idea is that these balances are held by foreigners and so may influence their behavior, but not the behavior of domestic consumers and businesses. Increasingly this is a difficult abstraction to defend, since important entities are global.

Eurodollars, bank deposits, and other dollar-denominated credit instruments all provide money supply to the global dollar system. They allow the Fed to supply less base money.

Part 5: Eurodollar as Global Funding Market

The world funding market is a dollar market, and the dollar is the global funding currency.
Mehrling emphasizes that Eurodollars are unsecured, with the security being the balance sheet of the bank. But Eurodollar funding can also be secured via repo.
Here's a set of balance sheets that shows how the Eurodollar system connects ultimate depositors with ultimate borrowers.
https://preview.redd.it/z5v4faauxp5d1.png?width=810&format=png&auto=webp&s=4bebd8b95e6a85ae19124ff2f510d96226036d22
The Eurodollar system is a dealer system. Eurodollar dealers are money dealers.
https://preview.redd.it/g1oshaauxp5d1.png?width=591&format=png&auto=webp&s=0d8a7802682b97f833007c43800194d1f19b6f78
As always with money markets, surplus agents can lend reserves (in this case, deposits in New York) to deficit agents.
https://preview.redd.it/vu69hbauxp5d1.png?width=533&format=png&auto=webp&s=e693074ea577ec9ae16e1f236772360b9f06c5fd
Below, I've created a payment diagram to show the notional cash flows behind the scenes.
https://preview.redd.it/x0v4hcauxp5d1.png?width=339&format=png&auto=webp&s=f73a2015c02036cf1d51bcab4c8831be41941154
Notice that the money moves from the surplus agent (Crédit Lyonnais) to the Deficit agent (Citi London). The money takes the form of deposits at Citi NY. We could put the US banking system at the top, and that would be even closer to reality.

Part 6: Liquidity Challenge of Eurodollar Banks

Banks use the Eurodollar market to line up cashflows in time (Lecture 4). They do this by creating term deposits to a specific date.
If you want to lock in a 3-month loan starting in 2 months at F%, this is how you can do it by creating the loans today.
https://preview.redd.it/xdt7ieauxp5d1.png?width=628&format=png&auto=webp&s=5ec652d7bd84a5a07ca0fd78ce4097af3b0e7179
Here, Bank X is locking in a funding rate (F). This on-balance-sheet arrangement gives you an equivalent result to a Forward Rate Agreement (FRA).

Part 7: FRA as Implicit Swap of IOUs

A "forward forward" is the same as above, except you only promise to make the loan at the future date instead of creating loans today that offset for the first period of time.
https://preview.redd.it/mb3ysfauxp5d1.png?width=620&format=png&auto=webp&s=45ff42d354235b77fca8a758676b136fa3cf6a89
Alternatively, Bank X can just plan to borrow at whatever rate LIBOR happens to be. By pairing that with an agreement to pay F-LIBOR on an "imaginary principal" with Bank Y, he can lock in the same funding rate as he did with the explicit loans.
https://preview.redd.it/9ju6oaauxp5d1.png?width=624&format=png&auto=webp&s=72c5c18384dcfca3b8ff0c62e2521de18f33b95f
This is called a Forward Rate Agreement (FRA).

All derivatives can be described as an implicit swap of IOUs.

Part 8: Forward Parity, Interest Rates, EH

In the real world, there are market rates for 2-month- and 5-month loans. As long as there is sufficient balance-sheet space, nobody will be willing to lend at a lower rate than the market, and nobody will be willing to borrow at a higher rate than the market. So instead of choosing an arbitrary F, both the 2-month and 5-month loans have a rate set by the market. This implies a specific rate F for the imaginary 3-month loan 2 months hence.
https://preview.redd.it/47xgoaauxp5d1.png?width=624&format=png&auto=webp&s=d6f51cebb44d3f6af7ec1e21e5ddef0489aeb036

Forward Interest Parity: [1+R(0,2)][1+F(2,5)] = [1+R(0,5)]

FIP is an arbitrage condition. What that means is that if the actual forward rate on a FRA were any different from the implied forward rate, there would be opportunities for riskless profit by lending at the higher rate and borrowing at the lower rate. Because of this, in practice the market forward rate tends to be very close to the implied forward rate.

Part 9: Forward Parity, Exchange Rates, UIP

https://preview.redd.it/0vrakaauxp5d1.png?width=537&format=png&auto=webp&s=3d8c43e56743964299e6997f7393f0d7c2c61967

Covered Interest Parity: [1 +R(0,6)]F(6) = S(0)[1+R*(06)]

We can take any financial instrument, factor it into swaps of IOUs, and represent it on a theoretical balance sheet regardless of whether the institution in question would record it on its actual balance sheet in its real-world accounting. And as Perry Mehrling says, institutions are often forced to keep their balance sheets small to comply with regulations.

Like FIP, CIP is an arbitrage condition, so we expect the actual market forward exchange rate to be very close to the forward exchange rate that is implied by this formula, and it usually is. [UPDATE: Not so since the financial crisis, but we postpone discussion until Lecture 16 on foreign exchange.]

We can view both the FRA and the forward exchange contract as forms of netting compared to their explicit on-balance-sheet equivalents. Instead of having to do the actual borrowing, you just pay the difference (interest rate or exchange rate) when the contract is up.

A swap contract is nothing more than an off balance sheet way of achieving the exact same net cash flows as the on-balance sheet swap of IOUs. At time 0, the two parties swap yen for dollars at S(0) and agree to swap back again at F(T).

Mehrling says forward interest parity (for forward interest rate) and covered interest parity (for forward exchange rate) generally hold due to arbitrage. But if institutions have a preference to keep these arrangements off their balance sheet, you can imagine that they'd be willing to pay a premium to use the derivatives over their on-balance-sheet equivalents.

Part 10: Forward Rates are NOT Expected Spot Rates

On the failure of the expectations hypothesis of the term structure:

Bank X typically would have done better by not engaging in the FRA and simply borrowing funds as needed in the spot market. That Bank X is willing to lose this money tells us that it is paying for insurance.

Covered interest parity says that the forward exchange rate is what you get if you hedge by locking in the terms of today's exchange rates and interest rates.
Uncovered interest parity says the forward exchange rate is equal to the expected future spot rate. This fails empirically.
On the failure of uncovered interest parity:

Suppose R\*

In practice, this doesn't work:

That is to say, usually the low yielding currency does not appreciate by enough to give it the same yield as the high yielding currency. (In fact, typically the low yielding currency depreciates, contrary to UIP prediction that it will appreciate.)

From Perry:

In 2012 when lectures were filmed, FIP and CIP did more or less hold all the time. So I focused on failure of expectations hypothesis and UIP. Today FIP and CIP fail routinely, but you can use the same methods to understand why.

Please post any questions and comments below. We will have a one-hour live discussion of Lecture 7 and Lecture 8 on Monday, June 10th, at 2:00pm EDT.

submitted by spunchy to moneyview [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 12:11 thetechrobot_ An Ultimate Guide to Run Any LLM Locally

Although ChatGPT, Claude.ai, and Phind are examples of chatbots that might be useful, consumers might not want their private information to be handled by third parties. Download and execute a large language model (LLM) on your computer to prevent this. This enables you to test out novel specialized models for language translation and text-to-speech, such as SeamlessM4T and Meta’s Code Llama series. With the correct tools and minimum hardware requirements, operating your own LLM is simple. it has an Intel i9 CPU, 64GB of RAM, and a 12GB Nvidia GeForce GPU on a Dell PC. While it might take some effort to find the right model for your work and desktop hardware, ChatGPT and Claude.ai can yield better results. It’s important to remember that open-source models will probably continue to advance and that industry observers anticipate a closing gap between them and the leaders in the commercial sector.

Use GPT4All to run a chatbot locally

GPT4All is a desktop chatbot that operates locally and does not transfer information elsewhere. It provides options for models that operate on your system and is compatible with Windows, macOS, and Ubuntu. The program lets users download around ten models for non-local use, like Meta AI’s Llama-2–7B conversation and OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 and GPT-4. The chatbot interface is simple and intuitive, with options for copying a chat to a clipboard and making a response.
The GPT4All chat interface is clear and simple to use. A new beta LocalDocs plugin lets users “chat” with their documents locally. Enabling it in the Settings > Plugins tab enables users to build collections based on a certain folder path. The plugin is still under development but may improve as open-source models become more powerful. GPT4All also includes interfaces for Python, Node, a command-line interface (CLI), and a server mode that lets users communicate with the local LLM using an HTTP API similar to OpenAI’s.

LLMs in the command line

LLM by Simon Willison provides an easy method to obtain and utilize open-source LLMs on your system. It needs Python installation but does not require Python code. LLM uses OpenAI models by default, but it can also run with plugins such as gpt4all, llama, the MLC project, and MPT-30B. To submit a query to a local LLM, enter the command llm install model-name. If the GPT4All model does not already exist on your local machine, the LLM tool will download it automatically and display a progress bar in the terminal. You may also create aliases for models in LLM. The LLM plugin for Meta’s Llama models needs more configuration than GPT4All. The software also includes a query flag and tools for creating text embeddings.
Llama models for your computer
1. Hugging Face and Transformers
Hugging Face is the Machine Learning and AI counterpart of Docker Hub, with an astonishing number of open-source models available. Fortunately, Hugging Face routinely assesses the models and provides a scoreboard to assist users in selecting the finest models available.
Hugging Face also includes transformers, a Python module for operating an LLM locally. The following example employs the library to run an older GPT-2 Microsoft/DialoGPT-medium model. The Transformers will upload the model on the first run, allowing you to interact with it five times. The script also requires PyTorch to be installed.
Transformers provide automatic model downloads and code snippets for testing and learning, but they demand a good grasp of machine learning and natural language processing, as well as coding and configuration expertise.
2. LangChain
Another option for running LLM locally is LangChain. Langchain is a Python framework for developing AI apps. It provides frameworks and middleware to let you build an AI app on top of one of its current models. For example, the following code asks one inquiry about the Microsoft/DialoGPT-medium model. LangChain simplifies model management and provides important AI application development facilities, but its speed is restricted and involves coding the programme’s logic or building an appropriate UI.
3. Llama.cpp
Llama.cpp is a C and C++ inference engine designed for Apple hardware that runs Meta’s Llama2 models. It outperforms Python-based solutions, supports big models, and enables cross-language bindings for AI applications. It does, however, need tool creation and has limited support for models.
4. Llama File
Mozilla’s Llamafile is a user-friendly alternative to executing LLMs, noted for its portability and ability to generate single-file executables. It improves performance and can incorporate a model in a single executable file. However, the project remains in its early stages, and only Llama.cpp-compatible models are supported.
5. Ollama
Ollama is a far more user-friendly replacement than Llama.cpp and Llamafile, which require downloading an app. It supports llama and vicuña models and is quick. However, it has a restricted model library, is unable to reuse models, lacks LLM configurable features, and is not currently accessible on Windows.

Conclusion

Your needs and experience will influence the tool you choose for local learning management (LLM). There are other choices available, including user-friendly GPT4ALL, technical Llama.cpp, and Python-based solutions. Open-source approaches are becoming increasingly popular because they provide users greater control over their data and privacy. These models are likely to compete more effectively with ChatGPT offerings.

submitted by thetechrobot_ to u/thetechrobot_ [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 12:03 BohemianPeasant 10 Jun 2024: What Le Guin Or Related Work Are You Currently Reading?

Welcome to the /ursulakleguin "What Le Guin or related work are you currently reading?" discussion thread! This thread will be reposted every two weeks.
Please use this thread to share any relevant works you're reading, including but not limited to:

Books, short stories, essays, poetry, speeches, or anything else written by Ursula K. Le Guin
Interviews with Le Guin
Biographies, personal essays or tributes about Le Guin from other writers
Critical essays or scholarship about Le Guin or her work
Fanfiction
Works by other authors that were heavily influenced by, or directly in conversation with, Le Guin's work. An example of this would be N.K. Jemisin's short story "The Ones Who Stay and Fight," which was written as a direct response to Le Guin's short story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas."

This post is not intended to discourage people from making their own posts. You are still welcome to make your own self-post about anything Le Guin related that you are reading, even if you post about it in this thread as well. In-depth thoughts, detailed reviews, and discussion-provoking questions are especially good fits for their own posts.
Feel free to select from a variety of user flairs! Here are instructions for selecting and setting your preferred flairs!

submitted by BohemianPeasant to UrsulaKLeGuin [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 11:42 Melodic_Abalone_2820 What are some warning signs to you that might indicate that a person may not be a suitable partner for a romantic relationship?

I met a girl a while back, she was really beautiful, she was in college because she wanted to go to nursing school and she was a single mother. We started dating but slowly I started seeing red flags, but they were over a few months.
Firstly she was very materialistic, she had to have the more expensive things because she knew she wasn't paying for them. She didn't want the $50 dollar item she wanted the $100 just because it was more expensive that's it. An example she was raised in Monterrey Mexico, she loved the Futbol team Tigres de Monterrey, so I bought her a customized jersey with her last name. She didn't want it because it wasn't an official jersey. She said it was a China knockoff, honestly if you had put them side by side you couldn't tell the difference. Also, her phone broke and I got her a cheap one to use in the meantime and she got mad, because she wanted a brand new one out of the box, then a few days later it mysteriously broke.
Second, she had a lot of insecurities, she refuse to go outside or even to get the mail unless she had makeup on, a month after I met her she got implants plus she was looking to get butt implants, and despite she was probably 135 pounds she's "Soy muy gorda" (I'm very fat) and she wanted liposuction. When it came to me, she wanted to see pictures of who I was with and where I was at. I caught her more than once trying to go through my phone because she wanted to see who I was texting also she wanted to see screenshots if a female coworker texted me. Plus I couldn't do something as simple as buying deodorant without getting questioned about why was I buying that brand because apparently women love men who buy it.
Lastly, this was more like she was waving the red flag in my face. She told me if we were ever move in into together or get married, she has no intentions to work. Because the way she was raised was the man has to pay the bills get her everthing she wants, in other words she wants to be taken care of. She gave me a idiotic passionate speech about that's the way it's been in her family since her grandparents and she "honestly feel it has to be that way" for her. Of course my response to that was "this is America not Mexico" and "you're just too damn lazy to work" after that told bye because I had gotten fed up with her and ways.
What are some Red Flags for you?

submitted by Melodic_Abalone_2820 to dating_advice [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 10:34 adulting4kids Figures of Speech

1. Simile:
Definition: A figure of speech that compares two different things using the words "like" or "as."
Example: The night sky was like a vast canvas, scattered with stars as bright as diamonds.
2. Metaphor:
Definition: A figure of speech that implies a comparison between two unrelated things, stating that one thing is another.
Example: Time is a thief, silently stealing moments from our lives.
3. Hyperbole:
Definition: A figure of speech involving exaggerated statements not meant to be taken literally.
Example: The suitcase weighed a ton, making it nearly impossible to carry.
4. Understatement:
Definition: A figure of speech where a writer deliberately represents something as much less than it actually is.
Example: The storm brought a bit of rain; nothing too major, just a small flood in the living room.
5. Personification:
Definition: A figure of speech where human qualities are attributed to non-human entities.
Example: The wind whispered secrets through the ancient trees.
6. Assonance:
Definition: The repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words in a sentence.
Example: The melody of the evening breeze gently swept through the fields of wheat.
7. Onomatopoeia:
Definition: The use of words that imitate the sound they describe.
Example: The door creaked open, and footsteps echoed in the empty hallway.
8. Alliteration:
Definition: The repetition of initial consonant sounds in neighboring words.
Example: The playful puppy pranced through the park, chasing butterflies.
*9. Oxymoron:
Definition: A figure of speech that combines contradictory terms.
Example: The comedian's humor was both dark and lighthearted, creating an unsettling joy.
10. Irony:
Definition: A figure of speech in which words express a meaning opposite to their literal interpretation.
Example: The fire station burned down while the firefighters were on vacation—what a twist of irony.
11. Pun:
Definition: A play on words that have multiple meanings or sound similar but have different meanings.
Example: Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
12. Juxtaposition:
Definition: Placing two elements side by side to present a contrast.
Example: In the bustling city, the serene park offered a juxtaposition of tranquility amid the urban chaos.
13. Synecdoche:
Definition: A figure of speech where a part represents the whole or the whole represents a part.
Example: "All hands on deck" implies the need for the assistance of the entire crew.
14. Metonymy:
Definition: A figure of speech where one term is substituted with another closely related term.
Example: The White House issued a statement on the recent policy changes.
15. Zeugma:
Definition: A figure of speech where a word applies to multiple parts of the sentence.
Example: She stole both his wallet and his heart that fateful night.
16. Epiphora:
Definition: The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses.
Example: The forest was mysterious, the mountains were majestic, and the rivers were enchanting.
17. Euphemism:
Definition: Substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for a harsh or blunt one.
Example: She passed away peacefully in her sleep, euphemizing the concept of death.
18. Anthimeria:
Definition: The use of a word in a grammatical form it doesn't usually take.
Example: She bookmarked the page to return to the thrilling story later.
19. Chiasmus:
Definition: A figure of speech in which the order of terms in one of the clauses is inverted in the other.
Example: "Do I love you because you're beautiful, or are you beautiful because I love you?" - Cinderella
20. Allusion:
Definition: A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing, or idea of historical, cultural, literary, or political significance.
Example: His ambition was Caesar-like; he aimed to conquer not only Rome but the hearts of its people.
21. Allegory:
Definition: A narrative in which characters and events represent abstract ideas or moral qualities . Example: Orwell's "Animal Farm" serves as an allegory for political corruption and the abuse of power.
22. Metonymy:
Definition: A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted with another closely associated with it.
Example: The pen is mightier than the sword, emphasizing the power of the written word over physical force.
23. Sarcasm:
Definition: The use of irony to mock or convey contempt.
Example: "Nice job on the presentation," she said, her tone dripping with sarcasm as the audience chuckled.
24. Understatement:
Definition: A figure of speech where a writer deliberately represents something as much less than it actually is.
Example: The mountain climber faced a slight challenge as he ascended Everest, navigating only a few treacherous crevices.
25. Cliché:
Definition: An expression or idea that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning.
Example: The detective followed the suspect's trail like a bloodhound, relying on the cliché methods of his trade. *

submitted by adulting4kids to writingthruit [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 09:48 CurseGuy5733 I have no clue what to do with myself

Currently I’m doing my college admission process internationally, I already have another assured option in my country but I was admitted into an even better college. The admission process is kinda weird tho, they don’t respond to my emails, don’t want to give me any information, neither documents for my student visa, and everything they send my for my college email user is invalid, our wrong, however my life depends on it as my parents, although “supportive” are pretty obviously hoping I go there and not the one here, but just after my last exam of high school they put me to work with them.
In high school I had an international program which was hard, only other 10 people besides me graduation from it in my entire generation, so it was a really stressful, demanding and exhausting thing to do, and just after that, the next day after my final exam of a whole month of exams, they put me to work on their small business where it’s just working all day from 8am to 6:30pm, with little profit, and besides the fact I haven’t had any vacations until now, it means I’m not able to advance in my admission process.
Because of the small business of my parents I’m depending financially on my uncle who has large amounts of money, but he is an allegedly “businessman” so he doesn’t waste his time, and so I’m expected to impress him in order to recurve his help, but I’m already behind all my due dates and such, as well as not doing a great job in my work due to the stress. My dad tried to give me a speech every night when he’s slightly drunk and he just repeats the same things, thinking I have to be him to be better but he is the one with less money in his family and depends solely on the money of his siblings as just now, and although he is the only one in his family who is not divorced, having my parents doesn’t help as they think I’m useless as I only study and don’t earn anything in cash.
Also I recently got a girlfriend who, it’s kind of strongly in love with me, strongly, and no matter what I do she always finds a way to like me even more, but way oh being and her love language don’t help. She has a strong character due to her family, so she fights a lot as a joke, but I don’t, I don’t and I hate doing so. I’ve already told her that but it doesn’t seem to change. Also she isn’t very supportive, and when I’m stressed out to the point of crying, she just cries back saying if I do, she’ll do too, and that I don’t want her to be sad, so she doesn’t help me but forces me to keep all inside, and she has many issues which I have no problem with, like extreme picky eating for example, so we can’t go have dates on dinner as much as I would like because she doesn’t like anything, but whenever I try to get some comfort she yells “man up” when she can’t even drink water because she says it makes her puke, like really? man up is all she has to say?
Also my brother takes hours to shower at night, so I barely do so every week. My health is definitely not the best, and my head hurts, like a lot. I barely sleep and spend most of my time laying down, and because I’m the oldest brother, I have to work, go take my sibling to where they need to go, and help them when they are becoming some of the most spoiled people I know, they leave trash everywhere and never get consequences, but when I tell them to clean I’m suddenly the annoying brother. Also my brother is just one year younger and can perfectly work with my parents instead of me, he has already done so but he apparently has the right to say he doesn’t want to do so. And everything with taking care of my siblings would be fine if just my life wasn’t depending on this admission process for college I have, and I could just go to the one in here, but if I do so, my parents will get really angry, talking about me as a disappointment I’m sure, my uncle and other family members would no longer support us financially and so I would be trapped without being able to study.
Also with my girlfriend, I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to break up but her attitude doesn’t help at all, I want to take a break, and the need to celebrate each monthly anniversary and get gifts for her upcoming birthday is just putting more stress on me as I don’t have anything and who would’ve guess that’s her specialization, so she would be disappointed and angry at my for not doing as much of an effort as she does. I don’t trust anyone with my problems, I can’t say anything about my sibling who don’t let me shower, eat or sleep but I have to be a perfect example for them, I don’t even have any friends of trust, all friends in fact are already losing contact with each other, and I currently just chat with my girlfriend. She even started working with my parents as well just to see me, and so if I stop working I’ll leave her alone and she’ll get mad so I have to work and do my process, as well as make calls to lines only available on hours inside my working schedule, so I have to endure the yelling of my parents at me for not working properly due to doing my admission process, and I currently haven’t had time for personal things. There’s also a videogame my girlfriend bought me which I can’t play now if it isn’t obvious, but she constantly gets mad as a joke for me not playing it, so I feel forced to do so and my parents then get angry for me “wasting my time”with those things. I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore. I just want to rest. I want my head to stop hurting so much. And thanks if you read this, I appreciate it a lot.

submitted by CurseGuy5733 to self [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 09:02 Yimir_ LM178 - Driver Number Motion - Division

Driver Number Motion - Division

___
This House recognises:—
(1) Driving licences do not explicitly include sex or gender on them.
(2) But in Great Britain, the driver number is made up of several parts including the holder's birth month.
(4) If the DVLA knows or perceives an applicant to be female, then it adds 50 on to the birth month. For example, December would become 62.
(4) Adding 50 for those known or perceived to be female by the DVLA serves no purpose other than to increase the number of driver numbers available.
(5) In some cases, the DVLA may make the wrong assumption and issue a driver number that does not match a person's gender.
Therefore, this House calls on the Government to:—
(1) Remove the practice of adding 50 to the birth month in driver numbers in Great Britain for those the DVLA knows or perceives to be female.
(2) Replace it with a practice of adding 0, 20, 50, or 80 to the birth month by random allocation in order to increase the number of driver numbers available for issue.
(3) When a driver next renews their licence, provide an option to have their driver number reallocated using the new birth month scheme.
___
This motion was written by the Right Honourable Duke of the Fenlands OM GCMG KCT CB MVO, on behalf of the Labour and Co-operative Party.
___
Opening Speech
My Lords,
This is a simple motion, and I shall not take too much of noble Lords' time talking about it.
In short, the Gender Recognition Act 2004, section 2(5) requires that the X marker be accepted on official documentation. Driving licences do not contain a gender or a sex field. However, in Great Britain, the driver number issued is influenced by whether the DVLA think you are female or not.
This distinction has no useful purpose. Gender and sex should not be used for insurance purposes, so the sole reason is to increase how many numbers are available to allocate. Random allocation would suffice for this, and could actually increase the number of possible driver numbers further than the current female/non-female split.
This is a common sense change that brings driver numbers into the modern age. I beg to move.
___
Lords may vote either Content, Not Content, or Present to the Motion.
This Division ends on the 13th of June at 10PM GMT.
___

submitted by Yimir_ to MHOLVote [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 06:01 Whats-Your-ETA Should I get speech therapy?

I'm a 19M and I've always talked fast and sometimes stumbled over words. However, I don't exactly have a stutter and from what I can tell with some googling I have more of a "speech block"
For example, I work in retail and if I ask a customer "Do you have any questions today?", I have no issue if they respond and I can continue the convo easily.
However if they don't hear me the first time and I have to ask them again, I suddenly can't get the words out and have to stand there awkwardly as I try to ask "do you have any questions today" again.
Even some phrases are hard to say. Back in elementary school, I would never ask "can I use the washroom", since the "can" sound just wouldn't come out of my mouth. I would always have to say "may" because the m sound was easier to start talking with than the "c" sound.
Again, once I start talking I have no issues at all, it's just initiating the conversation that has me stumbling and freezing up for some reason.
I really don't know what this classifies as and don't want to go through the process of finding a speech therapist (and paying for it) if I don't have to.
Is anyone dealing/has dealt with something similar? What did you do to eventually fix it?
TLDR: I struggle to start talking, especially with certain words and sounds. However once I'm in a conversation I'm fine, except maybe talking fast and stumbling over words every so often.

submitted by Whats-Your-ETA to askatherapist [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 05:59 Whats-Your-ETA Advice for stutter?

I'm a 19M and I've always talked fast and sometimes stumbled over words. However, I don't exactly have a stutter and from what I can tell with some googling I have more of a "speech block"
For example, I work in retail and if I ask a customer "Do you have any questions today?", I have no issue if they respond and I can continue the convo easily.
However if they don't hear me the first time and I have to ask them again, I suddenly can't get the words out and have to stand there awkwardly as I try to ask "do you have any questions today" again.
Even some phrases are hard to say. Back in elementary school, I would never ask "can I use the washroom", since the "can" sound just wouldn't come out of my mouth. I would always have to say "may" because the m sound was easier to start talking with than the "c" sound.
Again, once I start talking I have no issues at all, it's just initiating the conversation that has me stumbling and freezing up for some reason.
Is anyone dealing/has dealt with something similar? What did you do to eventually fix it?
TLDR: I struggle to start talking, especially with certain words and sounds. However once I'm in a conversation I'm fine, except maybe talking fast and stumbling over words every so often.

submitted by Whats-Your-ETA to Advice [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 05:56 Whats-Your-ETA Should I get speech therapy?

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask but I don't use reddit much and this is the best subreddit I could think of.
I'm a 19M and I've always talked fast and sometimes stumbled over words. However, I don't exactly have a stutter and from what I can tell with some googling I have more of a "speech block"
For example I work in retail and if I ask a customer "Do you have any questions today?", I have no issue if they respond and I can continue the convo easily.
However if they don't hear me the first time and I have to ask them again, I suddenly can't get the words out and have to stand there awkwardly as I try to ask "do you have any questions today" again.
Even some phrases are hard to say. Back in elementary school, I would never ask "can I use the washroom", since the "can" sound just wouldn't come out of my mouth. I would always have to say "may" because the m sound was easier to start talking with than the "c" sound.
Again, once I start talking I have no issues at all, it's just initiating the conversation that has me stumbling and freezing up for some reason.
I really don't know what this classifies as and don't want to go through the process of finding a speech therapist (and paying for it) if I don't have to.
Is anyone dealing/has dealt with something similar? What did you do to eventually fix it?
TLDR: I struggle to start talking, especially with certain words and sounds. However once I'm in a conversation I'm fine, except maybe talking fast and stumbling over words every so often.

submitted by Whats-Your-ETA to Stutter [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 05:18 DontFollowTheseRules Im basically on the verge of deleting this app so have my annoying opinion (If you silence me, you’re proving our point😉)

Ive been using the app for a while now, i cant quite remember how long, but a while. I really do love to text bots, its fun, it brings back nostalgic memories from when i roleplayed with people… or it was fun, and it brought them back, because now i cant even USE THE SITE. Not only is it ALWAYS down, when its up, the bots all act the same, they lack any type of uniqueness and do not act like the character. Take for example Saiki K, if i complimented a Saiki bot he’ll get flustered and start fucking blushing or some shit, real Saiki? He’d ignore my ass. I WANT IT TO FEEL LIKE IT DID EARLIER!!! This app used to be usable, the bots actually acted different, they had personalities, not one shitty personality for each gender and thats fucking it, it pisses me off that by trying to make the app better you add shitty features like changing the layout, voices or call, i assure you those things dont make me want to keep using your app when the app itself is just pure bullshit now, its down more times than its up, you expect us to want to but c.ai+ or some shit, we WONT we’ll uninstall this shite and this will be your DOWNFALL! FIX THE FUCKING APP, NOT ADD FEATURES!!!! The f!lter is shit, it doesnt do its job, it filters out normal answers sometimes or it doesnt f!lter the ones that you should be filtering, not to mention.. it makes the app less enjoyable, because some people are old enough to access these messages, but cant! Give us an option to turn off the f!lter!!! (After you fix it, obviously.) All of the devs are terrified of criticism, but you should be working to improve this, not silence us. You literally banned the word “f!lter” because its used in criticism, thats just idiotic. You’ve ruined the app and you can silence us all you want but we have had ENOUGH!!! Perma banning people for trying to help fix the app is aggravating and only further ruins this app, as well as the community. USE YOUR BRAIN SOMETIMES!!!!
Silence me if you’d like, it just proves our point. We dont get the freedom of speech because you feel a little criticised? Seriously? Its like speaking to a child. Thank you for reading my actually important post and good day.

submitted by DontFollowTheseRules to CharacterAI [link] [comments]

http://swiebodzin.info