Looking for something genuine . I m into playing games , watching anime, drawing and cubing. Dm me if u wnna talk

Looking for something genuine . I m into playing games , watching anime, drawing and cubing. Dm me if u wnna talk

hi i’m doing OC sketch requests since i want to get back into art!! please be patient with me as i only have evenings to work on drawings 😄
comment your OC below and i will try to sketch a headshot/half body!
i can draw humans, furries, ponies (MLP) and i’m ok at drawing animals but don’t have much practice 😅
requirements:

• must give a clear reference image of your character, i won’t make up a character from a text description
• let me know if there’s any specific details about them that you can’t see in the image (piercings, tattoos, accessories, personality etc)
• i won’t do NSFW art

World Premiere of The Eminence in Shadow 2nd Season at Anime Expo
HOUSTON, TX — JUNE 6, 2023— HIDIVE, AMC Network’s fast-growing anime streaming service and home to some of Japan’s hottest new series, announced today that it will host the world premiere of The Eminence in Shadow 2nd Season in Los Angeles, Calif. at next month’s Anime Expo, the largest annual anime convention in North America. Presented in partnership with Kadokawa, this first-ever dual world premiere event features separate English subtitled and dub premieres of The Eminence in Shadow 2nd Season Episode 1 on July 1 and July 4, respectively. Each premiere will include a post screening Q&A session. The July 1 subtitled premiere will include Japanese cast member Seiichiro Yamashita (voice of Cid/Shadow), while the July 4 dubbed premiere will include English dub cast members Adam Gibbs (voice of Cid/Shadow) and Christina Kelly (voice of Alpha).
The Eminence in Shadow 2nd Season World Premiere (Subtitled)
Episode 1 Screening followed by Q&A with Seiichiro Yamashita
Saturday, July 1, 2023 at 12:15 pm Pacific
Main Events Hall – Los Angeles Convention Center
The Eminence in Shadow 2nd Season World Premiere (Dub)
Episode 1 Screening followed by Q&A with Adam Gibbs and Christina Kelly
Saturday, July 4, 2023 at 11:00 am Pacific
Petree Hall – Los Angeles Convention Center
“We are truly honored to partner with Kadokawa and co-present the world premiere of The Eminence in Shadow 2nd Season together with them,” said John Ledford, President of HIDIVE. “Anime Expo provides the perfect stage to debut the highly anticipated second season of The Eminence in Shadow for both sub and dub fans. This world premiere not only spotlights the series’ huge North American fanbase but also recognizes the global popularity of The Eminence in Shadow.”
Based on Daisuke Aizawa’s hilarious isekai light novel series of the same name, The Eminence in Shadow first premiered last fall on HIDIVE. The fantasy-action series quickly gained popularity with fans as well as garnered media praise including “Next Isekai Hit” (CBR.com) and “Anime Sleeper Hit” (Collider). The 2nd Season promises to deliver The Eminence in Shadow’s unique isekai mix of fantasy, action and humor that fans have come to adore — transporting audiences seamlessly back into the world of the Shadow Garden as if they never left…
Everything has been going according to plan, but the hour of awakening draws near. Cid Kageno and Shadow Garden investigate the Lawless City, a cesspool where the red moon hangs low in the sky and three powerful monarchs rule the streets. The true draw for Cid, however, is one who can draw blood–the Blood Queen, a vampire who has slumbered in her coffin for eons. Her awakening approaches, and Cid could finally face a day of reckoning.
The Eminence in Shadow returns this October for its exciting second season.
​

I love to play Gwent and I want to play it for hours a day, but Injust can't. Everything in Gwent feels so slow. The card drawing, card playing, targeting, card animations, everything. It feels like its playing at .5x speed. Does anyone else feel the same?

Alright, here are the differences and comparisons between the anime and manga for season 2 episode 22. Standard disclaimers: 1. this is pretty much spoiler-free, I will only talk about the portion of content from the manga that was covered in the episode. 2. a difference one way or the other is not inherently a good or bad thing. I'll probably dislike the anime's changes, but those are my judgements, you have yours. 3. I am comparing the official english versions of the material that I have easily available to me, as such I'm comparing 2 different translations, I'm aware the two JP versions almost certainly have identical wording in most parts (and that Netflix is just using the manga lines, for the most part). With that said, let us begin.
This episode covers all of chapter 96 (including the cover page), all of 97 (though the order of it is mixed around), and the cover page for 98. Totaling 58 pages.

• Anime cut a quick reaction from Drott when the men yell at him to just finish Thorfinn off: "Shut up! Quit talking!"
  
• Cut bit from Drott thinking about how Thorfinn feels weird to hit: "...must be because he's so light..."
  
• Anime: "He's twisting his neck and hips just before Drott's fists hit him, thereby dispersing the impact away from the core of his body." Manga: "Just before the fist lands, he twists his neck or back to deflect the damage toward his center." So anime says its going away from his center, manga says its toward his center. Surely just a translation thing.
  
• Anime cut out a bit of a match cut when Einar remembers Thorfinn talking about finding the first resort. Going from Thorfinn's bleeding face back to his healthy face back in that scene when Thorfinn actually said that. Second one of these that the anime has cut (first was back at Canute talking with Harald/Sweyn's head)
  
• Tiny thing, in the anime Snake gets off his horse on the left side, where in the manga he gets off on the right side.
  
• Anime cut out a shot of Thorfinn noticing and looking over at Snake when he arrives, and Thorfinn then tripping which leads to him getting hit solidly by Drott. Second time the anime has cut out Thorfinn tripping in a fight (this was also cut/changed in the Snake fight).
  
• Anime: "You idiot. You're unbelievably softhearted. If talking could've resolved this, we'd have done that already." Manga: "You fucking idiot... You never even asked us... If we could settle this with dialogue, I'd have done it ages ago. I almost can't believe what a soft-hearted fool you are..."
  
• Anime: "Are you sure about that?" Manga: "Would you really?"
  
• Anime added a couple shots of the crowd reacting to Thorfinn yelling at Drott.
  
• Anime added a shot of Einar gripping Snake's arm tighter and a shot of Snake reacting to that.
  
• Another tiny thing, in the anime we hear Thorfinn getting hit 3 times over scenery/crowd shots before we fully cut back in and Drott hits him the 98th time. In the manga, there are the sounds of 6 hits over these shots.
  
• In the anime, Olmar is standing between Snake and Einar when we see him after the 98th hit. In the manga he's elsewhere in the crowd
  
• The quick shot going over the crowd after the 100th hit is fully mirrored from the manga, even flipping details like a man's forehead scar.
  
• Anime added Olmar into the shot following that^ one that goes over Einar and Snake because as stated earlier, he's now in between them in the anime where he wasn't in the manga.
  
• Anime cut out a shot showing Thorfinn wobble on his feet a little after the 100th hit.
  
• Anime: "I can't hit someone when I'm trying to negotiate for peace." Manga: "Who negotiates for peace by beating a man?" LOVE the manga translation here, always loved this line so I'm not huge on the anime version, though I know it's saying the same thing. Just a bit less impact, for me.
  
• Not a difference between the anime and manga, but note that the anime actually says hnefatafl now. Season 1 had Askeladd say shogi (both out loud and in the subtitles) where the manga said hnefatafl (even the JP version of the manga has furigana saying to pronounce "shogi" as "hnefatafl" in both scenes). First they actually start saying "Thing" this season and now we got "hnefatafl". Good job, season 2.
  
• Anime added the visual of the original Thors-Thorfinn "you have no enemies" scene. Manga just trusts that we'll remember one of the most important scenes in the series and I appreciate that. Hell, we got it retold to us just earlier this season, didn't need the reminder.
  
• Anime: "I don't have any enemies." Manga: "I have no enemies." I've also seen that netflix's version says "Nobody is my enemy." And yeah, I prefer the manga version.
  
• Anime added a quick shot of Olmar reacting to that^ line.
  
• Anime cut a small panel of Snake and Olmar reacting to the warriors making way for Thorfinn, Snake going "Whoa..."
  
• Anime: "We're going to see the man who starts wars. Don't you have things you want to say to him, too?" Manga: "We're going to meet the man who started this war. You've got some things to say to him, I expect."
  
• Anime: "You bet I do. A whole mountain of them." Manga: "I'll give him a piece of my mind! Several pieces!!" I have always felt this line in the manga was a little silly.
  
• In the manga, when Thorfinn and Einar walk towards the meeting with Canute, Thorfinn is holding his shoulder. The anime just has him walking with both arms at this sides.
  
• From here we've entered chapter 97. As I stated up above, the anime has shifted around a lot of the lines in the conversation. It would take too long for me to try and detail every little shift the anime has done here so for simplicity's sake, I'm just noting that all here in this one point and I'll be going in the order of the anime here from here on.
  
• Anime: "Pater..." "Don't look. If you find Pater among the dead, you won't be able to remain calm." Manga: "What if...amid those bodies...lies Pater...?" "Don't look. If we find Pater there now...we will hate Canute."
  
• Anime added the flashes of Thorfinn's POV from cutting Canute and seeing Askeladd's body back at the end of the Prologue.
  
• Cut exchange between Canute and Wulf as Thorfinn and Einar approach: "He does not seem to be armed." "No, but he is no ordinary man. Be careful of him."
  
• In the shot showing the two's eyes, in the manga the focus of the Canute shot is the scar on his cheek, which is not shown at all in the anime shot. I guess those flashes of Thorfinn cutting him were supposed to cover for that?
  
• Anime-original line for Canute: "No...for what happened to Askeladd."
  
• Anime: "I'm sorry about the scar on your face." Manga: "...Please forgive me...for your scar. I was possessed at the time."
  
• Cut line from Einar after hearing Thorfinn attacked the king: "...Ha Ha! You're one hell of a man, my brother!"
  
• Anime: "You've come to say some commendable things." Manga: "And you've become much more eloquent since we last met."
  
• Anime added the flash of Askeladd killing Sweyn. YES anime, I REMEMBER
  
• Cut line from Thorfinn after Canute notes that four years is enough time to change a man: "You've changed, too. You have the face of a man in power."
  
• Cut line from Canute that was in response to that^ line: "Hah... You sound just like Askeladd." So the anime and manga have there own different mentions of Askeladd.
  
• In the manga, when Canute explains how Ketil's family "started this", the visuals are a collage of panels from when that happened. The anime just has imposing shots of Canute.
  
• Anime: "Ketil's son Olmar killed ten of my men because I wouldn't make him one of my thegns." Manga: "Olmar, son of Ketil, displayed his incompetence, and then was angered when I did not make him my thegn...in the end, he slew ten of my men."
  
• Cut lines from Einar to Canute: "Olmar is a coward. He could not possibly kill a man. You set this all up, didn't you?"
  
• Cut lines from the vikings in the crowd and Wulf: "...Do you hear the shit he's spouting...?" "Stop. His majesty does not deny it."
  
• Cut line from Einar to Canute: "I bet you've never held a hoe in your life."
  
• Anime added the visual of the tilled field while Einar's talking, which is the same visual Einar sees back in episode 1 when Ketil asks if he'd like to come work on his farm.
  
• One more cut line from Einar to Canute: "Well? What do you have to say for yourself? Boss of the vikings!"
  
• In the manga, when Thorfinn mentions what Canute said back in Gainsborough he fully quotes Canute's lines, whereas in the anime Thorfinn more just summarizes what Canute said.
  
• Anime: "Do you still believe that?" Manga: "Do you still think that way? Do you still want to build a paradise?"
  
• Anime: "The commander who leads a thousand ships and ten thousand men." Manga: "I command a thousand ships, a million men."
  
• Anime cut some quick reaction shots of Thorfinn and Einar as well as the vikings and Wulf right after Canute commands the waves to stop.
  
• Anime cut a tiny bit from Canute's lines talking about his power: "Yes, it is meager."
  
• More cut lines from Canute: "Because beings who have forsaken love...are ordained to suffer."
  
• Anime: "But that is what humans are. Commiting sins as we wander lost is precisely what humans do." Manga: "Yet this is what makes us human. To sin and lose one's way-that is the human condition."
  
• Difference of visuals on these^ lines, in the anime it's an old viking tapestry, whereas in the manga it's a panel of men fighting that is drawn in pencil making the visuals strikingly different from the pen and ink drawings around it.
  
• Cut bits from Canute's lines: "I am the emperor of the vikings. And I defy the rules of God."
  
• Anime: "I'm gonna knock this guy on his ass." Manga: "I ought to knock you off your feet!"
  
• Anime: "Building a paradise, my ass!" Manga: "The idea that this will create a paradise is laughable!!"
  
• Anime added a quick shot of Thorfinn looking at Einar after he yells at Canute.
  
• Anime added a shot of Einar growling some more after Thorfinn stops him.
  

And that ends this one. Quite a solid episode though I, of course, have my gripes. Not a big fan of all the flashes of past events, like I said, I remember, and I appreciate the manga just trusting me to do so. Before you argue that it's been so long since season 1, it had been a similar amount of time (if not longer) between the chapters coming out in the manga. 40+ chapters between the end of the prologue and these chapters, at the least that's right around 4 years (and again the "you have no enemies" was already brought back up earlier THIS season). Aside from that I also really don't care for the art style of whatever animator was in charge of the big scene with Canute and then Einar yelling at him. They are clearly very skilled, but it just looks really ugly to me. Otherwise I did feel that all the important moments did land as they should have, so it was overall very solid.

Been dealing with something me and my parents for a while now, Basically we had a relative of ours who had helped us out on getting a drawing tablet, Because for some reason my parents refuse to buy anything physical online, Anyways, It reached my country and everything it was on my relative's house, Good news, And everything, I was supposed to get it the day after it got shipped to my country, But my mom was busy, So I had to wait like 4 days, Alright, Mom finally's done, And I was told the thing would come today, Asked mom again, And its tomorrow, And I feel like this is going to be scattered in endless delays, So I may as well forget about the drawing tablet in general, It got here and everything, But whats the point.
This is a plea for help, As I'm starting to hate, Drawing on paper, I'm starting to despise it, I just feel its inferior in every way possible, I just can't bare to touch pencil, And I don't want that to happen, I didn't begin hate drawing, I just began to hate drawing on paper, Oh I wanna share it to anyone? my picture quality looks freaking horrible, I planned to train myself on my drawing tablet, And start doing decent enough art to do commissions and design stuff, Not for an actual job, But more like a side gig, A summer job at best.
Yes, Everything seems genuine, It got there, And what not, But these delays are making me lose it, I'm beginning to give up on this, And just continue on drawing on paper, Do people commision other people who draw on paper? Why would I show my desktop, It looks ugly, I'm not showing anything that isn't my paper, I care about my privacy in real life.
I'll be damned, If I have actually seen someone who actually got commissioned who draws on pencil and paper, With semi bad camera quality, And black and white, I'd literally like to meet them and tell them that they are my hero.
Not to mention how I feel so restricted on drawing on paper, I have so much big ideas to draw on my head, Yet I refuse too because I can't fit them on paper, And they are going to look freaking terrible if anything on paper unlike digital, Most people prefer things digitally, Its like sprinkles, And other stuff that appeals to anyone, Its like make up to your drawings.
I'm sorry but its been stressing me for a while, And I just need help figuring out how to make things way better with drawing on paper, I have been doing nothing but drawing animals on paper, And thats it, Just animals, Ferrets, Whatever on paper, Do they look good? Yes, But if I took a picture of it, The quality would look horrible, Those are only meant for my drawing training, Do I enjoy drawing animals on paper? Yes, But I'm getting tired, I wanna draw things that I want, Not animals.
I'm so sorry for all of this but like, I'm just done with this, And I think its about time I deal with me and paper. And try to turn things into the better instead. Since this is going nowhere anyways. So help a pal out.

https://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/index.php?threads/deep-blue-z-is-now-live.2339469/
View the update trailer here:
Official Tripwire Interactive Channel Trailer discussion thread
I found a bug! Where do I submit a bug report?
The Tripwire Bug Report subforum is the best way to bring a bug to Tripwire's attention.
Is there a Double XP/Store Sale event ongoing?
TBA
How long will the seasonal objectives/event be running until?
Typically, seasonal events will run for a month.
What's new?

• New Community Map: Subduction by Catdrgn and Josh (according to Workshop)/SpoolsOfWar (according to original announcement)
  
  • Compatible for Survival, Weekly, Endless
• New Weekly: Containment Zone (For every wave, a random Stand Your Ground zone is marked on the map. Standing out of the marked zone causes players to take damage over time. Effect is disabled when less than 5 zeds remain, during trader time, and during a small time window after a wave starts. Suicidal difficulty, 7 waves)
  
  • Complete the Weekly to earn the Contamination Zone weapon skins for the Healer and Welder
• 2 New weapons
  
  • HRG Bombardier (Demolitonist, Tier 2, $500)
  • S12 Shockgun (Support, Tier 4, $1500)
  • Note: The S12 Shockgun is a DLC weapon. It can be acquired via purchase from the in-game store or from owning the Armory Season Pass II DLC. This weapon can be tried out by Steam/EGS players in private matches by inputting GiveWeapon KFGameContent.KFWeap_Shotgun_S12 into the dev console after enabling cheats.
  • Note: The HRG Bombardier is free for all users
• New Objectives, tickets, cosmetics, and store bundles
  
  • Complete all seasonal objectives to earn the Shark Jaw head accessory

Quality of Life changes:

• Added keybind to toggle friendly HUD
  
  • Keybind is configurable on PC Keyboard/Mouse in the options menu
  • On controller, this is toggled by bringing up the comms dial and pressing RT
• Item Search functionality in Inventory menu
  

Balance changes:

• Minigun
  
  • Magazine size increased from 90 to 120
  • Spare ammo increased from 540 to 600
  • Damage increased from 35 to 38
  • Ammo price per magazine increased from 90 to 120
• Spitfire + Winterbite + Rhino
  
  • Bash animation sped up by 33% (1.5 play rate, around 2s)
  • This change puts it in line with other pistols (9mm Pistol, etc)
• HRG Locust
  
  • Recategorised from Tier 3 to Tier 4
  • Number of upgrade tiers decreased from 2 to 1 ($1500 upgrade) to match other Tier 4 weapons
  • Damage decreased from 60 to 45 (Explosive)
  • Bleeding Power decreased from 20 to 15
  • Poison Power decreased from 25 to 20
  • Trader price from $900 to $1400
• Reducto Ray
  
  • Trader price decreased from $1200 to $900
• HRG Healthrower
  
  • Damage on Spray end decreased from 27 to 12
  • Damage on Spray start (muzzle) decreased from 30 to 15
  • Damage Interval decreased from 0.07 to 1.2
  • Poison Power decreased from 15 to 10
• Mine Reconstructor
  
  • Fire Interval decreased from 0.223 to 0.2
• Road Redeemer
  
  • Fast attack Damage increased from 68 to 75
  • Heavy attack Damage increased from 90 to 100
• HRG Crossboom
  
  • Damage Radius increased from 200 to 250
  • Seconds Before Arrow Detonation decreased from 0.5 to 0.2
• HRG Head Hunter
  
  • Ammo Cost (alt fire mode) decreased from 100 to 25
• Sentinel + HRG Bombardier
  
  • No longer triggers Zed Time or enrages Zeds with it's bullets or self-destruct explosion; however ballistic damage impact from the Bombardier's projectiles may be unaffected by this change
• Increased Move Speed (Field Medic passive ability)
  
  • Move speed bonus reduced from 0.4% per Level (10% max) to 0.2% per Level (5% max)
• Resilience (Field Medic Level 5)
  
  • Maximum damage resistance reduced from 60% to 30%

Bug fixes:

• Fixed an issue where the Survivalist's “Faster Weapon Switch” bonus was only applying to survivalist weapons.
  
• Addressed an issue where downloading or updating existing or new Workshop Maps were not always downloading due to getting into a poor state.
  
• Fixed an issue with the Demolitionist SKill Destroyer of Worlds that could lead to unintended damage types and visual effects being applied to some weapons.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Crovel and HE Grenade were used by default when changing perks to Survivalist at the Trader Pod.
  
• Sentinel-specific weapon fixes:
  
  • Fixed an issue where the animation of pressing the remote control would not play when the al-fire was pressed.
  • Fixed an issue where the Drone ammo count would be out of sync when dropping and picking back up the remote control.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented the Sentinel from firing through glass.
  • Fixed an issue where the Sentinel played no sound during the weapon check animation.
  • Fixed an issue where the Sentinel would not fire at Zeds that were meleeing the drone owner when playing offline.
  • Adjusted the behavior of the Patriarch’s tentacle to not grab and draw in the Sentinel.
  • Fixed an issue where the ammo counter would be reduced when switching weapons during drone deployment.
• HRG Bombardier-specific weapon fixes:
  
  • Fixed an issue where the drop model was not being lit.
  • Fixed an issue where the ammo count was different from 1st person to 3rd person.
  • Fixed an issue in 3rd person where the Deploy animation would play when the drone was detonated.
  • Fixed an issue where the muzzle flash was shifted away from the barrel.
  • Fixed an issue where the detonator would disappear when the player is running and throws a grenade.
  • Fixed an issue where the drone would fire multiple projectiles when firing at groups of Zeds.
  • Fixed an issue where the drone would increase its fire rate when firing at groups of Zeds.
  • Fixed an issue where the drone would be frozen at the deployment site during ZED Time.
  • Fixed an issue where the drone would fly off away from the player after being deployed in ZED Time and ZED Time then ended.
  • Fixed clipping issues with the blade in 3rd person.
  • Fixed an issue where the explosion radius grew exponentially with Survivalist and Demolitionist skills.
• S12 Shockgun-specific weapon fixes:
  
  • Fixed an issue where a dropped weapon with an empty magazine was Green.
  • Fixed an issue with the magazine being duplicated during the elite reload animation.
  • Fixed an issue where the weapon would clip into the camera while strafing right.
  • Updated the animations to minimize clipping and clean up all of the reload animations.
• Fixed an issue with the M16 203 Assault Rifle where the Alt-Fire sound would stop playing.
  
  • Corrected the HRG Crossboom Alt-Fire to have the proper detonation time.
  • Fixed an issue where the Survivalist Crovel was not cycling through the weapon swap correctly while the primary weapon was empty.
  • Fixed an issue for the G36c Assault Rifle reload animation where the magazine would disappear in the third person during both partial and full reloads.
  • Fixed an issue for the ZED MKIII reload animation where the magazine would drop to the floor during a partial reload.
• Subduction-specific map fixes:
  
  • Worked to improve performance on the map in areas where the frame rate would dip.
  • Updated the blood splatter in all areas of the map to ensure proper coverage is occurring.
  • Updated the impact decals in all areas of the map to ensure the proper decal is being applied from bullet impacts.
  • Updated the impact sounds in all areas of the map to ensure the proper sound is playing from bullet impacts on the materials.
  • Updated the occlusion for water audio so that it can be heard from the appropriate distance and not through areas and objects it should not.
  • Added audio for all of the generators
  • Updated the spawned weapon spawn points to prevent clipping into the environment.
  • Updated the lighting throughout to ensure the light cast matches the light source.
  • Updated the Trader Path arrows to clearly designate the path for players.
  • Updated the SYG borders to more accurately reflect the defended area.
  • Fixed an issue where the waypoint arrow for the Auditorium SYG was not present.
  • Fixed multiple invisible collisions near railings throughout the map.
  • Fixed multiple pathing issues for large Zeds near the railings.
  • Fixed an issue that caused the player’s camera to twitch while in the lobby.
  • Fixed multiple instances of z-fighting with the railings and walls throughout the map.
  • Fixed multiple instances of walls disappearing and reappearing within the player’s view.
  • Fixed multiple instances of lights disappearing and reappearing within the player’s view.
  • Fixed multiple instances of texture seams throughout the map.
• Fixed an issue during the Contamination Zone weekly outbreak on Airship where the Safe Area had no SYG lines designating it.
  
• Addressed the localization for the Plague Doctor Hood where it did not fit within boundaries in multiple languages.
  
• Fixed issue for the M4 where an extraneous M was present in German in the inventory menu.
  
• Corrected the Russian text for the Projections from the Deep achievement.
  
• Updated the description of the Seasonal Objective “Somewhere, beyond the Z” to fit within the designated UI
  
• Fixed multiple instances of log spam around lighting/PCV warnings as well as StaticLoadObject warnings.
  
• Continued to address overall console stability issues
  

I know the Church teaches that we shouldn't spend frivolously on pets for things that could rather go to help humans but it seems really hard to draw the line.
Recently I took one of our cats into the vet to get routine vaccines (these seem reasonable since they're not that much and protect against deadly diseases that could also be spread to humans). However while there they tried to sell me bloodwork and a teeth cleaning. To be honest the cleaning probably would do some good but it's kind of expensive for a young family with children and money isn't exactly flowing in. On the other hand I would feel bad if the cat ended up having severe dental problems because of this.
It seems like animal care is getting more and more excessive these days. Before we moved we had the type of vet that just wanted to see them if there was a problem or if they needed a vaccine. Now it seems like they want to provide almost human level care, and the way our society is they go along with this. When does care go beyond just being stewards of creation with our pets?

https://u.gg/lol/profile/eun1/lmperatooverview
Hello, I am a Gwen main that recently hit Masters for first time playing on a 10 years old forgotten by the MMR gods account with abysmal LP win-lose ratio bringing it up from Bronze to Masters in 457 games with 57% WR overall and 62% WR on Gwen from 301 games. This post has few purposes:

• Share disagreements I have with common points on this subreddit - about Gwen's role in the team, her itemization, her strengths and weaknesses.
• Give certain formulaic tips that will help you cheese games even if you don't really understand why on the grand scale of things. This is not a guide on becoming a very good player, it's a guide on climbing the ranks with Gwen.
• Link it everytime someone asks what is Gwen's role in the team and how to play her.

BAD takes that you should not follow

• Shadowflame instead of Nashor's Tooth - Gwen's strengths are splitpushing and she does this extremely well. Trying to turn her into an assassin with items that harm her splitpushing potential is counterproductive. Enemies in Plat, Diamond and Master aren't beasts that can evade all your abilities. They are inters, just like almost everyone in soloqueue. Chances are you will never meet a truly great player in the enemy lobby or have one in your team. Once they are slowed down by your ultimates first cast, it is trivial chasing them down and finishing them off. There's no reason to build her like a C tier assassin when full duelist splitpusher build will do the same damage in teamfights. You will just get your damage items faster, because the splitpusher playstyle generates more gold.
• Ignore Rabadon in favor of X - Third item Rabadon is what allows Gwen to turn around games and turn from an okay teamfighter to a great one when the player uses their ult well. After buying Rabadon she can 100 to 0 anyone who didnt build more than 1 MR item. Rabadon is what allows you to dive their fed 500g bounty player 1v2 and kill him.
• Gwen has bad early game - It might take a bunch of games to see it, but when Gwen early is played correctly, she has better pre 6 than most enemy toplaners who are supposed to be stronger early. Her Q damage is very high, low cooldown, has mobility, increased ranged, untargetability, increased resists, ability to poke without drawing minion aggro. Noone will punish your champions vulnerabilities even in Masters. Two big reasons for it: Gwen is a rare pick and the enemy doesn't know what to expect from you, and because majority of players Masters and below haven't learned all aspects of the game equally well. They have learned to play into very specific things that allow them to win games (exactly what I do with Gwen). Whether its one tricking champions, very good vision and macro, great mechanics - it doesn't matter. They will start inting as hard as a Bronze would when you throw a wrench in their plans. More often than not they start to play a bit more careful when trading with you if you scare them with a great trade early on in the game which allows you to punish them even harder.
• Play safe and farm up for late game - If you just hug your turret, avoid fighting and prioritize on last hitting minions, then you will miss out on the snowball opportunity from plating and turret gold. It is a very suboptimal way to play Gwen.
• Riftmaker is a bad mythic on Gwen - Very common argument that I have read here is that Riftmaker is a bad mythic. That it has awkward stats or there are tankier options, items with more mobility, with more damage etc. Riftmakers main strength over any other mythic is the omnivamp it provides. The omnivamp is crucial for those 1v2 and 1v3 fights that you will be often fighting when playing very aggressively. The healing increase is miniscule, but it is enough to have an impact. Yes, you can fight enemies when outnumbered with other mythics too, but going anything other than Riftmaker takes away from your potential to be hyperaggressive. Going Riftmaker also creates an illusion for the enemy in which you are far squishier than you actually are which has helped me secure many victories after enemies get baited into fighting me. The health, AP, ability haste, omnivamp, increased damage, true damage - all of this works great on Gwen.

Key concepts that you have to understand to make this playstyle work for you

• Plates - 15 plates, each worth 175 gold. Consistently you can get around 5 plates per game which is 875g + 300g from turret kill + 150g from first turret = 1250g - more than 4 kills worth. Gold generated through plating does not grow your shutdown gold. Plates are better than kills for this reason. It is worth it to die for plates if minute 14 is about to hit (Plates despawn on minute 14).
• Inner turrets on side lanes ( second turret on bot and top ) - Destroying a secondary turret alone gives you 600g total. With demolish rune and completed Nashor's Tooth you need just a few seconds to push the turret. If you have vision on more than half the enemy team then it is risk free gold.
• Herald - Taking herald gives you 300g and the herald eye which can help you get either plates or inner turrets.
• Splitpush - Allows you to push the inner turrets and reach their inhibitor if the enemy team does 1 macro mistake. Sometimes when you take the inner turret the enemy team won't respond to your threat hoping that you will just give up and recall. If that happens you continue to push onto the inhibitor turret. In other situations your team will be 4v5 at drake and spam pinging you to TP. That can be the correct play but more often than not I decide to ignore the pings and keep on pushing. This often results in the enemy splitting up in the middle of the fight to try to do both drake and also protect their inhibitor and base. Your team might win the drake fight this way and you got yourself a free turret or two. Your team might also get completely wiped on drake, but that gives you more time to push. Maybe you even get to take 1 nexus turret. Gwen with Riftmaker, Nashor's Tooth, Rabadon Deathcap and demolish melts turrets in seconds.
• Nexus turret pressure - When inhibitor goes down you often have the opportunity to damage or destroy one of the nexus turrets. It is good to destroy one as it allows for you to no minion push the last nexus turret at a later time and cheese the game.
• Lobby pick order - Always try to be last pick in the lobby. Chances are your Silver, Gold, Plat etc. teammates aren't the most proactive players and they won't benefit as much as you would from being last pick. You don't want to blind pick and end up playing vs Akshan or Fiora. You don't necessarily have to counterpick the enemy, but you don't want to be counterpicked. If you aggressively spam the "Swap Pick Order" button it is possible your teammate won't give it to you out of spite later if he declined the first time. Which is why if that person declined once, wait for the enemy team to pick a few times. Then you notify them in chat that their lane opponent picked and if they can swap with you. There are 3 other people in the team so you don't always have to instantly go for last pick either. Try to weasel your way down slowly by asking those directly after you if last pick doesn't work out from first attempt. If blindpicking is unavoidable then pray the enemy is clueless.
• Playing hyper aggressive and money hunger - Sometimes it happens that your botlane goes 0/7 in the first 10 minutes of the game and enemy ADC is very ahead. This shouldn't make you play safer. If the enemy bot has 500g shutdown on their head then if there is an opportunity it is better to dive them 1v3 with the chance of getting that shutdown bounty rather than playing safe. Whenever you are forced to teamfight your primary goal is to get all the shutdown bounties on the enemy team. Gwen loves AP and AP costs gold. The more gold the better. It is okay to die if it means that you also got gold. Because gold on you is way stronger than gold on their champions. There are exceptions to this. For example if you are very fed with kills and have 700g shutdown on your head then it is not wise to jump in a suicidal fight when moments later a better opportunity will arise.
• Number of games played - Keep spamming Gwen and Gwen only. Play her against every matchup on top atleast a few times to know what your champion can do and what you can do. Don't wildly change your runes every few games. Stick to the same runepage. With time you will see and understand the key moments in the game where you can dish out the exact ammount of damage to kill an enemy and survive. Whether you can push down a lane, greed for a turret and get out of it alive. Whether you can jump in 1v4 and survive.

Tricks that you might or might not be aware of:

• Gwen Q does not trigger minion aggro if you do not autoattack so you can harrass through a wave.
• You can queue up an autoattack if you right click the target during the Q animation and if you are in range it will instantly autoattack when Q cast ends. Works great with E -> Q right at the end of your attack range to do a little bit of extra damage. This will trigger minion aggro.
• Going 2x Blasting Wand on a back with 1700g is better than going Leeching Leer ingredients in majority of cases. It helps you do as much damage as you would with a completed Riftmaker but way earlier into the game helping you snowball harder. Also you can push turret plates way faster with the extra AP. The second blasting wand can later be used for building into Nashor's Tooth. I prefer going Riftmaker first because it makes you tankier and allows you to do easier 1v2 plays when you get ganked.
• Your W can be used to tank Baron and Dragon attacks if you cast it at the proper location where the edge is right infront of the monster without touching it.
• You can use your W to push turrets and plates even if its protected by the enemy. If you are ahead of your laner and the wave is crashing on his turrent you can walk up and cast your W in a place where its edge allows you to autoattack the turret without moving the W. This way if the enemy wants to push you off, they have to walk directly into you which accomplishes 2 things: gives you an opportunity for an easier dive and/or the enemy misses a bunch of farm trying to protect their plates.
• If you are ahead you can skip completing your boots item and stick with normal boots or no boots at all. The speed difference hardly makes a difference in the early game but you can get your item spikes way earlier. Your slow from your R and your dash are more than enough to stick to targets.
• When you are trying to push a structure as fast as possible E on top of yourself immediately after your autoattack completes. Your dash is not a fixed distance and you can dash very small distances which is a quicker way to reset your E AS buff.
• Gwen Q executes minions below 20% HP which works on super minions too. This makes her one of the fastest clearers of super minions in the game and guarantees that you will get the 90g from them if there are teammates present.
• Even if your minion wave is very small when you are approaching a turret, it is worth it to push it. After Rabadon all you need is 2-3 minions to push a turret safely. You might tank a few shots but the damage reduction that turrets get without minions doesn't apply instantly the minion dies. You have time to push the turret.
• You can cast E while you are casting Q. This will move the damaging area of the Q together with you. Can be used in many situations that require it. For example if both you and the enemy are on low HP and you have pushed the wave into his turret. If you dive him with the standard E -> Q he might react, flash away and CC you. But if you pretend to be cleaning out his minions with Q and then E towards him right before the final snip which deals the most damage it is unlikely he will expect that and be able to react to it.
• Jump in a fight right when you are about to level up. If you are leading your enemy on XP then the level up from 5 to 6 often enables a kill opportunity. Learn to level up your spells with your keyboard, not a mouse click. Watching other people play in real life, I notice that even some mechanically good players keep using mouse clicks to level up their spells. When playing Gwen this should become a habit. You level up -> you rank up spell - even if you are in the middle of the fight. It happens frequently because of her AOE spells killing a few minions in the middle of the fight or you were just randomly near a level up. It has happened too many times where a level up in a spell that I did in the middle of the fight saves my life and changes how the rest of the game goes.

Build

CORE ITEMS:

Riftmaker

Nashor's Tooth

Rabadon's Deathcap

I build in this order in >90% of my games. Go Nashor first if splitpushing is going to be completely uncontested. Start Doran's Ring unless its against a lot of poke in which case go Doran's Shield. Do not buy HP Pots, only buy refillable.

FOLLOW UP OPTIONS:

Cosmic Drive Good AP, CDR, speed. Frequent build after Rabadon.
Void Staff When more than a few enemies have MR items. Overall increses damage. %pen is strong. Frequent build after Rabadon.
Lich Bane Good for faster splitpushing or nuking their squishies with E->AUTO. I recommend as last buy or sell boots to buy this when you have enough gold at full build.
Shadowflame vs frequent shielding and squishier teams. Good AP ammount and pen. I would buy this against a fed ADC with enchanter support.
Zhonya's Hourglass vs fed AD assassins or generally AD heavy teams.
Morellonomicon vs teams with a lot of healing. I never build this.
Thornmail vs AD heavy teams that also have a lot of healing. Occassional purchase.
Randuin's Omen vs teams that have a lot of damage from critical strikes. Example: Yone top, Yasuo mid and Draven ADC.
Spirit Visage vs teams with a lot of AP damage and prolonged fights. I do not build.
Force of Nature vs teams with a lot of AP damage. Generally better than Spirit Visage.
Abyssal Mask Great cheap item vs a lot of AP damage and when you have 2-3 AP on yours.
There are other items that could work like Wit's End or Death's Dance but it is extremely rare that it would be a better choice than any of the items above.

BOOTS:

I have bought all boots on Gwen except mobility boots. It is very dependant on enemy champions and how ahead I am. Usually I buy Mercs into a lot of CC, Steelcaps into AD heavy teams and Lucidity boots if I am very ahead.

RUNES AND SUMMONER SPELLS:

These runes will be most useful to you in majority of games. Swap armor and MR runes depending on your matchup. Go Second Wind instead of Conditioning vs poke matchups like Teemo or Gangplank. I like to pick Bone Plating against burst champions like Pantheon or Renekton. I climbed from Bronze to Diamond without Demolish, but my climb would have been way easier if I went Demolish instead of Unflinching due to the extra plates it can secure. I take it every game now. Presence of Mind is unnecessary and Triumph enables you to fight multiple enemies easier. It also gives you 20g per takedown extra which at the end of the game if you had 15 takedowns ends up being 300g. In my many games playing Gwen I can recall only a few times I wished I got Presence of Mind over Triumph. If you are nearing 0 mana then shove wave and walk up in river to get green slime plant.
Teleport is too useful not to take every game. For second spell I go Ignite for most games. Take Ghost if the kill pressure on lane is small AND the rest of their team is very mobile/ranged, for example a Malphite top lane with Kalista Rakan botlane, Azir mid and Hecarim jungle. That is a comp that you pick Ghost against. If the enemy team doesn't have a lot of mobility or you have easy lane on top then you should take Ignite. Makes tower dives much easier.

NOTES:

I cheese my games. I play around my enemy's mental and abuse Gwen's strengths. The account I played on was hardstuck Gold for many seasons, sometimes ending in Silver. My mental is not strong, I ran it down many times out of spite towards a teammate. My average vision score is 2x lower than that of an average Iron player. Despite all this my climb was steady with the exception of spending a decent ammount of time and games in D1, because I relaxed too much in my games. My point is that if I manage to climb like this, so can you. Just follow the template each game:

• Pre min 14: Get plates, plates, plates, shove waves, try to get herald if theres good opportunity, if not shove wave get plates.
• After min 14: Inner turrets! Bot and top, when you see 3 people on enemy team on one side of map, you go to the opposite and push the lane.
• Don't walk around aimlessly on map, walk up that sidelane and push the wave. Repeat.
• Enemies are guarding their towers too well? Farm their jungle. Join up for teamfights only if it is absolutely necessary. You will know which are if you keep playing the same runes, items and champion every game.

If I think of something else I will add it in an edit.

I'm going to be honest, I'm so new to this. I joined these coffee Subreddits to up my coffee quality because good coffee is a rare joy in my otherwise stressful life. I started off reading obsessively, watching some YouTube videos when I can, and tinkering with recipes I've found here and there. But I'm realizing how much my inexperience is limiting me. A lot of these recipes have a LOT of variables that aren't always easy for novices like me to recreate over and over again. This has made it very hard for me to get anywhere, really. I'm churning through bags of coffee only to find that I've made maybe two enjoyable cups per bag, with no good starting point.
The Hoffman 1-cup recipe and the 4:6 method HAVE given me a good cup here and there, but not repeatedly. I have a less than mediocre kettle and it pours very inconsistently, making these methods with multiple pours quite treacherous. And I've noticed that even keeping every aspect of the brew the same, my inability to pour with adequate control has resulted in wildly varying extractions from cup to cup (according to my untrained palate, granted). My grinder is decent, but not amazing. The Kingrinder K6 gives me pretty consistent grinds, but since I drink strictly Ethiopian light roasts, the fines are quite unavoidable.
I've essentially started over from scratch, taking what I think I've learned from other recipes, and created something that keeps things manageable and repeatable with my equipment and skill level. But even my untrained palate knows there's probably some improvement that could be made, so I wanted to run it by this community because you guys are an absolute trove of knowledge and experience.
First things first: for this recipe I'm using Mamo Kacha Ethiopian from ReAnimator Coffee. It's a washed process light roast with tiny, dense beans. I'm brewing using incredibly hard and chlorinated tap water that's been run through a Brita filter. The resulting water is quite tasty, I think, and I'm in no rush to start mineralizing my own water for brewing.
I'm using just below a 1:16 ratio, with 16g of beans to 250ml of water. I'm using a "medium-fine" grind, which is 72 clicks on the Kingrinder K6. The grind looks like this. I'm using water directly off of a boil for this brew. My kettle only gives me preset options of 195F, 205F, and boil.
I create a small well in the center of the bed and bloom using 50g of water for approximately 50 seconds. I don't swirl the bed; I stir gently with a spoon to saturate the grounds. At 50 seconds I begin pouring again in tight central circles and I aim to have 150g in total by 1:20.
Around 1:45 I begin pouring again, this time in gentle outward circles (avoiding the far edges of the bed), trying to have my full brew weight in the dripper by 2:05ish. When the full weight is in, I give 1 very gentle stir clockwise and counterclockwise, just to knock any bigger grounds off of the filter wall. At this point, I just wait for my draw down to finish and I haven't been worrying about a level bed. My brew has been consistently finishing around 3:40 - 3:45 and the resulting cup is better than any I've gotten with other methods.
I'm really just looking for a good starting point that'll suit a lot of different variations of basic Ethiopian beans. I think this might be a decent beginning point, but like I'd love to compare this with other incredibly simplistic approaches to brewing Ethiopians with the V60.

I live in a house with 3 other roommates, one of which has several animals (reptiles and two cats, all of whom are confined to her room).
For the past 4 months (really the past 8, but it has gotten significantly worse since February), she has left the house for up to 13 days at a time without telling us. We don’t know where she is, when she will come back, etc., which puts us in the uncomfortable position of taking care of her animals (food, water) for an indefinite amount of time. I have frequently checked in on the cats and found them with no water and food, barf on the floor, and litter boxes full of cat excrement.
The litter boxes are a problem in and of itself. They are scooped at most once every 2 weeks (by her if she’s here, we draw the line at scooping those boxes) which has created its own issues (half of the house generally smells like a barnyard).
We have tried for months to politely adjust this behavior, but any amount of criticism, be it constructive or deconstructive, is met with defensive behavior and no real change. I am at the point where I am ready to surrender these animals or at least report neglect, and my other two roommates are in agreement.
Additionally, I very directly told her (and her bf who enables the behavior) that after months of this we are tired and change needs to happen. I mentioned the smell of the room, the neglect, and my willingness to report it, and they have completely blown up on me, taking issue with the fact that they were criticized for something I feel is horrible and irresponsible.
I need advice please!

Welcome once again to my Riordan Retrospective. For those of you just joining the fun, this is my look back at the works of Rick Riordan. That means Percy Jackson, its sequels, and spin-offs. This is less of a formal review and more of a relaxed look back.
Last time, we finished our look back at The Trials of Apollowith a look back at The Tower of Nero. We thought that we’d said goodbye to the worlds of Rick Riordan. Little did we know that a new book was about to surface. As such, we’re taking a look back at Daughter of the Deep.
Ana Dakkar is about to finish her freshman year at Harding-Pencroft Academy. It is a five-year academy specializing in marine science. She, and her nineteen classmates, are about to begin their freshmen trials. Harding-Pencroft holds its students very high standards. However, before they can take off, the school is destroyed by a series of sonic torpedoes. The remaining students and professors of Harding-Pencroft regroup aboard their yacht the Varuna. Ana discovers several major revelations. Jules Verne’s novels 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island were based on actual events. Captain Nemo was indeed a real person, and Ana is his direct descendant. In fact, the whole point of Harding-Pencroft Academy is to safeguard Nemo’s legacy and technology. Their next stop is Lincoln Island, the final resting place of Nemo and the Nautilus. But danger lurks around every corner as the survivors of Harding-Pencroft are hunted by their old rivals: Land Academy.
Well, it looks like we’re back sooner than I expected. I thought we’d be back for that Irish Mythology book Rick said he was planning. However, that seems to have been put on the back-burner. Daughter of the Deep apparently has been a long time coming. Way back in 2009, Disney executives asked Rick what Disney property he would want to write a book based on. It could be anything he wanted. He chose 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, as the 1954 film adaptation is one of his favorite movies. Technically, Disney only owns the rights to the movie, not the original book. The original Verne novel has long since slipped into the public domain. I’m tempted to think that Rick was, at least somewhat, trolling the executives.
I actually went back and watched the 1954 movie adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I agree with Rick here. The movie is, I must say, a truly underrated gem among live-action Disney films. In fact, I might even give it its own review at some point. Now, the movie does take some liberties with the source material. Though, personally, I’d say that was to its benefit, as it made for a more engaging story that worked better in film. Verne was known for doing a lot of research with his novels, and often devoted entire paragraphs to explaining the science in detail. Unfortunately, this does make for a rather dry reading experience. I’ve heard Verne works better in the original French, but that is a language I do not speak. Amusingly, students at Harding-Pencroft are required to read 20,000 Leagues Under the Seaand The Mysterious Island. Ana found them both to be a bit dry for her taste. I myself enjoyed The Mysterious Islandslightly more than 20,000 Leagues, but it still suffered from many of the same issues.
I’ve heard a few people wonder what it might be like if Rick Riordan were to write a science fiction novel. Well, we now have our answer. We know more about the surface of the Moon than we do our own deep oceans. Twelve people have walked on the surface of the Moon, but only two have ever been to the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Ocean-based science fiction is still comparatively rare compared to space-based or terrestrial-based science fiction. So, I’m glad to see that Daughter of the Deep tapped into some of the vast potential of ocean-based science fiction.
Now, I should probably clarify that Daughter of the Deep is set outside of the Riordanverse. Rick has confirmed that it takes place in its own self-contained world. So, don’t expect to see any cameos from Percy, Annabeth, or any other Riordanverse characters. Still, it is similar enough in terms of style to a typical Riordanverse novel, and thus, I’ve chosen to include it as part of the retrospective.
Speaking of style, let’s begin there. Rick has said he took a film writing course before he wrote Daughter of the Deep. That is very apparent in how the prose itself is written. It reads very much like a movie script. The narration is presented in first-person present tense. This helps add to the sense of action and urgency as the plot movies along. The pacing also feels very much like what you might find in a movie. We got a lot of action scenes in quick succession. We get the usual info dumps, but we don’t really take as much time for introspection. As we’ll discuss a bit later, this lack of introspection was very much to the book’s detriment. I’m willing to bet that all this is very much by design. Daughter of the Deep is being adapted into a movie on Disney+. In fact, the movie was announced even before the book came out. So, it certainly feels like Rick wrote Daughter of the Deep with an eye towards the movie adaption.
I would have liked if we had gotten to explore Harding-Pencroft Academy a bit more before it got destroyed. What brief glimpses we do see are utterly fascinating. The students are all decided into four different houses based on their area of study. Yeah, they’ve heard all the Harry Potter jokes plenty of times. Though, personally, when I saw the initials HP in an ocean-themed book, I briefly wondered if Rick Riordan was going to tackle the Lovecraft Mythos. Back on topic, the houses are Dolphin, Shark, Cephalopod, and Orca. Dolphin focuses on communications, exploration, cryptography, and counterintelligence. Shark handles command, combat, weapons systems, logistics. Cephalopod deals with engineering, applied mechanics, innovation, and defensive systems. Orca is all about medicine, psychology, education, marine biology, and communal memory. If you’re wondering about that last one, it basically means the history of Harding-Pencroft and Captain Nemo.
One of the things I appreciated was that each of the four main characters is from a different house. One of my gripes about Harry Potter is that pretty much all the important characters come from Gryffindor. Well, unless they’re a villain, and come from Slytherin. Ravenclaw had Luna and Cho, I guess, but Hufflepuff got the short end of the stick for sure. Getting back on track, having the four main protagonists of Daughter of the Deep be from different houses provided a theme that everyone has something unique to bring to the table. You can also see it as advocating for multiculturalism, but without being preachy about it. However, I do have on criticism. House Orca needed a better name. Orcas are a type of dolphin, the largest, in fact. We’ve got representatives for mammals, fish, and mollusks. How’s about giving some love to the reptiles? Personally, I would have named them House Sea Turtle instead. Or failing that, show some love to the echinoderms, and name them House Seastar. House Sea Cucumber would also work. Don’t give me that look! Sea cucumbers are noble animals and wonders of nature.
I do wish that we’d gotten to see more of Harding-Pencroft before it was destroyed. What brief glimpses we do get are utterly fascinating. As you might expect, they have quite an expansive aquarium full marine creatures. Upperclassmen train in submarine simulations using full-size mock-up submarines submerged in deep pools. However, the most fascinating class is one where students get to consider, and theorize, about the ways technology and science might have developed had history gone differently. As a major fan of alternate history I have but one thing to say: sign me up now! Well, its actually there as a way to slowly ease the students into learning the truth about Captain Nemo and his inventions. Still, sounds like a very fun class to take. I also liked how the various sections of the school are named after famous ocean explorers. There’s one part named after the Chinese navigator Zheng He, and one named after the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton.
I thought all of the diving scenes were particularly well-written. Rick Riordan has a true passion for scuba diving. This really shines through during the diving scenes. I also really like how the diving suits all use jet-propulsion that mimics the siphons of cephalopods. That was a really creative touch.
Okay, let’s talk about the characters. Ana is the protagonist, but I want to save her for last. We’ll start with her roommates, and best friends, Nelinha and Ester. Nelinha da Silva grew up in an orphanage in Rio de Janeiro, but got to attend Harding-Pencroft on a scholarship. She’s also the closest the series gets to referencing Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I can best describe Nelinha as what would happen if Charles Beckendorf and Silena Beauregard were to have a kid. And, you know, if they were still alive. She’s a complete mechanical genius, and geeks out over machines and engine parts. She’s a member of House Cephalopod, naturally. However, she is also obsessed with fashion, and always makes sure to look her best at all times. Nelinha doesn’t just pack outfits, she packs entire wardrobes.
One of my prior complaints about Rick Riordan is that he only seems to know how to write one type of female character. Namely, he seems to believe that being a strong female character means being a tomboy who hates all things girly. So, it was nice to see Nelinha as a course correction on that front. Nelinha being from Brazil is likely a nod to how popular Rick Riordan’s books are in Brazil. So, I’m sure Brazilian fans were excited to finally get a Brazilian main character.
On the flipside, we also get Ester Harding. She’s a member of House Orca. She is a blood relative of one of the founders of Harding-Pencroft. She is also the first autistic character in a Rick Riordan book. I’m still bitter about how he wrote a Muslims character before he wrote an autistic character. In the Riordanverse, anyone can be a demigod, unless you’re autistic, it would seem. I had high hopes for Ester. You don’t see autistic girls too often in the media. Riordan has said that he got sensitivity readers to help him with writing characters from different cultural backgrounds. However, it would seem none of them offered insight into autistic people. It almost feels like Riordan watched a couple episodes of The Good Doctor and was like “I got this!” You know those TikTok clips of that guy having a temper tantrum while shouting “I am a surgeon!” Yeah, that’s The Good Doctor. It was another show I had high hopes for, but fell back on stereotyping autistic people. Don’t get me started on my problems with The Good Doctor, we’ll be here all day.
Anyway, Ester displays a number of stereotypical traits. She yo-yos between being basically non-verbal, and shouting at the top of her lungs. She does this all in a robotic monotone voice. In contrast to Nelinha, Ester has basically no fashion sense, and seems to be going for the long-lost daughter of Albert Einstein look. Ester also doesn’t have much in the way of common sense, and though it never comes up, she’s probably Jewish. Not too many gentiles name Ester. She’s got an excellent memory, to the point of being almost eidetic, but that’s somewhat accurate. Well, maybe not eidetic, but most autistic people do often have amazing memories. How do you think I’m about to write these retrospectives?
Ana briefly remarks about how some people claim that autistic people can’t feel love or other emotions, and that Ester proves this isn’t true, due to how empathetic she is. Again, this is true, as autistic people can be quite empathetic. Though, I can’t help but wonder if Disney specially made Rick insert that line to cover their asses. See, this isn’t the first time Disney has tackled autism. There was an episode of Girl Meets World about how we should all be nice to autistic people. All well and good, but they also claim that autistic people are incapable of experiencing emotions, including love.
Gemini Twain has been assigned as Ana’s bodyguard. He’s a no-nonsense member of House Shark. He’s also a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints. This is certainly an interesting choice, as Gemini is also Black. Historically, Mormons haven’t exactly gotten along well with Black people. Or Native Americans, or Polynesians, or…well, pretty much anybody who isn’t White. The most infamous instance was when Mormon schools refused to desegregate. The American government threatened to revoke their tax exemption status, but wouldn’t you know it, Mormon God rather conveniently changed his mind about Black people. Though, Gemini’s faith doesn’t really come up that much. He doesn’t like swearing or taking the lord’s name in vein, and he mentions his grandma raised him and his brother in the LDS church, but that’s about it. Well, he did get into a minor scuffle with Nelinha. Gemini’s brother went on his mission trip to Brazil, and Gemini assumed Nelinha would know his brother, because she’s from Brazil.
Well, nice touch having one of the non-White characters be flawed enough to be accidentally racist. I remember back in The Hammer of Thor retrospective when I said, paraphrased, “A Muslim demigod? What’s next, a Mormon demigod?” I have on occasion wondered if Rick Riordan reads these retrospectives. Probably a long shot, but you never know.
Technically, there is a fifth main character: the Nautilusitself. It took until about halfway through the book before the Nautilus showed up. Yeah, this book has some pacing issues. The Nautilus has what can best be described as an artificial intelligence system. Also, apparently it also includes some organic components. As you might imagine, it is extremely untrustworthy of anyone who isn’t a blood relative of Prince Dakkar, aka Captain Nemo. So, Ana’s biometrics are key to unlocking the Nautilus.
Unfortunately, the Nautilus also highlights one of the issues I had with the book. Apparently, every major invention of the 20th Century was a result of Harding-Pencroft discreetly releasing them to the public. That, or Land Institute stealing them. This caused Daughter of the Deep to evoke the Great Man Theory of History. The theory goes that society gets stuck in ruts until a great man, and it’s always a man, shakes up the status quo and moves the world forward. This view has largely fallen out of favor with mainstream historians. Most historians emphasis how the changes were put into motion, often by complex chains of influences, long before the supposedly great men came about.
You do kind of get this with the main Riordanverse, where pretty much anyone who did anything was either a demigod or a magician. However, that was softened by just how many demigods and magicians there were throughout history. So, it felt more like a team-effort. By contrast, Daughter of the Deep gave us a single scientific übermensch who, apparently, leapfrogged from steam-power to cold fusion reactors. Now, granted, this is also true of Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Still, maybe Rick shouldn’t have depicted Nemo in such a lock, stock, and barrel sort of way.
And that segues into my next point. Harding-Pencroft is deathly afraid of letting the general public get access to Nemo’s technology. They only release technology sparingly, and only when they feel humanity has earned it. Uh, and what metric do they use to determine how worthy humanity is? Beats me, the book offers no details. The adults all make a big deal about how corporations would try to monopolize Nemo’s technology, but nobody ever suggests releasing it as open-source tech. Well, I know the real reason for that. There’s no way that Disney, the poster boy for copyright abuse, is going to be advocating for open-source. A particularly facepalm worthy moment is that fact that Harding-Pencroft refuses to release cold fusion technology…despite climate change being a serious issue! The book would have you believe Harding-Pencroft are the good guys. However, I’m tempted to think Land Institute had a point about Harding-Pencroft being corrupt and selfish.
Hey, wait a minute. Harding-Pencroft is a secretive organization that is very selective of its membership. It trains its students so that, effectively, they’re cut-off from the outside world. They indoctrinate their students from a young age into their views. They have charismatic leaders and founders. Yikes, I hope the cafeteria never served Kool-Aid! Harding-Pencroft is a cult!
It would seem that Harding-Pencroft has something akin to the Prime Detective from Star Trek. There has been a lot of debate about the morality of the Prime Detective. The main thinking seems to be don’t give advanced weaponry to civilizations that aren’t morally mature. The Original Seriesalso says that it is okay to break the Prime Directive if a planet is in imminent danger. Contrast this with Next Generation, where one episode has Captain Picard dithering about if he should save a planet, even if it break the Prime Directive. Of course, the worst offender was Voyager. It had an episode where the moral was, basically, don’t save a baby trapped in a burning car, or else the baby will grow-up to be Hitler. Yeah, the Prime Directive kind of devolved into an immoral religious dogma as Star Trek went on.
Point is, Harding-Pencroft’s Prime Directive seems to lean towards that of the later Star Trek entries. Apparently, screw the planet, we need to keep the tech away from corporations! The irony of Disney railing against corporations is so thick you can practically cut it with a machete. Also, if the concern is that the corporations would hoard stuff like the cure for cancer, well, how’s that any different than what Harding-Pencroft is doing?
Much is made about how Ana must choose to reconcile both the good and the bad of Nemo’s legacy. However, nothing really comes of this. We don’t see her seriously debate or challenge Harding-Pencroft and Land Institute’s views of Nemo. In fact, she gets indoctrinated into Harding-Pencroft’s views pretty quickly. It would have been a great opportunity to show Nemo’s complexity, not just tell us about it. How many innocent lives did he take in his quest for vengeance? Should he have shared his technology with the oppressed peoples chafing under the yoke of colonialism? Is it possible that Land Institute has some valid points, and that Harding-Pencroft has lost its way? All excellent questions that sadly go unanswered.
As for why that is, it ties into the biggest problem I have with Daughter of the Deep. Overall, it feels like merely the novelization of the yet to be produced movie. I was hoping that the novel would be able to stand on its own merits. However, Riordan clearly wrote it so that the adoption process would be streamlined. Debating ethics might not translate to film. Though, it could work in the hands of a competent scriptwriter.
I feel this streamlining was ultimately to the novel’s determent. I certainly didn’t hate Daughter of the Deep. It had plenty of the action and adventure you’d expect from a Rick Riordan novel. However, for every thing I liked, there was almost always something else I didn’t like. It is ironic that Rick claims he spent years working on Daughter of the Deep. It overall feels like it was yanked out of the oven before it had a chance to bake properly. Then again, he also claims to have gotten the idea for Magnus Chase before he wrote Percy Jackson, and look how that turned out.
The audiobook is narrated by Soneela Nankani. She’s the narrator for the Aru Shah audiobooks. Personally, I wasn’t too thrilled when I saw that Soneela would be narrating. However, she gave a fairly decent performance. She voiced Ester in a rather stereotypical way, like she was imitating Sean from The Good Doctor, but that was the only true sour note. Speaking of music, the audiobook is filled with music. There’s lots of musical cues throughout the audiobook. Scenes of wonder and whimsy have inspirational music, action scenes have exciting music. There’s a scene where Ana plays a pipe organ aboard the Nautilus, and we actually get to hear it. I thought that was a really nice touch.
Now, let’s analyze the cover. This is a nice looking cover. The undersea landscape is bright and vibrant. We see Ana and Gemini in their divining suits. Their faces are clear and unobscured. The Rick Riordan Presents books goes with this approach as well. Something about it being important for minority kids to see themselves clearly represented on book covers. We also see the Nautilus in the background, along with a giant octopus.
So, Daughter of the Deep has a lot of potential, and I certainly wouldn’t mind a sequel. However, there’s a lot of room for improvement. It needed to stand on its own merits, not just be the dry run for the movie script. Still, it's lightyears better than our next port of call. Next time, we’re tackling The Sun and The Star. The claws are coming out, and I’m prepared to fully eviscerate Mark Oshiro’s glorified self-insert fanfic.
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Link to the original retrospective on my blog: https://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2023/06/riordan-retrospective-daughter-of-deep.html?m=1

Hello all. My name is Brandon aka Panda just looking for new buddies. I'm honestly random always have been I'll be goofy or whatever just to make others smile. I'm awkward and really shy at first.
What I'm into is anime, video games, biking, hiking, writing (poems & whatnot), star gazing, conspiracy theories, drawing, reading, cooking. Just about anything I'm a open book.
Dislikes I would say heights even though I climb crazy fast but once I look down I grip for my life and start shaking. Spiders and clowns.