Something that’s almost never covered in fantasy mediums is common names.
Like we all know fantasy names are unusual, but any name to a foreign culture is considered unusual English names to Indian people are very unusual for example. But naturally, given that it’s an entire culture, there will be some common names, it’d be refreshing to at one point here this exchange.
“So I was talking to Vicnae and-”
“Wait which Vicnae? You can’t just say Vicnae. There are ten Vicnae’s in my village alone.”
This has 100 notes yesterday and 300 this morning what the fuck happened.
People understand the truly important things.
DSA (a German fantasy P&P RPG) actually has the name Alrik, which is hugely popular in the universe. Everyone is Alrik.
This is also a great excuse to use “X the Y” or “X of Y” type names without being pretentious. Calling someone “Thognor The Stout” goes from pomposity to practicality if he lives down the road from Thognor The Small.
my family is from a town in Ireland where everyone has the last name Ryan. literally like everyone. so they differentiated families by calling them by their professions, right?
anyway we’re the Horse Thief Ryans
This will even happen within families-
On my mom’s side, every boy was named “Robert” and imediately shortened to “Bobby” for six generations, to the pint where angrily yealling “ROBERT!” at thanksgiving would make easily 20 men jump in terror. We started distinguishing them by phsycial attribute- Tall Bobby, Short Bobby, Bald Bobby, Shooting Accident Bobby and my favorite uncle “Rock n Roll Bobby”)
On my Dad’s side, I’m related to pretty much everyone in the Cear Rapids area with the Surname “Gray”. However, the Grays are Gotdam Humoungous family (7 children, 32 grandchildren, 86 great grandchildren and oh god I’m not sure how many great-great grandchildren they keep happening and some of them are old enough to marry now…) so to distinguish my degree of relation (mostly becuase none of us can remember what the difference between numbering and removing your cousins is) they’re distunguished by which piece of the empire they control- Corn Grays, Real Estate Grays, Dry Cleaning Grays, Junkyard Grays, The Other Corn Grays, Waste Management Grays, Funeral Home Grays and The Other Other Corn Grays.
if you ever feel left out just remember that you weren’t the fifth gryffindor guy in the marauders’ dormitory
I don’t know if the timeline works even a little bit but my headcanon was always that that fifth dude was Kingsley Shacklebolt and that he immediately made a conscious decision to stay the hell away from whatever those four idiots were up to and everyone was like “Yeah, good kid, studies hard, probably gonna be Minister one day if he manages to last his entire school career without committing four murders”.
Kingley Shacklebolt is probably the best roommate ever. The reason he never gets mentioned as the fifth is because he doesn’t ask questions. The other five start disappearing all night every full moon during fifth year? He doesn’t care and doesn’t want to know. Walked in to find Sirius talking to a fucking deer in the dorm like it was James? Just keep moving and don’t make eye contact. James, Sirius and Peter leaving shit all over the floor? Combine forces with Remus to politely yet firmly remind them that we’re not living in a goddamn barn and your dirty underwear shouldn’t spend three weeks straight on the floor James.
Kingsley was, naturally, invited to the Potter-Evans wedding. The invitation was accompanied with a formal apology for the Everything, signed by the Marauders. Enclosed was a little trophy, with the plaque reading ‘best roomie ever’
It may or may not permanently live on his mantle. Kingsley Shacklebolt does not inform Harry Potter of any of this. He has enough people that knew his parents, Kingsley’s not going to make it weird. Keep moving and don’t make eye contact. Besides, he already gave copies of all his pictures of them to Hagrid to go into a photo album for Harry back in first year.
“It’s a common misconception that members of gay relationships have to map onto the roles of a straight couple: woman and asshole,” said Acharya. “But neither of us is the asshole; that’s the entire point.”
Ryser had a number of follow-up questions to this explanation.
“So, if neither of you is the asshole,” said Ryser, “then who plays devil’s advocate when you’re having sensitive political conversations? Who takes the other person’s side when you describe a microaggression? And who gets furious when you’re driving and one of you has to pee?”
Demonstrating immense patience, Acharya tried once more to help Ryser understand.
“None of those things are necessary for a relationship,” said Acharya. “In fact, they’re all bad. People in straight relationships should not do those things either.”
Anakin: See? See, one day you’re gonna look back on this and laugh.
Obi-Wan: I assure you, for the rest of my life, every time I look back on this I will personally fly over to your house and smack you.
one of the things I can’t stop thinking about from the Venom movie:
Carlton Drake gives the little girl Allie his Life Foundation pin, and then shows up in the next scene wearing the exact same pin
someone who’s paying a little bit of attention, but not too much, might say it was a continuity error. they just forgot to take off the pin because they filmed the next scene first or whatever. but I think they put way too much significance into that pin for it to be an accident. it’s a deliberate characterization choice.
first of all, it means that he has a gazillion of these things. they can’t be too expensive to make, but he presents it to Allie like it’s such a special thing. then as soon as he goes offscreen to change for his interview, he gets another one.
the other thing it says is how image-conscious and self-obsessed he is. he couldn’t bear to be on camera without the little shiny logo of his company on his lapel. he wanted to make sure that it meant something to Allie, but absolutely nothing to him. it would have felt less in character for him not to replace it. Carlton Drake’s introduction scene was perfect, and this detail hit so hard on my second watch.
maybe I’m overthinking it, and maybe I sound like an overly intellectual asshole for thinking about it. maybe it was a continuity error, but if it wasn’t, I want whatever writer out there who came up with it to know that I appreciate them so much.
I drew this poster for Jon Acuffand his FINISH book tour. Big thanks to Jon for this collaboration, his book has some great ideas about how to complete creative and life goals.
Love this, but reblogging it specifically for “Get rid of secret rules.” That’s one of the most amazing illustrations—and points—I’ve ever seen.
Rebellions are built on hope 